Tax Technology Recruitment: Q3 2021 Market Report

As we move to the end of 2021, what is the state of play in tax technology recruitment?

Director Alex Mann presents the Tax Technology market report….

Last quarter we reported a gradual increase in the hiring of tax technology professionals.

This quarter we can say that not only has the increase continued, but it surged.

With many businesses moving to S4 Hana or venturing into new transformation projects, we’re seeing a sharp rise in the demand for those who possess data visualisation and analytical skills.

We all know how imperative it is to have clean data, but what do you do with that data? This seems to be the prevailing question right now and we’re seeing this filtering into the demands of tax technology recruitment.

In-house

For many of our longer-term subscribers, you would’ve no doubt heard us refer to the ‘two-a-month’ trend in tax technology, which essentially is our reference to the average number of in-house tax technology vacancies that are released each month across the UK&I, BENELUX, and DACH markets. This has been a consistent trend since we started tracking the data in late 2018.

You’ll also recall that we noted in Q2 this year that we were gradually breaking out of the two-a-month trend and seeing a small increase. Well, across July to September, we’ve seen 16 new vacancies released across our core markets, not to mention glimmers of activity in typical SSC hubs like Hungary, Poland, and Portugal.

Where were these opportunities identified?

• Germany – 37.5%
• UK – 31.25%
• The Netherlands – 12.5%
• Ireland, Belgium, and Switzerland – 18.75%

The UK and Germany continue to remain the core markets for in-house tax technology appointments and, interestingly, we’re seeing a welcome spread across the grades with opportunities pitched at Analyst through to Lead levels.

Whilst we still regularly speak to in-house tax teams who face an uphill battle in being able to build a successful business case for investment – something we discussed at length at SAPinsider’s virtual summit this year – it’s been encouraging to have several conversations this quarter with tax leaders who have been triumphant in this endeavour and now have a budget to work with. With more and more in-house tax functions being able to harness technology in both their operations and recruitment, we’re confident that we’ll see other businesses follow.

Professional Services & Tax Software Houses

As we’ve said time after time, this space is the nucleus of tax technology recruitment.

There’s very little that we can add to our commentary here that wasn’t documented in our Q2 Tax Technology Market Report. In summary, key demands across professional services remain for S4 Hana and tax transformation specialists.

Whilst these roles are mainly a result of increased engagements across professional services, with an increased volume of in-house hiring, we’ll now start to see many teams scramble to fill the seats of the advisors who have now switched codes.

Looking ahead to the New Year

As the run up to Christmas begins, hiring managers across each pocket of the market look to get on top of recruitment, ready to enter the New Year with a secure team in place. As such, we typically don’t see an influx of new vacancies from November onwards.

However once the dust of Christmas settles, we anticipate that many more tax teams will be looking to make their first tax technology hires.

The numbers are increasing…

The success stories are increasing…

Could 2022 be the year that not only transforms the mainstream tax function, but transforms tax recruitment?

It’s looking promising!

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Alex Mann is Associate Director, Indirect Tax & Tax Technology at Harvey John

For expert advice on how to get the best out of your tax career, whether in a professional services firm or in-house, contact us today.

Harvey John is a specialist Accountancy, Tax & Treasury, and Legal recruiter operating across the UK & EMEA market