Senior Manager - Innovation Reliefs and Incentives - Financial Services

Note: This role is available across all of our UK offices.

At KPMG, our values define who we are and the way we do business. As a leading professional services firm, we know that our strength and capability comes from our people – their different perspectives, experiences and backgrounds. From our inclusive leadership strategy to our diversity and inclusion targets – we’re making bold changes to who we are and what we do. Be part of it.

KPMG’s Innovation Reliefs and Incentives team is made up of tax, engineering, science and technology specialists delivering expert advice to a broad range of clients across almost every industry sector. As one of the largest teams in the industry, our continued investment in innovation advisory means that we seek engineers, scientists and tax professionals to join us on the next exciting phase of our growth. Our team works with clients from owner managed businesses to large multinational organisations, and we are looking for a Senior Manager with a strong financial, accounting and tax background to assist clients across a suite of innovation advisory services including R&D tax Credits, Patent Box, R&D Allowances, Grants and Innovation Advisory services.

Role and Responsibilities:

• Manage and work with engagement teams to develop claim methodologies and prepare R&D tax relief and Patent Box claims for submission to HMRC.
• Take responsibility and accountability for your own, and your team’s work.
• Lead meetings with the financial client stakeholders; and provide expert advice in relation to innovation advisory services (R&D, Patent Box, Grant Applications).
• Chair and support the technical specialists in meetings with senior technical client stakeholders.
• Manage the process for preparing both the technical and financial elements of our client deliverables.
• Ensure correct quantification of R&D/Patent Box claims and support the KPMG technical team documenting the work being undertaken by our clients within technically complex projects for submission to HMRC/Funding Organisations.
• Manage client projects across both tax and technical work streams; and manage conflicting resourcing requirements between projects.
• Lead by example in terms of client relationships, technical quality, and service delivery.
• Lead projects; and solve problems by advising our clients in the application of complex legislation to real life situations.
• Lead people including coaching and developing junior staff.
• Liaise with HMRC specialists to facilitate the agreement of R&D & Patent Box claims.
• Establish and maintain strong client relationships with both existing and new clients.
• Build an internal network within the wider tax practice of the firm.
• Lead in progressing business development opportunities and pitch for work with both new and existing clients.
• Deliver comprehensive proposals and take part in presentations/pitches as required.

Skills and Qualifications:

• You will have a strong finance, accounting, and taxation background.
• You will have significant industry experience in finance and in particular taxation which will include a detailed working knowledge of the R&D and/or Patent Box tax legislation, and its application to ensuring correct quantification of claims.
• Must be able to understand key tax/costing concepts relevant to R&D and Patent Box claim preparation, as well as the capability to work within cross-disciplinary teams.
• Must have excellent problem-solving skills and critical thinking to assist our clients in applying complex legislation to real life situations.
• Excellent communication skills are a must.
• Must be capable of producing high quality, professional documentation and reports for C-suite stakeholders within our clients.
• Must be able to demonstrate project management skills and an ability to manage own workload well, as well as delegating to staff members.
• Tax and accounting qualifications are not essential for this role, but would be highly preferable (e.g. CTA/ACA/ACCA qualified (or equivalent)).

KPMG Overview:

KPMG is part of a global network of firms that offers Audit, Tax & Legal, Consulting, Deal Advisory and Technology services. Through the talent of over 16,000 colleagues, we bring our creativity and insight to our clients’ most critical challenges. With offices across the UK, we work with everyone from small start-ups and individuals to major multinationals, in virtually every industry imaginable. Our work is often complex, yet our vision is simple: to be the clear choice for our clients, for our people and for the communities we work in.

Service Line Information:

The Claims and Incentives team are part of our wider Corporate Tax department. They help our clients to secure cash tax savings through government sponsored tax reliefs and incentives. The team is made up of Fixed Asset Tax Services (“FATS”) and Innovation Reliefs & Incentives (“IRI”) and supports clients who incur expenditure on fixed assets and carry out innovative activities. The FATS team is made up of tax advisers, accountants and surveyors and reviews fixed asset costs such as expenditure incurred on the construction of property to enhance and accelerate the available tax relief wherever possible. They also help clients on their processes to capture data in relation to fixed assets and have developed technology tools to assist with this process. Within IRI, staff work with clients to help them claim tax incentives for innovation. The IRI team works with companies of all sizes from almost every sector of the economy to identify their qualifying R&D activity, quantify it and help them obtain their R&D incentives, as well as working with clients to best leverage the Patent Box regime. The team consists of staff with a wide variety of skill sets all working together, from technical specialists including scientists, engineers and IT experts to fully qualified accountants and tax advisers. The teams are spread over the UK to best meet our clients’ needs and the national team all work together as one unit.