Menu
Departments
Back to main menu
Professions
Back to main menu
Life in the Civil Service
Back to main menu

The Civil Service

What do Civil Servants say?

Benefits
When you work for the Civil Service, we offer a wide range of benefits with you, your family, and your future in mind. Find out more about our excellent employee benefits.
Entry Routes
Back to main menu

Early Careers

Experienced Hires

Supported Schemes

The Civil Service Guide to Job Sharing
The Civil Service is an equal opportunities employer that positively promotes all forms of flexible working, including job sharing.
Application Guidance
Back to main menu

Applying for a Job

Supporting your Application

Reasonable Adjustments
To help you during the recruitment process, we will take into account any adjustments that could help you. Read more about reasonable adjustments here.
Try our career matcher
Apply for jobs

Tax Specialist
Programme

Transforming talent into tax excellence

HMRC’s Tax Specialist Programme (TSP) offers a unique opportunity to develop your skills and become an expert in tax.

Whether you’re a university graduate or an existing civil servant, this programme is designed to challenge and reward you, giving you the tools to handle complex tax issues and influence some of the most important financial decisions in the UK.

Applications are open from Friday 27 September to Monday 21 October 2024.

Your path to a rewarding career in tax

Our Chief Executive Jim Harra invites you to apply for the Tax Specialist Programme.

Take your career to new heights

Watch our Tax Specialist Programme trainees tell you about the job and why you should apply.

From TSP graduate to director

Nicole talks about her inspiring journey after completing the Tax Specialist Programme.

What to expect

The TSP is a 3 to 4 year training scheme, where you will be working on tax cases while also studying for exams.

You will:

  • learn first hand from experienced tax professionals
  • tackle complex tax issues like fraud investigation, offshore evasion and specialist high-profile cases
  • work with a wide range of businesses, from sole traders all the way up to multinational corporations
  • build your knowledge through personal study, tutorials, mentorship and assignments

Our programme is challenging, requiring hard work and dedication. If you think you have what it takes, we’d love to hear from you!

Locations

There are roles available in all of our 14 regional centres right across the UK.

Salary

You’ll start on a salary of around £35,000 (£40,000 for London).

If you complete the programme, you’ll be promoted to Civil Service Grade 7 where your salary will be at least £54,000 (£61,000 in London).

Qualifications

You’ll need to have a 2:2 university degree or equivalent by September 2025. If you’re already a civil servant, you do not need a degree.

Eligibility

You can only apply to the TSP if you have the right to work in the UK. Unfortunately we cannot offer sponsorship.

Find out if you are eligible to work here by reading the Civil Service nationality rules.

Application Process

Application form

First you’ll need to enter some basic information about yourself.

Online tests

You’ll be invited to take 3 online tests. These are verbal, numerical and a skills test which will assess your capability and strengths.

Interview

A pre-recorded video interview, where you’ll be asked questions by a panel of HMRC employees.

Assessment centre

This will be a half-day virtual assessment centre. You’ll do an analytical exercise, roleplay and group activities to assess how suitable you are for the programme.

We’re recruiting! Applications are now open, read the job advert to find out more.

Apply now

Start your HMRC journey today by looking at the vacancies we have available.

Current vacancies

Discover more about what we do, our business areas and life at HMRC.

Working for HMRC

Ask our employees questions for an insight into what it’s like to work at HMRC.

Ask us a question