Manager, Payroll Tax and Accounting

Responsibilities

• Directs compliance, cash forecasting, and tax impound reconciliations for $750M+ in annual payroll taxes across 20+ legal entities.
• Oversees multi-state taxation for 40,000+ employees across 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada (T2200), and local tax jurisdictions.
• Primary business owner for Oracle HCM Cloud (Time & Labor, Payroll, Costing, USOPTE), ADP Tax Services, and Equifax Unemployment & Verification Services.
• Directly leads and develops a specialized team comprising a Senior Payroll Tax Analyst, Payroll Tax Lead, and Payroll Analyst II.
• Directs the preparation, audit, and submission of all federal, state, and local quarterly and annual filings (including Forms 941, 940, state unemployment returns, local reconciliations, and Puerto Rico W-2 / SUI returns) through ADP.
• Reviews and approves quarterly ADP tax exception reports, W-3 to balance register comparisons, and FICA/Medicare reconciliations.
• Manages the end-to-end W-2 and W-2c reporting cycles, overseeing automated before-and-after variance summaries, amendment tracking, and electronic filing confirmations with the SSA and IRS.
• Audits executive fringe benefits, imputed income balance adjustments (e.g., corporate aircraft, company car personal use), Golden Parachute, and supplemental equity compensation events (AIP, RSU, PSU).
• Evaluates non-resident/resident taxation, multi-state withholding reciprocity, NYC/NY part-year rules, and complex state compliance (e.g., NJ Convenience of Employer rule, Washington Cares/PFML, and California meal break tax treatments).
• Conducts bi-weekly review and approval of payroll tax funding schedules, verifying ACH debits against Treasury accounts, ADP impound reports, and Puerto Rico wire disbursements.
• Manages monthly and bi-weekly general ledger (GL) journal entries for ADP-paid taxes, aligning tax categories, penalties, interest, and state withholding accounts to Centralized Accounting charts of accounts.
• Prepares and updates the rolling Monthly/Annual Payroll Cash Forecast, analyzing gross-to-net variances, non-biweekly earnings, merit increases, and M&A tax cash impacts.
• Reconciles balance sheet tax accounts monthly and quarterly, partnering with Corporate Accounting to investigate, resolve, and document reconciling items.
• Evaluates annual payroll accrual rate calculations, financial calendars (e.g., 27th pay period, holiday pay), and work-day factors in collaboration with Finance.
• Compiles, validates, and provides statutory payroll and headcount data to Corporate Tax for federal, state, and municipal tax credits.
• Directs Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reporting, Multi-Worksite Reporting (MWR), and live electronic data testing across all operating subsidiaries.
• Acts as primary functional subject matter expert for Oracle HCM Cloud Payroll & USOPTE engine updates, quarterly SOAK testing, and legislative tax patches.
• Evaluates and automates tax card creation, regional tax assignment rules, resident/work geocoding, and transfer/rehire state tax record maintenance.
• Drives process automation initiatives (e.g., Microsoft Access tools, SQL queries, and robotic process automation) to eliminate manual entry for balance adjustments, out-of-state remote worker audits, and address fallouts.
• Ensures strict SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) compliance; conducts bi-annual reviews of ADP compliance SOC 1 reports, SSAE-18 bridge letters, and remediation plans to maintain airtight internal controls.
• Leads representation and audit defense for federal, state, and municipal payroll tax audits, workers’ compensation audits (DE-9 / Form 940 reconciliations), and 401(k) plan annual census audits.
• Resolves complex tax notices, penalty assessments, and fallout reconciliations with taxing authorities and third-party vendors.
• Leads payroll tax integration for mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures: transfers state unemployment experience ratings, unifies federal EIN reporting, audits legacy tax data, and verifies local tax configurations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or equivalent relevant work experience.
• Preferred: Master's degree in Accounting, Taxation, or MBA.
• Preferred: Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) – American Payroll Association.
• Preferred: Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or Certified Management Accountant (CMA).
• Minimum 7–10 years of progressive, multi-state payroll tax and payroll accounting experience in a large-scale corporate enterprise (20,000+ employees, multiple EINs).
• Minimum 3–5 years of supervisory or team leadership experience directing payroll analysts or specialists.
• In-depth experience managing outsourced tax filing vendor partnerships (ADP Comprehensive Tax Services preferred) and state unemployment vendors (Equifax).
• Preferred: 10+ years of corporate multi-state payroll tax management in healthcare, clinical diagnostics, or related distributed workforce environments.
• Preferred: Hands-on leadership of major ERP payroll system migrations or upgrades (e.g., Oracle Cloud HCM / Fusion Time & Labor / E-Business Suite).
• Preferred: Prior experience defending state and local payroll tax audits and coordinating statutory state tax credit programs.
• Deep mastery of US Federal, State, and Local payroll tax statutes, withholding rules, reciprocity agreements, and unemployment compensation laws.
• Working knowledge of Canadian provincial/federal payroll tax concepts (T2200) and Puerto Rico Hacienda tax filing standards.
• Strong understanding of payroll accounting, general ledger journal entries, account reconciliations, and SOX internal control frameworks.
• High proficiency in Oracle HCM Cloud Payroll, ADP SmartCompliance, Equifax UI, advanced Microsoft Excel (Power Query, complex pivots, index/match), and database query tools (Access, SQL).
• Exceptional analytical, quantitative reconciliation, and root-cause diagnostic skills.
• Strategic leadership, team coaching, and performance management skills.
• Proven cross-functional project management and change management ability.
• Polished interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills across all organizational tiers.
• Direct supervisory responsibility for 3 professional team members.
• Responsible for hiring, performance appraisals, goal setting, career development, compensation recommendations, workload distribution, and technical oversight.