Hiring is cautious but far from flat, and the demand is concentrated in specialist skills. The most recent labour market data shows the largest volume increase in vacancies sat in the professional, scientific and technical activities sector, which rose by 5,000 in the August to October 2025 period ONS – Vacancies and jobs in the UK: November 2025. Finance and tax roles live in that same professional cluster, so the appetite to hire is there.
The wider picture is one of measured demand. Businesses took a careful approach to hiring through a subdued 2025, but clear hotspots remained for specialist skills such as data, analytics and enterprise applications Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). A tax reporting analyst who can read data and work confidently across finance systems fits squarely into that in-demand group. The tightness of the market means a sharp, well-written brief is now a competitive advantage, not an afterthought.
A tax reporting analyst pulls together the numbers behind a company's tax position: corporation tax, VAT, and the reporting that feeds statutory accounts and regulatory returns. For a bank or financial services firm, that also means data quality, reconciliations, and supporting audit. It's a hybrid role that blends accounting judgement with data handling, which is exactly why it can be hard to define in a single job title.
That data-heavy dimension matters when you brief the role. Occupations that combine business analysis, systems and data are among those in critical demand across the UK Occupations in demand 2025, Explore Education Statistics, GOV.UK. Your first analyst is likely to spend as much time in spreadsheets, tax software and finance platforms as in the tax rules themselves. Name those systems in the brief so applicants can self-select on the tools they know.
Because this is your first hire in the role, there's no predecessor to learn from and no established playbook. That puts the weight on you to spell out the reporting calendar, the controls, and who signs off what. A good brief closes that gap by turning tacit knowledge, the things your team just knows, into written expectations the new analyst can follow from day one.
Start with scope. Write down exactly which taxes and returns the analyst owns, which they support, and which stay with a manager or external adviser. Ambiguity here is the single biggest cause of a shaky first quarter. Be specific: monthly VAT, quarterly reporting, the year-end corporation tax computation, and any regulatory returns unique to financial services.
Second, decide your entry level honestly. If you can support and train, a strong junior may outperform a more experienced hire who never quite fits your systems. Apprenticeships have become a serious route into technical roles: in AI hiring they rose from 3% of hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report. The same logic applies to finance. If you brief the role around potential and structured training, you widen your pool without lowering the bar.
Third, protect the entry point. Entry-level postings have thinned across parts of the economy, with one analysis showing a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since late 2022 techUK – What's actually happening with entry-level and graduate jobs?. A clear, generous brief for a first analyst role stands out precisely because so many junior openings have quietly disappeared. Say what you'll teach, not just what you demand.
Treat the job brief as a working document, not a formality. The best versions read like a short onboarding plan: here's your calendar, here are your systems, here's who to ask, and here's how we'll know you're doing well by month three. Get that on paper before you advertise, and both the search and the first 90 days get easier.
Once your brief is sharp, we turn it into a search. We read the scope, systems and outcomes you've written and match them against a database of 15 million candidates, then surface a ranked shortlist so you review people who fit the role you actually described. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Ready to brief your first tax reporting analyst? Share the role with Reed.ai and see your shortlist.
