When you have been searching for tax executives for 30+ years you see hiring trends long before tax organizations realize what is happening. For tax executives who have worked with me over many years to build their tax organizations, I am going to share what we are seeing in the market right now so you are better prepared.

There is an explosion of tax opportunities about to reach the market of the likes I have not seen since TRA 1986 under President Reagan.

All the changes are coming and companies are gearing up to understand the impact of the new tax law changes. In the months ahead, you will experience a highly competitive environment for corporate tax expertise. Allow me to provide you some insight into trends unfolding today behind the scenes as I see it coming on fast!

For instance, there are more M&A Tax Counsel opportunities than I have seen in a long time because M&A activity is hot! It will be even hotter as multinationals repatriate earnings back to the United States so companies can continue to acquire and grow. Want to know what I discovered recently when I researched what the law firms and Big Four firms were hiring? Eighty-percent of the new lawyers hired in M&A tax have an L.L.M.

These tax professionals are spread out all over the country and they work hard and long hours. Believe me, I am an expert on these searches for my corporate clients as I know where people are hidden and what location they are willing to look at another opportunity. I also know it is hard work to get them to the table to talk to clients in the first place because they are busy working on deals.

The smart companies who get M&A tax lawyers on board from the public accounting and law firms offer them a more normal work life. One New York tax lawyer I spoke to recently said “If you come in a 7:00 AM and go home at 9:00 PM they wonder why you are leaving the building so early!” When you are pressing your tax lawyers to work longer hours and bill more time, you lose something along the way. Allow me to share with you that the major law firms across the country are literally missing the rare 5-8 year tax lawyer and the public accounting firms are missing them, too. There is a very high demand for 5-8 year tax lawyers and very low supply.

As I was talking to a Tax Leader in one of the national firms about this he told me privately “On exit interviews tax professionals tell us they leave because of the demands of time on their life. They want some balance in their lives. In fact, some are leaving the profession altogether.” Evidently, no one told them how hard tax professionals work and how many deadlines they must continually meet.

While I am sharing trends, you need to prepare for turnover in the tax provision role since it is a high turnover job. My advice to every leader I work with is “Prepare for high turnover in the tax provision role because they start looking in year three as it is not fun anymore…they tell me privately it is a fire drill and they do not want to do the job anymore. You always need a backup tax provision person in the wings in training as this is the smartest thing to do, unless you want to do the job yourself. These are valuable tax professionals but they burn out easily doing this job over and over again. Be prepared to train a backup long before you ever need one to do the tax provision otherwise you will be doing this job, too!

Now I will share one more bit of fruit of my labor that you need to know now. Do not allow your human resources team to think they will find you the tax expertise they need. It is wishful thinking on their part because no human resource person can handle the 25 jobs they are given to fill and also provide you the dedicated effort that a highly experienced retained tax search professional gives you on a search.

You must educate management that they need to get an expert in tax search because most companies utilizing human resources are now searching for months to get the expertise they need for their tax organizations.  Start educating your management team now and “Remember I told you so!”

Please call me at 858.999.0053 if you have any questions or email kat@taxconnections.com