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Whats it like working as a HMRC lawyer?

What’s it Like Working as a Lawyer for HM Revenue & Customs?

Foreword
I have had a most enjoyable career over 30 years in the Government Legal Service, working in several Departments: as a lawyer in the Home Office and then in the Attorney General's Office; as the Legal Advisor to the Office of Fair Trading and then to the Ministry of Defence; and as Solicitor to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and, since March of this year, as General Counsel and Solicitor to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

On arriving to head the Solicitor's Office in HMRC I was immediately impressed by the quality, the variety and the sheer size of our legal work. I tend to think that it is a well-kept secret across the GLS and in the legal world more generally. In the pages which follow, lawyers in HMRC have set out to reveal to you what a working day would look like here. Read on …

Anthony Inglese CB
General Counsel and Solicitor
August 2008

Excise and Environmental Taxes Team

My team advises on excise duties (on alcohol, tobacco, hydrocarbon oils and betting and gaming) and environmental taxes such as landfill tax and air passenger duty. My role involves both advisory and legislation work. Together with other colleagues in my team, I provide legal advice and interpretation of tax law, and in the run up to the
Budget each year we provide advice to policy clients on legal aspects of proposals for primary legislation and prepare instructions to Parliamentary Counsel to draft clauses for the annual Finance Bill.

My morning starts with a meeting with a policy client to discuss possible changes to the scope of a tax to keep pace with technological developments in the area. She agrees to send me her team’s initial proposals so I can advise on the legal aspects of each option. The review will raise some interesting questions including the impact of EU law and will cross over with other Government departments’ work.

Once I’m back at my desk I work on a piece of advice to a client. They wish to clarify the extent of some of the civil powers available to them. I research the area of law using online tools and the library, and draft an advice on the extent of each statutory power, flagging some potential Human Rights Act implications.

After lunch in the canteen with some colleagues, I finalise a draft of a statutory instrument relating to Gaming Duty which I have been working on. It will be laid before the House of Commons to be approved in a few days so I need to make sure
every detail is right. In a few weeks I will attend the debate with my clients to sit behind the Minister and offer on the spot legal advice if needed.

I joined HMRC’s Solicitor’s Office in 2007 having previously worked as an insurance litigation lawyer at a city firm.

(Solicitor, 5PQE)

Business & Property Taxes Litigation Team

My team conducts a wide variety of litigation covering corporation tax, international matters (including company residence, controlled foreign companies, double taxation, thin capitalisation and transfer pricing), capital gains tax, inheritance tax, trusts and settlements, stamp taxes and charities. The team conducts litigation before the tax tribunals, subsequent appeals to the High Court, Court of Appeal,
House of Lords and referrals to the European Court of Justice on all related points of EC law. It also defends Judicial Review proceedings before the Administrative Court.

This morning, I arrive back from a week’s leave to discover that an important and high profile Court of Appeal decision (in favour of HMRC) is due to be handed down later in the week. I read the draft decision and take instructions from my clients at CAR Capital Gains so that I can provide the court with our comments on the draft decision and agree the terms of the proposed Order with the partner of the City firm representing the taxpayer. In conjunction with my clients, I also prepare a submission for the court in response to the corporate taxpayer’s application for leave to appeal. This falls to me because Leading Counsel has left chambers for the summer vacation. I also agree a press briefing with the clients (to be released at the handing down), and a draft internal summary of the decision for policy colleagues so that any necessary action can be taken and announcements made once the decision is released.

After a late lunch, I provide advice and guidance to a junior team member who has joined the office without litigation experience. We spend time discussing progress in a case involving the use of various offshore trusts for tax avoidance purposes. We are working with Counsel to prepare a statement of case for filing later in the week. I
later spend time catching up with all my emails and providing internal clients with impromptu advice (by telephone and email) on diverse areas arising in the context of various other cases including disclosure, data security and the validity of tax assessments.

Following qualification, I spent 3 years in the private client department of a City firm. Since joining HMRC Solicitors Office from another government department in 2005, I have gained a wide range of tax litigation experience to complement the predominantly advisory nature of my previous work. In addition to developing my expertise gained in private practice (in areas such as inheritance tax, personal tax and the taxation of trusts), I have broadened my experience dealing with cases involving different areas of work such as transfer pricing, corporation tax and EC law. The quality of work is extremely high and I have already taken one case to the House of Lords and three cases to the Court of Appeal working with and against leading tax Counsel.

(Solicitor, 10PQE)

Data Protection and Information Law Team

It is never a dull day in my team. We provide advisory and litigation services to HMRC in all information law issues. This includes advising on all stages of FOI requests, from initial response to appeals to the High Court, and on issues arising under the Data Protection Act including our compliance with the data protection principles and the handling of requests by individuals for their personal information. We advise on our duty of confidentiality and on when we can disclose information to other agencies, both domestic and international. We comment on new legislation to enable information sharing. I use the full range of my legal skills and knowledge, including considering Human Rights and European law questions. I work with people right across the business at all levels, and have a lot of ‘people contact’.

I begin my day by providing some urgent advice to our Press Office on what information can be provided to a journalist about some criminal prosecutions. The Press Office is keen to ensure that they do not breach the Data Protection Act.

I then check my emails; I have some draft responses to freedom of information requests to consider and a question about the opening up to public access of some HMRC files that have been sent to the National Archives.

After that I prepare for a meeting with another government department concerning a legislative amendment being proposed to enable our Departments to share information. I meet with my clients in the policy team to discuss our approach. The meeting with the other Department goes smoothly and the Deputy Head of the Bill Team who are putting together the Bill is now ready to bid for time in the legislative calendar for the amendment.

My client in the Freedom of Information Policy Team calls to tell me that we have
received a decision from the Information Commissioner ordering HMRC to release some information under the Freedom of Information Act. I discuss with my boss as we only have 28 days to consider whether we wish to appeal, to brief counsel and to draw the appeal papers if necessary.

This is my first post at HMRC, having joined the Department in early 2007 after a couple of years as a temporary lawyer in both central and local government doing a mix of litigation work. I had been a public sector lawyer in Australia for a number of years prior to emigrating to England in early 2005. I love the intellectual breadth and depth of public law work which I think would be hard to replicate elsewhere.

(Solicitor, 5PQE)

Business Tax Advisory Team

The business tax advisory team covers both direct tax (corporation tax and income tax) and indirect tax (VAT). The direct tax lawyers advise a range of policy and operational clients working in a number of areas relating to business tax.

The team advises on statutory construction and on vires; drafts statutory instruments; advises on pre-action judicial review matters; and assists operational clients leading investigations into tax avoidance schemes, including giving advice on points of law raised by taxpayers, advising on disclosure issues and attending conferences with Counsel. The team also assists in drafting written observations to the European Court of Justice in cases in which the UK government is intervening and in which HMRC has an interest. The team advises in relation to measures in the annual Finance Bill, including working with Parliamentary Counsel on drafting clauses and amendments, reviewing speaking notes drafted by policy clients for Ministers to use in the House, and advising on compatibility of the measures with the Human Rights Act. The team also instructs foreign lawyers to advise on issues raised within investigations into tax returns with an international aspect, and the VAT specialists advise on all issues relating to VAT, and also do drafting of statutory instruments.

This morning I finished off drafting an advice to policy clients about whether a particular tax rule is compatible with the EC Treaty. I email my advice to my clients. I then moved on to reading a recent decision of the House of Lords on Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and considering what impact that decision has on advice I have given previously on another tax rule.
While I am doing this, I receive an urgent email asking me to review and comment on a speaking note, drafted by my policy client, which one of the Treasury Ministers will be using in the House of Commons during debate on a clause in the Finance Bill on which I have been advising. I am asked to turn this around by lunchtime. I make a few changes relating to case-law that is mentioned in the speaking note.

This afternoon I liaise with Leading Counsel's clerk about when an Opinion is likely to come in. The opinion will cover issues of EU law (the fundamental freedoms and state aid issues) and ECHR issues. I then review draft instructions to Counsel on a pre-action judicial review matter, which raises issues of legitimate expectation. Once I am happy with the draft, I email it to my client for his comments. Finally, I start reading instructions from a policy client asking me to draft a statutory instrument.

I joined HMRC in March 2008 from private practice, where I had done employment, discrimination and human rights litigation for over 10 years. I had no background in
tax from my previous work, and have been given training and support in both domestic tax issues, as well as EU and ECHR issues which directly relate to tax. I am based in London at Parliament Street. I work 4 days a week, including one day working at home. Business Tax Advisory is my first posting at HMRC.

(Solicitor, 10PQE)

Personal Tax Litigation Team

I have been working in the Personal Tax Litigation Team here at HMRC Solicitor’s Office since my return from maternity leave almost 12 months ago. I currently work part-time doing 3 days a week. Presently, I have conduct of cases before the Tax Tribunals (General and Special Commissioners) as well as appeals to the High Court. I also deal with judicial review applications (and pre action correspondence) including in relation to tax credits. Vary rarely are 2 days the same! However on most days I will liaise with my clients on how litigation is progressing, including possibilities for settling, read myself into new cases that have been allocated to me, prepare comments on draft stated cases and prepare instructions to junior and leading counsel (which I follow up with telephone calls to make sure they are on top of the papers/issues). My biggest case at the moment is worth several million pounds and I am glad to be working in a supportive team where more experienced lawyers are always willing to provide guidance. My most interesting case to date concerned whether the Department owed a duty of care to individual taxpayers and I had to advise my clients on the implications of the judgment for the Department.

I applied to the Government Legal Service for a pupillage at the same time as I applied to various chambers. Having received offers from both, I chose the GLS because I wanted to work within the public sector and for an organization where profit wasn't the main motivating factor. I spent my pupillage in the Solicitor’s Office where I worked on business tax law and tax prosecutions. I also spent five months in a London chambers doing employment law. When I completed my pupillage I was invited to join the Corporate Services Team working on the full range of claims made by Revenue employees to the Employment Tribunal. I was also involved in National Minimum Wage work, where I represented compliance officers in appeals against enforcement notices served on companies paying their employees less than the minimum wage.

I have felt since day one of that I am a valued member of the legal staff here. I have been entrusted with important cases which challenge me as a lawyer. On top of this, I have a good work/life balance which means that when I leave the office I can concentrate on finding innovative ways of entertaining my toddler!

(Barrister, 5 years call)

Commercial & Employment Team

I work in the Commercial and Employment Team at Ralli Quays in Manchester. Our team is split between London and Manchester and my work in Employment Law covers both advisory and litigation work along with three other Employment Lawyers and two Commercial Lawyers. We work closely with case workers on the litigation aspect of the job and take responsibility for different aspects of the cases. The advisory work involves advising our internal Human Resources clients, either on individual cases or on their policy for HMRC.

The day generally starts with catching up on emails and checking if anything urgent has come in for advice or a quick draft. Sometimes the turnaround times for us to produce a Response to an Employment Tribunal Claim are quite short. If I am working on an advice, a morning would typically be spent researching, starting with a practitioner’s handbook and our own guidance, then looking at case law and legislation. I will often discuss my view on the advice with the rest of the team and ask my manager to have a quick look at it to ensure I am on the right track, as l am still fairly new to employment law. If I am drafting a Response, there are usually
points to be checked with the clients and lots of documents to be read.

Our Manchester team covers the geographical area North of Birmingham, so time spent at Tribunal could be in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle or any of the other Tribunals in this large area. We instruct regional Counsel to present cases at Tribunal, but tend to do the Case Management Discussions and Pre-Hearing Reviews ourselves. Some Employment cases settle before reaching court, so our work involves negotiation with ACAS when appropriate and a need for clear prognosis for the client on the prospects of successful litigation or otherwise. Part of my day is therefore likely to include work on any of these areas, for example, instructing Counsel, writing a prognosis letter to clients or discussions with ACAS. The day invariably ends with a mad dash for the train home.

I joined HMRC’s Solicitor’s Office in 2004 as a trainee in London and spent time in seats in Prosecutions (now Revenue & Customs Prosecutions Office), Civil Litigation, VAT and Excise Litigation and VAT advisory, before qualifying into the VAT and Excise Litigation Team in September 2006. I spent just under a year and a half in that team, before moving North to take up my current post. I think the variety of a HMRC legal career is a great advantage and one I have been able to make the most of so far.

(Solicitor, 2PQE)

Tax Enforcement and Insolvency Team

The team in which I work provides legal services (advisory and litigation) to HMRC on all aspects of recovery and enforcement of tax, VAT and other duties, National Insurance Contributions, and Tax Credits etc. The Team also deals with all aspects of personal and corporate insolvency. The principal client instructing the Team is
Debt Management & Banking but we also provide legal services to the wider HMRC, including National Teams/Special Civil Investigations and Criminal Investigations.

I have just returned from appearing on behalf of HMRC at a Case Management hearing in a matter which will form the ‘test’ case for a significant number of other cases involving the same legal issues concerning the recovery of outstanding National Insurance Contributions, the value of which runs into millions of pounds. I email my client to update them on the result of the hearing and also contact leading and junior Counsel, instructed on this matter in order to keep them fully up to date.

I have just finished a detailed advice concerning the legality of various contractual settlements entered into by HMRC and the taxpayer, worth in excess of £1million. I email this to my policy client and arrange a telephone conference to discuss in detail the way forward in resolving this matter in light of my advice.

I then receive an email from another client asking me to provide urgent advice concerning the validity of the winding-up petition HMRC proposes to issue against a high profile organisation. I have also recently been involved in high level discussions involving clients across the wider HMRC concerning HMRC’s approach to this type of organisation more generally.

I joined HMRC in September 2006 as a pupil barrister. It was during my time at law school that I was diagnosed as Dyslexic, which may go some way to explain my childhood lack of interest in academia. Like many others, I spent most of my childhood wanting to be a professional footballer and got as far as signing for a professional club and being selected to represent my country at schoolboy level.
Injuries sadly put an end to these ambitions. I have worked previously for the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the National Crime Squad and so working in the public interest has always been of interest to me.

I enjoy working for HMRC (and the wider GLS) due to the variety, regular hours and supportive culture. A good work-life balance is encouraged and, I’d recommend HMRC to anyone who enjoys intellectual challenge and engaging in issues of public importance. Being a Government lawyer won’t make you a fortune but, in my view at least, it provides for the possibility of a richly varied career that is second to none. The fact some of your work makes the headlines also makes for an interesting job.

(Barrister, 2 years call)

Business and Property Taxes Team

My team litigates high value cases before the House of Lords, Court of Appeal and High Court. Some of our cases are referred to the ECJ and we also deal with Judicial Reviews before the Administrative Court and a small number of cases before the Tax Tribunals. The team comprises both solicitors and barristers. The work of the team
covers a variety of direct taxes including corporation tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax and the litigation also covers international matters including controlled foreign companies, thin capitalisation, double taxation and transfer pricing. In the indirect tax arena, the team deals with cases involving stamp tax issues.

My day begins at 9am in Somerset House, where I am based. I draft a letter to an opponent seeking an update of his client’s position as the issue under appeal is a corporation tax matter and HMRC have recently won on the same issue in a higher court. After a brief discussion with a colleague on one of his cases, I walk along the
Thames to our Whitehall office for a meeting with policy clients regarding an appeal before the UK courts on an international issue. The ECJ have ruled on a specific question and the domestic litigation can now continue. I also set out the litigation timetable so that my clients have early visibility of the fixed litigation deadlines that I (and they) will be working to. I advise that a conference with counsel is necessary to discuss a small but important point that has arisen. One issue in this case is crosscutting and I invite my clients to consider contacting their colleagues in HM Treasury, who may wish to attend the conference with us.

I have lunch with a friend in Covent Garden which is near my office and I return to work to find that the House of Lords has released an embargoed judgment, seeking comments by midday in three days time. Judgment will be handed down in 7 days. HMRC has won, but the embargo means keeping the news secret from colleagues. I circulate it to counsel and to one client from whom I need to take instructions. The phone rings and it is my client singing ‘congratulations’ down the phone. I start to draft a summary of the decision for our Legal Director and telephone counsel’s clerk to alert him to the judgment date for counsel to attend next week. I spend some time reading disclosure that has arrived on another case and then read emails and the afternoon’s post. The day has flown by.

My job is extremely satisfying and the opportunities it offers a litigator are second to none. Work in this team combines the intellectual challenge of litigating a variety of tax cases with the art of balancing the competing issues that arise in the course of live litigation.

I joined HMRC’s Solicitor’s Office in 2003 as a trainee solicitor. I qualified into the Solicitor’s Private Office where my work included sensitive litigation and legal queries. I moved within HMRC to the VAT & Excise Litigation team where I spent 2 years litigating a variety of VAT and other indirect tax cases in the Tax Tribunal, High
Court, Court of Appeal and House of Lords. I joined my current team to expand my direct tax knowledge and to undertake litigation at all levels within the direct tax arena. Prior to joining HMRC I was an officer in the armed forces.

(Solicitor, 3PQE)