Overview
The tax department in Reading is a large, well balanced team, with a small fast growing Human Capital practice which comprises three main streams: Reward, Employment Taxes and Expatriate Tax. Our Reward team specialises in employee compensation and reward issues, and typically advises on the following:
• Design and implementation of share and share option plans – for both senior executives and all employee plans
• International share plans
• Advice on all aspects of directors and executive remuneration
• Share plan advice on corporate transactions such as listings and company sales
• Share valuations and accounting issues
• Advising on tax issues linked to the above areas
As a new Reward trainee you can expect to be involved in a wide variety of tasks covering advisory work such as assisting with the design and drafting of documentation to implement share plans, employee communications, researching and advising on employee tax issues linked to reward and employee share issues generally. Reward contains a challenging mix of tax, employment/company law and HR issues. The Reading team is a regional hub supporting the whole of BDO’s Southern region and provides advice to our Reading, Bristol and Gatwick offices with close links to the London team. With the current trend towards employee share ownership and rising employment costs the Reward team has seen a real increase in interest from companies looking to implement tax efficient share plans. To continue to grow the team needs high calibre additional resource at trainee level. The team would fully support technical and personal development but you would be encouraged to carry out your own research from the outset. You will also work with other staff at all grades both within the Reading team and the wider regional team. You will have immediate and regular client contact and would be expected to liaise with Reward experts throughout the world, as our location in the Thames Valley means we frequently work with large multinational technology companies who are headquartered in this area.
The role can support qualification for CTA (Chartered Tax Advisor) as the work is largely legal and tax based and involves relatively little accounting. The wide range of client issues that you will be involved in provides an excellent training ground. Historically, BDO’s tax trainees have performed very well in their studies, with pass rates significantly above the national average.
A career in Reward requires excellent intellectual skills and a strong common sense business approach. A familiarity with legal drafting and documents would be preferable but is not mandatory. An ability with spreadsheets can be advantageous but most important is a good team working ethic, a reasoned thinking approach and a good attention on detail. A Reward Tax career is similar to that in other Taxes, but with a greater emphasis on legal drafting and more advisory work from day one. The role of a Reward trainee is varied and challenging. There is no daily routine and this is a challenging advisory rather than compliance role. For the future there are roles at all levels in Practice from Junior to Partner, with genuine opportunities to progress on merit. There are also equivalent roles in industry.
Responsibilities
The Reward team advise a wide variety of clients from owner managed businesses to multi-national corporations. Their work is predominantly advisory with a relatively small amount of compliance. Typical Reward work includes:
• Understanding clients employee retention and motivation issues and then designing and implementing bespoke solutions through the use of tax efficient employee share plans, share ownership and remuneration planning
• Developing and maintaining long term relationships with clients, in many cases over several years during periods of rapid growth before companies exit via a trade sale or stock exchange listing
• Designing and implementing a varied range of employee share plans ranging from share incentives for senior executives to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) approved option plans for all employees
• Liaising with HMRC on the implementation of approved share plans, including preparing and agreeing share valuations
• Working with BDO overseas offices to help implement international share plans and advise on the tax and social security implications of international employees with share incentives
• Helping resolve issues and correspond with HMRC where companies struggle or fail to meet their company reporting and withholding obligations in relation to share incentives.
• Compliance work – there is a small amount of compliance work required to assist companies with their annual share plan reporting requirements and to assist companies with payroll calculations.
Requirements
2:1 Degree discipline
280 UCAS Points or equivalent- Excluding General Studies
Grade B and above in GCSE Maths and English or equivalent
Joining
Immediate start