The Commissioners’ Advisory Accountant (CAA) is a key leadership role in SOLS and HMRC with responsibility for ensuring that HMRC benefits from high quality, professional accountancy advice across the whole of its business. The CAA develops the strategy to shape the role of accountancy in HMRC, including working with other HMRC leaders to innovate, exploit and enhance the capabilities and professionalism of HMRC’s accountancy functions.

The CAA is the Head of Profession for Advisory and Forensic Accountants and is part of HMRC’s senior leadership community. The post-holder is the final word within the profession on technical accountancy matters, as well as having responsibility for the quality of accountancy advice across the profession, capability, strategy and relations with external accountancy bodies.

We are looking for an excellent accountancy professional and leader who will be the head of the accountancy profession for HMRC.

Key Responsibilities 

• Being Head of Profession for Advisory and Forensic Accountants in HMRC ensuring effective career paths; managing recruitment, training and work standards; ensuring enhanced professionalism.
• Assuring the quality of accountancy advice provided through accountants embedded in HMRC business areas
• Advising senior officials and ministers personally where necessary on the most complex and sensitive technical accountancy matters
• Ensuring that HMRC litigation cases have high quality accountancy support, including instructing and managing experts
• Ensuring that all tax legislation and guidance is developed in line with high quality accounting advice
• Working proactively with business leads to identify and manage accounting related risks and opportunities throughout HMRC
• Set clear priorities to help maximise effective and efficient deployment of accountancy resources
• Building and maintaining a wide range of external and internal relationships to influence changes to accounting standards, company law or tax law, including with HMRC’s Policy colleagues; HM Treasury and other Government Departments; The FRC and IASB; Professional accountancy firms; and relations with external accountancy bodies
• Leading a team of over 20 accountants within Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services (SOLS) and providing professional leadership to the 140 plus accountants operating across HMRC
• Being part of SOLS Senior Leadership Group contributing to the corporate and collective leadership of SOLS

The successful candidate will be a strong accountant and accountancy leader.

In addition to holding a professional qualification in accountancy (see qualifications section below), you must be able to demonstrate your potential and capability in the following areas:

• An excellent leader and manager, with experience of building capability and driving continuous improvement;
• Excellent technical accounting ability to command the respect of all key stakeholders – standard setters, policy and tax specialists, taxpayers and Big 4, and other, accountancy firms;
• Strong interpersonal, negotiating and influencing skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and work in partnership with senior stakeholders, both internally and externally; and
• The ability to work flexibly and at pace, juggling competing and often short-term demands across a wide range of business priorities.

• A professional qualification in accountancy is essential together with significant post-qualification experience in roles that involved giving advice on, and making decisions about, accounting treatments adopted by private sector corporate entities and partnerships.
• Candidates should also have continuing membership of one of the following accountancy bodies: ICAEW, ACCA, ICAS or ICAI