Job Description

Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni-channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with our colleagues working in stores across several retail fascias in many markets around the world.

JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 publicly quoted company since 2019 and continues to grow in the UK and internationally.

We want to be the leading global omnichannel retailer in the sports and outdoor industry. To be a part of this successful company and help us to achieve this you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people-led, innovative and customer-focused organisation which provides operational excellence whilst identifying new areas of growth as part of our day to day objectives.

Accounting and Taxation Professional

JD Group

JD is an industry leading sports fashion, multichannel retailer of branded sports and casual wear. JD combines globally recognised brands with strong own brand labels across physical and digital platforms.

We inspire our people to reach the highest levels of performance. Opportunities to progress arise quickly for those people with the right qualities and ambition.

The Role

We are looking for a motivated individual to join our in-house Tax Team.

The JD Group Tax Team is dynamic, collaborative, and hard-working. Joining our team is an excellent way to kick-start your career, offering hands-on experience and a real-world understanding of tax that you simply won’t gain in a professional services firm. Through involvement in live projects and high-quality formal training, you will develop a strong foundation and gain unparalleled exposure to retail tax. You will also build a practical understanding of accounting and financial reporting.

As part of the role, you will study towards two internationally recognised professional qualifications (ACA and CTA), while gaining first-hand insight into the commercial impact of tax within a global business. Rather than learning solely from textbooks, you will see how tax operates in practice and contributes to key business decisions.

You will be supported and coached by experienced members of the Group Tax Team, who are experts in their field and collectively bring over 30 years of in-house experience.

Key Responsibilities

All members of the Tax Team play a key role in advising and supporting the JD Group globally across a broad range of tax matters. The scope of the role extends beyond traditional tax responsibilities, encompassing areas such as ledger accounting, tax provisioning, and providing advisory support to subsidiaries.

You will also contribute to M&A activity and wider business initiatives, all while ensuring the Group remains fully compliant with its tax obligations.

Examples include:

• Analysis of underlying accounting records to prepare tax returns.
• Assistance with calculating payments, including liaising with subsidiaries to understand changes in forecasts, managing timing of payments and subsequent double entry accounting.
• Analysis of data for group provisioning and statutory accounts preparation.
• Collating information required for tax audits and presenting this in line with key stakeholder requirements.
• Testing of internal controls in relation to tax governance.
• Documentation of findings and conclusions, process maps and cost modelling.
• Review and preparation of tax data as part of (M&A) acquisition and disposal activities.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Gained at least a 2.1 degree or equivalent. The subject is not specified but the candidate should be able to identify and demonstrate transferrable skills where the degree was not business and accounting focussed.
• Minimum A, A, B or equivalent at A-Level (Maths or Economics preferred).
• Basic excel, outlook and word skills are preferred.

Background and Experience

The successful candidate should have an:

• Interest in working for a global retailer.
• Interest in pursuing a further professional qualification and be able to demonstrate a basic understanding of what an accountancy and taxation qualification may involve.
• Attention to detail and good organisational skills.
• Good grasp of numbers and understand how to approach basic numerical tasks like data comparisons.
• Ability to research queries and gather evidence before discussing this with peers. Going on to identify gaps in information and follow up actions.
• Confidence speaking to new people and ability to contact through email, telephone or in person meetings.
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams concurrently (with guidance from senior team members).
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, being self-motivated and ambitious.

Candidate guidance
In order to fully meet the criteria candidates must be able to discuss clear examples of how they meet the criteria during an interview.

We know our colleagues work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits including staff Discount On JD Group and other brands within the organisation and personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work.

Thank you for your time

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