What does a typical day look like on the Tax Specialist Programme?

Hi Timothy, thank you for your question, and good luck for when you receive the results and feedback of the latest stage of your application process.

A typical day is a tough question to answer. The programme has lots of busy periods, and some not so busy periods. A typical week, for myself however, was 2 and half days dedicated to 'day to day' work. This was typically case work I had been assigned, so it could be a variety of tasks such as: analysing customer records, risk reviewing cases, writing out for information, planning customer meetings, hosting customer meetings, issuing assessments and penalties, dealing with appeals.
Other 'day to day' work would include 'opportunity' work I had volunteered for - this could be project work, assisting on other cases such as being a note taker at a customer meeting, or completing specific tasks for another caseworker.

The remaining 2 and half days of the week would be 1 day for 'self study' - for me, this was reading the manual ahead of my tutorial and completing exam style questions.

1 day for the tutorial - for me, we were assigned tutor groups and would have a tutor led session for the day. This would cover the self study material, have example exam questions, and group work to complete exam style questions.
Lastly, half a day I would dedicate to writing up Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) narratives and assessments. These are the pieces of work which were reviewed by the Business Line Manager (BLM), and counter signed by the Regional BLM, to pass milestones and ultimately get promoted.

When there were 'quiet' periods, for example, because I was waiting on customer responses to my requests for further information, I would look to pick up opportunity work to stay occupied and give me good examples for my QAF narratives.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions on any of the above.
Daniel

Thank you for response. That sounds very interesting, do the type of taxes vary? Or are you assigned to one particular type of tax? I.e PAYE, VAT, PT or CT? Just curious as to whether we would deal with a variety of taxes rather than just one?

Thank in advance.

Tim

Hi Tim, in my experience I was primarily working PT and CT cases. I had 'ownership' of cases primarily within Individuals and Small Business Compliance (ISBC) but the opportunity work I sought included work/cases within Counter Avoidance (CA), Large Business (LB), Wealthy and Midsize Business Compliance (WMBC) - such as Research and Development (R&D) and Wealthy Individuals. I had colleagues take on opportunity work for VAT and FIS, as they had prior experience and knowledge of those areas and an interest to stream into that area of work.

When you stream (around half way into the programme) you'll likely be given a variety of roles, choose your desired role, and then this is taken into consideration where you're assigned. I chose Incentives and Reliefs as the style of work appealed to me. I was fortunate that my first choice was the role I was given, and then this role will then be your focus of your Stage 2 work and should be the majority of your work which makes up your QAF evidence. The majority of my QAF for promotion was Incentives and Reliefs case work, but I still found time to take on other opportunities, such as project work in other areas focusing on 'leadership' rather than solely tax technical knowledge. Once you stream, you'll be assigned to a particular Tax Duty for exam purposes - I was assigned to CT, so my exams varied slightly compared to those on the PT route. The tax duty should reflect the role you've streamed to.

I am away for Christmas from COP 20 December, so if you have any other questions, I'll look at these in January when back in the office. Have a good Christmas/New Year. 😄

Daniel

Hi Daniel

Thanks again, your responses are very insightful. Hopefully I'll be doing the same next year 🤞

Enjoy the break.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Tim