Thinking of moving from practice into commerce? Trends in the market

As we come out of the last two years, recruitment of tax professionals into mainstream commerce and industry is not experiencing the same volume of hires that we have witnessed across the profession and financial services, we have nevertheless observed consistency and a comforting lack of volatility. Below we discuss the market’s trends and how these are affecting tax professionals.

Reasons professionals are moving from practice to commerce

The tough economic climate experienced in recent times has lead to a number of high performers in the profession to re-evaluate their own career paths. A slowdown in quality work, flat salaries, minimal bonuses and fewer business cases for promotions have prompted candidates to move in-house to gain valuable commercial experience.

Tax high on the agenda

The profile of tax has never been higher across UK and overseas corporates. Investment into securing top tax talent to improve in-house capability has therefore been consistent through 2010. Whereas the last two years saw most in-house tax functions focusing on core risk, reporting and compliance, the stabilising economy has lead to tax planning, M&A and international tax coming back on the agenda. The market has subsequently seen an upturn in strategic Tax Manager, Senior Manager and functional head (i.e. Head of Tax Planning) hires. These roles provide candidates with genuine scope to add value to a business.

Tax in demand across all sectors

Outside of financial services, there is no one sector that is clearly outperforming the others by way of volume of in-house tax recruitment. Activity of US multinationals has slightly outperformed that of UK plcs but the real trend we are seeing at the moment is the continued broad spectrum of hires coming to the market from a variety of industry sectors.

Concentrating on long-term career objectives

This year has been the year for people to consider their career options, so competition for roles amongst candidates is high. Although there is still likely to be some form of financial incentive for people to move from practice to industry, we are not seeing the large uplifts being offered as in the past. This is where the market was three or four years ago. Candidates are making the move to industry based on longer-term career objectives and are likely to have given considerable thought to their change in career direction.  

Corporate tax will come to the fore

Opportunities in the market in 2011 will again depend largely on what happens in the economy. If we continue to see stabilisation leading to growth, an increased volume of strategic in-house tax roles will be present in the market. 2010 has seen high levels of demand in the specialisms (i.e. transfer pricing, indirect taxes and employee taxes) but we predict that demand for strong corporate tax professionals will experience a significant spike.