How to Answer: Give me an example of a challenging tax situation that you have encountered.
Advice and answer examples written specifically for an Accounting job interview.
25. Give me an example of a challenging tax situation that you have encountered.
How to Answer
This question can be posed to anyone of any experience level. This is assuming at some point you have had a job and had to do your own taxes. Discussing personal taxes can be tricky because you don't want to show that you're avoiding tax because of your knowledge, but you want to demonstrate your knowledge.
If you have corporate tax experience, rely on that to explain your knowledge.
Written by Bobbi Witt on January 8th, 2021
Entry Level
"I don't have any corporate experience as of yet but when I was in high school and college, I helped my father with his taxes. As a truck driver paid by the mile, you have to calculate mileage for each trip, factor in construction detours, and map the exact route he takes to ensure that his pay is accurate and his taxes are accurately paid. This is a lot more complicated than your average 1040 EZ as not only do you have to itemize, but you have to provide documentation to the IRS before they'll approve the refund. That's when I realized how good I am at following the breadcrumbs of taxes."
Written by Bobbi Witt on January 8th, 2021
Answer Example
"When I worked for my previous employer as a Tax Analyst, I was required to review client invoice data to ensure we were paying the proper taxes on that client company for the state in which they were located. One company I worked with had several offices in several different state so each office was taxed for the state in which is was located. This took some time to figure out, and I had to call a few local tax offices in those states to ensure I got the most recent tax rate because as we all know, the internet doesn't always indicate when the tax rate has changed."
Written by Bobbi Witt on January 8th, 2021
Experience
"As the Senior Tax Manager at my last company, I was responsible for the final sign off of the yearly taxes for the entire company. I had to ensure all necessary documentation was included and that the funds to pay the taxes had been correctly allocated by the Accounting department. Under my tenure as the Tax Manager, we never received inquiries for an IRS audit and consistently passed the internal and external audits we performed. A challenging situation would be when I took over as Senior Tax Manager, as my predecessor had no formal tax experience. They weren't allocating their charitable contributions and the firm they were using to handle the taxes weren't asking the necessary questions to get the company any real tax breaks. I was able to utilize the disabled employee benefits that grant tax breaks for hiring disabled employees, as well as accumulate tax breaks for hiring reformed criminals as the company was a second chance company. I decreased the tax liability for that company from paying nearly a hundred thousand dollars to paying ten thousand dollars and some change."
Written by Bobbi Witt on January 8th, 2021
Anonymous Interview Answers with Professional Feedback
Anonymous Answer
Owing to this, we have had several VAT audits from the HMRC and have had to explain the trading circumstances over and over to different Tax Officers. Each time enduring deep investigations into trading and VAT computations.
During my time with a global recruitment firm, I was also involved in addressing a long-term Tax audit that involved corporation, withholding, and sales tax in Tanzania. It was a very lengthy process and we had to do everything properly to avoid a huge tax penalty."
Chad's Feedback
Anonymous Answer
Jaymie's Feedback
https://www.mockquestions.com/articles/Interview+Types/Master+Behavioral-Based+Interviews+Using+The+Star+Method/