Tax Manager (3 days per week)

📍 Remote, Australia | Eastern states preferred | Part-time
Approx. 3 days per week, school hours, term time - you tell us what works.

The senior tax seat at a startup accounting firm, at hours that fit around your life. You hold the registration and you sign.
One thing up front: this role needs a registered tax agent. Standard Ledger's tax agent status will sit under your TPB registration. If yours lapsed during a career break, that's workable, we just need a path back to it.

Standard Ledger is an accounting-as-a-service firm for startups and scaleups across Australia and the UK. Founders come here to get their numbers done properly and explained plainly, so the work runs well past compliance. Clients are raising, restructuring and expanding overseas, and the questions coming in reflect that.

More than ten years in, the firm runs on Xero and a connected app stack with a small, senior team and very little process. A dedicated preparation team offshore handles the production work, which keeps the senior people on review and advice.

The opportunity: Build a name in startup tax

You hold the registration Standard Ledger's tax agent status sits under, you sign off everything that goes out, and you set the technical standard. The seat is opening because Standard Ledger is growing and needs someone in Australia to take the tax brief and hold the tax authority.

You will review and sign off around a couple of hundred returns a year, lead the offshore preparation team, and be the person clients call on the real questions: structuring ahead of a raise, Div 7A, GST, CGT small business concessions, ESS and ESOP, and the R&D interaction. You report to the CEO.

Standard Ledger markets around its specialists rather than expecting them to sell. That already runs for the firm's R&D expert and the intention is to do the same for tax. The positions you develop go out under your name through content, LinkedIn, webinars and client sessions, and the practice grows around you. If you have wanted to be known for something and never had the platform or the hours to build it, that's the real offer here.

What you'll do

• Review and sign off company and individual tax returns prepared by the team

• Hold the TPB registration that Standard Ledger's tax agent status sits under

• Advise founders directly on structuring, Div 7A, GST, CGT small business concessions and the R&D interaction. That includes flips to a US or UK TopCo and what happens to carried forward losses, and ESIC eligibility and determinations for the investors backing them

• Lead the offshore preparation team and act as the technical reference point for the firm

• Build a library of Standard Ledger tax positions on what comes up over and over

• Take those positions public through content, webinars and client sessions

What we're looking for

• Registered Tax Agent with the TPB, or eligible to register. This one is essential, because you are the registration the firm sits under. A lapsed registration during a break is fine if you can re-register

• CA, CPA or IPA qualified

• Strong technical depth in Div 7A, trusts, structures and small business CGT, and solid Australian tax experience across individuals and businesses

• A practice background with real client exposure. Corporate tax on its own will not cover it

• Comfortable giving advice as well as reviewing compliance

• Plain-English with clients and sound judgement about when to call something yourself

Bonus points

• Startup or scaleup clients

• R&D tax incentive experience

• ESIC and cross-border structuring

• A habit of writing or presenting to help win work

The interview process

Kairos reviews your CV properly and gives you a call. Next is a technical conversation with Standard Ledger's tax partner, including a client scenario, because you will be signing without a second reviewer. The final step is a conversation with Remco about the advisory side and where you would take it.

What's on offer

• Market rates, pro-rata to your hours, plus superannuation

• Around half-time, arranged however suits you. Approx. three set days, school hours, term time flexibility

• Fully remote from anywhere in Australia

• A stable base across the year rather than pay that swings with tax season

• Reporting straight to the CEO, with the offshore preparation team reporting to you

• Start September or October, with flexibility

Coming back after a break?

We'd like to hear from you. A break isn't something you need to explain away here, and a lapsed registration is workable. What matters is the depth you built before you left and what you want to build next.

👉 Apply now - the returns won't sign themselves!