Deloitte KPMG Tax interview

Hi guys

I'll have 1st round interview with Deloitte and KPMG Corporate Tax graduate program next week. I'm confident about the competency questions, but I don't know much about the tax industry. I need help on the following questions:

1. How much do they expect you to know about the corporate tax profession? Apart from "why do you want to work on Tax? What you will be doing day to day?", what else do I need to prepare?

2. Would you please give me some information about the Tax news and issues? What is going on in the tax industry? Where can I find Tax news?

Any advice would be appreciated. Many many thanks!!

Reply 1

Wstroud

1

1. Nothing - they want to you to interested in finance, you are much better off reading the Ft and the Economist and knowing a couple of articles pretty well than researching the latest tax legislation.

2. If you want to read about what is going on in the industry, make sure you know whats going to be happening with tax rates as of March 2008 (Income tax, Corporation Tax) If you really want to know more then www.taxationweb.co.uk and www.taxnews.com have more than you need to know as an employee let alone a graduate.

Cheers

Reply 2

Barny

17

Why DO you want to work in tax?

A good answer might be that you prefer doing something which could save your clients money and is value added, rather than working on just compliance(like in audit).

What will you be doing day-day? As a junior, mostly doing routine computations/calculations, carrying out tax research for your superiors etc, possibly the odd presentation or two. Maybe some client contact.

They won't expect you to know lots of tax legislation - maybe they might talk about news from the recent budget?

For example, what are the big changes in this years budget? Obviously the answer would be the reduction in corporation tax for large companies, the increase in corporation tax for small companies, and the abolition of the starting rate tax band on income tax and the corresponding decrease in the basic rate to 20%.

What is going on in the tax industry/tax news? In all honesty - not a lot. There lots of complaints from large corporates about the complexity and difficulty of UK tax legislation so that might be something you could mention.

Reply 3

zhenren

OP

Thank you very much, guys. Your advices are really helpful. I have another question:

At the end of the interview, if the interviewer asks me to ask him questions, What are the good questions on Tax to ask?

I prepared some general questions about the company and the interviewer's own experience, but I think it's better to ask some specific questions about Tax as well. Would you please give me some ideas?

Many many thanks!!!

Reply 4

zhenren

OP

One more question:

In KPMG interview, the interviewer will discuss with me on which service line I'd like to work for: Company-focused tax or People-focused?

What are the good ways to answer this question and give good reasons?
I want to work on the Company-focused tax service, because I'm more interested in learning how a company operate it's business. But this reason seems not enough. What are other reasons I can talk about? Please give me some ideas.

Tons of thanks!

Reply 5

Barny

17

Some good questions to ask at the end:

What are the largest turnover clients I will be working with?

How will my responsibilities change as I become more experienced and become more qualified?

As for corporate tax or personal tax - just say you're more interested working with companies than individuals, and also relish the challenge of the increased complexity of corporate tax.

Though they might ask you to elaborate on that, in which case you'll probably be stuffed :smile:

Reply 6

zhenren

OP

Thanks very much for your advice!

I passed the 1st interviews of Dtt and KPMG, and I'll have the assessment day in 2 weeks. I heard that the assessment day for Tax department is more technical than Audit. Is it true?

How much do they want me to know the technical issues in partner interview? In my 1st interview, they only asked me why Tax and the daily work of Tax, and nothing more technical. But for the partner interview, will they ask me more on Tax news and regulations?

Reply 7

Nabster_88

This is a bit off the topic has anyone done the online tests for KPMG. I found them really hard... well only the numerical one.

Deloitte KPMG Tax interview

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