Application Paper

Application Paper

Introduction

The Application and Interaction paper is one of four traditional style 3 hour tax papers that you must sit and pass, as well as your Advisory and Awareness papers, to become a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA). It is set in May and November each year.

The Application and Interaction paper consists of four case studies of which you must select one, each case study is worth 100 marks. The case studies are listed below and you will notice that the themes are related to the Advisory papers. It is important, should you be planning on splitting your attempts at the fours tax papers, that you think carefully about when you sit the Application and Interaction paper. Furthermore, as the Application and Interaction paper can test aspects of any of the Awareness modules it is essential that you sit your Awareness paper before, or at the same time, as your Application and Interaction paper.
The four case studies within the paper are as follows (the related Advisory papers shown in brackets should ideally be sat at the same time to minimise duplication of study):

Taxation of Individuals, Trusts and Estates (Taxation of Individuals and Inheritance Tax, Trusts and Estates)
Taxation of Companies (Advanced Corporation Tax)
Taxation of Owner-Managed Businesses (Taxation of Owner-Managed Businesses)
VAT and other Indirect Taxes (VAT on UK Domestic Transactions (including SDLT) and VAT on Cross-Border Transactions and other Indirect Taxes)

The aim of the Application and Interaction paper is to test your ability to apply to a practical case study the knowledge gained in sitting the Advisory and Awareness papers and to demonstrate how the taxes interact. Issues involving consideration of professional responsibilities, ethics and/or law should also be expected to feature.

Pre-requisites

In order to sit the Application and Interaction paper you must have registered as a student with the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). You should be registered for at least 6 months prior to the examination. As we are completely independent of the CIOT we cannot do this for you.

Our objective is to provide you with first-class training materials and courses in order to help you pass the examinations.The Application and Interaction paper will normally be the last one that you sit as it will test knowledge learned elsewhere.

What we offer

Correspondence course (Traditional)

Because there is no new technical material examined in the Application and Interaction paper we do not supply hard copy study manuals as part of this correspondence course as you will already have the material from the appropriate Advisory and Awareness papers. If you are sitting this paper at a different time to the related Advisory paper(s) you will be entitled to access to the necessary technical information via our Online Academy. In addition the correspondence course contains a hard copy question bank of practice questions together with a 3 hour link exam and a 3 hour pre-revision mock exam, for you to submit to us for marking. Finally, it includes access to our unique Online Academy. Please note that it does not include the Tolley Yellow and Orange legislation as many firms provide these direct to their students. We can supply these separately at a discounted price if necessary.

Tolley's Online Academy

Our unique Online Academy is a web based system allowing access to your question bank and technical information online, enabling you to study anytime, anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. It also includes our audio visual lectures and MP3 player sound files covering the entire syllabus. There are also tutor and student forums available providing essential information and answers to queries.

Correspondence course (Online)

This contains everything that is included in the correspondence course except you do not get a hard copy question bank, and the price you pay reflects our reduced printing and despatch costs. You can access all of the technical material and question banks in pdf format on the Online Academy and print them out, chapter by chapter, should you wish. You will, of course, have access to all of the functionality of the Online Academy.

Revision material

Those students who are not attending our revision course can purchase our revision question bank, revision mock examination and memory joggers separately. These are available to purchase shortly before the revision course and details are posted on our website after the publication of the examination results from the previous sitting. Please note that if you are enrolled on the Guaranteed Pass Scheme or have booked a revision course this material is included as part of your course fee.

Guaranteed Pass Scheme

Our results show that if students follow a structured programme of study their chances of success are greatly increased. This package consists of our traditional correspondence course (including Online Academy access) and revision course. Not only do we give you a discount compared with booking everything separately but in the unlikely event that you are not successful we will give you a revision course and updated material free of charge for your next attempt. But the key aspects of the scheme are that you must submit all of your link exams in line with your study programme and attend every day of the revision course. You must pay the course fee in advance and fees are not refundable.

Saturday course

Outside of the Guaranteed Pass Scheme we also offer a Saturday course for each of the case studies for this paper. On this course your tutor will guide you through the approach to this paper, helping the class to plan a first question and then attempt a second question in stages followed by a detailed debrief concentrating on exam technique and what you needed to do to get a clear pass on that question. The questions used here are two questions from the correspondence course question bank. Copies of these two questions will be handed out on the Saturday course for those who have not purchased the correspondence course bank.

Revision courses

We also offer revision courses for those students who want a final boost prior to the examinations. These courses are question based and concentrate on examination technique with the focus on getting the required marks to pass the examination. All of the material is included in the fee and the price includes a mock examination that you sit under examination conditions that is marked and returned to you. You do not need to have purchased our correspondence course to attend the revision course. The revision course is included as part of the Guaranteed Pass Scheme.

How long should I be studying for?

It is difficult to be precise as different people study at different rates but as a rough guide we would expect around 40-50 hours of home study for the Application and Interaction paper, if you are sitting at the same time as the related Advisory paper(s), in addition to the courses. If you sit the Application and Interaction paper at a different sitting to the related Advisory paper(s) you will require considerably longer as you will have to refresh your technical knowledge. If you are studying by correspondence course only you are likely to need another 15-20 hours for revision.

What else do I need to think about?

You are able to take a copy of the Tolley Yellow and Orange Legislation (or CCH equivalents) into the exam with you. It is therefore advisable to acquire a set and we can supply these at a discounted price. There is a separate section on the enrolment form should you wish to buy these. Please note that whilst you may highlight, underline and sideline the legislation, the books must contain no other markings (although you are permitted to write your name on them). You are also not allowed to use post it notes or page flags. Actual exam entry is a separate exercise from student registration and you are responsible for ensuring that you are entered for the examination, we are unable to do this for you. You must enter for the examination by 28 February if you are sitting in May, or by 31 August if you are sitting in November.

Deferrals

If you find that you wish to defer your attempt at the examination to a later sitting you can do this but additional fees will be payable, particularly if you are deferring from November to May when a new set of material is required because the Finance Act will have changed. Please click here to see all of the conditions relating to deferrals, but you should note that if you defer more than once it might affect your status under the Guaranteed Pass Scheme.

Material updates

Our material is published in the autumn for exam sittings in the following calendar year. If you are booking a course before this point and taking the exam in the following calendar year you will initially be provided with the material for the earlier Finance Act. You will then automatically be sent a set of updated material, free of charge, as soon as it is published. This also applies to the availability of material on the Online Academy.