Home > About the GLS > GLS Departments > HMRC

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) was formed in April 2005, following the merger of Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise.

HMRC’s role is to administer the UK’s tax and customs systems to ensure society’s financial wellbeing. We do this by collecting and administering the four direct taxes, such as income tax, and the indirect taxes, such as VAT. The Department also pays and administers Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Child Trust Funds. In addition we have a range of other compliance activities such as enforcing National Minimum Wage regulations and recovering student loans.

In 2009, the UK Border Agency took over statutory responsibility for protecting the UK's borders against illicit and harmful trade, including illegal import or export of drugs, counterfeit or illicit alcohol and tobacco, and other illicit goods. However, HMRC still has a key role and is responsible for policies and activities associated with collecting duties at the frontier and processing information about international trade.

HMRC Solicitor's Office

The work of HMRC Solicitor's Office is an integral part of HMRC and has, in common with other Government departments, a broad range of often unique work covering, in addition to tax, many aspects of public law including Human Rights, Freedom of Information, European law and Judicial Review. We work closely with lawyers in other Government departments.

HMRC offers the opportunity to undertake both advisory work and litigation.

Unlike most Government departments, we conduct all of our litigation in teams in-house [except ECJ cases, which TSol handle, and Strasbourg cases (FCO)]. Owing to the size of our Department, this includes a significant volume of cases at the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union and occasionally, the European Court of Human Rights. Much of our litigation is both high-profile and high-value, including a number of cases where more than £1bn of tax is at stake. We use the private sector to assist us with some of our litigation.

Our advisory teams provide legal advice and support to all parts of the Department, covering business and personal taxes (including benefits and credits), property and indirect taxes, information, criminal, human rights and European law as well as international cooperation. We work closely with our policy clients in relation to all areas of our work and get involved early in the development of new legislation. Our advisory lawyers draft our secondary legislation and work every year with clients and Parliamentary Counsel on the passage of the Finance Bill.

We also advise and litigate in relation to commercial and employment matters, rating and valuation, criminal finances and the civil aspects of criminal matters, and enforcement of tax debts including insolvency.

Depending on our current vacancies, successful candidates may start in any of these teams.

The quality of the advisory and litigation work is such that the experience a lawyer can gain at HMRC Solicitor’s Office is commensurate with the best experience available in these areas in the private sector.

The Working Environment

The Solicitor's Office employs approximately 200 lawyers (both solicitors and barristers) plus support and administrative staff.

The majority of our lawyers work in London at 100 Parliament Street in Whitehall and Bush House on the Strand.

We also have an office in Ralli Quays, Manchester, a modern building within easy reach of the city centre.

Widening Your Experience

New recruits to the office come from a variety of backgrounds. Both solicitors and barristers work at HMRC Solicitor's Office and many have previously worked in private practice. It is quite common for newly qualified lawyers and even those with some years' experience since qualification to have limited experience of taxation. However, this is by no means a disadvantage as a wide general experience in the law is often extremely useful.

Most lawyers move between teams in order to acquire a range of experience in the work of the various divisions. Staff are encouraged to move between the teams during their careers and to consider loans to legal teams in other departments, in order to widen their experience. It is usual for such moves to take place every three years or so in the early stages of a lawyer's career in the Office.

Vacancies

Qualified lawyer vacancies for posts in this department are advertised through the central GLS scheme. All vacancies are posted on the Civil Service Recruitment Gateway (this link will open in a new window).

Trainee Solicitors and Pupil Barristers are recruited through the GLS Legal Trainee Scheme.

Further Information

Read more about career development within HMRC
(Adobe Acrobat pdf, 64kb).

For further information please visit www.hmrc.gov.uk Or Read about what it’s like working as a lawyer in HMRC.