Catalogue description Board of Inland Revenue: Office of the Solicitor: Law Officers' and Counsels' Opinions

The title of Solicitor of Inland Revenue dates from 1849, when the Boards of Excise and Stamps and Taxes were consolidated into one Board of Commissioners of Inland Revenue by the Inland Revenue Board Act 1849; in 1909 the Excise functions of the Board were transferred to the Board of Commissioners of Customs. Prior to 1849, there was a Solicitor of Excise and a Solicitor of Stamps and Taxes.

The Solicitor of Inland Revenue conducts the Board's legal business in England and Wales representing it in all aspects of litigation. A substantial part of that business consists of advising the Board on a wide variety of legal questions and this advice is usually given by written opinions of the Solicitor or members of his legally qualified staff. In some cases of exceptional difficulty or importance or when proceedings in the High Court have been instituted by or against the Board, instructions are sent to one or more of the Revenue's Standing Junior Counsel to advise. Occasionally in such a case instructions are sent in addition to the Law Officers or, in more recent times, to a Leading Counsel nominated by the Attorney General.