Senior Indirect Tax & Pension Compliance Specialist

Our client, a large automotive manufacturer currently has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Indirect Tax and Pension Compliance Specialist to support our Finance and Accounting team. This is a full-time opportunity and will report to the Senior Manager, Tax, Governance and Audit.

Indirect Tax Compliance

• Preparation and filing of monthly or quarterly GST/HST, QST, PST (MB, BC, SK), Excise Tax, Tire Levy, Luxury Sales Tax returns (including working papers, journal entries and payments)
• Prepare annual GST/HST/QST claw back calculations (i.e. meals and entertainment, vehicle demo benefits)
• Complete and file annual GST/HST returns for pension plans as well as completion of other Federal pension plan statutory filings (RC4607, RC4615, Deemed Supply, ITC claims, GST494)
• Prepare and verify self-assessments of provincial sales taxes (e.g. promotional items)
• Prepare monthly sales tax rebates on consumer cash incentives
• Proactively seek to identify, lead, or support activities to enhance indirect tax compliance and governance

Indirect Tax Audits

• Lead, defend and/or support government tax audits for sales and excise tax
• Respond to audit queries on a timely basis with relevant and accurate information and support
• Work with business units to obtain qualitative and quantitative information that may be required to accurately and timely respond to audit queries
• Review and reconcile sales tax audit proposals to confirm validity and/or dispute proposed adjustments
• Communicate audit results to senior management to communicate improvements or changes to improve compliance
• Implement required changes/corrections to internal processes resulting from government tax audit findings
• Conduct training to transfer knowledge to business users to improve compliance record
• Audit support to Dealers (cross over issues) including providing supporting documentation and responding to auditor on technical issues

Commodity Sales Tax Advisory

• Complete sales tax research and provide guidance on ad hoc sales tax questions from business units, in a verbal or written format
• Review contracts for sales tax related issues and provide advice to business units or legal department, in an accurate and timely manner
• Respond to sales tax related inquiries from dealers in an accurate and timely manner
• Support Senior Manager Tax, Governance & Audit and Manager, Tax with sales tax advisory projects
• Communicate changes to sales tax rates and/or legislation to business units and dealers
• Assist business units and Procurement Dept to set up purchase orders with correct SAP sales tax coding
• Provide guidance to Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable Teams to assist with SAP sales tax coding on invoices
• Oversee issuance of SAP Miscellaneous Customer Billing System transaction codes to Business Units, and update SAP Customer Billing Mapping Table
• Provide sales tax training and resources to Associates annually or as required
• Review material transactions and contracts (working with vendors) to ensure correct sales tax treatment of items on vendor invoices e.g. annual Dealer meetings and reward trips
• Maintain working relationships with Affiliates and vendors
• Support IS department with sales tax related issues that arise on specific IS projects e.g. SAP system changes, Employee Expense system and other business systems
• Maintenance of SAP tax codes to reflect rate changes or other statutory changes as required

Commodity Sales Tax Projects

• Interact with external sales tax consultants on periodic sales tax recovery reviews to ensure advisors ae supplied with accurate data (working with IS team) and resolve questions
• Coordinate with business divisions to oversee administration of ongoing sales tax projects and timely address compliance issues

Other Tax Support

• Support Senior Manager Tax, Governance & Audit and Manager Tax with tax audit queries, research and responses
• Support Manager, Tax with income tax compliance on ad hoc basis (e.g. taxable benefits, withholding taxes and accounting queries)
• Property tax budgets and payments administration
• Other duties as required

Pension Compliance and Administration

Pension Liability Accounting Administration/Coordinate payment and recording of annual pension plan contributions and pension expense (working with Payroll Team)

• Prepare annual pension G/L account schedules for use by F&A, payroll and external auditors
• Monitoring of monthly pension plan contributions and expenses
• Preparation of year-end pension accounting financial statement note for corporate statutory financial statements
• Respond to external auditor’s queries related to pension liability accounting for corporation
• Responsible for reporting pension related accounting items to shareholders through global reporting system on quarterly basis
• Oversee preparation of annual pension plans’ statutory financial statements by external pension plan accountant including review of draft financial statements with external accountant and senior management
• Oversee and co-ordinate annual pension plans’ financial statements’ year-end audit by external auditor including addressing queries, executing confirmations, and reporting audit results to senior management
• Complete Pension Plans’ GST compliance (deemed supply; GST494; rebates; TANs) gf
• Oversee invoice processing for pension plans (as required)
• Pension Plans’ Regulatory Compliance
• Responsible for ensuring annual FSCO filings (form 7s, form 8s, annual information returns, financial statement filings, tri-annual valuations, PBGFs) are completed and filed on time in co-ordination with external pension plan advisors (i.e. actuary, accountant, investment managers)
• Support senior manager to implement and maintain pension plans’ governance structure including review of service providers, co-ordination of pension committee records, governance reporting (e.g. investment performance and reporting from invest. consultant and invest. mgrs.), plan monitoring
• Maintenance of records retention system for confidential pension plans financial records
• Co-ordinate with pension plan actuary to monitor pension legislation amendments that impact financial reporting
• Support Senior Manager, Tax Governance & Audit, HR and payroll on special pension projects
• Participate in the Joint Operations Subcommittee (JOSC) to report pension administration updates to subcommittee members
• Support Senior Manager, Tax, Governance & Audit, Finance Subcommittee, JOSC with knowledge of pension plan financial and regulatory compliance requirements

Requirements

• University degree in Business/Accounting CPA Accounting Designation
• Completion of CPA In-depth GST/HST Program (within past 5+ years)
• 5+ years post designation experience in Canadian indirect tax compliance (sales, luxury tax & excise taxes) and advisory
• Expert knowledge in GST/HST Statutory Requirements
• Expert knowledge in Canadian Provincial Sales Tax Statutory Requirements (BC, MB, SK, QST)
• Excellent communication, comprehension, organization and technical skills
• Deadline oriented to ensure corporate compliance with statutory filing requirements with Indirect tax and Pension compliance obligations
• Proficiency with SAP Hana 4 Enterprise System Strong proficiency with MS Office Suite (specifically MS Excel)
• Experience with Power BI an asset
• French language skills, an asset
• US State Sales Tax knowledge, an asset

Additional Information:

The Mason Group is committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and accessible recruitment process. We welcome applicants from all qualified candidates. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates participating in all stages of the recruitment process, in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

This role is for an immediate vacancy, and we are actively hiring.

If you are already registered with The Mason Group, please contact your Recruiting Consultant directly with reference to job #20548.