SKILL ROADMAP 32 · LEGAL CAREER ROADMAPS
Tax Lawyer
Tax basics → Income tax → GST → Accounts → Notices and assessments → Annual changes → Appeals → Advisory or litigation
Track your progress
- This roadmap has 8 steps, 5 checkpoints and 3 projects.
- Open the interactive version to tick checkpoints and projects. Your progress is saved in your browser.
1 What this path is
Tax lawyers advise individuals and businesses on their tax duties and represent them in disputes with tax authorities, before tribunals and in courts.
2 Who this path may suit
The work involves logic, numbers, close reading of statutes and keeping up with rules that change every year.
3 The roadmap, step by step
- Understand tax basics.
Learn: Article 265, the taxing entries in the Seventh Schedule and the difference between direct and indirect tax.
Practise: by explaining which government can levy which tax. - Learn income tax.
Learn: the Income-tax Act 2025, which replaced the Income-tax Act 1961 from 1 April 2026, while keeping the 1961 Act in view for earlier years and pending cases.
Practise: by comparing key provisions of the two Acts. - Learn GST.
Learn: the CGST Act 2017 and IGST Act 2017, including input tax credit.
Practise: by tracing GST on one product from manufacturer to customer. - Learn to read accounts.
Learn: enough accounting to read financial statements and computations.
Practise: with the accounts in a company's annual report. - Handle notices and assessments.
Learn: how assessments, notices and demands arise.
Practise: by drafting a reply to an imaginary income tax or GST notice. - Track annual changes.
Learn: how each Union Budget and Finance Act changes the law.
Practise: by writing a short explainer on the latest Budget's tax changes. - Learn appeals.
Learn: appeals to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the GST Appellate Tribunal, High Courts and the Supreme Court.
Practise: by drafting grounds of appeal. - Choose advisory or litigation.
Learn: how advisory work and litigation differ, and choose a focus such as direct tax, GST, customs or international tax and transfer pricing.
Practise: with a project in your chosen focus.
4 Your levels and checkpoints
Beginner level
- Explain basic income tax and GST concepts
Intermediate level
- Draft a notice reply
- Read financial statements
Advanced level
- Draft grounds of appeal
- Analyse a tribunal ruling
Advanced professional level
You advise on complex tax issues and handle disputes independently.
These checklists are for honest self assessment. They are not an official certification.
5 Build these projects
- A tax notice response exercise
- A Budget explainer
- A case comment on a tax ruling
6 Internship direction
Look for tax teams at law firms, consulting firms and tax litigation chambers. Before applying, understand tax basics and prepare a notice reply or Budget explainer. During the internship, learn how computations and submissions are prepared.
7 Portfolio evidence
Notice replies, explainers, grounds of appeal and case comments.
8 Common mistakes
- Avoiding accounting entirely
- Using outdated provisions after an amendment