This page gives you a Corporate Tax Manager job description you can copy and adapt, together with practical guidance on specifying the role, current UK salary benchmarks, a way to judge when an in-house hire makes financial sense, and pointers for the interview. It is written as a working tool for finance directors and financial controllers rather than an explainer. For a plain description of the job, see what an in-house tax manager does; 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
Tax professionals read specifications carefully; it is what they are trained to do. They will disqualify themselves quickly from a role that does not add up. Settling these four points before you draft is the most effective thing you can do to attract the right shortlist.
1. 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. Our guide to in-house corporation tax compliance sets out what the compliance side of the job involves across a year.
2. Scope beyond corporation tax
Many in-house corporate tax roles also touch VAT, employment taxes or transfer pricing. Say which. 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. If employment taxes are a material part of the job, our guide to employment tax, IR35 and benefits in kind covers what that adds.
3. 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, and no technical peer to check against. Describe it accurately. If this is the first tax hire, read our guide to hiring your first in-house tax manager alongside this template.
4. Entity and international footprint
Single UK company, UK group with consolidation, or an international structure with transfer pricing and overseas filings? This determines the technical depth required more than any other factor. Large multinational groups (consolidated revenue of €750m or more) are also within the global minimum tax rules, which add a significant compliance layer; see our page on Pillar Two for tax teams.
The Corporate Tax Manager job description template
Copy the text below and adapt it. Square brackets mark what to change. Remove any responsibility that does not apply; one to two pages is the right length.
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]
Contract: [permanent / interim, with expected duration]
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, group relief and R&D claims where applicable.
- Own the tax figures in the statutory accounts (current tax, deferred tax and the tax note) and support the audit of them.
- Manage corporation tax payments, including quarterly instalment payments and any 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 and controlling cost.
- Handle HMRC correspondence, enquiries and risk reviews, and maintain an open working relationship with HMRC.
- 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, employment tax support, VAT oversight, Pillar Two data collection.]
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.
The compliance calendar behind the template
It helps candidates if the specification reflects the real deadlines. A company’s corporation tax return is due 12 months after the end of its accounting period, and for most companies the tax itself is payable nine months and one day after the period end. Large companies, broadly those with taxable profits above £1.5 million, pay by quarterly instalments instead, with very large companies (profits above £20 million) paying earlier still; HMRC’s guidance on instalment payments sets out the rules. The main rate of corporation tax is 25%, with a 19% small profits rate and marginal relief in between, as shown on GOV.UK’s corporation tax rates page.
Governance duties scale with size. UK companies with turnover above £200 million or a balance sheet above £2 billion must appoint a Senior Accounting Officer and, alongside qualifying groups, publish a tax strategy. If your business is in scope, put it in the specification; it changes the seniority of the person you need.
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 very common, particularly in compliance-weighted roles and in businesses where the tax person also touches the wider finance function; membership can be checked through the ICAEW or ACCA. ATT, from the Association of Taxation Technicians, is the technician-level route and is 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.
Corporate Tax Manager salary benchmarks
The ranges below are base salary for permanent in-house roles and reflect Accountancy Capital’s current view of the UK market. They exclude bonus, pension and benefits. The full breakdown by specialism and sector is in our in-house tax manager salary guide, and interim rates are covered in more depth in interim tax professionals’ day rates.
| Level | London | South East | Midlands & North |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tax Manager (3–5 yrs in-house PQE) | £60k–£80k | £52k–£70k | £47k–£63k |
| Senior Tax Manager | £75k–£100k | £65k–£87k | £58k–£78k |
| Head of Tax | £95k–£140k | £83k–£120k | £74k–£106k |
| Interim Tax Manager (day rate) | £450–£700 | £400–£650 | £400–£600 |
Three factors move a candidate within or above these bands. CTA alongside ACA or ACCA typically commands £8,000–£18,000 more than either qualification alone at equivalent experience. International tax and transfer pricing is a scarce specialism; Senior Tax Managers with it typically earn £85,000–£120,000 in London. And regulated-sector experience, such as banking or insurance tax, usually attracts a premium of 15–25%.
For the role above this one, see senior corporate tax manager recruitment and corporate tax director recruitment. The broader set of finance salary guides covers every other qualified role.
When to hire in-house rather than rely on advisers
Most growing businesses start with corporation tax handled entirely by their accountants or a tax adviser. That is usually the right answer until two things happen: the adviser bill grows, and the business starts making decisions faster than an external adviser can be briefed on them.
The cost test
A Tax Manager on £80,000 base in London carries around £11,250 of employer National Insurance (15% on earnings above £5,000 a year since April 2025). Add a 5% pension contribution, a bonus and benefits, and the all-in cost is usually £100,000–£110,000 a year. That is the useful rule of thumb: once annual external tax adviser fees reach about £100,000–£110,000, an in-house hire is worth serious consideration, because a good Tax Manager can absorb much of the routine compliance and first-line advice, leaving advisers for specialist and high-risk matters. Outside London, where salaries are lower, the break-even point arrives earlier.
The non-cost signals
Cost is not the only trigger. Other signs that the business needs tax capability in the building include:
- The finance team regularly discovers the tax consequences of a deal after it has been signed.
- Deferred tax or the tax note is producing audit adjustments.
- The business has moved into quarterly instalment payments and forecasting them is causing cash surprises.
- There are now several UK entities, overseas subsidiaries or intercompany charges that need a transfer pricing policy.
- The FD is spending a day or more a month on tax queries.
- Investors, lenders or a prospective buyer are asking for documented tax positions.
Hiring in-house does not mean dropping advisers. The best model is usually a Tax Manager who owns compliance and day-to-day advice and manages a smaller, better-scoped adviser relationship; our guide to managing external tax advisers covers how to set that up. The same reasoning applies to employment taxes, covered in when to hire employment tax in-house.
Interim as a bridge
If you are not ready to commit, an interim Tax Manager at £450–£700 a day can cover a return cycle, a transaction or a period of HMRC enquiry, and will often tell you within weeks whether a permanent role is justified. Our interim tax recruitment page explains how that works.
Hiring a Corporate Tax Manager? — 0204 553 8893
Send us your draft specification and our recruitment team will tell you how candidates will read it, what the role should pay and who is available. We respond the same working day. Permanent shortlists typically arrive within one to two weeks; interim within days.
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. Our primer on deferred tax fundamentals is a useful reference for non-specialist hiring managers.
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.
No salary. Tax candidates benchmark carefully and many will not apply to an advert without a range. Use the figures above, and remember that a candidate moving from practice may be giving up a defined progression path, so the in-house package needs to be clear about bonus and development.
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. Probe one area in depth, such as capital allowances, group relief or an R&D claim, rather than skimming many.
Tax accounting. Ask what gave rise to the largest deferred tax balance they have handled and how they satisfied themselves it was right. Candidates who have owned it answer in specifics; those who have only reviewed it answer in principles.
Adviser management. Ask about a time they disagreed with an external adviser. It separates in-house professionals from people who have only ever been the adviser, and it shows how they will spend your adviser budget.
Translation. Ask them to explain a tax concept as they would to a sales director. It is a live test and often the most revealing part of the interview, because the in-house role succeeds or fails on whether the business consults tax early.
Candidates moving from practice deserve particular attention: the technical depth is usually there, but the shift to influencing decisions inside a business is real. Our guide to moving from practice tax to in-house explains what changes. The in-house tax manager interview questions guide sets out the full question 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 or leads a function, and it typically adds £8,000–£18,000 to the salary.
What does a Corporate Tax Manager earn?
An in-house Tax Manager typically earns £60,000–£80,000 in London, £52,000–£70,000 in the South East and £47,000–£63,000 in the Midlands and North. Senior Tax Managers earn £75,000–£100,000 in London, and interim Tax Managers typically charge £450–£700 a day.
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.
At what point is an in-house tax hire worth it?
As a rule of thumb, when external tax adviser fees reach about £100,000–£110,000 a year, roughly the all-in cost of a Tax Manager on £80,000. Complexity, transaction activity and audit adjustments can justify the hire earlier.
How long should the specification be?
One to two pages: specific enough to be useful, short enough to be read. The advert itself can be shorter still, with the full description attached.
How long does a search take?
We respond to every brief the same working day. Permanent shortlists typically arrive within one to two weeks and interim candidates within days. From shortlist to offer usually takes four to eight weeks, plus notice periods that often run to three months at this level.
Can the role be interim?
Yes, and it suits a defined need: a return cycle, a transaction, an HMRC enquiry, or cover during a permanent search.
Adrian Lawrence FCA — Founder, Accountancy Capital
Fellow of the ICAEW | Chartered Accountant holding an ICAEW practising certificate | Part of FD Capital Group
Adrian is a former listed-company Finance Director and holds a BSc from Queen Mary College, University of London. He founded FD Capital in 2018 and then Accountancy Capital, which recruits in-house tax professionals, from Tax Managers to Heads of Tax, alongside the wider qualified finance team, on a permanent, interim and fractional basis.
Related Pages and Resources
Corporate Tax Recruitment
In-house corporate tax roles across the UK.
Hiring the Role
Specifying, interviewing and appointing well.
→ Tax Manager interview questions
Recruiting in-house tax? — 0204 553 8893
Accountancy Capital recruits Tax Managers, Senior Tax Managers and Heads of Tax across the UK, permanent, interim and fractional, from offices in London and the West Midlands. Fees are agreed in writing before a search starts. Call us or email recruitment@accountancycapital.co.uk.