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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 five direct taxes, such as income tax, and 15 indirect taxes, such as VAT and National Insurance Contributions. The Department also pays and administers Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Child Trust Funds. We also play a key role at the UK’s frontiers, both protecting the border and facilitating trade across it. In addition we have a range of other compliance activities such as enforcing National Minimum Wage regulations and recovering student loans.

Almost every UK individual and business is a direct customer of HMRC. We have 87,000 staff (nearly 20% of the entire Civil Service). Last year we collected £423bn in taxes and duties, paid out £18.5bn in tax credits, handled 140 million customer enquiries, facilitated the movement of £573billion worth of goods and 200 million passengers and undertook 350,000 tax enquiries and visits. It is the scale and size of this direct delivery challenge that distinguishes HMRC from other Government Departments.

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.

We conduct all of our litigation in teams in-house. Owing to the size of our Department, this includes a significant volume of cases at the Court of Appeal, the House of Lords, the European Court of Justice and 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 are piloting the use of 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 around 175 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 Somerset 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 secondments to legal teams in other Departments, and to the European Commission, 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.

Benefits & Rewards

Salary is dependent on experience. All lawyers are eligible to join the Civil Service's pension scheme and receive a generous paid annual leave allowance. The Department offers training opportunities for continuous professional development and flexible working arrangements are available (by agreement with Line Manager). We have an in-house training programme available to all members of the Office and are also developing an additional one for our trainees. There is also a one-week residential ‘Introductory Course for Lawyers’ for any lawyers joining HMRC who are also new to the GLS.

Legal Trainee & Pupillage Opportunities

Our legal trainees are supported at the highest level in the Office, with Anthony Inglese, the General Counsel and Solicitor, as training principal for both our trainee solicitors and pupils, assisted by a group of senior members of the Office.

There are opportunities for legal trainees (both trainee solicitors and pupil barristers) in HMRC. Trainee solicitors undertake all their training in 4 six-month seats throughout the Department. Pupil barristers spend the first half of their pupillage in chambers, followed by six months in the Department.

Legal trainees can expect to gain experience in any area of our work, subject to business needs, in both advisory and litigation teams. Our legal trainees are given a high degree of responsibility and will be expected to manage their own case load as well as working with senior lawyers on major litigation or advisory projects. Due to the size of our Department we are able to offer our trainees a wide range of experiences and recent trainees have worked directly, with senior lawyers, on litigation in the ECJ, House of Lords cases, advising on proposed legislation and drafting of secondary legislation.

“Legal Trainees and Pupil Barristers are recruited through the GLS Legal Trainee Scheme.” In the 2008 competition, we recruited 3 trainee solicitors to start in 2010.

You can read more about the work trainee lawyer's carry out at the HMRC by clicking here.

Qualified Lawyer Vacancies

Vacancies for posts in HMRC 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).

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.

Or contact :

Anthony Inglese CB
General Counsel and Solicitor
Room 2/40
100 Parliament Street
London
SW 1A 2BQ

Tel : 0207 147 2720
Email: anthony.inglese@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk