icaew business planning taxation past papers

• Professional Level

Professional Level Business Planning: Taxation

The Business Planning: Taxation module covers the following topics:

• ethics and law
• taxation of corporate entities
• taxation of owner-managed businesses
• personal taxation

Ensure you order the correct edition of the materials. The 2023 edition is aligned with the syllabus and exams for 2023 only. The 2024 edition is aligned with the syllabus and exams for 2024 only. You risk losing exam marks if you use a different edition.

For more information and resources, please visit icaew.com/examresources .

Available editions:

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Business planning: taxation. what to do to pass..

We're not going to lie ... BPT is not very nice. Arguably the most complex ACA paper from a technical point of view (yes, even more so than the Advanced Level), things are not made any easier by the fact that the examiners do not tell you how many marks are available for each part of the question paper! Doesn't exactly help with time management. BPT is also tricky because it is a mixture of narrative and calculations (don't overdo the calculations aspects, either in your revision or during the exam: most of the marks are actually for the narrative side of things). However, at least BPT is an open-book exam, so you can at least take some hopefully useful resources (including ours!) into the exam with you. Our popular BPT Exam Room Notes PDF publication provides alphabetically-organised, quick reference notes on all key BPT areas. Originally intended as a resource aimed at exam day (hence the name!), many students report that our BPT Exam Room Notes PDF was actually very useful in the pre-exam phase because they found it easy to locate the content. It seems pretty obvious to us that things are easier if your notes are alphabetically organised but unfortunately the ICAEW Workbook is organised primarily by chapter, so it isn't always so easy to use. We are pleased to announce that we can now offer our BPT Exam Room Notes PDF as an instant download so no more waiting around to receive the document (and no more frustrations with Junk Mail folders either!). Just click the link further down the page to make a purchase. We draw on this content and knowledge in our BPT Masterclass on-demand video course, which focuses on tutor-narrated discussions of our Skeleton Notes (notes based on past paper model answers) so that you can learn the patterns. The course is provided with a full Pass Guarantee (which may seem brave of us since this is after all BPT, but with a 100% pass rate for the course in 2021, 98% in 2022 and 99% in 2023, we are not too worried!). As with all the Professional Level ACA papers, it is vital that you use resources that force you to engage actively with the content: simply reading and note-taking is very unlikely to get the content into your brain! So for BPT, we offer our Rapid Revision Question Bank book which offers over a thousand short-form questions to help you learn both the narrative and number content through a self-test format. Actively testing your knowledge through questions is always the best way to deal with the volume of narrative content in this kind of paper. We can also offer our Technique Improvement Service to review your Mock practice attempts to unlock further valuable marks through improvements in writing style, interpretation of the question and other factors. Scroll down the page to learn more about our BPT offering.

100% active learning.

Our Rapid Revision Question Banks provide hundreds of short-form questions to help you learning in a 100% active way, maximising the use of your scarce study time.

Some stats on our BPT Rapid Revision Question Bank.

Contains over 1,000 short-form questions to promote active learning.

The 2024 edition of our RRQB is the twelfth edition of the book so you will benefit from a wide range of question types which we have developed over the years.

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To keep you engaged with our technical revision and exam technique lectures, our BPT Masterclass on-demand course includes interactive questions mixed into the videos. This ensures that you fully absorb the key learning points from each segment of the course. Like all our Professional Level on-demand courses, as we are so confident that our technique works, our BPT Masterclass on-demand course is provided with a full money-back Pass Guarantee. So provided that you purchase the course at least 3 weeks before exam day and that you complete all content at least once (ideally more!), we will provide a full refund of your course fee if you do not pass your exam in 2024!

Some stats on our BPT Masterclass on-demand course.

>20 hours.

Our BPT Masterclass on-demand course includes over 20 hours of video content, all carefully organised to focus on one element of the syllabus at a time, reducing overwhelm and helping you focus your studies.

Students who used the 2023 edition of our BPT Masterclass on-demand course had a 99% pass rate! So we have no problem offering a full money-back Pass Guarantee on our BPT Masterclass on-demand course

Unlock your potential

Often, students do not achieve their full potential in an ACA paper because they have not been told how to write, how to manage their time and how the marking works. Our Technique Improvement Service (TIS) provides detailed, personalised reviews of your attempts at ICAEW Mocks or past papers.

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You will receive advice on how to shorten or lengthen your writing style to ensure that you are picking up the marks you deserve.

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To really drive home our advice, we will provide you with a 2-3 page Technique Advice Report on each paper submitted. This includes our popular "5 Top Tips to Improve".

What our students say.

Thanks for the feedback, which is really useful and definitely highlighted some key points I need to work on. I really do appreciate the work done which has given me some reassurance. Thanks again for all your support: this has enabled me to tackle this exam from a different angle, which I would not have been able to do with the other providers.

I am currently preparing for the 3 Advanced Level papers and have bought your Exam Room Notes for CR (both books) and SBM. I previously used your BPT Exam Room Notes and similar to that resource, I think they're really great.

I have long been using your books throughout my ACA studies, and have found them to be invaluable in helping me pass the exams up to now. Many thanks for producing such great quality revision books.

I purchased the Exam Room Notes for the BPT exam (which I comfortably passed) and found really useful. I had one point in the exam where I couldn't remember covering something but was able to find it quickly in the book and  answer the question. I don't think without these notes and the really useful  referencing, I would have been able to pass.

Thank you so much!! :) I really like the Cracking Case book so far, it has helped me so much more than my tuition provider! I had no doubt about it as your notes helped me get 83% in BPT in 2019!

I can't thank you enough for the resources you have provided me to help me pass my BPT exam - the Exam Room Notes and the videos definitely gave me an  essential structure in my mind that I needed to work my way round the syllabus and I ended up with a fantastic result (75%)! I would definitely recommend you guys!

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Business Planning: Taxation

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Historical examination papers

Research guide

Updated: 30 May 2023 Update History

Library holdings of examination papers from 1882 to the present

Aat top-up papers.

If you are looking for past papers from the last few years, or the latest sample papers, these can be found in the ACA Exam Resources  section.

Copies of older past papers are held in the ICAEW Library, and details of the Library's holdings of historical examination papers are set out below.

Please note: ICAEW strongly discourages students from relying on older papers, which is why students can only access past papers and learning resources going back a few years on our website. Previous papers were appropriate for the time that they were set but may now be dated because of political, economic or accounting developments or because of changes to the exam.

The structure of ICAEW examinations has changed considerably over the years. Below we set out a simplified guide to the examination papers that have been set from 1882 to the present day, with links to fuller details of the papers held in the Library collection.

The information given here does not cover the full complexity of some of the changes, and of the transitional arrangements made between examination types. More detailed information on changes made to the examinations over time (as well as on transitional arrangements) can be found in the relevant regulations and syllabuses , as well as in certain other publications held in the Library collection (some of which are referenced below).

A complete listing of the Library's holdings of ICAEW examination papers is also available through our online catalogue.

The changes made to the examinations in 1974-1975 were related to wider changes in ICAEW's system of education and training. From 1973, the old system whereby prospective chartered accountants would train 'under articles' was replaced by a new a system based on training contracts. More information on this change can be found on our page on training under articles . Transitional arrangements provided for the transfer of those who had entered articles before 1st August 1973 to the appropriate part of the new examination structure, although for a time the old examinations overlapped with the new.

A set of specimen questions was published by the Institute in advance of the introduction of new examinations with effect from 1974/75; the Library holds copies .

Details of the changes made to the structure of ICAEW's examinations in 1993-1994 (and the reasons for these) are set out in a document entitled 'New syllabuses and examinations', published in 1990. The Library holds a copy of this publication, filed as part of the series of ‘Examinations conduct and syllabuses’ . Three pages are devoted to a discussion of the new multi-disciplinary case study paper, which formed part of the Final examination and was first tested in July 1994.

A set of 'pilot papers' for the new examinations was published in 1992; copies are held in the Library collection .

A summary of the changes made from September 2007, when ICAEW launched the 'new' ACA, can be found in the ICAEW publication 'Get the facts... changes to the ACA qualification from 2007'. Copies of this publication are  held in the Library collection . The 'old' and 'new' ACA exams ran in parallel during 2007 and 2008.

The latest evolution of the ACA was introduced in July 2013 . The 'evolved' ACA ran in parallel with the previous iteration of the ACA between 2013 and 2014/15.

A full list of key dates for the ACA evolution is available online (page 24).

In addition to the examination papers listed above, ICAEW previously provided an AAT Top-Up examination as part of the Professional Stage. The Top-Up examination enabled members of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) to become qualified as Chartered Accountants through the AAT-ACA Fast-Track. The LIS collection includes some AAT Top-Up Papers, and you can access a  full listing of LIS holdings of AAT Top-Up Papers  through our online catalogue.

The Financial Accounting Top-Up for AAT students is no longer available as of June 2014. However, those who have completed AAT exams may still gain credit for prior learning (exemptions) for up to five Certificate Level modules. To find out more about the current situation, see the AAT-ACA Fast-Track  page.

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Every effort has been made to ensure that the information given in this Research Guide is correct. However, the content of websites changes frequently and users should satisfy themselves that the information they contain is suitable for the purposes for which they wish to use it. We would be grateful to receive notification of any broken links at [email protected] .

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided ‘as is’ with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice .

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FAR - Full Series

Learn how to ace the aca certificate level exams, financial accounting and reporting (far) , classroom tuition, online tuition.

• Aug 4, 2017

How to Pass ICAEW ACA Professional Level Exams

Updated: May 16, 2020

This article offers advice on how students should prepare for the Professional Level ACA exams. Written by a multiple ICAEW prize winner and an ACA tutor who has a 95% student pass rate, this is a must read for any student about to start preparing for their Professional Level exams.

How to Pass the ACA Professional Level Exams

The Professional Level exams are a major step up from Certificate Level in terms of the level of technical content, complexity of the exam paper questions and the time pressure faced in the exam. Even when students get their head around the advanced technical concepts, they often fall short when it comes to practically applying this knowledge to exam questions. These difficulties are represented in the fact that pass rates for the Professional Level exams are usually between 65% and 90%, with some exams, such as Business Planning: Tax (BPT), typically being at the lower end of this range and others, like Business Strategy and Technology (BST), typically being at the top end. Such pressure is only intensified by the fact that students may lose their job if they fail an exam multiple times and have to start the ACA from scratch if they fail an exam four times.

Both as a student and a tutor, I have spent time developing the optimal approach to each ACA Professional Level exam. This includes the most effective ways to study, how best to tackle each specific type of exam question and the most advantageous way to utilise your time in the exam. Not only did this optimal approach result in me scoring top marks in the ACA exams and winning several prizes, but it has enabled my students to achieve exceptionally high pass rates for the ACA exams. This is particularly impressive given that the vast majority of my students had previously failed with another tuition provider.

In order to pass the Professional Level exams, you need to develop two key skills. Firstly, you need a developed understanding of the technical concepts and to be able to apply this to complex, practical scenarios. Secondly, you need an exam technique will allows you to complete the exam within the time limit whilst also typing all the points which will be on the mark scheme.

In order to develop the first skill, rather than racing through each of the study manual chapters using small, unexaminable examples (like some tuition providers), you need to break the syllabus down into examinable areas based on the questions which will appear in your exam. For example, if you are studying Tax Compliance, then you need to structure your learning around each type of tax as this how the exam paper is structured, rather than working through on a chapter by chapter basis.

In order to help you reach peak performance as quickly as possible, you should supplement your technical learning with exclusive use of real past paper exam questions (these are the questions in the ICAEW question bank which have a date next to them in the contents page). This enables you to get to exam standard as quickly as possible rather than wasting time with sub-standard ‘warm-up’ questions which can result in false confidence.

The second skill of exam technique development is often neglected at some tuition providers, probably due to the fact that it is not practically possible to develop individual students in such large classes.

Exam technique is a fundamental part of exam success as having technical knowledge alone will not get you through the exam. In order to pass, you need to have optimal exam technique so that you can demonstrate your knowledge as efficiently as possible whilst allowing sufficient time to complete the paper in full. The key skills you need to develop include: being able to identify from the requirement wording exactly what the examiner wants to see in see in your answer; actively reading the exam paper information to see how each piece of information will feed into your answer; utilising the exam paper information to ensure that your answer relates specifically to the company in question and being able to leverage one part of your answer to another in order to save time.

The above advice is generic for the six Professional Level exams. I have developed the optimal exam technique for each Professional Level paper having completed the past papers for every Professional Level exam. You can find further detail on each exam on each subject-specific page on our website , where you will also find sample classes and learning materials.

About the Author

Kieran Doe is a Senior ACA Tutor at ACA Masters. Kieran won ICAEW prizes for his performance in Financial Accounting and Reporting, Tax, Financial Management, Audit, Business Strategy and Case Study. This is in addition to winning several prizes at university for various Accounting, Management, Business and Economics subjects.

Kieran’s tuition is based around the learning techniques and exam strategies which enabled him to win prizes for all the subjects he teaches. Under his guidance, several of his ACA students have also won ICAEW prizes.

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