Tax Assistant

Forestry Commission; Bristol; On-site; GBP 33,000; Full time

Job summary

The Forestry Commission is seeking a Tax Accountant Assistant in Bristol. This exciting role involves supporting the Tax Accountant with VAT, CIS returns, and compliance tasks. Candidates should have strong bookkeeping skills and the ability to work independently while maintaining thorough communication with stakeholders.

Benefits

28.97% contribution to pension scheme

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Employee benefits scheme for discounts

Free parking at Forestry England sites

Free entry to National Arboretums

Support for career development

Qualifications

• Experience supporting a finance team preferred.
• Good understanding of double entry bookkeeping is essential.
• Competent IT user with MS Office experience.

Responsibilities

• Assist the Tax Accountant in daily tasks and monthly routines.
• Manage the Forestry Commission’s Contractor CIS return and investigate discrepancies.
• Run necessary finance reports for VAT returns.

Skills

Communication skills

IT competency (MS Office)

Understanding of double entry bookkeeping

Tools

Financial systems

Job description

Stoke Gifford, South West England, BS16 1EJ

Job Summary

What you’ll do…

This is an exciting new role, giving the successful candidate plenty of opportunity to make their mark!

You will assist the Tax Accountant in daily tasks and will be responsible for monthly routines. Other tasks will be of a supportive nature and on an ad-hoc basis.

The role will focus on areas of tax such as VAT, the Construction Industry Scheme and IR35.

Previous experience in a finance team is preferred along with a good understanding of double entry bookkeeping.

Previous experience in a public sector environment is also desirable but not essential.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

You will be based at our National Office in Bristol.

We aim to provide a great place to work and blended working forms part our flexible and inclusive approach to future ways of working. Is is an informal arrangement which gives you the option to work some of the week from home and some of the week from the office, subject to role requirements business need and regular review.

Job Description

• work closely with the Tax Accountant and assisting in a variety of areas of tax
• You will need to acquire an understanding of Forestry England’s commercial/non-business/exempt
• activities from a VAT perspective and apply this knowledge in differing situations
• work on your own initiative on the task at hand and be able to question anomalies with internal stakeholders
• run the necessary reports from our finance systems as and when required on a timely and monthly basis i.e. to enable the production of the VAT return
• investigate VAT coding errors arising from the transaction reports used for the VAT return which have been reported by the Tax Accountant
• manage the Forestry Commission’s Contractor CIS return on a monthly basis by reconciling the CIS accounts and investigating any discrepancies ensuring the CIS monthly return is accurate for the onward
• submission via the CIS gateway, ensuring all sub-contractors receive their CIS statements on routine and timely basis
• Government Procurement Cards journal production by reviewing and amending transactions accordingly on a timely basis
• ensure transactions coded to the COS VAT codes are correct and comply with COS legislation
• other compliance nature duties such as maintaining pool vehicle mileage logs and reporting on cases of private use
• maintain and reconcile the Duty Deferment Account on a monthly basis and providing the Tax accountant with the necessary information for import VAT recovery on the monthly VAT return
• maintain the IR35 Database to ensure continual compliance and ensure periodic reviews happen on a timely basis
• create journals as and when required
• ad-hoc support to the Tax Accountant
• and any other tasks reasonably requested by your line manager
• work closely with the Tax Accountant and assisting in a variety of areas of tax
• You will need to acquire an understanding of Forestry England’s commercial/non-business/exempt
• activities from a VAT perspective and apply this knowledge in differing situations
• work on your own initiative on the task at hand and be able to question anomalies with internal stakeholders
• run the necessary reports from our finance systems as and when required on a timely and monthly basis i.e. to enable the production of the VAT return
• investigate VAT coding errors arising from the transaction reports used for the VAT return which have been reported by the Tax Accountant
• manage the Forestry Commission’s Contractor CIS return on a monthly basis by reconciling the CIS accounts and investigating any discrepancies ensuring the CIS monthly return is accurate for the onward
• submission via the CIS gateway, ensuring all sub-contractors receive their CIS statements on routine and timely basis
• Government Procurement Cards journal production by reviewing and amending transactions accordingly on a timely basis
• ensure transactions coded to the COS VAT codes are correct and comply with COS legislation
• other compliance nature duties such as maintaining pool vehicle mileage logs and reporting on cases of private use
• maintain and reconcile the Duty Deferment Account on a monthly basis and providing the Tax accountant with the necessary information for import VAT recovery on the monthly VAT return
• maintain the IR35 Database to ensure continual compliance and ensure periodic reviews happen on a timely basis
• create journals as and when required
• ad-hoc support to the Tax Accountant
• and any other tasks reasonably requested by your line manager
  
  

Person specification

Technical Experience

• competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications
• experience with financial systems
• a good level of communication skills including writing concise and clear emails to various internal stakeholders
  
  

Essential Qualifications

• the role holder does not require any professional qualifications but there is a requirement to understand Double Entry Bookkeeping
  
  

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
  
  

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• More information provided to those successful at sift.
  
  

Alongside your salary of £32,089, Forestry Commission contributes £9,296 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits…

Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• a commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.
  
  

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

How To Apply…

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on a technical skill and strength based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Making effective decisions.
• Changing and improving.
• Working together.
• Delivering at pace.
  
  

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email [e-mail].

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
  
  

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

• Name : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : [e-mail]
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email : [e-mail]
  
  

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: [e-mail]. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.