Sales Tax Analyst - Orlando, FL Based

Overview

POSITION REQUIREMENTS: This is an on-site position Monday – Thursday with flexibility to work remotely on Fridays and is based at Red Lobster’s corporate office in Orlando, FL. 

SUMMARY

The Sales Tax Analyst is responsible for data aggregation, data analysis, system maintenance, and reconciliations supporting multi-state sales and use tax compliance. This role blends transactional tax compliance with system maintenance and cross-functional support,  in addition to supporting planning projects, audits, and internal initiatives.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Prepare supporting documentation, work papers, and data files for multi-state sales, use, and local tax returns.
• Review draft returns prepared by the third party, actively researching and resolving any data variances prior to submission.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for routine internal and external taxability questions, resolving vendor disputes on taxed invoice amounts while providing research support to the Senior Tax Manager on complex transactions
• Ensure accurate accounting for tax accruals, payments, and related expenses by preparing journal entries and monthly balance sheet reconciliations.
• Maintain the internal master sales tax rate listing, verifying and updating it monthly to reflect state and local changes.
• Update and maintain sales tax rates within the Point of Sale (POS) system. Review and validate to ensure POS system configurations are operating correctly.
• Support responses to inquiries, jurisdictional notices, and assessments from various taxing authorities maintaining clear and organized internal documentation
• Research, validate, and process payments for short-paid tax invoices to resolve outstanding vendor discrepancies.
• Reconcile sales tax collected by third-party delivery partners, ensuring compliance with applicable marketplace facilitator laws, and resolve variances directly with delivery partners as needed.
• Coordinate closely with the licensing department to verify that corporate registrations and tax licenses are compliant.
• Support the evaluation of tax implications for product and operational rollouts by compiling data for cross-functional departments to assist in identifying tax-saving opportunities on bulk purchases.
• Analyze and review accrued use tax and administrative use tax to identify, document, and reverse accruals on invoices where tax-exempt status applies.
• Manage the issuance and tracking of resale certificates to appropriate vendors.
• Analyze tax-exempt transactions to ensure required documentation is on file, manually processing and calculating tax adjustments for non-compliant orders.
• Support the Senior Tax Manager in handling emerging, unstructured tax inquiries and execute ad hoc compliance or data analysis projects as required.

 REQUIRED TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Minimum three years of relevant accounting experience, including understanding of accrual accounting and internal controls,
• Understanding of multi-state sales and use tax filing concepts
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel with mastery in advanced functions such as XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, and pivot tables

REQUIRED EDUCATION

 Bachelor's Degree in Accounting or Finance

OTHER KEY QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong communication skills both verbal and written. Ability to communicate effectively with taxing authorities, analysts, IT and accounting departments and restaurant managers
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with the ability to manage high-volume workloads in a fast-paced environment
• Highly self-motivated with the ability to quickly learn and apply new concepts.
• Collaborative, proactive team player with a positive, customer-service mindset

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Experience with large ERP systems, such as Oracle
• Experience with other tax and accounting software such as Vertex, Hyperion, CCH, SureTax, and Business Intelligence