Tax barristers advise and litigate on all aspects of commercial and personal tax issues. Corporate and business tax matters may involve company or group reconstructions, transfer pricing and the use of losses and capital allowances. Tax planning for individuals can encompass capital gains, inheritance and income tax. Typical cases might concern advising on (or acting in disputes concerning) the sale of a family company or the creation and operation of trusts. Barristers also specialise in value added tax and other indirect taxes, including customs duties, excise duties, landfill tax and stamp duties. The work may involve detailed consideration of EU law and the laws of other jurisdictions.

Jonathan Bremner readily admits that tax law is rarely something that students dream of specialising in while at university. It was not something that occurred to him when he was studying, or even during his commercial law pupillage at One Essex Court. However, having been encouraged by a couple of acquaintances who practised tax law to give the area another look, he found tenancy at Pump Court Tax Chambers and, in his own words, hasn't looked back since.

"Tax certainly has a reputation for being extremely difficult," he says, "and I was worried when I first started that it was all going to be terribly dull and dry; but actually I've been pleasantly surprised. Sure, there are days when you are trying to grapple with an impenetrable schedule to a Finance Act that nobody much cared about at the time and which may even have been repealed. But for the most part you are working on cases which are intellectually stimulating and often interesting on a human level as well. Recently, for example, I've been working on a complex dispute involving the remuneration of football players which has involved both difficult points of law and a need to understand the dynamics of the running of a football club."

Jonathan points out that the revenue Bar is seldom involved in cases of tax fraud or evasion, which are more likely to be dealt with by criminal practitioners. Revenue barristers tend to advise on tax structuring or act in disputes for taxpayers or Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), where people have entered into arrangements thinking that there was a particular tax result and then HMRC has taken a different view. He also suggests that despite tax's reputation as a paper-heavy area of law, there is a degree of flexibility to the work that a revenue barrister can take on.

"There's quite a lot of scope for tailoring one's practice, in the sense that there are two main streams to the work," he explains. "One is the advisory side - from which tax law's reputation for having lots of conferences, writing lots of opinions and not going to court very much stems; and if that's what people want to do, there is certainly plenty of that work available. But I have actually spent most of my time doing contentious tax work, which involves preparing and conducting litigation and appearing in court. Tax litigation is not unlike commercial litigation in some ways, in that the sums in dispute can be very substantial and you tend to spend longer preparing for the cases than you do in court arguing. The main difference, however, is that in tax litigation the cases tend not to be as paper heavy, but rather to involve difficult points of law. The result is that hearings are generally shorter and you work on more matters over the course of a year."

There has been an increase in tax litigation in recent years, according to Jonathan, with an upturn in business on the contentious side. "In the past it was more likely that HMRC would reach compromises," he says. "Now, things are more often sorted out in the Tax Tribunal, and because there is almost always a point of law in there somewhere, and very often large sums of money at stake, those points then go on to the Upper Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and beyond."

While Jonathan enjoys the work at the revenue Bar - not least because of the range of work and interesting people you can meet ("particularly if you do what is sometimes called ‘entrepreneur tax'") - one area of concern is that the penetration of the revenue Bar to all levels of society could be better. "One of the things I've done is join the Bar Pro Bono Unit," he says. "Tax may be seen as an issue for the wealthy a lot of the time, but there are people who can't afford good advice facing very complicated tax problems, for example in relation to tax credits. It is, however, quite hard to get the message out that there is scope to come and get help. But I think the situation is improving."

Pupils at Pump Court Tax Chambers are likely to be seated with a barrister of around 14 years' call, who will primarily be responsible for looking after them for the first three months or so. The pupil will "live their pupil master's practice", doing notes on the law and first drafts of opinions, and accompanying them to court. Following that, the pupil will spend shorter amounts of time rotating around different members of chambers. Jonathan is keen to emphasise that there's no need for potential pupils to have had previous experience of tax law. "We see pupillage as a time to learn what the job of being a tax barrister is about," he explains.

Something else that potential pupils often want to know, says Jonathan, is whether they will get to spend any time on their feet in court. At Pump Court Tax Chambers, the answer, at least during pupillage, is "no". This stems from the complexity of the law and the eyewatering amounts which can be at stake. However, junior tenants soon find themselves working on their own hearings on smaller matters, and thereafter progress can be relatively rapid.

In order to succeed at the revenue Bar, it helps to have a rigorous approach and a broad and deep knowledge of the law generally. "Tax law is complicated. The starting point is always a statute of one kind or another and you have to be able to crunch through a lot of quite detailed rules. Once that's done, you often find that you are left with one or two tricky issues, but these can relate to a number of different areas of general law, such as contract or trusts. So you need rigour to get to the real questions, as well as good general legal knowledge. I also think a bit of imagination and creativity help."

When applying for pupillage at a tax set, it is vital to demonstrate an interest in the subject. "We're not looking for specialist tax knowledge - but what is attractive is people who have an interest in what we do and an appreciation of what the work will involve," says Jonathan. "We recognise that many applicants will not have studied tax at university. There's also an incorrect but surprisingly prevalent assumption that tax law is all to do with numbers and tax returns. So do some research about what practice as a tax barrister is actually like; apply for minipupillages and look at cases that have been decided. What continues to be surprising for us is the number of people who turn up to interview and seem to have no idea of what they are letting themselves in for. As a result, there are real advantages to be gained for those who have done a little bit of research."