ACCA ATX study plan

Map the self-assessment cycle onto a one-page timeline showing filing dates, payment on account dates and balancing payment dates for an individual, a partnership and a company.

Calculate the automatic penalties and interest arising from three short scenarios involving late filing, late payment and an incorrect return, and state the appeal and review route for each.

Distinguish tax evasion, tax avoidance and acceptable tax mitigation, and explain how the general anti-abuse rule and the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes regime affect a client's planning options.

Apply the fundamental principles of the professional code of ethics to two scenarios, one involving a conflict of interest and one involving client confidentiality, and justify the recommended course of action in each.

Compute the adjusted trading profit of an unincorporated business, deciding add-backs and deductions and separating revenue from capital items.

Compute income tax and Class 2 and Class 4 national insurance for a sole trader and for a partnership where trading, property, savings and dividend income are all present.

Compare the total tax cost of operating as an employee against operating as a self-employed contractor, and quantify the saving from transferring income-producing assets between spouses or civil partners.

Quantify the income tax and national insurance effect of a pension contribution and a Gift Aid payment, including the effect on the adjusted net income thresholds.

Compute chargeable gains for individuals and partnerships, covering part disposals, chattels, and shares dealt with under the share identification rules including bonus and rights issues.

Apply the principal private residence relief, business asset disposal relief, gift relief and holdover relief rules to a set of disposals and identify which relief gives the lower overall tax cost.

Compute the capital gains tax arising where an individual gifts business and non-business assets to another individual and to a trust, showing the interaction between holdover relief and the donor's own position.

Explain how the nil rate band is set, how it is cumulated over seven years, and how the transferable nil rate band and residence nil rate band are claimed.

Compute the inheritance tax on a lifetime chargeable transfer and on death, incorporating cumulation, taper relief on tax paid on failed potentially exempt transfers, and the fall in value relief rules.

Apply business property relief and agricultural property relief to a mixed estate, identify the minimum ownership period conditions and explain how the reliefs interact with capital gains tax gift relief.

Compute the inheritance tax charges arising on relevant property trusts, including the entry charge, the ten-year anniversary charge and an exit charge, and explain how these compare with an interest in possession trust.

Advise a client on a lifetime giving programme and a will structure, quantifying the inheritance tax saved against the capital gains tax and loss of control costs incurred.

Compute the trading profit of a company for corporation tax, covering capital allowances, leased and purchased cars, disallowable expenditure and research and development relief claims.

Compute the corporation tax liability applying the main rate and marginal relief, adjusting for associated companies and for the number of accounting periods in the chargeable period.

Compute chargeable gains for a company and apply rollover relief, incorporation relief and the substantial shareholding exemption to a disposal of shares.

Apply carried forward, carried back and current year loss relief and explain how the choice of claim alters the total tax paid by a company.

Compute group relief and consortium relief across a group of companies and recommend the allocation of a group's losses that minimises the total corporation tax payable.

Compute the VAT payable or repayable by a business, covering output tax, input tax, the partial exemption standard and special methods and the capital goods scheme adjustment.

Determine the place of supply for goods and services in cross-border transactions, apply the reverse charge and explain when a business must register for VAT because of overseas supplies.

Compare VAT registration, deregistration and the flat rate scheme for a small business and quantify the annual cash difference for each option.

Compute stamp duty land tax on residential and commercial property purchases, including the higher rates for additional dwellings, and compute stamp duty on a transfer of shares.

Apply the statutory residence test to determine an individual's residence position, working through the automatic overseas tests, the automatic UK tests and the sufficient ties test.

Compute the UK income tax and capital gains tax position of a non-domiciled individual, comparing the arising basis with the remittance basis and identifying the year in which deemed domicile arises.

Apply unilateral and treaty double taxation relief to overseas income and gains and explain how a double tax treaty allocates taxing rights.

Integrate the taxes by preparing a full advisory answer on the sale of an owner-managed company, comparing a share sale with an asset sale across corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax and stamp duty.

Evaluate at least three planning alternatives for a client, recommending one and justifying the choice with quantified tax saved, commercial consequences and ethical considerations.

Complete two full three-hour mock examinations under timed conditions, allocating time by mark and attempting every question.

Review the error log and re-work the three weakest syllabus areas until each is answered at the target standard.