A day in the life of a Tax Direct Trainee in an Accounting Firm
Introduction
Hi everyone! I am going to bring you through my 4 months tax (direct) internship experience in a mid-tier accounting firm in Singapore. Hopefully, my sharing can help anyone, or more specifically undergraduates, who may be seeking a tax (direct) role in a mid-tier firm by giving you a glimpse of how tax work is like.
The very first day that I reached the office building, I was impressed by all the sculptures and architectures. The office building looks spectacular. Parkview Square is renowned for its architectural splendour and stands as an iconic landmark in Singapore.
Directly in front of Parkview Square, just past the archway, there is an open plaza that resembles the piazzas of Italy with ornate statues placed around the perimeter of the courtyard. These statues depict some of the world’s greatest philosophers, artists and leaders including Salvador Dali, Plato and Sun Yat-Sen. The centre of the courtyard features a beautiful statue of a golden crane that is pointed towards China. At the base of the statue, there is a poem about the crane yearning to return to its home.
The interior of the office building did not disappoint. It houses a cafe called “Atlas Bar” known for its stunning Art Deco architecture. The pictures which I have shared above were taken from the Internet and they speak a thousand words hence, I shall not go into detail describing them.
Job title
There are three main branches in the tax department: Direct (corporate and personal), GST and Transfer Pricing.
For my internship, I focused on providing advisory services to corporates on their tax filing matters and other post-filing matters. Having a strong domain in tax is vital, as clients will be looking to us to assist them in filing their tax returns to meet the statutory requirements as they conduct their business in Singapore.
The software that was used for my work is Microsoft Excel and SharePoint.
My daily tasks revolve around three main stages: Prepare queries, draft tax computation and final tax computation.
- The first stage is to do financial statement analysis. This procedure involves highlighting significant points on the audited financial statements, such as the principal activities of the firm, functional currency used, any additions or disposals of Property, Plant and Equipment and Rights of Use assets, any presence of related party transactions, Transfer Pricing documentation requirement and any other significant items that would affect the tax computation in the second stage.
Sometimes, companies that are not listed are not require to present their financial statements, instead we will ask for their management accounts.
After analysing the financial statements, it is time to draft the detailed profit and loss statement.
Lastly, based on the prepared detailed statement, if we have any questions, we will raise them to the clients to support the taxability of income or deductibility of expenses. - The second stage is to start preparing the tax computation statement with their supporting schedules (i.e. workings to support the numbers) based on the detailed profit and loss statement and client query replies as prepared in stage one.
This stage requires some analysis on the replies given by client and other supporting documents to conclude the taxability of income or deductibility of expenses.
Sometimes client may provide many supporting documents which means we will need to filter out only those necessary and relevant ones.
Other documents required to be prepared is the Form C/C-S/C-S lite and billing invoices to clients. Form C are for large companies with annual revenue (AV) > S$5 million. Form C-S are for companies with AV ≤ S$5 million. Form C-S lite are for companies with AV ≤ S$200,000. - The third stage is to finalise the tax computation work and prepare for submission to the client. This stage is when the managers have reviewed my work and corrections will need to be made by me.
There are times where managers can make mistakes in their review and it is crucial to also apply critical thinking when receiving the amendments requests.
Some mistakes I encountered were casting errors, grammar mistake in the billing invoice and transposition error leading to error flowing through the tax computation and Form C/C-S/C-S lite. Finalisation can done be more than once, as sometimes client may request for some changes if they disagree with our tax treatment and we are obliged to answer their request as we are just playing the role of a tax advisor.
I joined the firm from September to December 2023, which coincided with the tax peak period, particularly the corporate tax deadline on November 30th. During this time, I find myself quite occupied, especially from September to mid-November, with dealing on cases.
Overall, I have handled two main types of tax computations:
- Trading companies, engaged in goods and services
- Investment holding companies, primarily involved in investment activities with income sourced from interest, dividends, or rental income.
The time taken for each tax computation type differs, with trading companies requiring around 2 days, while investment holdings are more straightforward and can be completed in a day.
During my internship, I acquired knowledge through guidance from the seniors, reviewing prior years’ workings, consulting my school notes, referring to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) website, and utilising the IRAS live chat.
After handling over 20 cases through the span of my internship, I have observed that tax work follows a similar pattern across different cases where they are marked by the progress through three stages, as aforementioned.
To bring lasting value to tax work, I believe it is essential to immerse oneself in the client’s business context, gaining a thorough understanding of their short-term and long-term activities. Providing insightful advice to minimise tax liabilities in future years is crucial.
Many junior tax practitioners, due to the time constraints of meeting deadlines with numerous cases, often find it challenging to offer continuous advice to clients. This situation can lead to a perception that their job is more of a daily chore than advisory work.
Office welfare
Every Wednesday, we get to enjoy office snacks such as ice-cream, bubble tea and other small pastries. All these are gifted to us by our heartwarming managers and partners, as a form of motivation, during the peak period. The weekly snack welfare sessions during tax peak periods adds a delightful touch to our routine.
The flexibility of a work-from-home option also contributed to a positive work experience.
Additionally, the company organises a plethora of activities such as yoga classes, circuit training, meditation sessions, mindfulness talks, a sports interest group, festive celebration and an annual Dinner and Dance event.
What I felt could be improved
I think that my work involves a lot of manual laborious work which could be alleviated with the company’s investment in technology and automation. My recommendation would be for the company to invest in the procurement of software to perform tasks such as creating a tax computation statement and creating templates for our work.
With standardised shared templates, the preparer can focus on doing up the contents. This also frees up time to format the workings in excel either for submission to a reviewer or for printings to present to a client.
Data analytics or Machine Learning (ML) could also be incorporated in our daily work for tax planning and compliance. For instance, ML can be used to predict earnings, estimate tax impact on external and internal business environment changes, provide time series analysis and help in interpreting tax laws.
While it may be expensive to procure technological tools, in the long run, these investments will pay off as they can help boost the firm’s efficiency and competitiveness in the market.
This is end of my reflection on my internship experience of four months as a tax advisor trainee.
