Corporate Tax Manager Job Description Template UK

This page provides a Corporate Tax Manager job description you can copy and adapt, together with practical guidance on specifying the role properly. It is written as a working tool for employers rather than an explainer. For salary benchmarks across in-house tax roles, see our in-house tax manager salary guide; for the wider question of which tax roles a growing business needs and when, see building a scalable tax team. The role itself is placed through our tax recruitment practice.

Before you write: four decisions

The compliance-advisory balance. The single most important thing to establish, and the one most specifications leave vague. A role that is 80% compliance production attracts a different person from one that is 50% advisory, and a mismatch produces a capable appointment in an uncomfortable seat within six months. Write down the split as you expect it to be, not as you would like it to sound.

Scope beyond corporation tax. Many in-house corporate tax roles also touch VAT, employment taxes, or transfer pricing. Say which, because a candidate who expects pure corporate tax and inherits the VAT return will feel misled — and one who wants breadth will find a narrow role limiting.

Reporting line and standing. Into a Head of Tax, a Financial Controller, or reporting to the FD as the only tax person in the business? The third is a materially different job: more autonomy, more exposure, no technical peer to check against. Describe it accurately.

Entity and international footprint. Single UK company, UK group with consolidation, or international structure with transfer pricing and overseas filings? This determines the technical depth required more than any other factor.

The job description template

Adapt the text below; square brackets mark what to change.

Job title: Corporate Tax Manager
Reports to: [Head of Tax / Financial Controller / Finance Director]
Direct reports: [none / tax analyst / tax senior]
Location: [location and hybrid pattern]
Salary: [range] plus [bonus, pension, benefits]

Purpose of the role. To own corporation tax for [business]: delivering accurate and timely compliance, providing the tax numbers in the statutory accounts, advising the business on the tax consequences of its transactions and plans, and managing the relationship with HMRC and external advisers.

Key responsibilities. Prepare and review corporation tax computations and returns for [number] UK entities, including capital allowances, R&D claims where applicable and group relief. Own the tax figures in the statutory accounts — current tax, deferred tax and the tax note — and support the audit of them. Manage quarterly instalment payments and the group payment arrangement where relevant. Advise the business on the tax consequences of transactions, contracts, structures and expansion before commitment. Manage external tax advisers: scoping work, reviewing advice, controlling cost. Handle HMRC correspondence, enquiries and risk reviews. Maintain tax governance — documented positions, the tax risk framework, and [where applicable] the published tax strategy and senior accounting officer requirements. Monitor legislative change and assess the impact on [business]. [Add as relevant: transfer pricing documentation and intercompany policy, overseas filings and withholding taxes, R&D claims, employment tax support, VAT oversight.]

Person specification — essential. Qualified — CTA, ACA, ACCA or equivalent — with post-qualification corporate tax experience in practice or in-house. Proven ownership of corporation tax computations for a business of comparable complexity. Working knowledge of tax accounting, including deferred tax under [FRS 102 / IFRS]. Able to explain tax positions clearly to non-specialists and to influence decisions before they are made. Comfortable managing external advisers and HMRC correspondence. Strong systems and data capability.

Person specification — desirable. CTA qualification. Experience in [sector]. Group and consolidation exposure. Transfer pricing experience. R&D claim experience. Systems implementation or tax technology exposure. [Where the business is regulated:] experience in an FCA-authorised environment.

Success in the first twelve months. [Adapt:] All returns filed accurately and on time, with the underlying positions documented. The tax numbers in the accounts are prepared and supported without audit adjustment. The business consults tax before committing to significant transactions rather than after. Adviser spend is scoped and reduced where the work can be done in-house. Tax governance and documented positions exist as a framework rather than in one person’s knowledge. [The FD] spends materially less time on tax matters than before the hire.

Qualifications: what to require

CTA, from the Chartered Institute of Taxation, is the specialist qualification and the strongest signal for advisory-weighted roles. ACA or ACCA with genuine corporate tax experience is entirely credible and extremely common, particularly in compliance-weighted roles and in businesses where the tax person also touches the wider finance function — verifiable through ICAEW or ACCA. ATT is the technician-level route, frequently followed by CTA.

The rule that serves employers best: require CTA where the role is genuinely advisory or leads a function; treat it as desirable where the role is compliance-weighted. Insisting on it everywhere narrows an already small pool for a signal you may not need. After five years or so, what the candidate has owned matters considerably more than the letters.

Common specification mistakes

The undeclared advisory expectation. A specification written entirely around compliance, for a role the FD expects to provide advice on transactions. The appointment struggles, and the diagnosis is usually “wrong hire” when it was a wrong brief.

Understating the tax accounting. Deferred tax and the tax note sit in the statutory accounts and are audited. A candidate from a pure compliance background may not have owned them, and this is the gap most often discovered after appointment rather than at interview.

The shopping list. Corporation tax, VAT, employment taxes, transfer pricing, R&D, stamp taxes and international — all at manager level, on one salary. It produces a specification nobody matches and a shortlist of optimists. If the business genuinely needs all of it, that is a Head of Tax role or a function, not a manager.

Silence on the reporting line. Whether there is a technical peer to check against materially changes the role and the candidate profile. Say so.

Assessing candidates against the specification

Four areas map directly to the sections above. Technical ownership — ask which computations they have personally prepared and where the judgement lay. Tax accounting — ask what gave rise to the largest deferred tax balance they have handled and how they satisfied themselves it was right. Adviser management — ask about a time they disagreed with an external adviser, which separates in-house professionals from people who have only ever been the adviser. Translation — ask them to explain a tax concept as they would to a sales director; it is a live test and the most revealing part of the interview. Our in-house tax manager interview questions guide sets out the full sequence, including the scenarios that expose judgement.

If you lack in-house tax expertise, involve your external adviser in one interview stage. It is the single most effective thing a non-specialist hiring manager can do, and most advisers are glad to help.

Frequently asked questions

Does a corporate tax manager need to be CTA-qualified? Not necessarily — ACA or ACCA with real corporate tax experience is common and credible, particularly in compliance-weighted roles. CTA matters most where the role is advisory-led. Should the role own VAT as well? Only if the VAT position is straightforward; genuine indirect tax complexity is a separate discipline and usually a separate hire — see our VAT manager job description. How long should the specification be? One to two pages: specific enough to be useful, short enough to be read. How long does a search take? Shortlists in five to seven working days; offer typically four to eight weeks, plus notice periods that run to three months at this level. Can the role be interim? Yes, and it suits a defined need — a return cycle, a transaction, cover during a search.