Joint Venture Tax Governance Director

The mandate

The committee needs an independent tax perspective on recurring joint-venture choices where ownership rights are shared but exposures can remain asymmetric. The standing question is whether funding, distributions, services, governance conduct, deadlock remedies and exit paths are being assessed through the same direct-tax facts before partners commit. Advice must illuminate trade-offs without acting for either management or a venture counterparty.

The ten-month rhythm includes a weekly matter clinic, monthly sponsor review and one scheduled committee session. Initial work will test the tax decision framework; middle sessions will challenge selected arrangements and changes; the final phase will assess whether internal owners can surface tax dependencies before reserved approvals or partner negotiations narrow the choices.

The adviser has no line authority, negotiation mandate, board vote, filing role or right to contact counterparties. The Director may request evidence through the sponsor, compare alternatives, challenge whether a paper is decision-ready and recommend escalation. Management and authorised governance retain all structure, funding, risk and implementation decisions.

Relationships with co-investors, potential counterparties, advisers or boards relevant to joint arrangements must be disclosed. Recusal is required where information barriers cannot prevent actual or perceived conflict. Renewal follows only from a newly defined governance question, not because negotiation or execution continues beyond the advisory term.

What you will own

• Test joint-venture decision papers for ownership, residence, permanent-establishment, funding, withholding, transfer-pricing, distribution and exit assumptions.
• Challenge whether governance rights and actual decision conduct support the intended tax treatment across plausible operating cases.
• Shape an alternatives analysis covering after-tax cash, attribute use, accounting effect, partner asymmetry, flexibility and unwind cost.
• Press management to identify tax consequences of deadlock, dilution, additional funding, default, change of control and earlier exit.
• Review authority boundaries for tax elections, partner representations, information access, filings and acceptance of shared or retained exposure.
• Facilitate two scenario rehearsals where partner behavior or operating conduct diverges from the approved base case.
• Recommend monitoring triggers for changes in ownership, rights, funding, services, decision location and distribution policy.
• Deliver a closing view on governance quality, unresolved asymmetries and questions that remain reserved for the committee.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 18 years in transaction and international tax, including Director-level advice on joint ventures or shared-control investments.
• A joint arrangement where your tax challenge changed governance, funding, distribution or exit terms, with the consequence explained.
• Breadth across ownership, residence, permanent establishments, financing, withholding, transfer pricing, attributes and tax accounting.
• Evidence of identifying different tax outcomes for partners from apparently symmetrical legal provisions.
• Experience advising governance while remaining outside partner negotiation, venture management and formal board voting.
• A conflict profile suitable for confidential co-investor and counterparty information.
• Availability for two days a week and all ten scheduled Johannesburg governance sessions.

Working terms and boundaries

• The retainer covers two days a week, weekly clinics and one board or committee session in each of ten months.
• The adviser has no line authority and cannot negotiate, vote, contact partners, approve funding, direct filings or accept tax risk.
• Legal drafting, transaction execution, return preparation and ongoing venture tax management are excluded unless separately scoped.
• Conflicts are refreshed whenever a partner, adviser or new arrangement enters review, with recusal recorded by the sponsor.
• The term closes with a governance opinion and transfer workshop; renewal requires a different approved standing question.

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 11 October 2026. Mandate reference TAX-ADV-2026-JNB-39.