Agricultural Principal Valuer - Birmingham

About the job

Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it's really like to work at HMRC. This role is part of HMRC Valuation Office, formerly known as the Valuation Office Agency. We have recently integrated into HMRC. HMRC Valuation Office are the public sector's property valuation experts and advisers with a vision to be a world-leading provider of public sector valuations. Our work is vital to the collection of over 60 billion of revenue which goes back into communities, touching every citizen and every business across England and Wales.

Role Overview

The role sits within the District Valuer Services (DVS), part of Chief Valuer Group (CVG). DVS is the business stream tasked with providing a range of statutory and non-statutory functions. These are:

• Provision of advice on valuations and apportionments for national taxation purposes.
• Provision of valuations and property advice for Other Public Bodies (OPBs) to support their implementation of a wide range of regulatory and legislative functions.
• The delivery of government policies and estate strategies in situations where there is a property requirement related to the exercising of a public function and or public money is involved.

This technical surveying role is based within the National Taxation sector. The National Taxation team provide valuations and advice for National Taxation purposes on behalf of HMRC. You will report directly to the National Taxation Sector Head. This exciting opportunity will include leading and delivering high-profile complex casework for taxation purposes. With a range of national complex agricultural casework to manage, you will provide technical guidance to clients and undertake case reviews with team members advising on valuations and sharing technical knowledge.

Key responsibilities

• Deal with a large complex portfolio of work requiring extensive agricultural experience of valuations for taxation purposes.
• Maintain and apply an advanced level of agricultural valuation surveying knowledge to casework activity, reviewing high profile or complex valuations and project management.
• Provide technical guidance and support to colleagues working on agricultural casework.
• Valuation of agricultural property for IHT casework is a key part of the role.
• Manage all associated communication and engagement with stakeholders including DVS' clients, taxpayers and their agents and collaborating with all internal stakeholders across DVS.
• Ensure the quality standards of recording of charging data are adhered to and undertake Quality Assurance audits on sample of cases ensuring timeliness standards.
• Manage the professional development of colleagues via coaching and mentoring and support individual colleagues within the team to ensure delivery of improved business results.
• Develop and maintain the ability to operate in a number of roles including acting as an expert witness with appearance before the tribunals, representing the VOA in Alternative Dispute Resolution cases and providing support to caseworkers acting in those roles.
• Undertake 100-day reviews and provide guidance / case progression advice to caseworkers and team leaders.
• Contribute to the successful delivery of team timeliness results on national taxation (HMRC) to meet or exceed SLA and KPI targets.

Person specification

We are seeking a highly motivated and technically skilled agricultural valuation professional with full RICS membership (MRICS or FRICS). Membership of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV), or a clear commitment to work towards it, is essential. The role requires excellent stakeholder engagement skills, the confidence to understand and appropriately challenge client requirements, and the ability to manage risk effectively. You will also be able to coach and support colleagues whilst maintaining awareness of the wider political, economic, environmental and legislative context.

Essential Requirements

• Qualification requirement of full RICS Professional membership (MRICS or FRICS).
• Full membership Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) or a willingness to work towards this.
• Full knowledge and understanding of Agricultural and Business property reliefs (APR & BPR) from Inheritance Tax, and how they are applied in practice to a huge variety of scenarios.
• Experience in UK agriculture and rural property market with a good background knowledge of farming systems in the UK regions, prepared to keep up to date with current farming developments.
• Effectively manage communication and engagement with a range of stakeholders.
• The ability to understand and challenge the needs of the client in the exercise of delivery of high value/complex work.
• The ability to coach, support and provide feedback to individuals in order to improve their performance and achieve their potential.
• Identify, escalate, and mitigate/manage risks and issues appropriately, ensuring that these are raised at the right level to improve customer satisfaction and taxpayer experience.
• Possess an awareness of the wider political, economic, social, technical, environmental, and legislative agendas that impact agricultural valuations.
• Full UK driving licence is required - The successful candidate will be expected to travel and spend time in other VOA locations in connection with their role.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of 59,342, HM Revenue and Customs contributes 17,191 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs. We offer a generous leave allowance that starts at 25 days, increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days and a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.