Tax Department Head

About Business Financial Group Business Financial Group (BFG) is a U.S.-based accounting, tax, and financial services organization serving businesses and individuals across the United States. BFG provides services including business and individual tax preparation, proactive tax planning, IRS and state tax resolution, accounting and bookkeeping, payroll, accounts payable, and financial advisory services. Our India team serves as a centralized production and operational support center working with BFG's U.S.-based client-facing and advisory professionals. As BFG continues to grow, we are seeking an experienced Tax Department Head to lead and develop our tax operations. Position Summary The Tax Department Head is responsible for the overall management, organization, timely delivery, and performance of BFG's Tax Department. This is primarily a tax operations and people-management leadership position, supported by strong practical knowledge of U.S. taxation. The successful candidate must be capable of managing multiple tax projects simultaneously, assigning and monitoring work, supervising tax professionals, managing deadlines, identifying bottlenecks, maintaining accountability, and ensuring that tax projects move efficiently from intake through preparation, review, e-filing, delivery, and post-delivery follow-up. The Tax Department Head should have strong working knowledge of both U.S. business and individual taxation and sufficient knowledge of tax planning and tax resolution to manage these service areas and recognize when matters require escalation to senior technical professionals. The position is not intended for someone whose experience is limited primarily to preparing tax returns. The successful candidate must demonstrate strong project management, people management, delegation, communication, and leadership capabilities. Key Responsibilities 1. Tax Department Leadership • Lead the day-to-day operations of BFG's Tax Department. • Manage, supervise, coach, and develop tax team members. • Establish clear expectations regarding assignments, deadlines, quality, communication, documentation, and accountability. • Conduct regular tax department meetings and individual follow-up meetings as necessary. • Identify performance problems, workload issues, training requirements, and resource constraints before they affect client delivery. • Create a professional environment that encourages accountability, teamwork, continuous learning, and timely communication. • Work closely with the Delivery & Operations Manager regarding staffing, capacity, performance, and operational improvements. 2. Tax Project Management • Own and manage the overall tax project pipeline. • Maintain clear visibility into all active tax projects and their current status. • Ensure projects move systematically through appropriate workflow stages: Not Started, Scheduled, In Progress, Waiting on Client, Under Review, Rework Required, Ready for E-filing, Ready for Closing, Delivered, Dormant, and post-delivery follow-up when applicable. • Monitor project deadlines, aging, bottlenecks, dependencies, and overdue tasks. • Ensure every active project has a clearly identified owner, current status, next action, responsible team member, internal due date, client/government deadline, and escalation path when necessary. • Use BFG's project-management and tax workflow systems consistently and ensure that team members maintain accurate project information. 3. Workload & Capacity Management • Assign tax projects based on employee experience, technical competency, workload, deadlines, and project complexity. • Monitor staff capacity and redistribute work when necessary. • Prevent individual employees from becoming overloaded while other team members have available capacity. • Identify seasonal staffing requirements and communicate resource needs to management in advance. • Develop a scalable tax production structure as BFG's client base and tax volume increase. 4. Business Tax Management • Provide operational and technical oversight for U.S. business tax engagements, including Form 1120S - S Corporations, Form 1065 - Partnerships, Form 1120 - C Corporations, related state business tax returns, business extensions, estimated tax calculations, and related tax compliance matters. • Review or supervise the review of routine business tax returns depending upon complexity and BFG's review procedures. • Identify complex technical matters requiring escalation to a CPA Advisor, EA, senior tax professional, or other appropriate specialist. 5. Individual Tax Management • Oversee the preparation and delivery of U.S. individual income tax returns, primarily Form 1040 and related federal and state filings. • Manage individual tax return workflow during tax season. • Ensure extensions, estimated payments, missing information, review requirements, e-filing, and delivery requirements are properly tracked. • Maintain appropriate controls over high-volume tax-season production without compromising quality or client service. 6. Tax Planning • Manage the operational workflow for BFG's tax-planning engagements. • Possess sufficient U.S. tax knowledge to understand common planning opportunities, coordinate planning projects, supervise supporting work, and recognize matters requiring senior technical review. • Coordinate with BFG's CPA Advisors and other tax specialists on complex planning engagements. • Ensure planning recommendations, calculations, implementation items, and follow-up responsibilities are properly documented and tracked. 7. Tax Resolution • Oversee the operational management of federal and state tax-resolution engagements. • Understand the general processes associated with tax notices, prior-year compliance issues, payment arrangements, IRS/state correspondence, and common tax-resolution engagements. • Ensure cases are properly assigned, deadlines and correspondence are tracked, client documents are obtained, and appropriate technical professionals are involved. • Escalate complex representation and resolution matters to appropriately qualified professionals. 8. Quality Control & Review Coordination • Work closely with BFG's QA function to ensure established tax quality-control procedures are followed. • Maintain clear separation of accountability: the Tax Department Head owns tax delivery and departmental performance, while the QA function independently supports quality assurance and process compliance. • Ensure review comments and rework items are assigned and completed promptly. • Analyze recurring errors and develop training or process improvements to reduce future occurrences. 9. Client Tax Lead Management • Supervise Client Tax Leads and ensure client portfolios are appropriately distributed. • Monitor the size and complexity of each Client Tax Lead's portfolio. • Ensure Client Tax Leads maintain proper communication, project follow-up, documentation, and escalation. • Manage the tax delivery system and the people responsible for client portfolios rather than personally managing a large portfolio of clients. 10. Deadline & Compliance Management • Maintain departmental visibility over important federal, state, and internal tax deadlines. • Develop procedures to identify approaching deadlines well in advance. • Ensure extensions are prepared when appropriate and that estimated payments and other time-sensitive items are properly communicated and tracked. • Immediately escalate significant deadline risks to the Delivery & Operations Manager. 11. Process Improvement • Continuously evaluate tax workflows and identify opportunities for improvement. • Develop and maintain tax department SOPs, checklists, workflow standards, and documentation requirements. • Help BFG use automation, AI, tax technology, and project-management systems to increase productivity while maintaining appropriate professional review and controls. • Participate in the development of dashboards and management reporting for tax operations. Required Experience • 6+ years of relevant U.S. tax experience • Significant practical experience with U.S. individual and business taxation • Experience preparing and/or reviewing Forms 1040, 1120S, 1065, and preferably 1120 • Previous experience supervising or managing tax professionals • Demonstrated experience managing multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously • Experience assigning work and monitoring staff capacity • Experience reviewing employee performance and providing coaching • Experience working within a tax practice, accounting firm, CPA firm, EA practice, or similar professional-services environment • Strong familiarity with tax workflow and project-management processes Preferred Qualifications • Enrolled Agent (EA) • CPA or CPA-track professional • CA/CA Inter with substantial U.S. tax experience • Master's degree or advanced qualification in accounting, taxation, finance, or related field • Experience with Drake Tax or similar professional U.S. tax software • Experience managing offshore or distributed tax teams • Experience with tax planning and/or tax resolution • Experience with project-management and workflow-management systems Professional credentials are preferred but are not mandatory if the candidate demonstrates strong U.S. tax knowledge and exceptional tax operations and people-management capabilities. Critical Competencies Project Management: Ability to manage a large number of simultaneous tax projects, priorities, deadlines, dependencies, and team assignments. People Management: Ability to lead, coach, delegate, hold team members accountable, resolve performance issues, and develop employees. Organization: Ability to maintain control of a complex workflow without allowing projects or client commitments to fall through the cracks. U.S. Tax Knowledge: Strong practical understanding of individual and business taxation with sufficient breadth to supervise a professional tax department. Judgment & Escalation: Ability to distinguish routine matters from issues requiring senior technical review. Communication: Clear written and verbal communication with team members, managers, U.S.-based professionals, and when appropriate, clients. Accountability: Strong ownership mentality. The Department Head is expected to identify problems early and drive them toward resolution rather than waiting for management intervention. Technology: Comfortable learning and using tax software, project-management platforms, dashboards, AI-enabled tools, and other technology used by a modern tax practice. What Success Looks Like • Tax projects are completed accurately and on time. • Management has clear visibility into the status of every significant tax project. • Work is appropriately distributed across the team. • Bottlenecks and deadline risks are identified early. • Client Tax Leads and Tax Associates understand their responsibilities. • Team members are held accountable for commitments and deadlines. • Rework and recurring errors decline. • Tax department SOPs are consistently followed. • Complex technical matters are escalated appropriately. • The department can absorb additional clients without creating operational chaos. • BFG's tax operation becomes increasingly systematic, measurable, and scalable. Important Nature of the Position This position should not be viewed simply as a promotion from Tax Preparer to Senior Tax Preparer. It is a department-management position. A technically excellent tax professional who prefers to focus primarily on preparing returns may not be the right candidate. We are particularly interested in professionals who enjoy: • Organizing people and projects • Managing deadlines • Building systems • Delegating work • Coaching team members • Solving workflow problems • Improving processes • Taking responsibility for departmental results The ideal candidate combines sufficient U.S. tax expertise with the ability to lead people and manage a growing tax operation. Reporting Structure CEO ↓ Delivery & Operations Manager ↓ Tax Department Head ↓ Client Tax Leads / Senior Tax Professionals ↓ Tax Associates / Tax Preparers The Tax Department Head will also work closely with BFG's QA Manager, CPA Advisors, Client Management Team, and other service departments. BFG's Expectation BFG is building a scalable tax and accounting organization rather than a practice dependent on individual employees keeping projects in their heads. The Tax Department Head will play a critical role in building a tax operation where responsibilities are clearly assigned, projects are systematically tracked, deadlines are controlled, employees receive appropriate leadership, and clients receive consistent, timely service.