Registered AITI Tax Qualification Info and Questions

LKIRBY

Crazylike me thanks for the detailed response.. I think its what I wanted to hear! I'm sort of the opinion I don't have too much to lose. Pawwed Rig I plan to stay in industry but not sure about promotion opportunities within my current company may also have to relocate locations for personal reasons in the next few years so like I said trying to add to the CV.

Pawwed Rig

Sure and I agree that it is not a bad qualification to have. I wouldn't agree it is easier than ACCA though but I guess that depends on your aptitude and what you are good at.
Is there anything more relevant that you could take? Thinking CFA or similar

20 hours a week for AITI would have you in good stead. I would be starting as early as possible though and the year 1 exemption can be a bit of a mixed blessing.

crebel81

Hey

Posted here recently about my plan to register for the AITI exams. Took the plunge and registered for the part 2 winter course (exempt for Part 1 as I am ACCA qualified).

Anyways, I have a question in relation to the online lectures. Due to family and work commitments, I may miss some of the weekend lectures but are the online lectures a good substitute?

Obviously I will try and attend as many as possible but hoping that the online lectures will be of help when needed.

Cheers,
Crebel81

Pawwed Rig

It should be the same lecture

crebel81

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

It should be the same lecture

Thanks for your input.

I was aware of that but I guess the difference is you don't get to ask questions or have any input when watching online.

Any other thoughts welcome.

Pawwed Rig

You can submit questions via email but ime the Institute are pretty poor at passing them on to the lecturer (or else the lecturers are poor at responding).
There is a facility via Blackboard that could be used but I found it to be under utilised.
Try to get to as many as possible and maybe note your queries and ask at a lecture you get to.
Or else post your questions here and let the boardsies answer.

crebel81

Appreciate your response.

Yes I will try and get to as many as I can. I know AITI is a step up but I studied ACCA through home study only and found it ok, so I wont worry too much.

Thanks

silverfox88

Does anyone know if there is a listing of the rankings in terms of results from Part 1s available?

scheister

Overall Part 1 Summer 15 results

Total students 49
Passed 29 59%
Passed three 0 0%
Passed two 7 14%
Passed one 8 17%
Failed 5 10%

lightspeed

can anyone provide recent part 3 pass rates?ha

Im curious if it there has been any change in recent years or are they more or less the same?

I heard that there wasnt always an assignment at part 3 and thats only been introduced in recent years. Im not sure how much truth there is to that though.

i had a look for pass rates on AITI website but i could not find anything

TAA_ICAI

Hi All, I have signed up for the Part 3 course, but some of the books I have are duplicates from Part 2 sitting in April
If anyone is looking for the books for Finance Act 2015 I have the following:
Direct Taxes Act legislation
Indirect taxes x 2 legislation & Indirect taxes manual
Law of CAT, SD, LPT legisation
Send me a message if you would like these books I can post them to you.

Patofthericks

Hi All, I'm considering signing up for the winter course. Recently qualified as ACCA so get exempt from stage 1. I sat the advanced taxation exam. Got in the low 60's, just wondering how much of a step up is it from the ACCA's?

Pawwed Rig

Similar standard imo

Heisenburg81

Hello All,
Does the AITI course provide you with the knowledge to provide detailed consultancy and efficient tax planning as opposed to compliance?

Pawwed Rig

Heisenburg81 wrote: »

Hello All,
Does the AITI course provide you with the knowledge to provide detailed consultancy and efficient tax planning as opposed to compliance?

It points you in the right direction and gives you the tools to find the answers. It does not (and cannot) cover everything. There are guys in tax 20 years who still struggle with some aspects.

tanit

Does anyone know how it compares with Chartered Tax Consultant from Chartered Accountants?

Is the syllabus the same or approximately the same? Once you are qualified you have more or less the same knowledge? Are exams similar?

Thanks for the help

Spark Plug

If anybody has Part 1 manuals and past exam papers for sale please pm me

D.92

Does anyone give or know anyone who gives part 3 international tax grinds? Any help appreciated

scheister

D.92 wrote: »

Does anyone give or know anyone who gives part 3 international tax grinds? Any help appreciated

Clare @ taxgrinds.ie would be worth trying if Dublin Based. used her myself last year and she was brilliant

giftgrub1991

Hi all, would anyone that has the Part 2 timetable for this year be willing to share it ? I'm repeating and don't really want to spend another thousand especially after Christmas 😂.

stormpiper

giftgrub1991 wrote: »

Hi all, would anyone that has the Part 2 timetable for this year be willing to share it ? I'm repeating and don't really want to spend another thousand especially after Christmas 😂.

For the April sitting?

giftgrub1991

Yeh that's the one, cheers for that appreciate it.

giftgrub1991

Yeh that's the one, cheers for that appreciate it.

sodabread

Hi all

How many weeks do people typically take off before the Part 2's and 3's.

I've spoken to a candidate from one of the big 4 and he was taking 6 weeks off prior to Part 2s.

Just trying to get a grip on whether these exams would be a runner for me (working in a company who are not sponsoring/ giving exam leave etc?)

Any thoughts?

stormpiper

sodabread wrote: »

Hi all

How many weeks do people typically take off before the Part 2's and 3's.

I've spoken to a candidate from one of the big 4 and he was taking 6 weeks off prior to Part 2s.

Just trying to get a grip on whether these exams would be a runner for me (working in a company who are not sponsoring/ giving exam leave etc?)

Any thoughts?

6 weeks sou

thegolfer

sodabread wrote: »

Hi all

How many weeks do people typically take off before the Part 2's and 3's.

I've spoken to a candidate from one of the big 4 and he was taking 6 weeks off prior to Part 2s.

Just trying to get a grip on whether these exams would be a runner for me (working in a company who are not sponsoring/ giving exam leave etc?)

Any thoughts?

I was the same.

Took off 3 weeks for part 2. 2 study and 1 week of exams. Did 10 hours a day for the study weeks, nothing but papers all the way.

Similar for part 3.

Sat the summer course each time, but if the winter course you should have enough time to study and prepare. Summer is fairly compressed..

stormpiper

sodabread wrote: »

Hi all

How many weeks do people typically take off before the Part 2's and 3's.

I've spoken to a candidate from one of the big 4 and he was taking 6 weeks off prior to Part 2s.

Just trying to get a grip on whether these exams would be a runner for me (working in a company who are not sponsoring/ giving exam leave etc?)

Any thoughts?

6 weeks sounds insane to me. I managed to persuade my employers to give me two weeks. As long as you put some time into it all along, part 2 is not that bad. I left pretty much the entire course until those 2 weeks. Not recommended 😅

It depends on where you're coming from; if you recently did ACCA advanced tax, you'd have an excellent Base.

Can't help with part 3 yet, I'm afraid.

scheister

stormpiper wrote: »

6 weeks sounds insane to me. I managed to persuade my employers to give me two weeks. As long as you put some time into it all along, part 2 is not that bad. I left pretty much the entire course until those 2 weeks. Not recommended ��

It depends on where you're coming from; if you recently did ACCA advanced tax, you'd have an excellent Base.

Can't help with part 3 yet, I'm afraid.

when i did my part 3's i was given a week per exam as study leave and the day of the exam off so came out at 5 weeks

Pawwed Rig

scheister wrote: »

when i did my part 3's i was given a week per exam and study leave and the day of the exam off so came out at 5 weeks

Same as this. I think that is typical in the training firms.

Skittlebrau

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Same as this. I think that is typical in the training firms.

It's been a couple of years but that sounds about right. 5 weeks including the week of the exams for Part 2 and 6 weeks for Part 3.

Part 2s are grand and I would say that the above isn't necessary but Part 3s are tough and the more time off to work through exam papers the better.

Pawwed Rig

Jaysus lads. Part 2s are tough enough

sodabread

Thanks for the replies.

Jeepers sounds like I might have a good craic at the part 2's. Part 3's sound like another level that you couldn't wing it on 3 weeks off.

Many days of deep thinking ahead :P

Pawwed Rig

sodabread wrote: »

Many days of deep thinking ahead :P

Studying would be a better plan

noveltea

6 weeks that's nuts. I only got a week off and the days of the exams too. All I can say is do past papers, past papers and more past papers.Its the key to passing first time I found. (I did these exam in 2012/2013, so things may have changed).

noveltea

6 weeks that's nuts. I only got a week off and the days of the exams too. All I can say is do past papers, past papers and more past papers.Its the key to passing first time I found. (I did these exam in 2012/2013, so things may have changed).

Happy4all

I'm getting the Friday off before the week of the exams:o

Pawwed Rig

Well to be fair the training firms build the time off into your contract and you are remunerated appropriately. In short wages during a training contract are paltry.

Skittlebrau

noveltea wrote: »

All I can say is do past papers, past papers and more past papers.Its the key to passing first time I found.

Truth

sodabread

Could I ask anyone on here if they pursued the qualification on their own i.e no study groups or colleagues to draw on.

I'm finalising my decision to go for it, there is nobody I know that is doing it?

scheister

sodabread wrote: »

Could I ask anyone on here if they pursued the qualification on their own i.e no study groups or colleagues to draw on.

I'm finalising my decision to go for it, there is nobody I know that is doing it?

i did my part 1's on my own but was in practice for my part 3's. A lad i did my masters with did manage part 3 on this own.

lightspeed

Can anyone advise on what the jobs market is like for someone not from big 4?

I worked in a big 4 company in audit for about a year and didn't like it. I'm now in industry as an assistant accountant and nearly completed my ACCA exams.

What the salary like for non big 4 qualified AITI chartered tax adviser?

I wondering if was to go down the AITI route would be in a small practice on little money?

Im not on a big salary now but is like to know the benefits before going down this route.

Skittlebrau

lightspeed wrote: »

Can anyone advise on what the jobs market is like for someone not from big 4?

I worked in a big 4 company in audit for about a year and didn't like it. I'm now in industry as an assistant accountant and nearly completed my ACCA exams.

What the salary like for non big 4 qualified AITI chartered tax adviser?

I wondering if was to go down the AITI route would be in a small practice on little money?

Im not on a big salary now but is like to know the benefits before going down this route.

For what it's worth.. and at the risk of complicating your choices even further, I think it's worth pointing out that all Big 4 are not the same.

And more importantly, Big 4 - Tax is a world away from Big 4 - Audit.

I work in Tax in a Big 4 firm with colleagues that came from other Big 4 firms and from the audit practice and they would all be of the same view.

PCX

Skittlebrau wrote: »

For what it's worth.. and at the risk of complicating your choices even further, I think it's worth pointing out that all Big 4 are not the same.

And more importantly, Big 4 - Tax is a world away from Big 4 - Audit.

I work in Tax in a Big 4 firm with colleagues that came from other Big 4 firms and from the audit practice and they would all be of the same view.

And what view is that? What are the differences?

Skittlebrau

PCX wrote: »

And what view is that? What are the differences?

What view? That all Big 4 are not the same and that working in Tax is very different than working in Audit. I know many people that have had negative experiences in Audit and in other Big 4 who much prefer working where they are now.

Differences? All firms are culturally different (even within the Big 4). It's important to talk to existing people in all to try and gauge the best fit for you.

I've never worked in Audit so I only have second-hand info but I hear that it can be very monotonous, with little autonomy and little interaction with Partners. Depending on the firm and tax dept, tax can be a very different experience (in my opinion).

lightspeed

Skittlebrau wrote: »

For what it's worth.. and at the risk of complicating your choices even further, I think it's worth pointing out that all Big 4 are not the same.

And more importantly, Big 4 - Tax is a world away from Big 4 - Audit.

I work in Tax in a Big 4 firm with colleagues that came from other Big 4 firms and from the audit practice and they would all be of the same view.

Ive heard that most big 4 only look at big ACA qualified but not sure how much truth there is to that. I had attempted but failed albeit marginally all cap 2 exams. When i left the big 4 firms I was in I had no appetite for audit and move into jobs in industry. As a result I changed to ACCA.

Also would attitudes be more warm for ACCA qualified from other firms and what would smaller practices typically pay for NEWLY qualified chartered tax advisers?

Like if big 4 are paying 50-55k would small practices be likely only around 40k?

I Can probably get that salary were I am once qualified or at least by end of the year so not sure if the benefits are there to go the chartered tax route?

PCX

lightspeed wrote: »

Ive heard that most big 4 only look at big ACA qualified but not sure how much truth there is to that.

I personally know two people who work Tax in a big 4 firm both at director level neither of whom is ACA qualified. They both trained at smaller firms. One is ACCA and AITI qualified the other just AITI qualified. I also know a Tax partner with no Tax qualification just FCA.

I think they have preferences but not rules when looking at qualifications and training.

Heisenburg81

What is usually the range for highest mark in the Prof Skills Part 2?
High 80's or 90's?

sodabread

If anyone on this thread (or lurking) is taking Part 2 and would be interested in participating in a study group please PM me. I'll be starting Part 2 in October and I think it would help if we could get a small group together and leverage each others knowledge.

binkevii

Hi, Can anyone please send me an example of exam questions or maybe past exam paper from Part 1? I just want to see how difficult they are.

Thanks!

monkeylover10

Hi, I am sitting Part 2 exams week after next & had decided earlier this year, to only concentrate on VAT & CAT and to do the other 2 subjects next April. I am doing AITI exams myself (not obliged by company I work for), have a family, job & no study time off, so felt that 4 subjects were too much and didn't have much hope in passing all 4. This way I feel I am well prepared for 2 exams I plan to do.

Just wondering if anyone who has done this, did they leave the exam hall after 1 hour for the 2 exams that they hadn't prepared for. As far as I know I have to sit them regardless. Any feedback welcome...