In a nutshell
Tax lawyers are a permanent feature in almost every industry, but they are most in demand (and most highly paid) when it comes to transactional and regulatory matters for corporate clients. Private client lawyers also increasingly have to be tax experts when advising high net worth individuals on how to structure their wealth. Navigation of this highly analytical and complex practice area often necessitates a degree of proficiency in mathematics and an interest in accountancy.
Tax lawyers in the private sector ensure that clients structure their business deals, assets, or day-to-day operations in such a way that they take advantage of legal breaks and loopholes in tax legislation. A public-sector tax lawyer is primarily employed to provide advice and assistance regarding regulations, but also works on investigations, audits and prosecutions of tax evading organisations. Although this is predominantly an advisory practice area, on occasion matters can veer into litigation territory.
What lawyers do
- Ensure that clients take advantage of legal breaks and loopholes permitted by tax legislation.
- Handle tax planning for clients, making sure they understand the financial ramifications of purchases.
- Address the ownership and disposal of assets, including advising on structuring corporate portfolios in the most tax-efficient way.
- Offer transactional advice when working with corporate lawyers on M&A deals, joint ventures and property portfolio acquisitions.
- Deal with investigations or litigation resulting from prosecution by Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC, sometimes referred to as 'the Revenue'). This litigation is always conducted against or brought by the government.
- Work alongside private client lawyers on matters of private wealth.
Realities of the job
- This is an intellectually rigorous, rather cloistered area of law and is ideally suited to the more academic practitioner.
- Corporate tax lawyers are very well paid, treated with reverence by their colleagues and find intellectual stimulation in their work.
- Lawyers must not only have the ability to translate and implement complex tax legislation, but must also be able to advise on how to structure deals in a legitimate and tax-efficient way to avoid conflict with, and potential penalties imposed by, HMRC.
- If you don’t already wear specs, expect to after a couple of years of poring over all that black-letter law. The UK has more pages of tax legislation than almost any other country, and there are new changes implemented every year.
- In time extra qualifications, such as the Chartered Tax Adviser exams, will be useful.
Don't expect to be on the side of the angels: you may end up spending your time advising big businesses on how to avoid paying tax without breaking the la