Head of Private Client Tax and Accounting

We are looking to recruit a Head of Private Client Tax and Accounting to join the Private Client practice.

What this means for you

Joining Macfarlanes means being part of a collaborative, Partner-led team where you’ll develop and learn from experienced lawyers and business professionals. You’ll be given genuine responsibility and often be involved at the heart of client matters, gaining insight into how our high-quality legal, tax and trust work is developed and delivered.

We also place real importance on your development. Our training and mentoring programmes are second to none, and designed to help you strengthen your legal, tax and commercial skills.

Above all, you’ll be part of a firm where we all work together as part of a cohesive and supportive team, where you’ll be recognised and appreciated, and encouraged to succeed.

Practice overview

The Private Client department provides legal and tax advice on a wide variety of issues to wealthy individuals, trustees and to other institutions and firms, for themselves or their private clients.

The Private Client Tax and Accounting team sits within the wider Private Client department and comprises two trust managers, a tax compliance manager and two accountants, with partner supervision and support from across the department.

The team deal with the compliance affairs of approximately 70 personal tax clients. The personal tax clients comprise entrepreneurs, private equity executives, UHNW families and FTSE 100 executives. The compliance function extends to supporting case investigation work and dealing with HMRC disclosures etc.

The team administer approximately 75 domestic trusts for wealthy families and entrepreneurs, covering discretionary, interest in possession and charitable trusts. The team manages the accounting and tax compliance cycle, IHT reporting, monitoring of investments, trust register, FATCA, CRS and trustee meetings etc.

A growing part of the team’s practice involves working closely with the wider private client group to provide ad hoc support on a wide range of matters. This includes advising on specific tax issues and also working on bespoke accounting projects for private clients.

The role

The Private Client Tax and Accounting team are looking for a full time, permanent team leader to take on a mixed portfolio of personal tax and trust clients, both UK based and international. This is a hands-on, client-facing role with a significant amount of responsibility. The successful candidate will be working directly for the partners in private client but will run all aspects of the compliance function with a great deal of autonomy. The position comes with overall responsibility for the team.

A significant part of the role is to support legal colleagues on a wide range of tasks, including IHT reporting, non-resident CGT, taxation of estates, HMRC enquiry work, statutory residence test and remittance issues and other ad hoc projects. You will use your experience in personal tax compliance to provide practical advice in relation to complex situations.

The trust management is delegated to the managers in the group and the successful candidate will need to have the technical capability and client care experience to support and supervise them.

The individual will be required to carry out a broad range of good quality work. Key duties will include:

• managing the annual tax return compliance cycle using CCH tax software, with the assistance of the Personal Tax Compliance Manager;
• advice on bespoke situations including statutory residence test, remittance issues, Overseas Workday Relief, FIG, TRF etc;
• overseeing the trust managers throughout the annual accounting and tax compliance cycle, supporting with technical queries;
• providing written advice to trustees in relation to the financial, tax and trust law position of trusts under management;

This job description encompasses the main duties of the role and is by no means exhaustive. It is anticipated that duties may vary from time to time according to the needs of the practice area.

The candidate

We are looking for a candidate with deep personal tax compliance experience, and ideally with some experience of trust compliance. ACA/CTA/STEP. The ideal candidate will be able to deal with a wide range of personal tax and trust technical work and have experience in dealing with international and globally mobile clients.

It may, to an extent, be possible to weight the core client case load to suit the experience of the candidate. However, a willingness to take on a varied workload encompassing all elements of the work undertaken by the team remains a prerequisite.

The ideal candidate will have strong attention to detail and technical ability and be keen to take ownership of the role. The individual will need to demonstrate qualities that will fit within a cohesive, supportive and friendly team. This is a busy team and it is essential that the individual has a hands-on approach and a strong work ethic.

For an ambitious candidate, we believe that there is an opportunity to grow the business of the team and develop the contribution which it makes to the department and the firm.

Please note that the job description is not exhaustive and may vary in line with changes in the team's objectives and firm's policy.

Application screening

Any offer of employment with us is subject to our pre-employment checks which are conducted by a third-party screening provider. These may include but are not limited to your professional and academic qualifications, any criminal records and employment references. These checks will be initiated with your consent and your offer will be subject to the successful completion of these checks.

About Macfarlanes

Macfarlanes is a pre-eminent law firm that serves a global client base in private capital, private wealth, M&A and disputes. Personal connection, an entrepreneurial spirit and a commitment to excellence are at the heart of our firm. These values drive our ability to deliver exceptional outcomes for our clients.

We are big enough to undertake the most complex and demanding mandates yet small enough to know each other well and to be agile, adapting to the needs of our clients. We seek to strengthen the firm by recruiting talented people from all backgrounds who want to build long-lasting and impactful careers with us. Our culture is challenging and supportive, creating an environment where individuals can thrive.

Our commitment to inclusion

Inclusion is one of our key priorities and it is a goal we are actively working towards. We believe that an inclusive, forward-thinking culture is intrinsically important and enables us to provide innovative solutions to our clients.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, bringing different perspectives and experiences, making Macfarlanes an exciting and stimulating place to work. We seek to recruit the best candidates, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, social or economic background, religion, disability, sexual orientation or any other characteristic.

As part of this commitment, we will ask you certain diversity data questions. We would really appreciate you and/or your recruiter completing these questions when submitting an application to Macfarlanes as this data enables us to measure our progress and identify any actions needed to continue to support an inclusive culture. This data is anonymised to maintain the privacy of applicants. If you have any questions relating to how this data is used, please contact a member of the recruitment team.

Should you require any adjustments during the application and/or interview process, please do not hesitate to inform your recruiter or a member of the recruitment team. Please note, the job description is available in other accessible formats (for example, large print).

We are a Disability Confident Employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who best meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to apply through the Disability Confident Interview Scheme, please email the recruitment team at recruitment@macfarlanes.com.