Government Tax Profession

Government Tax Profession Overview

With around 15,000 tax professionals working across government, the Government Tax Profession is one of the largest and most influential professional communities in the Civil Service.

You are part of the Government Tax Profession if your role involves applying tax knowledge or developing it through learning and experience. This can include working in one or more areas of tax, such as customs, VAT, or compliance, and across different business areas including policy, litigation, and operations.

Career Opportunities and Programmes

The profession offers a varied and stimulating range of career pathways in roles spanning a range of government departments across the UK. The largest presence of tax professionals sits in HM Revenue & Customs where there are opportunities to specialise in, for example, compliance, specialist tax help and advice, fraud, tax policy or as a manager.

Tax Specialist Programme is HMRC’s tax professional flagship recruitment programme. The link provides more detail on what the programme involves and how to apply.

The Tax Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a central resource for departmental tax advice and services available to Government departments, comprising of teams from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Home Office (HO), and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), supported by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). You can read more about Tax CoE via the One Finance site.

Learning and Development

You can explore more about approved learning for the tax profession via the specialist skills guide. We are currently reviewing and updating this page. Further information will be made available in due course. If you have specific questions or need tailored advice, please contact the Tax Professionalism Team.

The HMRC Charter:

For more information, click here

All training must be booked by 31 January 2027 and completed by 31 October 2027. Training of 12 months duration or less is available to book now on the Booking Portal. Training that is longer than 12 months may be available on a case-by-case basis, provided it is complete by 31 October 2027. Find out more about affected courses.