WHAT DOES AN INTERNATIONAL TAX DIRECTOR DO?
Published: Oct 07, 2025 - The International Tax Director delivers comprehensive global tax services, including planning, consulting, and compliance across diverse industries. This role develops strategic international tax structures, optimizes cross-border transactions, and ensures alignment with global tax regulations. The director also leads teams, drives business development initiatives, and enhances client understanding of complex international tax implications.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for International Tax Director
1. International Tax Director Duties
- Data Modeling: Develop analytical quantitative modeling and data support for the tax planning team, and provide technical review, support, and project management of strategic initiatives
- Risk Analysis: Provide technical risk and quantitative impact analysis concerning legislative proposals to VMware’s international tax position
- Documentation Management: Oversee maintenance of supporting documentation for previously taxed earnings and profits, foreign taxes, and tax basis for foreign subsidiaries and/or branches
- Repatriation Analysis: Facilitate quantitative analysis for repatriation and general planning purposes
- Audit Management: Assist in the management and defense of tax audits
- Process Evaluation: Evaluate current processes and workflow
- Process Improvement: Recommend and implement improvements
- Tax Review: Review of components of GILTI, FDII, BEAT, FTC, and Subpart F for the quarterly close process
- Model Updates: Review APB23 model updates, Sec. 987 calculation updates, tax basis calculations, and asset allocation calculation updates for the FTC model
- Form Review: Review Forms 5471 for controlled foreign corporations and 8858 for foreign disregarded entities
- Distribution Analysis: Review analysis of taxable distributions
- Election Review: Review required elections and disclosures, such as check-the-box elections, DCLs, etc.
2. International Tax Director Details
- Global Collaboration: Work with finance and tax executives across the organization globally
- Skill Development: Develop a broader range of tax skills as time passes
- Direct Reporting: Report directly to the Head of Tax
- Team Coordination: Work with multi-functional teams across the organization
- Return Review: Review complex partnership and corporate tax returns including international components for these returns
- Client Consulting: Consult with clients and other CLA team members on business processes such as compliance, operations and tax planning
- Engagement Management: Lead, schedule, supervise, and review tax engagements
- Team Training: Develop and train team members to help them build inspired careers
- Opportunity Building: Foster and build opportunities for clients, communities, and people
- Tax Procedures: Perform a range of tax procedures in accordance with the size and complexity of the engagement
3. Senior International Tax Director Responsibilities
- Tax Strategy: Strategy, planning, advice, research, evolving tax law and tax policy analysis
- Repatriation Planning: Foreign dividend repatriation strategy and policies, including withholding reduction strategies
- Credit Management: Foreign Tax Credit and Foreign Source Income planning to ensure Foreign Tax Credits do not expire unused
- Authority Negotiation: Competent authority negotiations involving another government (e.g., a dispute over which country gets to tax intercompany royalties)
- Structural Design: Strategic structuring of complex arrangements (e.g., Brita Canadian Structure)
- Mobility Analysis: Evaluation and advice related to international employee movements and their likelihood of creating permanent business establishments in other countries
- Legislative Assessment: Analyzing potential effects, assessing appropriate actions, and communicating to VP Taxes and Senior Management the international aspects of evolving tax law changes
- Global Compliance: Ultimately responsible for all tax filings, for all tax types (income, withholding, VAT, GST, etc.), for the taxation of international earnings and for LATAM
- Regional Oversight: Dotted line responsibilities for tax filings in foreign countries outside of LATAM
- Income Reporting: Federal and state reporting of foreign income under Subpart F and GILTI
- Source Determination: Determination of Foreign Source Income and Foreign Tax Credits
- Form Preparation: Preparation of extensive multi-page federal forms reporting international activity such as forms 966, 1118, 5471 (approximately 50), 5713, 8865 (approximately 6), 8990, 8991, 8993
- Provision Analysis: Determine international income tax expense and balance sheet liabilities under ASC 740 for SEC financial reporting purposes, with attendant 10K disclosures
- Reserve Evaluation: Determine international uncertain tax positions (audit reserves) for financial reporting
- Transfer Pricing: Setting of prices charged between related entities to ensure they are at arm's length while also optimizing worldwide tax posture
- Due Diligence: Due diligence around a target’s tax posture, tax exposures and risks, strength of tax compliance
- Deal Structuring: Structuring of deal to optimize taxes (e.g., choices of legal entity types, structures, ownership, location, choices of acquisition type - assets, stock, combination, pricing arrangements)
- Post Integration: Post-deal arrangements, such as transition services agreements
4. International Tax Director Job Summary
- Tax Services: Deliver a full range of international tax services for multiple clients in a wide variety of industries
- Client Interaction: Interacting closely with clients to formulate, develop, and deliver innovative international tax planning, consulting, and compliance expertise
- Staff Management: Develop and manage staff, and go to market with partners and staff on practice and business development activities
- Tax Advisory: Advising multinational companies on the tax implications of their international operations
- Strategy Coordination: Coordinating tax laws with foreign tax laws to develop an optimal global tax strategy
- Transaction Planning: Consulting with clients on tax-efficient structuring of international transactions, effective use of tax treaties, and planning related to offshore investment activities and repatriation programs to minimize foreign income taxes of multinational clients
- Investment Structuring: Advising and structuring foreign companies and persons' inbound investment including withholding tax planning, treaty planning and FIRPTA
- Project Development: Development of a project vision and establishment of challenging personal and client service team goals
- Client Education: Facilitating client understanding of the implications of international tax developments
- Practice Integration: Integrating practice development skills into a team approach to client service and business development
5. Senior International Tax Director Accountabilities
- Tax Advisory: Advising clients on outbound and inbound tax planning and structuring
- Tax Research: Researching and consulting on various international tax matters
- M&A Support: Performing due diligence and structuring to support the M&A practice
- Global Collaboration: Working with RSM member firms around the world
- Material Development: Working with team members in developing and creating, proposing and marketing materials
- Service Expansion: Be a driving force in the growth and expansion of International Tax services throughout the region
- Project Review: Reviewing quantitative analysis and projects of tax associates and seniors
- Inquiry Response: Responding to inquiries from the IRS and other tax authorities
- Staff Training: Assisting in staff development and training
- Client Interaction: Interacting with managers, directors and partners and clients