The rise in prominence of Indirect Tax

Indirect tax has gained significant prominence within organisations in the UK and Europe, observes Pure’s Interim division's manager Dalia Greenwood. This emphasis has increased the demand for tax professionals in VAT project work and as permanent additions to company tax teams.

Towards the end of 2008, we have noted a significant increase in the demand for VAT professionals within the commercial and financial services sector on a temporary and permanent basis.  

Some recent highlights in VAT include:

• The integration of the global economy is encouraging the spread of VAT/GST growth
• VAT/GST is a realtime tax which is effectively collected as transactions occur making it an attractive option for organisations who are looking to accelerate tax revenues.
• Changes to the way HMRC is able to conduct tax enquiries from April 2009  
• VAT Compliance is highly critical as VAT risk, once identified, it can be well managed to create a competitive advantage and value for business.
• Recent legislative changes mean that claims that UK businesses can make on certain VAT-incurred expenses in other EU countries will be simplified.
• The UK VAT rate reduction to 15% will eventually revert back to 17.5%, or higher, requiring forward planning.

Some of these occurrences and other changes have resulted in businesses being more proactive and looking more closely at how to implement VAT strategies to benefit them. As a result, indirect tax has become high on the agenda for many organisations and has consistently been the topic of debate in the press.

As a result of this, there has been a huge demand for VAT Specialists to join an organisation on an interim basis to get involved with:

• VAT Compliance work
• VAT Systems implementation
• VAT Project Management/Supply Chain
• International VAT projects

At Pure’s Taxation Interim division, we have consultants who specialise in indirect tax jobs across financial services and the profession on a temporary and permanent basis.

For more information and an informed discussion on this topic as well as other market commentary please contact Dalia Greenwood on 0207 429 4427 or email : daliagreenwood@puretaxation.com.