ATT MAY EXAMS

ATT MAY EXAMS

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Hi,

I am a qualified ACCA and have clients with under a £ million turnover. I was thinking of specialising in tax and moving from my current job to take advantage of other opportunities. I am at crossroads like some others I hope with the same dilemma as to do ATT or CTA. Also if I do ATT exams in May 2013, the finance act applicable would be 2012, the study materials for which would not be published till December 2012.

What could I do as I dont want to waste 5 months waiting for the materials and also need a cost effective method as I am an independent student and looking to study on my own. Any help and advice would be highly appreciated

Replies (8)

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By Catherine123456
25th Jul 2012 23:52

I'm doing ATT and am taking my first exam in November. I qualified ACA and also had to decide between ATT and CTA but felt that CTA would be overkill at this point as I don't currently do much tax work. To be honest, I'm finding ATT quite difficult and this has surprised me, especially as I've done a huge chunk of it before (although that may be because I am trying to work, study and look after a toddler at the same time - hence it's nearly midnight and I'm still at it). I'm so glad I didn't go straight to CTA!

Like you, I am studying on my own with the help of the BPP study manuals although I bought mine from Amazon to get costs down further. I seem to recall that BPP study texts are available direct from BPP sometime in Sept/Oct so it won't be long before you can get started. If you ring BPP Publications they will tell you when the study materials for 2013 exam sittings are available. I hope they are available before December 2012 as I want to do a second paper in April 2012 and 3 months to do study/revision would be pushing it for me.

I'm sure others will have their own views and will share them with you.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

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By Craigie_Bhoy
26th Jul 2012 08:21

exactly the same situation for me too.

ACCA qualified and felt CTA would be overkill so brushed up on my tax with ATT and passed a year or so ago.

As Catherine says, although there is no question that the ATT exams are a world apart from the CTA, the ATT exams are still pretty tough, particularly with all the other things going on, work, family, new born babies!, the odd pint etc!

Nothing worth the paper its written on is going to be easy of course.

Sure you will easily get through them, whatever sitting you decide to do.

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By andrewjohnevans
26th Jul 2012 08:30

Can I just ask, what is the difference between ATT and CTA? I am considering doing the CTA after my ACCA studies.

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By riksti
26th Jul 2012 08:43

As far as I can understand (seeing as I'm doing CTA at the moment) the difference between ATT and CTA is not so much the technical knowledge but the application of it. ATT is mostly calculations, CTA is advisory and taking a rounded view of the case study in front of you.

There's a few more obscure bits of tax knowledge that you may not have got from ATT that become more relevant on the CTA level but overall it's not so much the knowledge that is different but instead its application.

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By andrewjohnevans
26th Jul 2012 09:10

So basically, you'd be a tax technician by doing ATT and tax adviser via CTA. Does that make CTA a higher qualification? Are there any differences in the amount of exams to take, fees etc?

In answering the OP, I studied the ACCA all on my own on a shoestring. It is very do-able. I also took advantage of email study buddies, revision courses (not tuition courses) and free online courseware (though a lot of it is bogus and low quality). One thing you could start doing in the meantime perhaps is printing off the syllabuses and make brief notes for each point. The problem with the textbooks is that they don't make the syllabuses and often confuse matters or leave out matters that are on the exam syllabus but doing it this way gives you a headstart before the textbook comes out. I find it really helps solidfy understanding of each area, topic and issue. You can usually find the relevant information by looking on the internet THOUGH it is much easier using a textbook.

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Replying to lionofludesch:
By Craigie_Bhoy
26th Jul 2012 10:52

CTA is very much a "higher qualification"

andrewjohnevans wrote:

So basically, you'd be a tax technician by doing ATT and tax adviser via CTA. Does that make CTA a higher qualification? Are there any differences in the amount of exams to take, fees etc?

 

No trying to de-value the ATT qualification at all (I am ACCA/ATT, and it was tough) but CTA is very much the higher qualification.

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Image is of a pin up style woman in a red dress with some of her skirt caught in the filing cabinet. She looks surprised.
By Monsoon
26th Jul 2012 09:57

ATT vs CTA

I'm nearly qualified ATT - just the e-assessments to go (grr).

ATT is a brilliant qualification and really nice in depth technical stuff.

CTA is "advisor" so as others have said, more applying the knowledge. It is much harder than ATT (and ATT is no walk in the park).

I am interested in going on to do CTA after ATT, and whenever I've asked I've been told it's way, way harder.

 

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By justsotax
26th Jul 2012 10:15

the other major difference is the depth and areas that

CTA goes into - if you are in general practice you may only use a minority of the knowledge gained, so depends whether you feel the qualification or the knowledge is more important to you.

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