[job vacancy] Head of Tax, West and Central Africa Area (WCA) at British American Tobacco

British American Tobacco is all about freedom of choice – whether it’s our people or our products. Combined with our entrepreneurial spirit, it’s what’s driven our phenomenal success. We started trading tobacco over a hundred years ago. Today, we’re a multibillion dollar company with more than 200 brands in our portfolio. With robust positions in each of our regional markets, our future looks equally bright too.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Tax, West and Central Africa Area (WCA)

Location: Lagos
Reports To: Area Finance Director with a dotted Line to Head of Tax Sub Saharan Africa
Seniority Level: Senior Management
Function: Finance
Geographic Scope: West And Central Africa Area (WCA)

Role Positioning and Objectives

• Perform a range of corporate tax compliance and/or advisory work to support the effective management of BAT’s direct and indirect tax positions, including corporate tax liabilities, excise duty, withholding taxes, tax reporting, transfer pricing and ensuring compliance with all statutory positions for WCA
• Provide pro-active, high quality specialist advice, guidance, and expertise to implement and execute tax management processes in areas such as corporation tax, transfer pricing, inter-company recharge management and tax driven decision support for commercial decisions.
• British American Tobacco (“BAT”) has business operations (direct and indirect) in 14 countries in West and Central Africa. The role is accountable for tax compliance for BAT’s West and Central Africa entities.

What You Will Be Accountable For
Tax Compliance (Corporate tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), Payroll Taxes & Excise Duty)

• Completion & filing of all tax returns (corporate tax, VAT, payroll taxes, excise duty), including maintaining schedules for tax sensitive accounts.
• Completion of dividends tax returns, collecting withholding tax (“WHT”) certificates and calculating available WHT relief.
• Monitoring of annual income tax returns, including liaising with tax advisors, as required for WCA.
• Preparation of provisional tax calculations, provisional tax returns and initiating provisional tax payments.

Corporate Tax Reporting (WCA):

• Preparation of quarterly full year forecast current tax and deferred tax charge calculations.
• Preparation of Annual Financial Statement (“AFS”) tax note calculations for WCA entities.
• Completing quarterly BAT Group reporting templates, including half year and year-end BPC schedules.
• Ensuring SOx compliance following established processes and procedures.

International Tax – Transfer Pricing:

• Annual transfer pricing data collection, including financial data and supporting documentation which will enable BAT’s Tax Centre of Excellence to prepare transfer pricing reports.
• Data collection and process management for transfer pricing validation processes
• Submission to transfer pricing documentation to the relevant tax authorities.

International Tax – Withholding Taxes (WHT):

• Monitoring WCA WHT compliance and ensuring that all WCA entities are collecting and issuing WHT
• certificates, including ensuring correct and timely issuing of WHT certificates by WCA companies where required
• Ensuring that WHT returns for the WCA companies are completed and submitted to the relevant authorities, as and when required.

Tax Audit/litigation Support:

• Managing tax audit queries and assessments to mitigate exposures by following established processes and procedures; and
• Managing the appeals/litigation process.

General Business Support:

• Staying abreast of new tax legislation, assessing the impact on BAT entities, and preparing for, and facilitating, regular tax technical meetings and bi-annual Tax Committee meetings;
• Assisting with the collection of information and preparation of responses for internal and external audits and other ad hoc tax queries.
• Assist the Head of Tax SSA in driving corporate simplification initiatives and other tax and business projects.

Tax Function Administration:

• Monitoring and ensuring compliance with Encompass (PwC Tool) tasks.
• Assisting with direct tax function budget processes; and maintaining BAT entities’ profiles on various WCA Governments’ e-filing systems.

Essential Experience, Skills and Knowledge

• Degree Educated with professional Accountancy/Legal and/or Tax qualifications.
• Minimum of four years tax experience in a corporate environment preferably fastmoving consumer goods (“FMCG”) or similar environment, including an audit firm.
• Excellent corporate tax technical knowledge (including deferred tax);
• Assertiveness and drive; and attention to detail
• Excellent influencing skills and an ability to work effectively with all levels of staff within BAT and externally.
• Good communicator.
• SAP knowledge
• A thorough understanding and knowledge of financial management and systems generally.
• Medium to advanced knowledge of the following software packages: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word;

Salary Range
Competitive Salary + excellent benefits + market leading bonus.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply