ATT/CTA Tax Pathway
Gain both ATT and CTA qualifications faster and specialise in an area of tax from an early stage. Our leading training programme will help you prepare and pass the joint Tax Pathway exams.
How the Tax Pathway works
The ATT /CTA Tax Pathway consists of the five elements below:
1. Core knowledge1
Students sit two ATT papers of their choice. There is complete flexibility as to which papers are taken. These two papers must be sat and passed before the CTA Advanced Technical or CTA Application & Professional Skills papers can be attempted.
These papers are sat in May and November each year and you can sit any number of papers at a time. For each paper passed you are entitled to apply for a certificate of competency from the ATT.
The papers are:
- Paper 1 – Personal Taxation
- Paper 2 – Business Taxation
- Paper 3 – Business Compliance
- Paper 4 – Corporate Taxation
- Paper 5 – IHT, Trusts and Estates
- Paper 6 – VAT
All papers can also test elements of Ethics.
Each paper is three and a half hours in length consisting of both computational and written long forms questions.
The pass mark for each paper is 50%. The results are released in January for the November examinations and July for the May examinations.
Further details on the ATT qualification
2. Core knowledge2
Students can either sit a third ATT paper, or the CTA Awareness paper. At this point, students should note that if they sit the Awareness paper, the three Modules they choose for that paper cannot be the same areas of tax as the two papers that will be taken at the CTA Advanced Technical stage.
Further details on the CTA Awareness and Advanced Technical papers
3. Accounting, Law and Ethics exams
This stage comprises three examinations, which are assessed as Computer Based Examinations (CBEs). These examinations must be passed before ATT membership can be achieved. All three examinations must be passed before you can enter for your final CTA paper.
Each Computer Based Examination is a one-hour online examination of multiple choice and multiple response questions, which you can sit at any time during the year.
The pass mark for the CBEs is 60% and you receive the results from each exam straight after it is attempted.
At this point, students are eligible for ATT membership provided they have also achieved two years of work experience in taxation.
4. Advanced Technical stage
In this stage, students sit two CTA Advanced Technical (AT) papers. If a student has already taken three ATT papers, then the student can choose freely which Advanced Technical papers they wish to take. If the CTA Awareness paper has been taken, then the Advanced Technical papers must cover different specialisms to the three Modules chosen for Awareness.
These papers are sat in May and November each year and you can sit any number of CTA papers at a time.
Further details on the CTA Advanced Technical papers
5. Application and Professional Skills
Students can select the appropriate case study for the Application & Professional Skills (APS) examination. The syllabus will be the same as one of their Advanced Technical papers (apart from APS VAT & Other Indirect Taxes which is based on both the AT Indirect papers). Further specified topics are also examinable at Awareness level only. This is usually sat as the final paper.
Further details on the CTA Application & Professional Skills papers
When all the elements of the Tax Pathway have been completed, together with three years of relevant recent professional work experience, then the student is eligible for membership of the CIOT.