Tax Research Analyst

Job description

About Gusto

Gusto is a modern, online people platform that helps small businesses take care of their teams. On top of full-service payroll, Gusto offers health insurance, 401(k)s, expert HR, and team management tools. Today, Gusto offices in Denver, San Francisco, and New York serve more than 400,000 businesses nationwide.

Our mission is to create a world where work empowers a better life, and it starts right here at Gusto. That’s why we’re committed to building a collaborative and inclusive workplace, both physically and virtually. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

Symmetry Software is part of Gusto. Symmetry is the payroll infrastructure for software & payroll platforms powering the paychecks of over 64 million workers each year. Our fully integrated suite of payroll tax APIs and software tools allows companies to solve tax compliance issues and build applications across the entirety of the payroll process.

About the role

Are you a visionary Payroll Tax expert ready to shape the future of Canadian payroll software?

We’re on a mission to revolutionize how businesses manage payroll, ensuring seamless compliance and powering over 60 million payroll calculations annually. We believe in dynamic, adaptable tax solutions, and we’re seeking a Canada Payroll Tax Research Analyst who shares our passion for precision and innovation.

Not only will you dive deep into payroll tax in both Canada and the United States; but you will have a unique career opportunity to leverage your payroll tax expertise and collaborate with our Product, Engineering, and Client Experience teams to enhance and build out payroll compliance technology solutions. You’ll be at the forefront, building the intelligent tax logic and rules engines that form the bedrock of our cutting-edge payroll platform.

What makes this role a unique opportunity?

• Impact at Scale: Your expertise will directly influence millions of payroll calculations, ensuring accuracy and compliance for businesses across Canada and the United States.
• Pioneer the Future: You’ll play a critical role in enabling our software to adapt seamlessly to evolving regulations, setting new industry standards.
• Bridge Tax & Tech: This is your chance to hone a highly sought-after skill set, combining intricate payroll tax research with direct collaboration alongside software developers to program sophisticated tax calculations.
• Strategic Agency Relations: You’ll build and maintain vital relationships with tax agencies, gaining invaluable insights that directly inform our product development.
• Beyond Compliance: Beyond researching and building software for tax agency requirements, you’ll contribute to innovative solutions that automate and optimize the entire employee lifecycle.
• Thrive in Ambiguity: If you’re a self-starter energized by complex challenges, and excited to dive into the foundational logic of payroll software, this is your ideal environment. You’ll not only uncover the “what” but also contribute to the “how” it gets built.

Are you ready to dive into the intricate tax logic and rules engines that power modern payroll? This is your opportunity to define it!

About the team

Our team is made up of five Tax Research professionals, each bringing a unique set of skills and experiences. Tax Research is the cornerstone of Symmetry’s products, relied upon by every team across the company. Because Symmetry isn’t a top-heavy organization, you’ll work directly with staff and management at all levels.

You’ll get to perform compliance research that impacts all of Symmetry’s current products and helps shape new ones. Our company motto, ‘The right taxes, the first time,’ especially guides our work in Tax Research. We’re a close-knit team that thrives on mutual respect and highly developed communication. We’re dedicated to delivering the most timely and accurate compliance products in the market, providing world-class service to our stakeholders, and upholding our reputation as the compliance leader. We embrace change and are always looking for ways to streamline and automate our processes and research. This is a high-impact role in an extremely collaborative environment that will help shape Symmetry’s future.

Here’s what you’ll be doing

• Lead the charge in Canadian payroll tax intelligence: Proactively research, interpret, and analyze complex federal and provincial payroll tax regulations and calculations, anticipating future changes and their impact on our software.
• Translate complexities into actionable logic: Collaborate with our software development team to design, program, and test tax calculations that power our high-volume payroll platform.
• Drive compliance innovation: Be the subject matter expert who ensures our software remains flawlessly compliant with Canadian payroll tax mandates, identifying opportunities for automation and continuous improvement.
• Cultivate strategic partnerships: Establish and nurture strong relationships with tax agencies to gain insights, clarify interpretations, and address emerging requirements.
• Shape the employee lifecycle experience: Research payroll tax implications related to the entire employee lifecycle (onboarding, compensation changes, benefits, offboarding), contributing to the development of software solutions that automate and simplify these processes.
• Champion data integrity and accuracy: Implement robust methodologies for validating tax calculation accuracy, performing reconciliations, and troubleshooting complex payroll tax scenarios to ensure utmost data integrity.
• Influence product evolution: Provide guidance and recommendations to product management and engineering teams on new features, enhancements, and strategic direction for our Canada payroll tax offerings.
• Empower internal teams: Develop and deliver clear, concise documentation, training, and support to internal stakeholders (e.g., Client Experience, Product, and Engineering teams) on Canadian payroll tax complexities and our software’s capabilities.
• Thrive in an agile, dynamic environment: Embrace ambiguity and proactively identify solutions to complex, uncharted payroll tax challenges, contributing to a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

Here’s what we’re looking for

To excel in this role, you will possess a unique blend of tax acumen, analytical rigor, and strong partnership and collaborative skills.

Required certifications and experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Taxation, Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Technology, or related field
• 1-3 years of Canada payroll tax or compliance experience
• Canada National Payroll Institute PCP certification, and/or CPA license in Canada or United States preferred
• Experience with personal tax credits for Canada employees
• Experience with calculations for Canada Federal and Provincial withholding tax liabilities, Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Employment Insurance (EI), Québec Pension Plan (QPP), and Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP)
• US payroll tax experience
• Experience with tax laws, regulations, and third-party research databases
• Payroll service provider, agency, or tax filing and reporting experience a plus
• Experience with tools like Google Workspace, Jira, NetSuite, Airtable
• Prior technical experience developing compliance requirements for software developers
• If remote, travel to the Scottsdale, Arizona office up to once/quarter

Required skills and mindsets

• Experience in Payroll Tax.  Experience calculating Canada withholding taxes on employee paychecks, from gross pay to net pay.  Experience with Canada withholding tables, formulas, and employee elections.  Similar experience with US payroll tax is a plus.
• Self-Motivated.  Experience working independently to deliver long-term research projects and hit milestones.  Critical and strategic thinker. Ability to work through a problem with multiple steps, utilizing logic. Ability to think long-term about Symmetry’s products and client perspective. Enthusiastic learner.
• Highly-Skilled Communicator. Exhibit persistence, confidence, and poise when calling and emailing agencies, clients, and internal partners. Calm and professional, yet persistent, with the ability to break down complex regulations into understandable pieces. Extreme attention to detail in write-ups of compliance information and communication.
• Collaboration and Relationship Skills. Flexible, adaptable, and open to change. Able to build strong networks inside the company and with industry professionals.
• Flexibility + Agility. Ability to prioritize and rapidly re-prioritize in an ever-changing environment.  Comfortable with ambiguity and making informed decisions backed by data, sources, and critical thinking.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $84,000/yr - $106,000/yr in Scottsdale, Arizona. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees who are based in those locations will be expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role). The same office expectations apply to all Symmetry roles, Gusto’s subsidiary, whose physical office is in Scottsdale.

Note: The San Francisco office expectations encompass both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas.

When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required.

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.

Gusto is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Gusto considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Gusto is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. We want to see our candidates perform to the best of their ability. If you require a medical or religious accommodation at any time throughout your candidate journey, please fill out this form and a member of our team will get in touch with you.

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