Tax executive advancement.

• Author: Murray, James R.

Tax Executive Advancement

1. Introduction

   The dawn of the decade may be the appropriate time to take stock of the profession of the senior corporate tax executive. How have we done? Indeed, how do we measure how we have done? Several articles in The Tax Executive during the 1980s demonstrate the profession's progress. These articles confirm a general elevation of titles of the senior tax executive. This advancement for the profession is occurring despite a flattening of the corporate organizational structure. Congratulations, tax executives! Your report card is good.

   The goal of this article is to correlate the senior tax executive's title with the employer's size and tax complexity, to provide some guidance in evaluating the profession, and to document the tax executive's enhanced position within the corporate structure.

2. Background

   In the July 1984 issue of The Tax Executive, Professors Anderson and Arlinghaus reported the results of a survey of the 1981 Fortune 500 companies which sought information about tax departments. In that article, the senior tax executive is described as a Director of Tax (or similar title). Of those responding to the survey, 37.5 percent reported that they considered the Director of Tax a corporate executive officer.

   The results of a follow-up survey by the same authors was published in the Summer 1986 issue of The Tax Executive. The survey, which was sent to the 1984 Fortune 500 list of companies, revealed that a 10-percent increase (to 47 percent) in the companies that considered the Director of Taxes to be a corporate executive officer. Table 9 of the 1986 article provided the "Title of the Individual at Corporate Headquarters Having Direct Primary Responsibility for Overall Tax Function," as follows:

   Number of Title Responses Director of Taxes 91 Vice President Taxes 33 Assistant Treasurer/Director of Taxes 23 Manager of Taxes 9 Vice President/Director of Taxes 7 Vice President/Tax Counsel 6 Assistant Treasurer 5 Assistant Controller 5 Various Other Titles 52 Total 231 In order to focus on the increased recognition of the senior tax executive by corporate management, the data are summarized and reordered into four categories: (i) any title beginning with Vice President, (ii) any title beginning with Assistant, (iii) Director, and (iv) Manager. (The "Various Other Titles" category was dropped entirely.)

   Number of Responses Percentage Vice President (all forms) 46 26 Assistant Officer 33 18 Director 91 51 Manager 9 5 Total 179 100 The two Anderson/Arlinghaus articles document an increase in recognition of the senior tax executive as a corporate executive officer, with the July 1986 article providing a benchmark for comparing tax executive titles.(*)

   (*) The Tax Executive published a third article by Professor...