Senior Accountant Tax and Pension

ABOUT THE JOB

The ACLU seeks applicants for the full‑time position of Senior Accountant, Tax and Pension Benefit in the Administration & Finance Department of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY. This is a hybrid role that has in‑office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month.

Responsible for safeguarding the financial resources of the organization, the Finance Team manages the financial activities of the National ACLU. From paying vendors, forecasting budgets, and everything in between, we take pride in providing the resources and the platform for informed financial decision‑making.

This position is part of a collective bargaining unit. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU).

Reporting to the Deputy CFO, the Senior Accountant, Tax and Pension Benefit will be responsible for significant functional areas within the ACLU’s accounting and will play a critical role in the successful operations of the Finance Team at the ACLU. Our ideal candidate will have strong accounting knowledge, analytical and functional experience, possess an exceptional attention to detail, an orientation toward being of service, and a passion for the work of the ACLU.

The following overview of responsibilities is intended to describe the type of work assigned to this position. It is not an exhaustive list of all specific duties required by the employee:

General Accounting Operations:

• Set the bar for customer service excellence by providing timely, thorough, and friendly responses to internal and external stakeholder inquiries
• Perform account reconciliations relevant to functional areas, ensuring their accuracy and proper documentation for internal and external reporting purposes
• Assist with relevant audits, preparing audit schedules and materials and managing deliverable deadlines
• Complete ad‑hoc reports and projects as requested by Finance Leadership
• Suggest accounting policies and procedures based on GAAP and industry best practices relevant to functional areas

Functional Area:

Tax:

• Coordinate with the Assistant Controller, Revenue and Investments on the preparation and review of all federal, state, and local income tax returns
• Assist with the preparation of required tax filings and government reporting (local, state, federal), including preparing schedules and/or draft filings for review
• Manage all federal/state and local tax correspondence and audits
• Prepare year‑end estimated tax payments for all federal, state, and local agencies
• Prepare ad‑hoc tax reports for internal and external stakeholders
• Prepare and review tax provisions for the annual financial statements
• Develop processes and controls to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local agencies
• Advise and interpret for the Finance team the impact of new laws, decisions, regulations, rulings, and proposed tax legislation
• Review annual K‑1s to determine the federal and state annual unrelated business income/loss generated
• Maintain organized and up‑to‑date recording system for electronic files; utilizing established internal best practices for record retention
• Review the annual returns prepared by the external auditors before filing
• Prepare the monthly filings for NYS sales and use tax and any additional states
• Apply for and maintain all state sales tax exemptions for the ACLU
• Coordinate with Avalara (tax consultants) on filing all sales taxes in relation to the ACLU store.

Functional Area:

Pension Benefits:

• Communicate the progress of monthly/quarterly initiatives to internal and external stakeholders
• Review the calculation of affiliates’ invoices for late payments made to the ACLU retirement plans
• Review the quarterly reconciliation of employee census data from Form 941, “Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return,” to the year‑to‑date payroll register to ensure the accuracy and completeness of employee data between the two sources
• Review affiliates’ reconciliation of their Form 941 to their payroll registers quarterly for accuracy
• Review SOC‑1 reports for National and all affiliates on an annual basis and document if any control issues exist.
• Review monthly trust statements for both the pension and the contribution…