Hi Daniel, Hope you’re well! What key skills and competencies are required to succeed as a tax specialist?

Hi Taylor, thank you for your question.

Regarding the virtual assessment centre - unfortunately, I have limited experience with the HMRC virtual assessment centres. My experience was of attending a physical assessment centre, where it was split across 2 days with 4 different tasks. All of the tasks were 'generic' activities which did not require any previous tax knowledge. The tasks were a mixture of group and individual tasks, including activities such as: report writing/role-play presentation to a 'manager'; preparation and role-play meeting with a 'customer'; group task discussing funding allocations for hypothetical charities/projects.

My general advice for the virtual assessment centres would be: dress smart, as this helped me mentally prepare for the role I was seeking: have a good camera set up, such as a plain background and camera head high which makes it easier for someone to assess whether you appear engaged; utilise the technology on Teams, such as using the 'hands up' feature to actively engage in discussions; the tasks aren't designed for you to be 'right', for example, the group discussion task may provide you with 1 project which you receive more information than the rest of the group on - you'd explain to the group what the project was and objectively what the pros and cons are, As a group, you may decide which projects get funding. It doesn't require you to get your 'project' the hypothetical funding, but instead may assess your ability to engage in group discussion, analyse objectively your 'project' and how you've fed this back to the group.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but there is little preparation you're able to do for the assessment centres. Just remain calm, read the task/brief multiple times and be confident in your actions.

Once on the programme, my key advice and skill is regarding organisation and being pro-active. If you are organised with your work, you will quickly establish what work you have on hand that meets your QAF (Quality Assurance Framework) which is the basis for meeting milestones and being signed off for promotion. You'll establish which areas of QAF you need specific work in, then be pro-active in obtaining those work opportunities and volunteer with different work. If you are asked to complete work which may not benefit your QAF, do not be afraid to say no to extra work you're requested to do. There is an element of needing to be selfish in order to balance the day to day work, meeting exams, milestones and having the most useful QAF criteria.

The skills specific for being a successful tax specialist will develop as you go through the course. In my day to day job, my biggest challenge and skill I must therefore have, is making conclusions and decisions on next actions based on often limited information I have available. I have to remain objective, think pragmatically and regularly weigh up the pros and cons to different actions I consider, so that I can deliver high values of yield for my team in the most cost and time effective way. To achieve this, on my casework, I regularly rely on critical thinking, problem solving, writing persuasive arguments and being highly diligent and detailed in my review of cases and customer information.

I hope the above helps - good luck with your virtual assessment centre and please do not hesitate to ask any further questions if you have any! :)

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the reply, that’s really helpful for the assessment centre so will take that onboard & appreciate the insight into the role itself, sounds like a lot of room to develop which is exciting. no further questions currently that answer was great.

Many thanks,

Taylor