Tips for Paper P6

I have successfully passed the two tax papers. My study experience of the tax papers may be helpful to the candidates for Paper P6, Advanced Taxation (UK), and I would like to draw attention to four points that attention should be paid to.

Firstly, the advanced taxation paper introduces new taxes. Among them, IHT is the most important one, as the questions based on IHT will appear in the parts of the compulsory question on the advanced taxation paper, which itself is comprised of both computational and discursive elements. Compared to IHT, stamp duty land tax and stamp duty are less important, as there are only a few the marks related to them.

Secondly, the syllabus of the advanced taxation paper extends the coverage of income tax, corporation tax, and capital gains tax. For example, PAA (Personal Age Allowance) is also required beside PA (Personal Allowance), while principal private residences and chattels appear in the CGT area of the syllabus. Attention should be paid to these contents as they are more likely to be examined.

Thirdly, the questions on the advanced taxation paper put focus on essay writing which are different from the questions on the fundamental taxation paper - Paper F6, Taxation (UK) - which puts more emphasis on calculation. The optional questions in the advanced taxation paper are mainly discursive ones, and to help with the ability to communicate with clients, HMRC is required.

The last but the most important point is that the questions on the advanced taxation paper are more comprehensive, so they may require candidates to consider the whole syllabus. For example, when facing a question that requires you to advise whether or not a dividend payment will result in a higher after-tax cash sum than the liquidation of the company, students will need to consider all the relevant issues such as income tax, corporation tax, and CGT. So it is important that students think before they start to write an answer in order to identify the relevant issues and the calculations necessary to support their advice.

In my view, the huge amount of the contents required by the syllabus makes Paper P6 a time consuming paper, and candidates must spend enough time studying UK tax, and have a sound knowledge of the technical contents of the fundamental level tax paper in order to be successful.

Comments

[bilal]

Hi, I teach this paper. Feel free to contact me if you need to.

[Yang]

Hi Awais

I'm sorry that I don’t know whether one can start tax consultancy in the UK after passing this exam, because I live in China and don’t know about the career issues of tax consultancy in the UK.

P6 is really a time-consuming paper. I spent a lot of time in this paper before I successfully passed it. In my opinion, studying hard is the most important thing I can recommend to help you on your way to pass Paper P6.

Wishing you success in passing Paper P6.

[Awais]

Hi Yang

I'm Awais from Pakistan. I'm going to take P6 in June 2008 and unfortunately there are not many very good teachers of P6 here. I have heard this paper is quite tough, and I would like to be in contact for some help.

I want to know about the worth of paper P6. I have heard that one can start tax consultancy in the UK after passing this exam. Is this true?