Team Lead, Tax

Why PayNet / Why Now

• PayNet operates at national scale where tax decisions directly affect sustainability, pricing, and regulatory credibility.
• Growing platform complexity, new initiatives, and evolving tax rules increase the importance of upfront tax structuring.
• This role exists to move PayNet from reactive tax compliance to proactive, well‑considered tax planning.
• Strong tax judgment today reduces structural risk and limits costly remediation later.

TL; DR

• Reports to the Head of Financial Control and leads a small Tax team, ensuring work is well prioritised, delegated, reviewed, and delivered to a high standard.
• Own tax planning and structuring across PayNet’s products, platforms, and initiatives.
• Act as the internal authority on direct and indirect tax implications of business decisions.
• Shape tax positions early, not after commercial or legal structures are set.
• Balance tax efficiency with regulatory defensibility and long‑term sustainability.

Why This Role Matters

• Poor tax structuring creates long‑term cost, audit risk, and reputational exposure.
• Over‑conservative tax positions can unnecessarily constrain commercial outcomes.
• Strong tax judgment enables confident decisions under regulatory scrutiny.
• This role requires judgment over checklist compliance.

What You Will Actually Do

• Shape tax planning and structuring for new initiatives, products, entities, and partnerships.
• Own end‑to‑end tax analysis across direct and indirect taxes, translating rules into clear business implications.
• Define and defend tax positions that are efficient, defensible, and aligned with PayNet’s risk appetite.
• Lead technical tax input into contracts, pricing discussions, and business proposals.
• Own tax compliance quality across filings, submissions, and audits, while guiding team delivery to ensure outputs align with planning intent.
• Act as the primary technical interface with external tax advisors and authorities.

Examples of This Role in Practice

• Advising early on transaction or operating model design to avoid structural tax leakage.
• Challenging a proposed structure that appears efficient short‑term but creates future audit risk.
• Translating complex indirect tax rules into practical guidance for product or finance teams.
• Defending a tax position during an audit by clearly articulating intent, substance, and rationale.
• Identifying opportunities to simplify or standardize tax treatment across platforms.

What Will Help You Succeed

• Deep technical grounding in both direct and indirect tax, applied with commercial judgment.
• Comfort influencing decisions without formal authority or team ownership.
• Ability to think structurally, not just transactionally.
• Strong written and verbal articulation of complex tax positions.
• Curiosity about how business models, regulation, and tax intersect.