The Taxation exam is the foundation for the Advanced Taxation exam. Therefore it is very important for candidates to have a sound knowledge of the areas covered in Taxation when they sit the Advanced Taxation exam.
Although the questions in Advanced Taxation will look very different from those you've seen in Taxation, a significant proportion of their technical content may be Taxation material.
There are a number of technical articles on our website covering different areas of the the syllabus. The articles have been written by the examining team and are a good indication of the required approach to some of the technical areas within the syllabus.
They include scenarios where tax rules are applied to different situations and advice on how to approach some of the more challenging aspects of the syllabus.
The articles are updated every year to reflect the changes introduced by the annual Finance Act; you should ensure that you are reading the version of the article for the year in which you are sitting the exam.
It is important that you do both. You will find it very difficult to practise questions if you do not know the rules and, once you are in the exam, you need to be able to apply your knowledge of the tax system quickly and accurately.
However, you must also practise questions as you need to know that you are able to deal with the style of questions in the exam.
Please refer to past exam questions to get an understanding of the tax planning ability expected of candidates.
Candidates may also find it useful to refer to the technical article on inheritance tax and capital gains tax and the technical article on trusts and tax, both of which are available on our website.
The past exam questions and answers published on our website appear as they did when the exams were first set. This is clearly stated at the top of the page where the past exams are found. The past exams are merely indicative of the level of difficulty and style of questions that can come up in an exam.
The papers have not been updated for any changes in legislation or standards nor any amendments to the syllabus. Thus, they must be used with caution when preparing for current examinations. This also applies to the tax variant papers, although these will have been based on the legislation for each country at the time they were written.
Updated versions of questions and answers can be obtained by purchasing an Exam kit or a Practice and Revision kit from one of ACCA's Approved Learning Content Providers.
Return to the exam resource finder to locate other materials to help with your studies