Senior Tax Manager - Head of Direct Tax

Job-:
Tax & Treasury

Location:

United Kingdom Workplace:
Hybrid

Schedule:

Full time, Days Posted:
Closes:
Summary This is a fantastic opportunity to take a leading role within the M&S Tax team, with end-to-end ownership of the Group’s direct tax affairs.

As Senior Tax Manager, you’ll be our senior technical lead for direct tax, combining deep tax expertise with commercial thinking to ensure we have robust compliance, reporting and governance while identifying opportunities to create sustainable value. You’ll work closely with senior stakeholders across Finance and the wider business, helping M&S navigate complex tax matters, business change and transformation.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What you’ll do Your key accountabilities will include:

Take end-to-end ownership of direct tax, leading the delivery of high-quality corporation tax compliance, payments, forecasting, tax accounting and external reporting across half year and year-end, while acting as the final reviewer for key technical positions and  a trusted commercial partner to the business, providing clear and pragmatic direct tax advice on commercial initiatives, transactions and business change, identifying risks and opportunities and translating complex tax considerations into practical recommendations.

Lead our direct tax risk and governance agenda, supporting delivery of the Group tax strategy, proactively assessing legislative and accounting developments, managing tax authority enquiries and providing clear, decision-ready recommendations to senior leaders when required.

Play a key role in transformation and continuous improvement, owning the tax input into S/4

HANA design, setup and testing while improving direct tax processes, controls, data and systems to reduce manual dependency and create sustainable ways of working.

Lead across a broad and international tax agenda, providing support on cross-border issues, permanent establishments, withholding tax and transfer pricing, while coaching and quality-assuring the Direct Tax Manager and working with external advisers where appropriate.

Who you are Your skills and experience will include:

An experienced direct tax professional, ACA, CTA or ACCA qualified, with significant senior-level experience gained within a complex listed or multinational organisation and strong corporation tax knowledge. Technically strong in tax accounting and reporting, with hands-on expertise across current and deferred tax provisioning, effective tax rate analysis, journals, disclosures and significant tax judgements. A confident leader with strong judgement and ownership, comfortable managing competing priorities, resolving complex issues independently and knowing when to escalate, while coaching and supporting others to deliver at their best.

Commercially minded and influential, with the credibility to partner with senior Finance and business stakeholders, tax authorities, auditors and advisers, constructively challenging where necessary and turning complex issues into clear, practical solutions. Passionate about improving how tax operates, bringing strong analytical and problem-solving skills alongside advanced Excel capability; experience of tax technology, data, controls or financial systems transformation would be particularly valuable.

What’s in it for you? Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

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