Location Bristol Regional Centre- 3 Glass Wharf, Avon Street, Temple Quarter, Bristol, BS2 0ES ,Edinburgh Regional Centre- Queen Elizabeth House, 1 Sibbald Walk, Edinburgh, EH8 8FT About the job Job summary

At HMRC, we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve. We want to maximise the potential of everyone who works for us, and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make an exciting career at HMRC accessible to you. 

Diverse perspectives and experiences are essential to our success, and we encourage applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. 

About Large Business

Large Business (LB) is responsible for over 2,000 of the largest businesses that pay a significant proportion of the total business taxes and duties that HMRC collects. 

HMRC is offering exciting opportunities to join the Litigation Team as a Litigation Support Officer based in Bristol or Edinburgh.  

The posts offer excellent professional and personal development opportunities. Successful applicants will join one of the largest Civil Service departments and work in a fast paced and dynamic environment where they will support HMRC’s tax professionals and lawyers in providing high quality services.

See what it’s like to work at HMRC: find out more about us or ask our colleagues a question. Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity for capable and ambitious individuals to join the LB Litigation Team. This small team is responsible for preparing HMRC’s highest profile corporate tax disputes for litigation and securing significant amounts of tax.  

The Litigation Team within LB transitions tax investigations into litigation when disputes cannot be settled by agreement. Our work currently includes transfer pricing, diverted profits, and other international direct tax disputes but we are in the process of expanding our scope to cover litigation of other taxes and duties. The successful candidates will join as this expansion occurs so will be exposed to varied litigation across a range of taxes and have the opportunity to shape how we operate. 

The team is a mix of tax professionals and litigation support officers, who are generally recent law graduates. We work closely with the investigation teams, technical/policy specialists and lawyers both within our Solicitors Office and Legal Services directorate and externally to prepare cases for the First-tier Tribunal (Tax) and beyond. The focus of our work is to get the evidence obtained during an enquiry into a form that can be put before the tribunal to establish the facts necessary to support our legal arguments. 

You will be assigned to a number of litigation cases along with experienced tax professionals and lawyers. Full support will be provided but litigation support officers will also take ownership for specific areas of the work. The work can be fast paced but is also highly rewarding. 

Both the LB Litigation Team, and the wider HMRC teams with which we work, are geographically disperse. Most meetings are via online conferencing but there will be occasions when travel is required. 

Person specification

As a Litigation Support Officer, you will: 

• Review and collate documentation obtained during investigations
• Prepare fact papers
• Prepare chronologies
• Identify relevant documents and produce bundles for submission to the Tribunal
• Assist with the drafting of statements of case and other key documents for submission to the Tribunal
• Assist with the preparation of witness statements
• Support experienced colleagues in engaging external expert advisors/witnesses
• Attend meetings with external legal advisors (Counsel) and prepare notes of discussions

Essential Criteria

Applications will be considered from candidates qualified to degree level in law or who have completed a Graduate Diploma in Law, have achieved CILEx level 6 or completed a pre-PEAT training contract. Applications will also be considered from candidates without the specified qualification providing they have experience as a paralegal in a litigation environment. In their statement candidates should confirm if they have the specified qualification and also give details of any experience working in a legal or litigation environment. 

Candidates will be expected to demonstrate they: 

• work flexibly and as part of a team, working with and maintaining good relationships with colleagues and customers,
• have determination to ensure completion of tasks and take responsibility for their own area of work and   
• have good communication skills and commitment to ensuring deadlines are met. 

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Ability to distinguish fact from assertion or speculation through reviewing a short written statement.