How to pass ICAN Advanced Taxation
Professional level. The syllabus has 6 areas and they are not worth the same — 75% of the marks sit in just three of them. Knowing which three changes what you do tonight.
Start here, in this order
- 1
Taxation of Companies and Investment Income 35% of the paper
Companies income tax (CIT) · Taxation of investment income · Tax incentives · Ascertainment of chargeable gains · Taxation of leases
- 2
International Taxation 20% of the paper
Non-resident taxation · Taxation of the digital economy · Tax treaties · Transfer pricing · Actions against base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) · Regional integration and trade blocs · International tax policy
- 3
Taxation of Incomes of Extractive Industries 20% of the paper
Oil and gas taxation (hydrocarbon tax and consolidation for tax purposes) · Oil and gas taxation (petroleum profits tax assessments) · Oil and gas taxation (deep offshore and inland basin production sharing contracts) · Mining taxation · Environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance in the extractive industry
The remaining 3 areas share 25% between them. Worth knowing. Not worth the weeks that the three above deserve. Full weightings for this paper.
Then write, by hand, against the clock
Advanced Taxation is written by hand. Marks are earned by the reasoning — stating the principle, applying it to the scenario, concluding — so an answer that jumps to the figure loses most of them even when the figure is right. Practise full answers on paper, timed at roughly 1.8 minutes per mark.
The part nobody does
Almost every candidate writes practice answers. Almost none of them ever find out whether those answers would have scored. You write, you feel it went reasonably, you move on — and the first real feedback you receive is the result, months later, when the diet is gone.
That gap is the whole reason preparation fails for people who worked hard. Not knowledge. Feedback.
What Edentos does about it
- Find out now. Not when the results come out.
- Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.
- Revise where the marks are, not where the pages are.
- Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.
- A right answer with no workings is a wrong mark.
- The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.
- The exam is handwritten. Your practice should be too.
- Timed mocks written on paper, under exam conditions, so you discover how long handwriting takes before it costs you a question.