Realty Income aims to be a globally recognized leader in the S&P 100, committed to creating long-term value for all stakeholders. These stakeholders include our dedicated team members, who embody our purpose: building enduring relationships and brighter financial futures. This guiding principle serves as a beacon for our team, influencing every action we take.
Realty Income’s employees consistently invest their time, commitment, and dedication into the company, and in turn, they receive investment returns in the form of purpose, belonging, and opportunities for advancement.
Realty Income is committed to best-in-class corporate responsibility practices through environmental initiatives, governance programs, and community outreach projects. From the boardroom to the breakroom, our team members make a difference every day.
Position Overview:
The Head of Tax, UK & Europe will be responsible for assisting in the oversight of Realty Income Corporation’s European taxes, which currently includes the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain and will continue to grow across Europe. This role will have a heavy transactional focus and be instrumental in performing tax due diligence and transaction structuring. In addition to leading international tax and compliance, this role will also help in the preparation and review of local tax provision calculations, including deferred tax assets and liabilities. This role will collaborate with other leaders in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and US offices, as well as maintain relationships with our external tax advisors and tax authorities to ensure compliance and facilitate further growth of our company. This position reports to the Head of Finance & Accounting, UK & Europe.
Key Responsibilities:
Tax Planning and Structuring:
- Oversee European expansion and project structuring, including providing taxation support and advice throughout the transaction process across our international platform.
- Coordinate and participate in tax due diligence, implementation of post-acquisition processes and onboarding, and assistance in designing structures for robust ongoing maintenance of corporate entity compliance.
- Advise senior management on various tax strategies to enhance and protect shareholder value. Communicate complicated tax issues in terms of the impact on business operations and financial reporting.
- Develop and refine applicable underwriting models (tax-focused) and tax budgeting.
- Research and prepare memoranda documenting the tax implications of international transactions for the company.
- Gather information needed for future tax reporting and information needed to make informed decisions.
- Implement robust processes to allow acquisition team members to estimate international taxes on prospective transactions in a timely manner and answer questions as needed.
- Continually evaluate entity structures as tax laws evolve.
Tax Compliance:
- Have overall responsibility for the timely and accurate filing of tax returns for all taxes (including VAT) for every entity in the European structure.
- Communicate with external tax advisers to answer questions, ensure that information appropriately reflects the transaction, and keep tax return preparation moving forward to meet internal and external deadlines.
- Ensure entities’ tax compliance calendar with the tax return filing dates in each jurisdiction.
- (M) Oversee local tax provisions (in applicable jurisdictions), including calculation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, as necessary.
- Identify and maintain efficient processes to support the taxation reporting function across our European countries, including identifying appropriate third-party advisers, as necessary.
- Identify potential gaps in European tax compliance and identify resources or appropriate third-party advisers to assist in the implementation of immediate solutions.
- Work with the finance transformation team to understand and develop system reports generated from our ERP system (Yardi) and work with system teams where corrections are required for local tax reporting.
Respond to International Tax Authorities:
- Research applicable laws and document the company’s position taken in tax filings.
- Prepare communications to tax authorities, as required.
Other:
- Assist on projects and business growth initiatives in new international markets.
- Regularly review and maintain direct and indirect international tax policies and procedures documents.
- Perform regular “health checks” on tax compliance efforts for all direct and indirect taxes (including CIT, payroll taxes, net wealth taxes, property taxes, withholding taxes, etc.).
- Manage direct staff in all European countries, including the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
- Assist the SVP, Head of European Finance and Accounting, with ad-hoc analyses and memoranda.
- Attend local Board meetings as a representative of the international tax team to provide updates and presentations to the Board, as necessary.
- Work alongside investment, legal, and other accounting teams on transactions, including tax considerations in wider commercial discussions and assisting with tax-related tasks to allow the transaction to progress. A working knowledge/understanding of US taxes will be helpful.
- Work across the tax department to facilitate and ensure timely and accurate tax returns are prepared and submitted.
- Work with outside tax firms to facilitate the filing of accurate tax returns and obtain relevant tax advice.
- Work with other members of accounting management to obtain an understanding of transactions and how they were accounted for book purposes to determine applicable tax treatment.
-
Performs other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- In-depth knowledge of tax accounting, specifically relating to international taxes impacting real estate investment.
- Knowledge of international taxing authorities’ procedures and forms.
- Knowledge of legal business entity forms/types and their use in real estate structures.
- Strong research skills and the ability to read through and analyze legal documents and tax regulations to come to appropriate conclusions.
- Strong communication skills.
- The ability to work in a fast-changing environment with instructions and the ability to adapt to non-consistent day-to-day activities.
- Ability to organize and prioritize a heavy workload.
- Strong attention to detail.
- Ability to maintain confidential information.
- Excellent PC skills, including Fixed Asset Software, Checkpoint, Excel, Outlook, and Word.
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in accounting, law, taxation, or a related field
- Chartered or Certified Accountant license and/or state bar admission (required)
- Chartered Tax Advisor qualification or equivalent
- 10+ years of previous tax experience in industry or public accounting, preferably with REIT or real estate industry experience.
- Experience with European tax (particularly Dutch and United Kingdom, and a basic working knowledge of US taxes would be advantageous).
- Dutch, Spanish, or any other European language skills are advantageous.
