The digital transformation It has also reached the world of taxation, a sector that has traditionally been associated with bureaucracy and technical tasks, but which now demands profiles that not only know about taxation, but also understand international management and technology. That is the case of Katja Dellinger, a tax advisor A 50-year-old German woman who works for a multinational and receives a gross monthly salary of 11,600 euros, to which is added an annual bonus of up to 45,000 euros linked to the company’s results.
Dellinger leads a small team in charge of developing technological tools applied to the tax field. Among its projects is the creation of an artificial intelligence chatbot intended to answer tax questions from the company’s employees in different countries. As explained in an interview for the German media Die Zeitthe greatest difficulty of the system is adapting responses to legislation from more than 200 jurisdictions, where regulations on taxes, customs or human resources change.
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The tax advisor works most of the time from home and recognizes that the workload is high. Although his contract is for 40 hours per week, he assures that normally works between 50 and 60 hours. “I spend seven or eight hours a day in meetings,” he says. The rest of the time is spent writing reports, coordinating teams, and convincing other departments to adopt new technological tools.
The rise of digitalization and artificial intelligence is changing the profile of tax advisory professionals. Dellinger, who studied Business Administration and Management, admits that he had to learn technology concepts to be able to work alongside computer specialists. According to him, he read “even a programming book for beginners to understand the technological language.”
Before joining his current company, he worked in one of the so-called Big Four, the four large international auditing and consulting firms. However, he remembers that stage with frustration because many of the hours he dedicated to helping colleagues or internal tasks could not be charged to clients and, as he says, he felt that this effort was not valued. He then joined a foreign company, where he created its tax department from scratch.
Despite her high salary, the manager believes that the gender gap is still present in the sector and states that “if I were a man, I would probably earn more.”
Paid for homes and high savings capacity
The family’s economic situation reflects its high income. Her husband, who works as a business consultant, earns around 6,000 euros a month. In addition, the couple has two homes already paid for: the house in which they live, bought in 2007 for 500,000 euros, and a two-bedroom apartment that they rent for 900 euros per month.
The family also has a great saving capacity. After finishing paying the mortgage on the home they rent, they estimate that they have between 4,000 and 5,000 euros left over each month. Part of that money is allocated to investments and savings products.
Their high incomes also allow them to spend more on leisure and services. The family spends about 15,000 euros per year on travel, more than 900 euros per month on insurance and around 700 euros per month on cultural activities and free time. In addition, Dellinger pays 500 euros a month to a maid who comes to his house twice a week, since “I never liked cleaning, but I did like living in a tidy house.”
Even so, the tax advisor assures that she now values free time more than money. After many years working long hours, he concludes that “in the future I would prefer to work less and enjoy life more.”