Tax Strategy for Chief Financial Officers Training Course

Course overview

Chief Financial Officers are expected to improve cash flow, protect earnings, support growth and maintain credibility with boards, investors, lenders and tax authorities—all while tax rules, reporting requirements and operating models change. This course addresses the practical CFO challenge of turning tax from a year-end compliance activity into a managed financial lever. Participants learn how tax affects capital allocation, legal-entity design, pricing, financing, M&A decisions, forecasts and the quality of reported results, while recognising where specialist tax advice is essential.

The programme covers tax governance, effective tax rate analysis, cash tax forecasting, deferred tax under IAS 12, transfer pricing oversight, tax risk assessment and the financial impact of international tax developments. Participants build the ability to interrogate tax assumptions in budgets and investment cases, distinguish permanent from temporary differences, assess tax-sensitive transactions, set meaningful tax KPIs and present tax exposures clearly to the board and audit committee. Attention is given to controls, documentation, scenario analysis and the interaction between tax, treasury, accounting, legal and operating teams.

Delivered through instructor-led briefings, CFO-level cases and spreadsheet-based modelling workshops, the course uses realistic decisions such as a cross-border expansion, intercompany financing arrangement and acquisition review. Participants work with an effective tax rate bridge, cash-tax forecast, tax-risk register and governance dashboard. They leave with a practical Tax Strategy Action Plan: a prioritised 90-day plan defining the tax metrics, decision gates, controls, owners and escalation routes they will introduce or strengthen in their organisation.

The course is suited to CFOs and senior finance leaders with responsibility for performance, reporting, investment and risk, including those who oversee tax specialists rather than prepare tax returns themselves.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Construct an effective tax rate bridge that separates permanent differences, temporary differences, discrete items and rate effects
• Build a rolling cash-tax forecast using profit projections, payment calendars, loss utilisation and scenario assumptions
• Apply IAS 12 principles to assess deferred-tax assets, deferred-tax liabilities and recoverability evidence
• Evaluate tax implications within capital investment, financing, acquisition and legal-entity restructuring proposals
• Create a tax-risk register with likelihood, financial exposure, control owner, evidence source and escalation threshold
• Assess transfer-pricing governance using intercompany agreements, policy documentation and audit-ready evidence
• Design a board-level tax dashboard with ETR, cash tax, uncertain positions, audit status and key risk indicators
• Produce a 90-day tax strategy action plan linking tax priorities to finance, treasury, legal and operational owners

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Chief Financial Officers — who must connect tax decisions to cash, earnings, investment and board oversight
• Finance Directors — who oversee financial planning, reporting and tax-risk governance across the business
• Group Financial Controllers — who manage IAS 12 reporting, close processes and tax-accounting evidence
• VPs of Finance — who need to challenge tax assumptions in growth, funding and operating-model decisions
• Heads of FP&A — who incorporate cash tax, effective tax rate and tax scenarios into forecasts and business cases
• Treasury Directors — who assess the tax consequences of debt structures, cash repatriation and intercompany funding

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable reading management accounts, budgets, cash-flow forecasts and basic financial statements. Familiarity with corporate income tax concepts such as taxable profit, tax losses, deductible expenses and tax rates is helpful, as is awareness of the difference between accounting profit and taxable profit. Participants should be able to work with Excel formulas and tables; advanced modelling or tax-return preparation is not required. This is a Foundation to Intermediate course: complete beginners in taxation can attend, but should expect to work with realistic finance cases rather than receive detailed instruction in any single country’s tax code.

Training methodology

The five-day programme combines focused instructor-led sessions with CFO decision cases, Excel modelling and facilitated peer discussion. Participants analyse an effective tax rate bridge, build a rolling cash-tax forecast, review deferred-tax positions under IAS 12 and test tax outcomes for an expansion, financing and acquisition scenario. Small-group workshops simulate discussions between the CFO, tax lead, controller and treasury team. Each day closes with a practical output, culminating in an individual 90-day Tax Strategy Action Plan tailored to the participant’s reporting cycle, risk profile and governance structure.

Course outline

Day 1: Tax strategy, governance and CFO decision rights

• The CFO’s tax agenda: cash, earnings, risk and reputation
• Tax operating model roles across finance, tax, treasury and legal
• Tax governance frameworks, policies and delegated decision rights
• Corporate tax risk appetite and materiality threshold setting
• Tax-risk register design and inherent versus residual risk scoring
• Board and audit committee tax-reporting requirements
• Tax-control mapping across planning, close and transaction processes

Workshop: Participants map a tax operating model for a multinational case company and produce a prioritised tax-risk register with named owners and escalation triggers.

Day 2: Effective tax rate, cash tax and deferred tax

• Book profit to taxable-profit reconciliation mechanics
• Effective tax rate bridge construction and variance diagnosis
• Permanent differences, temporary differences and discrete tax items
• Rolling cash-tax forecast structure and payment-calendar modelling
• Tax losses, credits and incentive utilisation assumptions
• IAS 12 deferred-tax asset recognition and recoverability testing
• Deferred-tax liability measurement and financial statement disclosures

Workshop: Using a supplied Excel model, participants build an ETR bridge and 12-month cash-tax forecast, then identify the evidence needed to support a deferred-tax asset.

Day 3: Tax in investment, financing and operating-model decisions

• Tax-adjusted net present value and investment appraisal inputs
• Tax due diligence questions for acquisitions and disposals
• Share purchase versus asset purchase tax considerations
• Interest deductibility and debt-capacity decision factors
• Intercompany financing, withholding taxes and cash repatriation
• Legal-entity rationalisation and operational substance assessment
• Scenario analysis for expansion, restructuring and exit decisions

Workshop: Teams assess three growth options for a case company and produce a CFO recommendation showing tax-adjusted cash flows, risks and decision conditions.

Day 4: Cross-border tax, transfer pricing and controversy readiness

• OECD transfer-pricing principles and the arm’s-length standard
• Functional analysis of functions, assets and risks
• Intercompany agreements and service-charge governance
• Transfer-pricing documentation: master file, local file and country-by-country reporting
• Pillar Two minimum-tax concepts and CFO reporting implications
• Tax audit readiness, information requests and controversy protocols
• Uncertain tax positions, provisions and disclosure governance

Workshop: Participants review an intercompany service and financing arrangement, identify transfer-pricing and documentation gaps, and create an audit-readiness response plan.

Day 5: Tax performance management and CFO action planning

• Tax KPI selection for cash, ETR, compliance, controversy and controls
• Tax dashboard design for executive and board audiences
• Monthly tax-performance review cadence and management information
• Tax data quality controls and finance-system data dependencies
• External adviser management, scope definition and challenge questions
• Tax strategy communication to the board, auditors and investors
• Ninety-day tax strategy implementation planning

Workshop: Participants present a board-ready tax dashboard and complete a 90-day Tax Strategy Action Plan with milestones, owners, measures and escalation points.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, IFRS IAS 12 Income Taxes, OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions