Vacant Unit Tax Auditor

City of Ottawa; Ottawa; On-site; CAD 85,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

The City of Ottawa seeks a VUT Auditor for their revenue service to oversee the Vacant Unit Tax program. This full-time temporary role requires conducting audits, ensuring compliance, and generating strategies for improving processes and risk management while working within a collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• Completion of 4-year degree required.
• Minimum of 5 years in audit or financial analysis.
• CPA certification desirable.

Responsibilities

• Conduct audits and reviews of property occupancy declarations.
• Ensure compliance and effectiveness of the Vacant Unit Tax program.
• Develop findings and recommendations for audit improvements.

Skills

Risk assessment

Internal controls

Audit planning

Business analysis

Research and analysis

Data manipulation

Report writing

Communication

Problem solving

Compliance auditing

Education

4-year degree in Accounting, Commerce, Public Administration, or similar

Tools

Power BI

Cognos

Job description

Requisition ID: 17729
Department: Finance and Corporate Services Dept.
Service: Revenue Service
Branch: Tax Billing & Assessment Branch
Employment Type: 1 Full-time Temporary - Up to 1 year
Work Hours: 35.00 hours per week
Affiliation: CIPP
Salary Information: $85,947.68 - $104,577.20 annually (2025 rates of pay)
Location: 100 Constellation, Nepean
City: Ottawa, ON
Job Category: Finance & Accounting
Application Close: 09/07/2025

JOB SUMMARY

The Vacant Unit Tax (VUT) team is responsible for the administration of the VUT, building public awareness of the declaration process and ensuring Vacant residences are taxed accurately through timely billing and auditing.

The VUT Auditor is responsible for conducting audits and reviews of property occupancy declarations and complaints. The audit function is a key component of activities to support compliance and effectiveness of the Vacanct Unit Tax program, generating additional revenue towards city housing iniatives. This position makes independent and objective determinations of cases based on evidence and communications submitted by the property owner as well as research and coordination with internal and external partners and agencies. The VUT auditor develop findings and recommendations regarding the performance of the audit program, improvements to business processes, risk management and quality assurance.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Completion of 4 year degree in Accounting, Commerce, Public Administration, Business Administration or similar field of study.

Minimum of 5 years of experience in internal/external audit, management consulting or financial analysis/reporting, with some business process design, internal controls or re-engineering.

CERTIFICATIONS AND LICENCES

Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) current with CPA Ontario is desirable
Completion of Municipal Tax Administration Program (MTAP) is desirable

KNOWLEDGE

• Risk assessment and management techniques
• Internal controls and quality assurance processes
• Audit planning and reporting
• Audit sampling and statistical analysis techniques
• Business analysis principles and techniques, including process design, process maps, and flow charts
• In-depth knowledge of applicable legislation, procedures and policies and general knowledge of taxation policies and principles and ability to interpret other legislations and conduct follow up research as required
• Broad knowledge of municpal businesses, programs, policies and practices
• Knowledge of applicable health and safety legislation, including the rights and duties of workers.
• Awareness of the privacy and access legislation and policies to ensure confidentiality and protection of sensitive information
• Knowledge of other respective governmental procedures and external agency processes required to obtain relevant, applicable information; ability to convey this information to staff and/or public.
• Research and analysis techniques
• Data retrieval and manipulation techniques, including use of BI applications such as Power BI, Cognos
• Report writing techniques, including techniques to present data in various formats
• On-line systems including electronic approval processing, data entry, associated internal controls and audit trails

COMPETENCIES, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Good conflict resolution and team building skills
• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and writing with all levels in the organization, and with external clients and business contacts
• Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationship with all levels in the organization, and with external clients and business contacts
• Ability to provide leadership to other staff in the completion of complex compliance assignments
• Ability to identify areas of non-compliance, make adjustments, write correspondence and refer/notify the manager as required.
• General compliance auditing skills in order to analyze and assess key pieces of information/evidence
• Ability to review or design internal control measures relating to various financial management processes
• Ability to exercise judgement with request for extensions of time to provide information/evidence
• Ability to make objective decisions based on factual information/evidence
• Problem solving and resolution skills for dealing with taxpayers, and/or their representatives
• Ability to work under pressure with changing priorities, tight deadlines and frequent interruptions
• Ability to develop document review and revise formal working procedures and techniques
• Ability to work effectively with competing and changing priorities with frequent interruptions within a multiple task environment
• Ability to interpret and apply government legislation, corporate policies, procedures, guidelines and collective agreements and advise clients accordingly
• Superior research, analytical and problem solving skills that can be applied within a complex and dynamic environment
• Ability to prepare, analyze and interpret statistical and narrative data
• Ability to use specialized audit or data extraction tools for data analysis
• Skilled in the use of computer based information systems, Business Intelligence tools, and applications as related to the work performed

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Language Requirement: English oral, reading, writing
• Police Record Check: The successful candidate will be required to complete a Criminal Records and Judicial Matters Check with the Police Services detachment in their jurisdiction to the City of Ottawa's satisfaction.; Police record checks completed by a third-party company will not be accepted.
• Experience and formal training combined with demonstrated performance and ability may substitute for stipulated academic requirements.
• Please save a copy of the job poster. Once the closing date has passed, it will no longer be available.

We wish to thank all applicants for their interest and effort in applying for this position. Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.

The City of Ottawa promotes the principles of diversity and inclusion and adheres to the tenets of the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Ontario Human Rights Code. We encourage applications from members of Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities, persons with disabilities, women and non-binary persons, persons of all ethnic origins, religions, sexual orientations, classes, gender identities and expressions.
Candidates are encouraged to self-identify as a member of one or more designated employment equity groups in the self-identification questionnaire.

The City of Ottawa provides accommodation to applicants during all parts of the hiring process, upon request. If contacted to proceed to the selection process, please advise us if you require any accommodation.

Accessible formats and communication supports are available upon request. Please contact the Employee Service Centre at 613-580-2424 extension 12211 or via email at [e-mail].