INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Tax Director positions are at a 17% growth rate, which is much faster than average. With that said, there are currently 681,700 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 118,200 to 799,900 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Tax Director jobs was $134,180 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $70,830, and the highest 10% more than $208,000.
Our conclusion? The Tax Director job market is wide open for candidates.
Top tax director sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a tax director resume experience section
Tax director resume's job experience checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Tax Director resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- Reporting to the Group CFO
- Full responsibility of the tax function, including transfer pricing, tax planning, tax governance and supervision of the tax compliances
- M&A: Acquisition Polaroid Eyewear business
- Most relevant countries: Italy, Europe, Hong Kong, USA, Netherlands, Luxembourg
- Developed and implemented an efficient tax compliance process, resulting in a 30% reduction in time spent on compliance.
- Managed and reviewed US income tax, indirect tax, and foreign tax compliance prepared by external service providers, ensuring 100% accuracy and timely filings.
- Managed local country tax operation processes and supported finance teams in reviewing statutory financials of foreign entities.
- Improved and maintained audit-ready work paper documentation, resulting in zero audit adjustments in the last 3 years.
- Assisted in the continuous identification and development of efficient tax provision processes, including automation and implementing procedural changes.
- Supported global tax planning efforts and global transfer pricing policy maintenance, resulting in a 25% reduction in tax liabilities for the company.
- Supported M&A projects, including post-acquisition tax compliance and tax operation integration.
- Provided support for tax audit defense and notices as required.
- Developed and delivered tax training to finance and non-finance personnel, ensuring the correct understanding of tax concepts.
- Managed a team of 4 tax professionals, providing guidance, coaching, and training to ensure their development and professional growth.
- Prepared and reviewed federal, state, and international tax returns, resulting in a 95% accuracy rate.
- Managed multiple projects simultaneously and provided timely and high-quality deliverables, ensuring client satisfaction.
- Assisted in the implementation of tax planning strategies, resulting in a 15% reduction in tax liabilities for clients.
- Conducted tax research and provided technical advice to clients and internal staff, ensuring compliance with tax laws and regulations.
- Developed and maintained client relationships, resulting in a 25% increase in revenue for the firm.
- Led the preparation and filing of the US federal, state, and local income tax returns, estimated tax payments, and extensions, resulting in a 20% reduction in filing time
- Collaborated with other members within the Finance organization to align data flow requirements and to optimize efficiency and effectiveness in meeting state and federal reporting and compliance requirements, resulting in a 15% reduction in errors
- Improved the company's 280E tax strategy, resulting in a 25% decrease in tax liability
- Assisted with quarterly and annual income tax accounting provision under IAS 12/ASC 740, resulting in a 10% reduction in errors
- Managed the external service providers and assisted the accounting team members to ensure timely tax return filing, resulting in a 100% on-time filing rate
- Assisted with the integration and implementation of tax technology tools and data management solutions within the Tax function, including tax planning, compliance, and reporting
- Supported the team members with the non-US entities’ tax accounting tasks, including return to provision and deferred tie-out
- Assisted in analyzing and implementing tax law changes, resulting in a 5% increase in tax savings
- Conducted technical research and documentation, resulting in a 15% reduction in research time
- Assisted on domestic income tax audits
- Supported tax planning, M&A, and special projects
- Performed other duties as assigned by management
- Managed a team of 5 tax accountants and provided coaching and training to ensure high-quality work and professional development, resulting in a 25% increase in team productivity
- Led the preparation and filing of the US federal, state, and local income tax returns, estimated tax payments, and extensions, resulting in a 15% reduction in filing time
- Collaborated with other members within the Finance organization to align data flow requirements and to optimize efficiency and effectiveness in meeting state and federal reporting and compliance requirements, resulting in a 10% reduction in errors
- Assisted with quarterly and annual income tax accounting provision under IAS 12/ASC 740, resulting in a 5% reduction in errors
- Managed the external service providers and assisted the accounting team members to ensure timely tax return filing, resulting in a 95% on-time filing rate
- Conducted technical research and documentation, resulting in a 20% reduction in research time
- Assisted on domestic income tax audits
- Performed other duties as assigned by management
PRO TIP
Show off real numbers that display your accomplishments in past roles. Instead of listing out your responsibilities as Tax Director, talk about the measurable impact you made to their business. Did you boost their revenue? Increase customer retention? Mention your proudest points on your resume.
Action verbs for your tax director resume
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Tax Director Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume skills section checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top skills for your tax director resume
Microsoft Office
SAP
Excel
Salesforce
Data Entry
Quickbooks
Project Management
Customer Service
CRM
Communication
Negotiation
Critical thinking
Problem solving
Collaboration
Flexibitly
Resilience
Dedication
Empathy
PRO TIP
When picking skills to feature in your resume, make sure they'll be relevant to the position you’re applying to. The point of listing skills is for you to stand out from the competition. Stay away from repetitive, meaningless skills that everyone uses in their resumes. Or else, they’ll backfire and make you look like an average candidate.
Tax director resume header: tips, red flags, and best practices
Checklist for your tax director resume header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your Tax Director resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
tax director resume summary best practices
Checklist: What to include in your Tax Director resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume summary formula:
PRO TIP
Your summary should act as an elevator speech, briefly promoting how you will benefit the employer if hired. Pitch your strengths in the summary and expand on them in your Tax Director experience section. Give examples like how your work benefited each employer.
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Listing your education, certifications and courses
Resume education section checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for Your Tax Director Resume
International Tax - Tax Beyond boundaries
Comprehensive Course on Article by Article analysis of Tax Treaty to understand all aspects of International Tax
Fundamentals of Business Taxes
Learn the fundamentals of business taxes and understand the basics of doing taxes for your business
How to Reduce Taxes in Real Estate Business - US Focused
(US Focused Course) Property Taxes can be Saved only through learning the Tax Law. 1000s of Pages of Tax Code Simplified
Partnership Income Tax (Form 1065)
Learn to enter tax data for a Partnership into tax Form 1065 from a CPA
Tax Preparation: Learn Fast! Prepare Taxes with Confidence!
Become a confident tax preparer by learning about taxes and applications over practical examples and scenarios.
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PRO TIP
If you hold a certain major and a minor, your majors should be mentioned first.
How to write a tax director resume
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
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PRO TIP
Sometimes you’ll want to go after a job which requires more experience than you have. Instead of using a typical Tax Director resume layout, you can use a creative layout. Getting noticed is the most important challenge and a creative resume layout might help you get invited for an interview as most of other accountants have boring resume designs.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Tax Director resume:
Tax director resume: how to make yours more creative & stand out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Tax Director resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Tax Director Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
