Senior Accountant - Revenue Tax And Finance Operations

Role purpose

Ensure accurate revenue accounting, timely VAT and corporate tax compliance, effective banking coordination, and controlled payroll and expense disbursements across the group.

The role requires a hands-on finance professional who can independently manage reconciliations and tax compliance processes, investigate discrepancies, coordinate with internal and external stakeholders, and provide management with clear reports on exceptions and corrective actions.

Key Responsibilities

• VAT compliance and reporting
• Prepare VAT computations and supporting schedules, reconcile them with the general ledger, and arrange timely return filing and payment after internal review and approval.
• Prepare annual VAT reconciliations and applicable adjustments, including input VAT apportionment where relevant.
• Prepare and follow up on input VAT refund applications, maintain supporting documentation, and respond to requests for additional information.
• Review input VAT claims for eligibility, correct treatment and adequacy of supporting tax invoices.
• Review business practices—including sales packages, discounts, promotions, customer refunds and intercompany transactions—from a VAT compliance perspective.
• Coordinate VAT registrations, tax group amendments, updates to registration details and deregistration’s, where applicable.
• Maintain complete VAT records and coordinate with tax advisers, auditors and the Federal Tax Authority as required.
• Corporate tax compliance and reporting
• Prepare corporate tax computations and annual returns for individual entities and the corporate tax group, as applicable, and arrange timely filing and payment following internal review and approval.
• Reconcile tax computations with financial statements and the general ledger, maintaining schedules for tax adjustments, deductible and non-deductible expenditure, exemptions and applicable reliefs.
• Manage corporate tax registrations, amendments to registration details and deregistration’s, where applicable, through EmaraTax.
• Coordinate corporate tax group formation, additions or removal of members, changes to group details and related applications.
• Monitor continuing tax group eligibility, including changes in ownership, entity structure, financial year and other relevant conditions, and escalate potential issues.
• Prepare or coordinate tax group computations, including aggregation of members’ financial results, applicable eliminations and supporting reconciliations.
• Maintain entity-wise schedules of tax losses, utilization, permitted transfers and balances carried forward, including pre-grouping losses where applicable.
• Maintain related-party and connected-person transaction schedules and coordinate applicable transfer pricing disclosures, documentation and benchmarking with tax advisers.
• Review transactions and business practices for corporate tax implications and recommend corrective action where necessary.
• Maintain a tax compliance calendar and complete supporting records; coordinate responses to FTA queries, assessments, corrections and voluntary disclosures where required.
• Track relevant tax developments and communicate their practical implications to the Head of Finance.
• Revenue reconciliation and accuracy
• Reconcile daily store revenue recorded in point-of-sale systems with collection reports, card processor settlements, cash deposits and revenue recorded in the general ledger.
• Reconcile gross card collections with net bank settlements, accounting for merchant fees, settlement timing differences, refunds and chargebacks.
• Verify that cash collections are deposited completely and promptly, and investigate cash shortages, excesses or delayed deposits.
• Identify missing settlements, duplicate transactions, revenue posting errors, unusual refunds and other discrepancies.
• Coordinate with store teams, banks, payment processors and accounting teams to investigate and resolve reconciling items.
• Ensure appropriate accounting of revenue, VAT, customer advances, deferred revenue and collections, as applicable.
• Maintain an ageing of unreconciled items, escalate overdue exceptions and submit regular management reports.
• Complete revenue reconciliations and necessary accounting adjustments within month-end closing deadlines.
• Banking coordination and administration
• Coordinate bank documentation, KYC updates, account maintenance and authorised signatory requirements.
• Arrange cash deposit machine services and EDC/card payment terminals for new and existing locations.
• Follow up on terminal installation, replacement, technical issues and settlement-related queries.
• Maintain an updated register of bank accounts, merchant IDs, payment terminals and related store mappings.
• Review bank and merchant charges against agreed terms and follow up on discrepancies.
• Payroll, final settlements and incentives
• Verify payroll prepared by HR against approved employee records, attendance, leave, salary changes, allowances, deductions and supporting approvals.
• Prepare or validate WPS files and coordinate timely salary disbursement following authorised approval.
• Investigate rejected or unsuccessful salary payments and reconcile payroll disbursements with bank records and accounting entries.
• Verify employee final settlements against approved HR documentation, employment terms, company policy and applicable requirements.
• Check incentive calculations against approved schemes, eligibility criteria and underlying performance data.
• Organise approved final settlement and incentive payments and maintain complete supporting records.
• Ensure appropriate accounting of payroll-related liabilities, deductions and payments.
• Protect the confidentiality of employee and payroll information.
• Petty cash and Qashio card controls
• Review store petty cash and Qashio card transactions for business purpose, supporting invoices, policy compliance and appropriate approval.
• Verify expense classification, store allocation and VAT treatment.
• Ensure timely accounting of Qashio transactions and reconciliation of balances, top-ups, refunds and outstanding items.
• Follow up on missing receipts, unsupported expenses, duplicate claims and policy exceptions.
• Prepare monthly management reports covering spending by store and category, unusual transactions, outstanding documentation and corrective actions.
• Recommend improvements to spending limits, approval processes and expense controls.
  

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance or a related discipline; CA Inter, ACCA, CMA or equivalent qualification preferred.
• Typically 5–8 years of relevant accounting experience, including at least 3 years in the UAE.
• Practical experience in UAE VAT return preparation, refund applications and reconciliations.
• Hands-on experience in UAE corporate tax computations, return filing, registrations and EmaraTax.
• Experience with corporate tax groups, tax loss schedules and transfer pricing compliance strongly preferred.
• Strong experience in POS-to-bank-to-GL reconciliation within a multi-location retail, hospitality, entertainment or similar business.
• Working knowledge of WPS payroll processing, final settlements and banking procedures.
• Strong Excel skills, including PivotTables, lookup functions and reconciliation of large transaction datasets.
• Experience with ERP and POS systems; familiarity with Odoo, Semnox and Qashio would be an advantage.
  

• Strong attention to detail and sound accounting judgement.
• Ability to investigate discrepancies and take issues through to resolution.
• Effective coordination with HR, store operations, banks, auditors and tax advisers.
• Ability to manage recurring deadlines across multiple entities and locations.
• Clear reporting, ownership of tasks and timely escalation of issues.
• Integrity, confidentiality and a practical approach to improving controls.
  

• Timely and accurate VAT and corporate tax filings, payments, registrations and applicable tax group submissions.
• Complete tax reconciliations and supporting documentation.
• Timely revenue reconciliation and resolution of aged discrepancies.
• Accurate and timely payroll, final settlement and incentive disbursements.
• Complete and timely accounting of petty cash and Qashio transactions.
• Timely management reporting and closure of identified control gaps.