ACA or ACCA

Not sure which is harder as I only sat one of them (ACCA) and doubt there are many out there who took both and would be able to give you an honest answer as to which is harder.

With ACCA you can certainly claim exemptions from some of the earlier papers.

I think you have to look first and foremost at those above you - are you working under anyone who is ACCA or ACA qualified? What are the costs of taking each one? Will your employer support you?

Check out which exemptions you can apply for and then you can see which papers you need to sit and get an idea of the time it will take.

I speak as an ACCA, and don't know the current differences in difficulty or exemptions, etc., but if you're destined for a practice career and looking for partnership, I'd definitely suggest going for ACA.  My reason is that there's still a lot of snobbery about the "chartered" status especially from old school, who still think that ACCA is inferior.  I've worked as an accounts manager in three chartered practices and in every case, the ACA partners were adament that partnership wasn't an option for me as I was "only ACCA".  That's one of the reasons I set up my own practice, because, believe it or not, there weren't any decent sized ACCA practices around here so it was start my own or forever be a wageslave!  Funny thing is that the firm where I basically ran the practice for the 3 chartered partners has since given up the chartered status completely as the 3 partners retired and they couldn't find any ACAs to take over, so they sold it on in a kind of management buyout to three non qualified employees who I worked with and confirm that losing the chartered status hasn't affected the practice - there wasn't an exodus of clients.  Like I say, a lot of snobbery, so be careful!

To be honest, going for ACA or ACCA with little current knowledge of the 'accounts side of thing' is going to be pretty tough, because that's what the bulk of the qualifications are about!

I'm ACCA (qualified in the last 3 years), but have met and worked with both ACCA and ACA qualified people (and people who are currently studying for ACCA or ACA). I have heard talk of "snobbery" from ACAs towards ACCAs, but I haven't experienced any - if anything the prevailing attitude seems to be increasingly that ACA has been dumbed down.

It's fairly straightforward to check which exemptions you will get from ACCA - you can enter your qualification (or degree and university) and it should be able to list the exemptions you can apply for. Only 9 of the 14 exams are available for exemptions, so even though you're a CTA you won't get an exemption from the advanced tax exam, because it's one of the "professional" level papers for which there are no exemptions. (Whereas ACCAs get an exemption from the CTA application paper if they've done the ACCA advanced tax paper)

ACCA is very challenging, but if you can do CTA you will get through it. The exam style is a bit different to CTA.

My personal opinion is that the ACCA exam syllabuses are more relevant, appropriate and up to date. The ACA syllabuses feel a bit cobbled together from what I've seen of them.

Obviously there's also the practical experience requirements to achieve full membership. The ACCA competencies include tax and other non accounts bits, but only you would be able to assess whether you would be able to fulfill the requirements of sufficient competencies in your current role.

If I were you I'd start reading the requirements, structure and set up for each assoc. You don't need a formal "training contract" for ACCA like ACA.

Timewise it'd be a big commitment. Assuming no exemptions that's 14 exams. First 3 are computer based. The remainder can be sat at 6 monthly exam sessions (June/Dec) and a maximum of 4 at any sitting (to stand the greatest chance of success most people do 2, a few people do 3, but that's pushing it if you work full time). You're looking at 2 to 3 years.

If you have CTA do you actually need ACA/ACCA to be a partner/director???

I agree with Ken ACA is best if staying in practice.

Just an annoying story to confirm the point,  an ACCA friend of mine took an ACA in partnership,

A major client said to my friend I hope the fees are not going to go up now you have a chartered accountant in charge !!!!

From what Ive been hearing about CTA .... ACCA/ACA exams should be a walk in the park for you ...

You want to move from the tax side of things to accounts just to become a partner? You have to think about whether it is even worth it?

Why can't you become a partner with CTA? Ive always been told CTA is more harder/prestigious than ACCA/ACA, with most ppl studying for CTA after obtaining ACCA/ACA membership... So doing ACCA/ACA after being CTA seems like a backwards step for me ....

You are obviously damn good at tax since you've got through the tough CTA exams so my suggestion would be to forget ACA/ACCA.

There is hundreds of thousands of ACCA/ACA members around with loads of small chartered accountant firms but there is only around 15,000 CTA's in the whole of the UK and not many CTA firms!

Maybe starting your own practice as a CTA is a good goal for the future!

Anyway if your still adamant on ACA/ACCA:
1) ACCA exams are harder than ACA
2) However ACCA ppl have the option to study full time but ACA have to be on a training contract

In your case ACA would be the better option!

Hope this helps :D