Born to vs Forced to as a tax manager

Nobody starts her tax career to spend endless hours in Excel or have back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back meetings. Yet, for many of us, it became the norm…

It is good to reflect regularly on what you expected to get out of your tax career. The reason why you fell in love with tax. Do it, it will wake you up again.

Here is my shortlist:

– Balancing the technical, tax-nerdy side with the economic and business-oriented side;

– Tax is a people business. I love the stakeholder management and relationship building;

– Every day is different. Change is the norm. It’s exciting;

– Complexity is both a PRO and a CON;

– The role of tax in society. And the ever-growing importance thereof;

– From the outside it’s boring, from the inside it is sexy. Most jobs are the opposite;

– Tax people are wanted, and there is a deep need of more tax people, which makes us even more wanted;

– Combining value protection with value creation;

– People, process, data, tech. All important;

– It’s feasible to transition from tax into another role, including into finance leadership roles. It’s more challenging to transition into a tax role;

– You can work in any industry. You can work in advisory, in-house, and for the authorities / public bodies / NGOs;

– Steep learning curve, and nudge to be a student for life;

– Spider in the web, having solid knowledge of other domains like legal, finance / accounting, treasury, FP&A / controlling, the business, … The opposite is not true…

Anything I missed?