Working as a graduate

Core Tax

Join us in an increasingly agile Tax world and build your career advising clients on complex rules and making informed decisions with significant impacts.

Working in core Tax gives you the opportunity to rotate across our Direct and Indirect Tax teams in the first two years of your PwC journey; with each of these sub teams specialising in the many nuances of Tax advisory.

What is Direct Tax?
What is Indirect Tax?
The Tax Experience
Joining as a graduate

What is Direct Tax?

In a nutshell you’ll tackle a broad range of work that could include multinational advisory projects, tax compliance and researching business issues that affect clients’ tax affairs - all while keeping pace with regular tax rules. Some of the teams in this area are:

Corporate Tax Consulting – which helps organisations meet their tax obligations while managing the impact tax has on their businesses.

Transfer Pricing – which helps organisations understand the pricing implications of goods and services between related parties.

Private Business and Private Client – which advises growing companies, partnerships and wealthy individuals on their local and overseas tax affairs while acting as a strategic consultant on things like business analysis, managing working capital and profit-sharing for partners.

Capital Allowances - which helps clients to identify expenditure that attracts tax relief. It can be complex, and you'll gain an in-depth knowledge of the tax legislation, HMRC practice and property. At PwC we have a Capital Allowances team which is made up of tax specialists, chartered accountants and property surveyors giving us a unique blend of expertise and insights into a business. This multifaceted skill set ensures we can be strategic and flexible to fully consider each aspect of a project and how the various stakeholders will be impacted.

Deals Tax – we also have a specific Deals Tax team that work closely with our Deals practice and advise on the tax implications of Deals projects. Deals Tax covers three areas, namely: Business Recovery Services (BRS), Real Estate (RE) and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A).

Tax Reporting and Strategy - this specialist team helps businesses align their tax strategy with their wider business strategy, helping to accelerate the impact of technology in tax, unlock data insights and meet their domestic and global compliance and reporting obligations.

What is Indirect Tax?

Indirect taxes are borne by the end consumer, with VAT being the most well-known. Our team also advises on other indirect taxes like Insurance Premium Tax, Stamp Duty, Climate Change Levy, Aggregates Levy, Soft Drinks Levy, and Customs and Excise Duties.

Client relationships are central to our work. Understanding their business and services is crucial for effective advice. For instance, we helped a household goods manufacturer assess the impact of relocating part of its business abroad. By analyzing the supply chain and consulting our international network, we identified the indirect tax consequences in each territory, enabling the client to make informed, cost-effective decisions about their operations.

The Tax Experience

As an Associate within Tax, the rotational nature of the programme means that your responsibilities will vary from team to team. To give some examples of the type of work you might do:

Making sure the tax compliance process runs smoothly.
Researching business issues that will affect clients’ tax affairs.
Providing tailored tax advice to your clients.
Researching, planning and tailoring ideas to clients' needs.
Meeting and building relationships with your clients.
Helping clients pay the right amount of tax and making sure they don’t overpay.
Advising clients on the implications of changes to the indirect tax rules both in the UK and overseas.
Collaborating with clients and colleagues across PwC both in the UK and our international member firms.
Tackling special projects such as a business restructure or a merger or acquisition.
Helping clients respond to HM Revenue and Customs enquiries and disputes.
Making sure a client’s tax reporting is accurate by working with them to introduce more efficient internal processes and controls.
Working with clients to litigate disputes at the courts.

Joining as a graduate

You'll spend the first stage of your career learning about our business and developing key skills. This will involve building your business, personal and technical skills by studying to become a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) or the Chartered Accountants of Ireland (CAI).

You'll begin your professional qualification almost immediately, with your first exams within a few months. Your primary focus in the first year will be on your studies, supported by full financial backing and top-tier tuition. Our training programme is innovative and flexible, tailored to suit your learning preferences and pace.

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