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SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICES (SARS)
SENIOR SPECIALIST: AUDIT
Position Reports to: Senior Manager: Audit
Division: High Wealth Individual (HWI)
Location: Woodmead Office, Sandton
Advert Closing Date: 21 August 2026
About the Position
In an ever-changing environment, we have built a responsive and agile organisation to give effect to our strategic intent of achieving voluntary compliance. We invite you to be part of the special team that contributes to the collection of revenue, protect the economy and people of South Africa. We believe that your skills, commitment, and dedication will add value and make a difference to the organisation and country. Integrity is key to the organisation.
The Senior Specialist’s main responsibilities are to detect and unpack wealth shifting tax avoidance schemes and/or the use of legislative loopholes and special purpose vehicles to create aggressive avoidance structures.
A thorough and deep understanding of the taxation of trusts and trust law is a prerequisite coupled with the taxation of cross border transactions.
The incumbent must have a deep understanding of both local and foreign trusts and the principles of substance over form in the tax environment.
Job Purpose
To provide expert advise and guidance and/or execute highly complex and highly specialised audits for High Wealth Individuals (HWI related aggressive wealth shifting tax avoidance structures/transactions).
Education and Experience
Minimum Qualification & Experience Required
Relevant Honours / Postgraduate Diploma in Tax, Accounting, Auditing (NQF 8) and 10 years' experience in a Tax and audit environment.
Minimum Functional Requirements
Applicable professional registration at either of the following professional bodies:
- South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)
- South African Institute of Taxation (SAIT)
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
- Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
- South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA)
- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
- Legal Practice Council (LPC)
- Accreditation as a subject matter expert by World Customs
- Organization (WCO)
Job Outputs:
Process
- Plan, conduct and manage highly complex risk-based audits to ensure compliance with relevant acts.
- Identify tax gaps and evasion schemes involving complex matters and suggest potential solutions to minimize tax risks.
- Manage quality in planning, execution and finalisation of audits.
- Conduct research into local & international practices & trends in order to identify best practice & the most practical business solutions & options.
- Analyse and make recommendations about improvements to tax law, specialist systems, procedures, policies and practices.
- Contribute to the optimum utilisation of org. resources, advising on effective planning and development of area of specialisation resource plans.
- Develop multiple practices in alignment with operational policy and procedural frameworks, supporting tactical development and excellence.
- Draw on own technical or professional expertise, knowledge & experience to identify & recommend tactical solutions to defined problems in practices.
- Influence and communicate across business areas impacted by practice area to minimise resistance and ensure on-boarding of new thinking.
- Integrate business information, compare, analyse & produce reports to identify trends, discrepancies & inconsistencies for decision making purposes.
- Optimise goal achievement through tactical strategy development and optimisation of practises, processes & systems across an internal value chain.
- Plan for value-added, continuous multiple practice and system improvement optimisation to deliver on objectives and to enhance tactical excellence.
- Proactively identify interconnected problems, determine its impact and use to develop best fit alternatives; developing best practice solutions.
- Recommend changes to optimise processes, systems, practice areas and associated procedures and execute the implementation of change and innovation.
- Translate top down policy, apply modification in relation to own practice area and communicate impact to relevant stakeholders.
Governance
- Develop and /or align governance and compliance policies for own practice area to identify and manage risk exposure liabilities.
People
- Integrate new knowledge and transfer skills attained through formal and informal learning opportunities in the execution of your job.
- Provide specialist know-how, support, advice and practice thought leadership in area of expertise.
Finance
- Implement and monitor financial control, management of costs and corporate governance in area of specialisation.
Client
- Develop and ensure implementation of own practices to build delivery excellence, encouraging others to provide exceptional stakeholder service.
- Participate in the specialist practice community and contribute positively to organisation knowledge management.
- Provide authoritative, specialist expertise and advice to internal and external stakeholders
Behavioural competencies
- Analytical Thinking
- Accountability
- Attention to Detail
- Commitment to Continuous Learning
- Conceptual Ability
- Customer Service
- Drive for Results
- Expertise in Context
- Fairness & Transparency
- Honesty and Integrity
- Organisational Awareness
- Problem Solving & Analysis
- Trust
- Respect
Technical competencies
- Audit Methodology
- Business Knowledge
- Business Writing Skills
- Coaching & Mentoring
- Computer Literacy
- Data Collection & Analysis
- Efficiency Improvement
- Execute, Implement & Follow Through
- Financial Acumen
- Functional Policies and Procedures
- Operational Audit
- Planning & Organising
- Problem Analysis & Judgment
- Quality Orientation
- Reporting Tax Knowledge
- Tax Law
Compliance Competency
- GOC Secret
Employment Equity
The Employment Equity policy of SARS will be considered as part of the recruitment and selection process and Persons with Disabilities are encouraged to apply. Successful candidates will be required to undertake an oath of secrecy, pre-employment screening, case study, pre-assessment, psychometric assessment and or vetting, and a declaration of private interest. The appointment is also subject to appropriate reference(s) and security clearance where applicable.
