Vacancy: SME Tax Consultant - Investment Climate Program IFC The Worldbank Group

SME Tax Consultant - Investment Climate Program
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
Last date: March 26, 2012

The Organization: The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, promotes sustainable private sector investment in developing countries as a way to reduce poverty and improve people's lives. In addition to its investment work, IFC executes a major program of private sector advisory services projects (AS). 

The Program: The objectives of the Investment Climate (IC) program are to promote direct investment in the private sector, build local businesses and financial intermediaries, and help improve the business enabling environment. Through a set of related projects, the IC Program in Indonesia supports IFC Indonesia's goals of reducing climate change impact, urban sustainability, rural inclusion and global competitiveness.

The Project: IFC is supporting the Government of Indonesia in the implementation of a tax simplification that aims at improving the tax regulatory environment for SMEs by reducing the time and financial cost of tax compliance faced by taxpayers, and reducing administration costs faced by tax authorities. 

Scope of the job: The SME Tax Consultant reports directly to the Project Leader of Indonesia Small Business Taxation Project and will work closely with the project team including IC operations officers, EAP Regional Tax Specialist, Global Tax Specialist and other IFC resources. The SME Tax Consultant shall provide insight into concrete small business taxation issues and challenges faced in the design and implementation of tax regulation. The primary focus of the work will be on close cooperation with government counterparts in order to initiate/implement regulatory changes.

This position reports directly to the Project Leader (PL) – Indonesia Small Business Taxation

The STC, in conjunction with IFC SME tax experts and related experts, will provide substantive and technical support to the PL and the project team on the following four areas: 
1. Advice in designing the overall small business tax regime to, among others, arrive at the appropriate form of tax, criteria for segmenting tax payers, MSME tax thresholds and aligning them with the VAT threshold, the rules to govern movement of taxpayers between the MSME regime and the full tax system, measures to safeguard against abuse of the system – for instance, by larger businesses breaking into smaller individual units to take advantage of the streamlined processes in the MSME tax regime; and so on.

2. Advice in designing administrative arrangements for the MSME tax regime to minimize the amount of time and administration required by taxpayers to comply with the new system and the costs to tax administrator in dealing with taxpayers. This includes, among others, (i) reforming the structure of tax authority offices to deal with the needs of small taxpayers, (ii) designing a risk-based audit system for MSME regime taxpayers, allowing tax administrator to target audits to those most at risk of non-compliance and (iii) designing a dispute resolution mechanism for disputes involving small amounts which can reduce the time required to resolve a case and relieve the backlog of small disputes coming before the tax courts.

3. Legislation: advice and expert peer review in the legal drafting process to ensure that best practices in the design and administrative arrangements above are incorporated and properly articulated in the ensuing MSME tax regulations.

4. Support in public communications and implementation. Successful implementation of the MSME tax regime requires extensive communications and outreach to taxpayers to assist them to understand the requirements of the new system. Training and development of tax authority staff will also be necessary to ensure that they are able to administer the system.

Duties and Responsibilities:
• Drawing on a knowledge of Indonesia's SME sector and its current taxation arrangements, assist the team to identify and understand the interaction of SMEs with the tax system in Indonesia and formulate proposals for SME tax policy / process reform in line with the client's needs;
• Develop and nurture effective working relationship with relevant government and private sector partners to ensure good communication and productive collaboration;
• Take an active role in discussions with private sector and government counterparts to explore and/or demonstrate the legal and practical feasibility of the proposed reforms/regulations and incorporate private sector feedback into development of and advocacy for new reforms;
• Assist in the preparation of all information documents, and particularly ensure their relevance to Indonesian taxation laws and regulations.
• Assist and advise in the design of outreach and capacity building programs and training materials required to implement regulatory reforms;
• Communicate and work effectively with IFC's global and regional tax product colleagues; 
• Prepare high quality project reporting documents and ensure they are submitted on time. 
• Consolidate and analyze lessons learned from project implementation experience and share with team members and colleagues across the region and IFC; 
• Represent IFC and the project at conferences, round-tables, committees or working groups as assigned by the Project Leader;
• Perform other functions as required and directed by the Project Leader or Regional Business Line Leader.

Qualifications:
• Degree in Accounting / Law / Economics, or equivalent, preferably at a post-graduate level;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Strong knowledge and hands-on experience working in the area of SME taxation in Indonesia;
• Minimum five years of direct experience working in the areas of tax consultancy, tax audit or tax policy reforms is preferred, preferably with strong exposure on small business taxation; 
• Experience with international and/or bilateral/multilateral development institutions would be an advantage, as well as prior work in advisory/consulting in private sector development;
• Flexibility and creativity in working in a dynamic environment;
• An advanced command of Bahasa Indonesia and English, both spoken and written.
• Ability to create and nurture effective working relationships with the project's clients.
• Excellent presentation as well as oral and written communications skills; experience working with high level public and private sector counterparts, highly desirable;
• Active user of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Willingness to travel frequently throughout Indonesia and in the region.

Please submit your expression of interest in a cover letter and comprehensive curriculum vitae (CV) by 12.00PM, March 26, 2012 electronically to TPramodhawardani@ifc.org
. 
All applications will be treated in strict confidence and ONLY short-listed candidates will be contacted. No telephone calls, faxes or letters will be accepted.

IFC's vision is that people should have the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their lives.
www.ifc.org/indonesia