Lead, Payroll Tax

FINRA • Rockville, MD

4d • $83,900 - $180,400 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Lead, Payroll Tax independently manages payroll tax compliance and related deliverables across federal, state, and local jurisdictions in a multi-state hybrid work environment. The role is the Payroll team’s primary resource and first escalation point for moderately complex employment tax matters. It applies strong technical knowledge and judgment to resolve issues, identify compliance risks, recommend improvements, and coordinate solutions with internal stakeholders, third-party providers, and taxing authorities. Novel, high-risk, or policy-setting matters are escalated to Payroll management.

The position also manages compensation-related tax analysis and reporting, supports general payroll processing and tax projects, provides technical guidance to payroll team members without formal people-management responsibility, and prepares payroll financial reporting and audit support. The work includes collaboration in person and virtually in furtherance of FINRA’s mission of investor protection and market integrity. The work environment is hybrid, with defined in-person presence requirements; extended hours may be needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Six years of directly applicable multi-jurisdictional payroll and payroll tax compliance experience.
• Advanced knowledge of federal, state, and local employment tax requirements, multi-jurisdictional withholding, payroll tax compliance, and related operational practices.
• Workday Payroll processing experience.
• Strong analytical, research, and problem-solving skills, including the ability to conduct thorough tax research and communicate findings and recommendations.
• Exemplary verbal and written communication and customer service skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, and electronic tax research tools.
• Ability to self-direct and manage multiple priorities simultaneously in a deadline-driven environment.

Nice To Haves

• ADP/Smart Compliance experience is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Independently manage federal, state, and local payroll tax compliance, including withholding, unemployment, tax accounts, employee tax treatment, and multi-state and local tax setups.
• Validate payroll tax files and resolve exceptions to ensure accurate and timely remittance and filing; coordinate required funding with the Cash team.
• Manage payroll tax correspondence, registrations, agency notices, compliance follow-up, and complex employee tax inquiries through resolution.
• Analyze and resolve moderately complex payroll tax issues, including multi-jurisdictional withholding, employee work-location changes, tax exceptions, agency discrepancies, and system configuration concerns; perform variance analysis, compliance reviews, Workday tax adjustments, and root-cause research; escalate novel, high-risk, or precedent-setting matters to Payroll leadership.
• Monitor payroll tax law changes, assess impacts to FINRA employees and operations, recommend configuration or process updates, and coordinate implementation of approved changes with Payroll management and appropriate stakeholders.
• Own quarter-end and year-end payroll tax activities, including reconciliations, ADP/Smart Compliance coordination, reciprocity review, fringe benefit analysis, W-2 processing, and W-2-C corrections.
• Coordinate annual payroll tax filing activities and serve as the primary Payroll resource for tax-related audit requests, resolving routine matters and escalating material issues to Payroll management.
• Manage compensation-related analysis and reporting, including Form 990, Form 4720, taxable fringe benefit analysis, and related imputation adjustments.
• Analyze employee data and perform state and local regulatory reporting and filings, including environmental impact and parking cash-out programs.
• Analyze biweekly multi-state payroll results and support processing activities with tax impacts, including retroactive transactions, employee changes, and exception review.
• Lead defined payroll-tax projects and the payroll-tax workstream for system upgrades, enhancements, and user acceptance testing, including evaluating tax configuration, reporting, controls, and compliance impacts.
• Manage payroll-tax standard operating procedures and identify, recommend, and implement approved improvements to payroll-tax processes, controls, reporting, and system configurations.
• Provide backup payroll support as needed.
• Provide technical guidance, training, and work support to payroll team members on payroll tax procedures, compliance requirements, and issue resolution, without formal people-management responsibility.
• Prepare payroll GL reconciliations and journal entries, respond to ad hoc payroll tax data requests, and support ICM control testing.
• Coordinate payroll-tax audit requests, validate supporting documentation, resolve routine inquiries, track responses through completion, and escalate material findings to Payroll management.
• Demonstrate FINRA’s values and collaborate in person and virtually in furtherance of FINRA’s mission of investor protection and market integrity.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Basic life insurance
• Accidental death and dismemberment insurance
• Supplemental life insurance
• Spouse/domestic partner and dependent life insurance
• Short- and long-term disability insurance
• Long-term care insurance
• Business travel accident insurance
• Legal insurance
• 401(k) plan with company match and immediate participation and vesting
• Additional FINRA-funded retirement contribution eligibility
• Tuition reimbursement
• Commuter benefits
• Adoption assistance
• Backup family care
• Surrogacy benefits
• Employee assistance
• Wellness programs
• Discretionary bonus eligibility
• Overtime pay eligibility for non-exempt employees, in accordance with applicable law
• Paid time off starting at 15 days and increasing with service up to 25 days
• Five personal days
• Nine sick days
• Two volunteer service days for full-time schedules
• Military leave
• Jury duty leave
• Bereavement leave
• Voting and election official leave
• Family-member care leave after 90 days of employment
• Childbirth and parental leave after 90 days of employment
• Nine paid holidays for full-time employees

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior