Tax

The tax profession provides a complex and challenging career due to the ever changing body of tax legislation. Taxation involves both accountancy and legal expertise. As well as excellent numeracy and communication skills, you need the ability to construct logical arguments and interpret complex legislation, research skills and the ability to solve problems. Professional bodies such as The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) and The Association of Taxation Techniques (ATT) regulate tax professionals.

There are initially two separate paths; working for the government, or working as a tax practitioner in private practice, commerce or industry. It is common to move from working within government into commerce but less common to see the reverse.

There are many graduate opportunities in tax within accountancy and legal firms and typically 90% of the training opportunities are found there. If you choose to work in industry, typically you will be involved in either tax planning or tax compliance. Big firms often ask for a 2.1 and 300 UCAS points as minimum requirements.

Governmental work will either be as a tax inspector for HMRC or in policy for HM Treasury. HMRC entry requirements are usually a 2.2 and have an excellent training programme but there are substantially fewer graduate openings. One strand is the Tax Professional Development programme for tax inspectors and takes four years to complete.