Nikhil Vittal
Associate Director – Corporate & State & Local Tax (SALT)
Bangalore
Summary
Certified E.A - Associate Director with 15 years of experience in public accounting tax practice. Majorly focused on Corporate and SALT.
Experienced with strategic planning, project management, and stakeholder communication. Utilizes these skills to enhance operational efficiency and drive team success. Track record of effective leadership in high-stakes environments.
Results-driven professional with extensive experience in leadership and strategic oversight. Adept at driving organizational success through effective team collaboration and dynamic problem-solving. Recognized for adaptability and keen focus on achieving objectives.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
3
3
Certifications
Work History
Associate Director
Grant Thornton
07.2023 - Current
- Led teams of up to 55 personnel, supervising daily performance as well as training and improvement plans.
- Established strong relationships with key stake holders creating mutually beneficial opportunities for growth and collaboration.
- Mentored junior staff members, providing guidance on professional development opportunities and career progression paths within the company.
- Reduced operational costs by identifying inefficiencies and implementing cost-saving measures in various departments.
- Oversaw annual budget planning processes, ensuring financial goals were met while maintaining optimal resource allocation across departments.
- Improved overall team efficiency by streamlining project management processes and implementing new collaboration tools.
- Prioritized tasks and allocated resources appropriately to keep teams focused and productive.
- Assisted senior leadership in managing all aspects of operations.
- Maintained compliance with industry regulations while adapting to changes in legislation or best practices as needed.
- Established team priorities, maintained schedules and monitored performance.
- Streamlined and monitored quality programs to alleviate overdue compliance activities.
- Successfully managed budgets and allocated resources to maximize productivity and profitability.
Senior Manager
Grant Thornton
01.2021 - 06.2023
- Established strong relationships with clients and stakeholders, ensuring long-term partnerships and repeat business.
- Implemented and developed operational standards, policies and procedures.
- Held monthly meetings to create business plans and workshops to drive successful business.
- Provided strong leadership to enhance team productivity and morale.
- Improved team performance by providing comprehensive training and fostering a collaborative work environment.
- Enhanced team performance with regular coaching sessions, focusing on individual strengths and areas for improvement.
Manager
Grant Thornton
07.2019 - 12.2021
- Managed and motivated employees to be productive and engaged in work.
- Accomplished multiple tasks within established timeframes.
- Maximized performance by monitoring daily activities and mentoring team members.
- Enhanced customer satisfaction by resolving disputes promptly, maintaining open lines of communication, and ensuring high-quality service delivery.
Assistant Manager
Grant Thornton Services India Pvt. Ltd - Bangalore Office
07.2016 - 07.2019
- Tax Compliance and Specialty offerings
- Joined the Firm in the Pilot Batch.
- Manger level review of Federal and State & Local tax returns.
- Assisted National Tax Strategic group to standardize the tools and helped them to update these tools with recent regulations.
- SALT nexus studies to determine the filing requirements for States.
- Worked in groups which were specialized in States and helped the firm to setup a foundation and built a strong team in State Compliance.
- Built SALT related content/materials in co-ordination with the US L&D team for new hire trainings and onboarding.
- Responsible for overall State and Local Tax trainings to experience and campus tax professionals.
- Part of pilot team for ASC 740 Provisions. Working knowledge on one source provision software.
- Part of Tax M&A team, as a pilot project worked with US leadership team to build the practice and successfully trained 10 professional.
- Manage the team of 15 tax professionals and assistants on client projects.
- Facilitated trainings on various Corporate and SALT topics for new hires and seniors.
- Tax tool Knowledge: Go-System, One Source, CCH, Tax Forms and Amended Return Software.
- Part of focused client program and helped the US Directors and Mangers to service client which include preparing SOW, Drafting PBC information, review of return and e-filing.
- Gold employee of the year 2013 for delivering complex SALT research project.
- Tax Innovation
- Project managed SALT RPA and implemented automation for extension and estimated process and working on tax return automation.
- Implementation of Power BI for SALT. Built a dashboard for SALT clients and won a firm wide contest
- Trained on Alteryx boot camp course. Initial stages of integration with various tax software.
- Part of Opportunity identifier group to help identify additional opportunity to the existing client and cross sell other service offerings.
- Tax Research and Knowledge Management
- Moved to Tax Research and Knowledge Management (KM) group through internal mobility on Rotational Basis.
- Supported Merger & Acquisitions and SALT Tax Business lines.
- As part of KM team, supported WNTO team in various Research projects;
- Worked on ASC 740 matrix for estimate calculation
- Updating State specific tools and matrix
- Worked with WNTO to draft SALT Alert and other tax technical update
- Supported WNTO team in identifying current trends in Service revenue and helped them to draft a technical write-up.
- Support M&A team to track M&A deals based on the third-party subscription.
- Knowledge Management specific project which includes; Competitive Intelligence, building resource center and home page for Tax Business lines, maintains of resources in intranet website & Content Management.
- Travelled to the US, Chicago and Phoenix offices for business meeting and training for 2 weeks and was successful in transitioning 200 hours of work to KM Shared service center
- Managing a team of 5 professionals which includes providing timely, and constructive feedback.
- Supporting the MIS reporting team and other day to day team management.
- Recruitment support for the KM team
Senior Associate
Grant Thornton
10.2012 - 07.2016
- Trained and supported new team members, maintaining culture of collaboration.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to drive successful completion of complex projects within deadlines.
- Mentored junior associates, fostering professional growth and helping them reach their full potential.
- Consistently maintained strong relationships with clients, ensuring clear communication and timely updates on project progress.
Senior Tax Consultant
Deloitte Tax Services India Pvt. Ltd - Hyderabad Office
02.2010 - 10.2012
- Worked as a Part of The U.S. Tax Accounting & Compliance Group for FS clients. Providing U.S.-based business clients' tax accounting & compliance services as per US GAAP requirements. Preparation of 1120, 1065 and Sate return for all states.
- Preparation and review as a compliance process for Financial Services/General Business Group.
- Managed a staff of 3 to 5 professionals on compliance and research projects.
- Preparation and review of Tax Estimates, Extensions and State Returns for the states using different tax tool. Analyzing the estimated amount to be paid to tax department by using different tax tool like CCH for corporations.
- Researching on latest rules and regulations impacting client's financial statements like research on the Withholding matrix for Partnership using different tax tool like super form Tax, state website and in house tax tool.
- Analyzing the financial statements of our clients and making necessary adjustments in order to achieve the taxable income.
- Preparation of Work papers (Pass-through's) analyzing the income for tier structure in partnership.
- E-filing the US state returns and extensions using various Tax applications
- Responding to the state notices on a timely manner
- Tax tool Knowledge: Go-System, One Source, K1 suite, Corp Tax and Amended Return Software.
Education
M.B.A - Finance
MATS
Bangalore, India01.2010
S.S.L.C -
S.V.E.S
Shimoga03.2003
B.Com - Finance And Taxation
Kuvempu University
01.2008
H.S.E - Commerce
D.V.S Pre-University College
01.2005
Skills
Team collaboration and leadership
Relationship building
Decision-making
Organizational development
Strategic leadership
Team collaboration and leadership
Certification
Enrolled Tax Agent
Timeline
Associate Director
Grant Thornton
07.2023 - Current
Senior Manager
Grant Thornton
01.2021 - 06.2023
Manager
Grant Thornton
07.2019 - 12.2021
Assistant Manager
Grant Thornton Services India Pvt. Ltd - Bangalore Office
07.2016 - 07.2019
Senior Associate
Grant Thornton
10.2012 - 07.2016
Senior Tax Consultant
Deloitte Tax Services India Pvt. Ltd - Hyderabad Office
02.2010 - 10.2012
M.B.A - Finance
MATS
S.S.L.C -
S.V.E.S
B.Com - Finance And Taxation
Kuvempu University
H.S.E - Commerce
D.V.S Pre-University College