Tax Provision Controls Validation Director

The mandate

This project will independently validate the design and operation of selected direct-tax provision controls. The defined problem is to determine whether evidence gates around current tax, deferred tax, uncertain positions and consolidation adjustments prevent or detect material error. The engagement will report control results and remediation criteria; it will not prepare the provision or issue an assurance opinion.

Milestone one, due in week four, is an accepted risk-control scope and test plan. Milestone two, at week nine, is the design assessment linking each risk to control objective, owner, evidence and failure mode. Milestone three, at week sixteen, is operating validation using defined populations, samples, reperformance and exception analysis.

The final milestone at week twenty is an accepted findings report, deficiency rationale, retest plan and management transfer. The Chief Accounting Officer accepts financial-reporting risk conclusions; the Head of Tax accepts technical-process accuracy. Independence limitations and management responsibilities must be recorded explicitly.

The client provides process maps, control descriptions, population data, workpapers, position papers, access logs and owner interviews. Acceptance requires complete scope coverage, reproducible testing, factually agreed exceptions and severity supported by likelihood and consequence. Provision preparation, journal approval, statutory audit, system remediation and control operation are excluded.

What you will own

• Confirm the selected provision risks, assertions and materiality basis before finalising the validation scope.
• Evaluate whether each control addresses the stated failure mode with appropriate precision, authority, timing and retained evidence.
• Define populations and samples that capture judgment, manual change, unusual items and late adjustments rather than convenience only.
• Reperform selected calculations, reviews and reconciliations to distinguish control execution from retrospective explanation.
• Classify exceptions by root cause, recurrence, compensating evidence and plausible reporting consequence.
• Agree facts with management while retaining independent responsibility for finding and severity recommendation.
• Specify remediation acceptance and retest evidence for each significant deficiency without performing management's repair.
• Deliver the accepted report, test files, limitations, unresolved disagreement and handover to accountable owners.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 16 years in tax accounting, controls or assurance, including Director-level provision-control assessment.
• A provision control you concluded was ineffective despite completed sign-off, including the evidence and reporting consequence.
• Deep understanding of current tax, deferred tax, uncertain positions, consolidation, materiality and financial-reporting controls.
• Experience designing populations, samples and reperformance for judgment-heavy tax processes.
• Evidence of distinguishing a control exception from a technical tax error and routing each correctly.
• Ability to agree facts without negotiating away an independent deficiency conclusion.
• Fixed-scope validation completion through separate tax and accounting acceptors and explicit independence boundaries.

Working terms and boundaries

• The five-month engagement requires four days a week and releases fees through four accepted milestones.
• Accounting accepts reporting-risk conclusions; Tax separately accepts technical-process facts and scope completeness.
• Process, population, workpaper, access and owner evidence are dated client inputs.
• Provision preparation, journal approval, statutory assurance, remediation execution and control operation are excluded.
• Final acceptance requires reproducible testing, agreed exception facts, supported severity and named remediation ownership.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 12 October 2026. Mandate reference TAX-CON-2026-SYD-64.