There's a talent war playing out among the country's leading audit and advisory firms to beef up their top tax advisors' teams. Over 100 partners and senior executives have changed firms in the past six to seven months, setting off one of the busiest hiring cycles the sector has seen in recent years.
The surge in demand for tax professionals comes on the back of companies seeking advice on issues including retrospective tax, cross-border transactions, tariffs, mergers and acquisitions. Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled tax solutions are also fuelling the hiring frenzy, with the firms recruiting top executives and their teams from rivals.
In focus are companies such as EY, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, which are bunched together under the ‘Big Four’ tag. And then, there are firms such as BDO and Grant Thornton Bharat, who are guzzling tax expert talent. Partners with 15-plus years of work experience are joining competition and taking along their teams.
Multiple executives at these companies that Mint spoke to said that the opportunities offered included an up to 30% raise, a larger team to handle and promotions.
“A musical chair is going on in the tax business of these companies. The Big Four have hundreds of partners, and even if 2-3% of these senior executives shift, the numbers become big," said a top tax executive at one of the Big Four. "We estimate that at least 100 have moved firms in the last two to three quarters. And more are in the pipeline.”
One of the senior most partners in one of the Big Four has joined a rival, taking along 30-plus team members, industry executives said.
Mint tracked a few of the movements—some were confirmed by industry sources and in the case of others, the executives had updated their profiles on social media platform LinkedIn.
It's a revolving-door market, with the firms repeatedly hiring from one another. For instance, in May, Vinay Aggarwal moved from EY to PwC, while Sangita Prakash joined EY from Dhruva Advisors, a tax advisory firm. A few days ago, Prashant Acharya joined PwC as a partner from EY. In March, Mohit Mittal left EY for Deloitte, Komal Shah switched from Deloitte to EY and Pushkar Bhartia joined EY after leaving his independent practice.
EY partner Pankaj Jain and Deloitte partner Anoop Kalavath have resigned. According to sources, Kalavath is expected to join EY, while Jain has been picked up by another rival firm. Both Jain and Kalavath did not respond to emailed queries.
Going a little back to last year, Lokesh Gandhi moved from KPMG to EY in November, while Deloitte hired Amit Jain and Ashish Nahar from PwC in May.
Replying to Mint's emailed queries, EY said, “With recent partner promotions (38) and strategic lateral hires from industry and professional services, our tax practice has over 300 partners and close to 7,000 professionals.”
Apart from hires, there is inhouse upskilling too. “As demand for AI-enabled tax solutions grows, we are upskilling our people and expanding our team of 650+ tax AI specialists,” said EY.
KPMG confirms its expansion plans. “We are expecting about 20% growth across Partners and teams to align with client needs and a complex regulatory landscape, while deepening capabilities in AI, technology, and sector execution. ” said Sunil Badala, partner, national head of tax at KPMG in India in an email response to Mint.
PwC and Deloitte did not respond to queries, whereas Grant Thornton Bharat declined to comment.
BDO said its India tax practice has seen a “significant" expansion over the last six months, with partner strength rising approximately 25%, "with more in the pipeline”.
“Our expansion plan has largely been around strategic partner hires in areas where we expect significant growth (transfer pricing, international tax, customs) as well as in markets where we anticipate significant growth (emerging markets and other growth cities),” said Munjal Almoula, managing partner, tax and regulatory advisory for BDO India.
The Big Four have also become recruitment grounds for other advisory firms expanding their tax teams. “We have hired about half-a-dozen partners and senior managers from the Big Four over the last six months,” said Dinesh Kanabar, chairman and chief executive officer of Dhruva Advisors India Pvt. Ltd.
The hiring war reflects how the industry has evolved. Firms that traditionally derived much of their identity from audit work now compete across tax, consulting and advisory services, with major regulatory or business developments often sparking fresh battles for specialized talent.
If the flavour this season is tax expertise, it was core audit not long back. Last year, Mint reported on how the Big Four were boosting their audit benches with forensic analysts, tax auditors, and chartered accountants. The push then was the approaching mandate under the Companies Act of 2013, by which companies must change their external auditors every 10 years. With the last rotation done in 2017 and the next one slated for 2027, there were over 600 companies scouting for auditors, and these top consulting firms were bulking up for opportunities.