CITN Test of Professional Competence (TPC) study plan

Map the Domain 1 syllabus into a one-page checklist of every technical area you must be able to compute or explain (income tax, capital gains, VAT/indirect tax, payroll, reliefs and allowances, business profits, administration of tax practice).

Compute three full personal income tax liabilities from raw fact patterns (employment income with benefits, savings income, pension contributions, gift aid) without notes, then mark your own work against the legislation.

List the filing deadlines, payment dates, and penalty regimes that apply to individuals, sole traders, and companies, and recite them from memory on a blank sheet.

Set up a personal error log spreadsheet with columns for topic, error type (knowledge, calculation, misreading), and re-test date; log at least ten errors by the end of the week.

Compute capital gains for individuals and companies, including reliefs, losses, part disposals, and share matching rules, across five worked scenarios.

Explain and calculate the tax treatment of business profits for a sole trader and a partner, including basis period rules, capital allowances, and trading expense deductibility tests.

Draft a short technical note (300 words) explaining how VAT registration thresholds and partial exemption affect a small professional practice.

Re-attempt every Domain 1 item in your error log from week 1 and record whether the error recurs.

Apply the professional standards and quality-control expectations for tax practitioners (engagement acceptance, client due diligence, record keeping, review of work) to three short client scenarios and state the correct course of action.

Build a compliance calendar covering a full tax year for a mixed client portfolio of individuals, a partnership, and a company, with every statutory deadline dated.

Distinguish the roles and powers of the tax authority in enquiries, information notices, and assessments, and summarise the taxpayer's rights and appeal routes in a table.

Complete a timed 30-question mixed set on Domains 1 and 2 and record the score.

Work through the full penalty and interest framework for late filing, late payment, and inaccuracies, and calculate the exposure in four fact patterns.

Explain the rules on record retention periods and the consequences of inadequate records for each client type.

Draft a client letter advising on a voluntary disclosure of an error, including the reduction available for unprompted disclosure.

Sit a 45-minute timed mock covering Domains 1 and 2 only, and analyse every wrong answer by topic.

Memorise and state from memory the five fundamental principles of professional ethics and give one concrete tax-practice example of a threat to each.

Apply the threat-and-safeguards framework to at least six scenarios (contingent fees, referral commissions, close family in a client's finance team, long association, providing tax advice to an audit client, pressure to understate income) and identify the correct response.

Explain the rules on confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and the handling of client money in a tax practice, and distinguish when disclosure is permitted versus required.

Write a 400-word analysis of a money-laundering reporting scenario, identifying the tipping-off restriction and the correct internal escalation route.

Practise ethics questions in exam format, writing answers that name the principle, identify the threat, and state the action, across 15 questions.

Reconcile professional ethics obligations with the statutory obligations to the tax authority, and explain in writing what a practitioner must do when a client refuses to correct a return.

Review the professional standards for competence, supervision, and continuing professional development and self-assess your own gaps in a short written record.

Re-test every Domain 3 item in your error log and confirm retention.

Sit two full-length timed mock exams under exam conditions and record the score for each domain separately.

Analyse every incorrect answer to root cause and update the error log with a re-test date.

Re-drill the three weakest technical topics identified by the mocks until you can complete each computation unaided.

Write condensed one-page revision sheets for each domain, limited to facts you have got wrong at least once.

Re-test every open item in the error log and close out any that recur, drilling until each is correct twice in a row.

Sit one final full-length timed mock and compare the per-domain score against week 7 to confirm improvement.

Recite the ethics principles, the penalty framework, and the key compliance deadlines from memory in a single 20-minute session.

Finalise a one-page exam-day plan covering time allocation per domain, question order, and a checklist of common traps.