Payroll Tax Manager

BASIC FUNCTION:

Incumbent is responsible for International, Federal, State, Provincial, and local tax functions, in US and Canada, including tax analysis, reporting, research, and compliance related to the company and employee payroll taxes for North America.  Responsibilities include managing the payroll tax compliance functions for US and Canada along with all tax related processes.  Incumbent will manage audit activities associated with the tax filings.  Inititates tax planning and incentive opportunities related to payroll and unemployment tax.  Participates in planning and coordinating department policies and procedures for work flow processes.  Also responsible for managing audit exposure and maintaining professional affiliations and relationships required to perform duties.  Manages the payroll tax third party vendor relationship.  Supervises the assigned department payroll tax analysts. 

Must be able to independently perform work related tasks and exercise professional discretion.  Required to make independent decisions on inpatriates and expatriates payroll tax processing.  Will be the lead contact for Gerdau Brazil H.R., Gerdau AmeriSteel H.R., and Ernst &Young on all International employee tax related issues. 


DIMENSIONS:

NATURE AND SCOPE:

This position is responsible for managing the payroll tax and related accounting duties of the company in a multi corporation, multi-state, multi country manufacturing environment.  The Payroll Tax Manager reports directly to the Sr. Manager of Employee Services who reports to the VP of HR. Reporting directly to this position are salaried exempt staff positions, Payroll Tax Analysts.

The incumbent provides management with guidance relative to payroll tax issues and planning considerations, including recommendations and review of potential tax saving alternatives at the Federal, Provincial, or State level relating to Payroll taxes. The incumbent is responsible for registering business units for new acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures to ensure proper tax liabilities are made timely on all payroll taxes within the province or state as applicable. Responsible to resolve all tax notices from Federal, provinces and states as well.    

The incumbent is responsible for ensuring the general ledger accounts associated with the state and local payroll taxes are reconciled with the Accounting team on a periodic basis and accurately reflects the company’s liabilities and payments. 

Payroll tax compliance is an essential function of the payroll tax department, necessary to avoid additional costs in terms of late penalties and interest.  Managing the preparation and timely filing of all payroll tax returns and employee tax forms for multiple companies in two countries are critical job elements to avoid additional costs to the company. When audits occur, the incumbent works closely with tax officials to resolve compliance issues and minimize exposure.  The incumbent also manages outside consultants on various assigned projects such as the inpatriate processes.

The incumbent should have exceptional skills and knowledge with training, organizing and directing specific duties of the Payroll Tax Analysts to ensure accurate and timely completion of payroll tax liabilities for the company. The Payroll Tax Manager must have an intimate knowledge of all payroll taxes, the payroll tax systems, including third party vendor systems, and the detailed accounting transactions of payroll tax as it relates to the general ledger.

This position will oversee the completion and distribution of domestic and International Wage and Tax Statements (IE: Form W2, W2c, T4, T4A, etc) to employees and agencies.  This requires the calculation of additional income due to long term incentives, international income, reporting third party sick pay information to employees who received payments by insurance companies, relocation expenses as added income during the year, maintaining records for taxable income for Sales personnel with company cars and personal mileage, and calculation of taxable wages for employees working in the US or Canada under the Gerdau Ameristeel exchange program.

This position will serve as a dedicated subject matter expert for US, Canada, and International Payroll tax laws. Must have the ability to research and identify problems, develop proposals, conduct analysis independently and run the Payroll tax functions across two countries efficiently.  Must ensure the BSI and SAP systems are updated for all annual tax changes. Must work closely with the Payroll Tax Analysts and the I.T. department to ensure proper testing of new changes are completed for payroll tax updates on a timely basis. 

This position will be responsible for keeping management abreast of all upcoming tax changes to ensure the systems are properly updated.  Must attend annual tax conferences as needed in order to stay current on all tax law regulation changes.  Expected to communicate all upcoming legal changes to management and keep the systems updated timely.

Qualifications for this position require a degree in accounting or related business field, and eight to ten solid years experience with domestic and international payroll tax. Must have a broad knowledge of payroll tax processing, general accounting practices related to payroll tax functions, US, Canada, and International tax regulations, and high level managerial skills.  A demonstrated proficiency in all Microsoft applications is required. Must have stong analytical skills and attention to detail. Excellent verbal and written communication skills is required.  Experience with SAP/BSI is a preferred payroll application for this position.  Experience with Ceridian third party vendor tax processing is a plus.  Must have strong customer service skills and team otientation. CPP designation preferred.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

1. Manages the relationship with the third party payroll vendor tax filing service for US tax, to ensure timeliness and accuracy of filings, as well as assist in issue resolution.

2. Manages the preparation and filing of Canada tax liabilities and returns, filed internally.

3. Responsible for addressing new accounts or tax issues associated with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, company name changes, FEIN changes, and all other related processes.

4. Identify potential payroll tax exposure and related financial risks, communicate these risks to management, and direct the final disposition of related payroll tax items.

5. Serve as liaison with other departments in the determination of payroll tax impact in relation to human resources, payroll or executive compensation policies or programs and resolution of related payroll tax issues.

6. Drive changes in the payroll tax function to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the payroll tax function.

7. Responsible for taxation and transactions for all relocation, expatriates, inpatriates, non-qualified stock options, stock transactions, hypo tax, taxable fringe benefits, and functions as liaison with the HR/Benefits Gerdau AmeriSteel, HR Gerdau Brazil, E&Y, and Treasury/Financial departments for said items.

8. Review various payroll GL reports for accuracy, adjustments/corrections, reconciliation. Work with General Accounting on reconciliation of bank/general ledger entries for taxes and stock transactions.  

9. Research and respond to all incoming government agency tax notices and work with Ceridian ior the Agency to have them resolved in a timely manner to minimize/mitigate the risk of potential liabilities, penalties, and interest.

10. Review and reconcile total tax liabilities by entity and tax debits with Ceridian Tax Services or Canada Revenue Agency.

11. Responsible for the required annual tax form reporting processes for both domestic U.S. and Canada, which includes but is not limited to year-end adjustments, balancing to payroll tax returns, and all adjusted tax forms as required.

12. Responsible for the Payroll tax systems including SAP and BSI system. Works closely with I.T for scheduling updates to the BSI systems as needed for Cyclic and Regulatory Tax Bulletin updates. 

13. Supervises Payroll Tax Analysts.

14. Perform other responsibilities, duties and projects as assigned by the Payroll Manager.

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