Tag Archive for Tax Department

Plan For Changes In A Corporate Tax Department Every Year, Smart Management

For many of you who have been following my tax search expertise for years, you know that my background is in helping tax professionals and tax organizations be more successful. This is precisely why I built www.taxconnections.com… to continue to help tax professionals promote their tax expertise worldwide. Thousands of members from more than 100 countries are now utilizing TaxConnections to build tax brand identity, attract new clients, identify staff and consultants for their tax departments, and find a wide range of tax expertise around the world. I also know large tax organizations turnover at the rate of 25%-30% a year so tax executives leading tax organizations today must constantly be prepared for the inevitable changes.

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Written by | Posted in Marketing Tax Expertise

Motivate Management To Listen To Tax Department Compensation

Strategies that motivate management to listen to the Tax Department is what we will address in this week’s post. Although there are dozens of topics I could address,  this post will address a couple of challenges faced by most anyone leading a tax organization when it comes to compensating your tax team.  This post will also provide solutions; these are solutions intended to make your job leading a tax organization easier. Although I know better than to put “ Head of Tax” and “Easy” in the same line, leading a tax organization is one of the toughest jobs out there today. Read More

Written by | Posted in Compensation • Corporate • Corporate Tax Department Compensation

5 Questions You Should Ask Of Everyone In Your Tax Department In January

Kat Jennings

Recently, I read a quote that caught my attention and it was “The two things in life you are in control of is your attitude and your effort”. January is the perfect time for refreshing the minds of your tax organization that each of us is in control of our attitude and effort.  This is the opportune time to help your team get on track with their goals for the year. The best strategy to employ for getting your team on track is to identify what will motivate every unique person in your tax organization.

People are extremely motivated to achieve if this means they can get what they want and need! After asking thousands of tax professionals what motivated them to stay and succeed with a tax organization or conversely leave a tax organization, I identified  triggers for motivation. The most important thing to remember is people in your organization have different needs. In 1943, American psychologist Abraham Maslow was  best known for creating a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs: self-actualization needs; self-esteem needs; belonging needs; security needs; and physiological needs. I am going to break down the 5  needs people in a tax organization display according to Maslow’s theory and my experience.  When you identify the individual needs of your tax team and work with them fulfilling their desires,  the result is increased motivation and productivity in your tax organization.

 

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Written by | Posted in Tax Management • Tax Tips • TaxConnections

How To Develop A Leading And Productive Tax Team In 2016

Kat Jennings

In order to assist management in tax organizations who want to develop a leading and productive tax team, a special blog series starts January 2016 and runs through March 2016. This special series will consist of 12 articles that address the challenges tax management teams will likely face in running their tax organizations. The purpose of sharing this insightful and valuable information is to ensure you never feel alone in your journey managing a tax department. In fact, you will  learn there are many challenges faced in managing a tax organization that you will be able to handle with the information provided in these posts.

Why will you want to read these posts?  You will learn what 30 years of experience has taught me during more than 500,000+ private conversations with tax professionals around the world. I promise to share great stories with you during these posts.

The 12 week series on Developing A Leading Tax Team in 2016 will cover:
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Written by | Posted in Tax Management

10 Funny Jokes For The Tax Department Christmas Party

TaxConnections Tax Blog

1.  Where do snowmen keep their money?

In a snow bank

2.  What brings you presents and scratches your furniture?

Santa Claws

3.  What do you get when you cross a snowman and a dog?

Frostbite

4.  How does a sheep say Merry Christmas? Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Humor

Treasure In The Tax Department – Make People Shine

Anyone leading a tax organization or even a group within the tax department will benefit from what I learned about managing the treasure within a tax team. You see, everyone has treasure in their tax organization and the treasure is the people. The treasure is in the knowledge and skills of your people. While you are busy responding to managements never ending list of requests that require twice the team you currently have to produce; you also have these untapped jewels around you. As a leader in a tax organization, you have the ability to turn on the passion of the tax team and increase their productivity.

One of the most important things tax leaders must be mindful of is people want to enjoy their work experience. When people enjoy what they are doing, the passion surfaces and the treasure is bountiful. For example, imagine you have two Tax Managers gathering Read More

Written by | Posted in TaxConnections

CORPORATE TAX DAY! – TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

You Are Invited To Be Part of Internet History…
Join TaxConnections as we present incredible Tax Experts on Corporate Tax Day at the Internet Tax Summit on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 beginning at 8:00AM (PDT).

Gather your entire tax department and listen/watch these smart corporate tax experts providing you with the most up-to-date information.  Click below for the Agenda and your VIP Ticket for Corporate Tax Day.

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Written by | Posted in Internet Tax Summit - 2015 • TaxConnections

International Tax – Traps For The Unwary

Introducing Tax Expert Doug Eckert, Tax Partner, Brown, Smith, Wallace, St. Louis, Missouri

 

Doug will be presenting at TaxConnections Internet Tax Summit and discussing the repatriation of funds without paying double taxation and various techniques you will want to know about.  His presentation begins Tuesday, September 22nd at 10:00AM (PST).

Gather your tax department for this informative session with Doug Eckert.

(See Video Introduction Below) Read More

Written by | Posted in International • Internet Tax Summit - 2015 • TaxConnections

Advice for Tax Accountants: How to Accept Praise

This topic seems like a simple one. But tax CPAs (auditors seem to have less trouble with this one) are terrible at accepting praise. We are so trained by our conversations with clients (and the public accounting profession) to qualify every sentence that we always see the glass as half empty instead of half full. Therefore, when tax accountants finally do get praised for something they tend to do one of the following:

1. Say thanks, “But it was no big deal. Others could have done it too”.
2. Try to spread the credit among several people so that their part seems small. Trust me. The partner already knows it was a “team effort”. The tax partner or manager has already claimed plenty of credit for making the project a successful one. They are thanking you for making them look good. Read More

Written by | Posted in TaxConnections

Tips on Successfully Staffing Your Tax Department

In 2012, the Sales Tax Institute prepared and distributed a survey to 1,243 companies throughout the United States. The survey was sent to tax department vice presidents, tax directors, CFO’s, treasurers and controllers.  Our goal was to identify the best practices used by tax leaders, as well as helpful tips that could be shared with others. The survey results were used to benchmark attendees at the Institute’s Tax Leader Summit held in the fall of 2012. In this post, we will share some of the key findings of the research as well as some of the key takeaways identified by the Summit participants relating to staffing the tax department.

The most important component to being a “best-in-class” tax department is having the appropriate staff.  One of the keys to this success is to maintain appropriate staffing levels.  An equal number of our survey respondents felt their department was appropriately staffed as felt that it was understaffed. However, only 20% of the companies actually have their staff track their time, and only 32% track the tasks within the department with an estimate of the effort required. It is a best practice to have these types of processes in place in order to be more confident that your employees accomplish as much as possible in a given week.

Development of your staff through training is one of the foundations of a best in class tax department.  Training should Read More

Written by | Posted in TaxConnections