Tax Accountancy

  • Description
  • Tasks
  • Skills
  • Useful Knowledge
  • Entry Qualifications
  • Professional Qualifications
  • Trends
  • Resources

Tax, for many, is a complex subject best left to the experts.  There are two main areas in the tax advice profession.

  • Corporate tax advisers make sure that their business clients aren’t paying more tax than they need to. Some of their duties may include filing tax returns on their clients’ behalf and helping them to fulfil other tax reporting obligations. Tax advisers can also have a major influence on the way a business is run, helping clients understand the implications of all their business dealings. Sometimes this advice and tax planning can make the difference between reporting an annual profit or loss. Finally, they give advice to businesses about changes in the tax system and tax laws that may impact them.
  • Personal tax involves giving personal tax advice to individuals. Some of these individuals may be private clients that have considerable assets. Often known as high-net worth individuals, these are very wealthy individuals, like entrepreneurs or people that have inherited considerable sums of money and assets and are looking for help to comply with current regulations and avoid paying more tax than they need to.

Salary

Trainee positions start at approximately £15,000 per annum. With the right experience, qualifications and skills you could progress to management roles and earn in excess of £200,000 per annum.  This does not include potential bonuses and additional benefits. Salaries will vary considerably based on location and employer.

 

  • Preparing tax computations for businesses and completing the relevant tax returns
  • Calculating and submitting VAT tax returns on time, resolving errors or omissions
  • Meeting with clients, collecting information
  • Checking, completing and filing clients’ personal tax returns, calculating income from employment, property and investment income, including preparing capital gains tax computations
  • Producing reports and presentations on clients’ tax records
  • Explaining the different tax laws to clients and helping them to understand their legal obligations and adapt to changes in tax legislation
  • Looking into ways that a client could legally reduce their tax liabilities (tax avoidance), whilst making sure that they don’t do anything they shouldn’t (tax evasion)
  • Liaising and negotiating with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on the client’s behalf 
  • Staying informed on changes with tax laws in the UK and globally
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
  • Ability to explain complex tax information and implications clearly to non-tax experts
  • Numerate and logical
  • Good attention to detail
  • Ability to analyse and absorb large volumes of information
  • Commercial awareness and an understanding of tax legislation, including future developments
  • Confident taking ownership and responsibility
  • Discrete and honest, as most information is highly confidential
  • Effective at planning, organised and enjoy working to deadlines
  • Good team working skills
  • Methodical approach to record keeping and reporting
  • Flexibility; hours worked depend on the client’s demands, tax calendars and financial year-ends
  • Problem solving abilities

Employers will usually expect candidates to acquire knowledge in the following areas, through training and relevant professional qualifications:

  • Commercial awareness of the businesses and clients they are advising and current tax trends in the UK, as well as EU and other territorial tax regimes
  • Detailed knowledge of the latest tax reporting standards and how to prepare and calculate tax returns
  • Specialist knowledge about corporate and personal tax allowances or inheritance tax planning, if advising in this area
  • How to apply tax relief and exemptions correctly, such as capital gains and inheritance tax

Some of the larger accountancy and professional services practices offer schemes for people with school and college qualifications, alongside graduate training scheme opportunities. Those joining such schemes would still be required to work towards relevant professional qualifications. Experience in related professions such as accountancy, banking or other areas of financial services can be helpful. Whatever the route in, tax professionals need an understanding of numbers and to be able to communicate with people and produce written reports, so qualifications in maths and English are important.

For entry level positions, employers will require candidates to have either:

  • A Levels, Scottish Highers or equivalent qualifications such as  Business, Administration and Finance (BAF) Diploma, BTEC National Diploma, Welsh Baccalaureate (BAC), SVQ Level 3 or Higher National Certificate (SCQF Level 7)
  • For graduate training schemes, usually ask for a 2:1 degree or higher.

The main professional qualifications are:

  • The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) qualification. This automatically enables candidates to sit the Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) examination.
  • The Federation of Tax Advisers (FTA) qualification, which covers Income Tax, National Insurance Contributions, Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax and Value Added Tax.
  • Obtain a professional accountancy qualification with any of the professional accountancy bodies in the UK (ideally one which covers taxation in the syllabus), and then study for the CTA qualification.
  • Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
  • ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales)
  • Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)
  • Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI)
  • Association of International Accountants (AIA)


If you wish to progress to Chartered Tax Adviser status, you will need to become a member of The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). CIOT registration requires either membership of the ATT, or alternatively:

  • an approved professional accountancy qualification
  • qualified solicitor/advocate or company secretary status
  • in-house qualifications and experience from HMRC

With any of these qualifications you can apply for student membership of CIOT and take the CTA exams to reach Chartered Tax Adviser status.

Tax advisers are mainly employed by accountancy firms, specialist tax consultancies and practices or a large company with its own in-house tax department. Opportunities are also available with banks, legal firms and HMRC. Once CTA qualified, moving between these sectors is possible. The majority of tax trainee opportunities are in London and other major cities, though job opportunities exist throughout the UK.  There may be opportunities to work overseas for a multinational accountancy firm that provide tax services to listed global companies or UK business clients that have operations and offices abroad.

Register for updates »

Keep updated on work placement and job opportunities