Indirect Tax Search
Retained search for indirect tax partners and teams leading VAT and GST advisory and customs and trade taxes in the era of Singapore's real-time GST InvoiceNow reporting.
Market overview
Indirect tax has moved from the back office to the centre of the talent agenda as Asia's GST regimes digitise, and Singapore is the pace-setter. Singapore's GST sits at 9 percent following back-to-back increases in 2023 and 2024, and IRAS is rolling out GST InvoiceNow, a five-corner model in which the revenue authority receives transactional data in near real time, shifting compliance from periodic returns to continuous monitoring [1]. The mandate scales from new voluntary registrants in 2025 and 2026 to effectively all GST-registered businesses, with existing businesses onboarding progressively from April 2028 to April 2031 [2].
This is a regional trend, not a Singapore quirk. E-invoicing and real-time reporting mandates are spreading across APAC, and they change the skill set firms hire for: indirect tax leaders now need to combine technical VAT and GST expertise with the data and technology fluency to ensure tax treatments are correct at the point of transaction rather than reconciled later [1]. The discipline has become, in effect, part tax and part systems. Hong Kong has no GST or VAT, so its indirect-tax demand concentrates in customs, stamp duty and cross-border trade, which makes a regional indirect-tax leader a genuinely multi-jurisdiction hire.
Customs and trade taxes have risen in parallel. Shifting tariff regimes have pulled customs and trade specialists into deal teams and supply-chain redesign work across the region's manufacturing and logistics corridors [3]. Firms building a credible indirect tax practice increasingly want both the VAT / GST and the customs and trade capability under one roof.
Talent is scarce at the senior end. There are relatively few partners who can lead a digitised indirect tax practice across Singapore and the wider region, and demand from clients adapting to real-time reporting is structural rather than cyclical [4]. We run retained search for these leaders across the Big Four, mid-tier networks and independents.
What we cover
- VAT / GST
- Customs & trade taxes
Roles we place
VAT / GST Advisory
- Indirect Tax Partner
- GST / VAT Director
- Senior Manager, Indirect Tax
- Indirect Tax Advisory Manager
Customs & Trade
- Customs & Global Trade Partner
- Trade Tax Director
- Customs Compliance Lead
- Global Trade Advisory Manager
Indirect Tax Technology
- Indirect Tax Technology Director
- E-Invoicing / Real-Time Reporting Lead
- Tax Engine Implementation Manager
Candidate profile
SCTP Accredited Tax Advisor (GST) or chartered accountant (CA Singapore / HKICPA / CPA / CTA) with deep VAT / GST specialism; ADIT (with an indirect tax / VAT thematic module) valued for cross-border indirect work.
Customs and global trade credentials for trade-tax leaders.
Data and tax-technology fluency for the GST InvoiceNow e-invoicing and real-time reporting era.
APAC regional VAT / GST experience across multiple jurisdictions and languages.
Seniority
- Manager
- Senior Manager
- Director / Associate Director
- Partner / Principal
Sectors served
- Consumer & retail
- E-commerce & digital platforms
- Manufacturing & supply chain
- Logistics & trade
- Financial services
- Real estate
- Telecoms & media
Frequently asked
- How has e-invoicing changed who firms hire for indirect tax?
- Real-time reporting regimes like Singapore's GST InvoiceNow turn indirect tax into a data and systems discipline as much as a technical one. Firms now want leaders who can ensure correct treatment at the point of transaction and oversee tax-engine and e-invoicing implementations, so we look for that technology fluency alongside core VAT and GST depth.
- Do you place customs and trade specialists?
- Yes. Because Hong Kong has no GST or VAT, much of its indirect-tax work sits in customs, stamp duty and cross-border trade, and shifting tariff regimes have pushed customs and global trade up the agenda regionally. Many firms want VAT / GST and customs capability together, and we run searches for partners who can lead a combined indirect tax and trade practice.
- Is APAC a strong market for indirect tax hiring?
- Very. Singapore's GST InvoiceNow rollout and the spread of e-invoicing mandates across the region have made APAC the fastest-growing tax advisory market, and indirect tax leadership is in particularly short supply.