Advanced Taxation

Where the marks are

Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.

1. Taxation of Companies and Investment Income

   35%

   Companies income tax (CIT) · Taxation of investment income · Tax incentives · Ascertainment of chargeable gains · Taxation of leases

2. International Taxation

   20%

   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%

   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

4. Tax Management and Planning

   10%

   Mergers and acquisitions · Tax practice management · Tax planning, avoidance and evasion · Tax audit and tax investigation · Ethics and professionalism in tax management · Tax accounting and reporting

5. Current Issues and Emerging Trends

   10%

   Current tax issues (including disruptive technologies affecting tax administration) · Emerging trends (taxation and sustainable development goals)

6. Tax Administration

   5%

   National tax policy · Introduction to tax administration · Objections and appeals

Where candidates lose this paper

The Institute publishes its own past questions. What it cannot give you is an answer to these.

There is not enough time to read the whole study text before the diet.

The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.

You write practice answers for months and never find out whether a single one would have scored.

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.

The study text is hundreds of pages and none of it tells you which parts the examiner actually asks about.

Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.

You know the answer but lose marks anyway, and no one ever explains where they went.

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.

You have only ever typed your answers, and the paper is written by hand.

Timed mocks written on paper, under exam conditions, so you discover how long handwriting takes before it costs you a question.