ACA Tax Fundamentals: the taxes examined and how to revise

Tax Fundamentals introduces the main UK taxes a chartered accountant meets and how they are computed. The exam is computational, built around standard pro-forma calculations, with a layer of administration and ethics on top.

What’s on the exam

• Income tax computations: employment, savings and dividend income
• National Insurance contributions
• Capital gains tax basics
• Corporation tax basics
• Value added tax (VAT)
• Tax administration: deadlines, payments and penalties

How to approach it

Learn the pro-formas. Each tax has a standard computation layout, and getting the structure into muscle memory means you can work quickly and not lose easy marks to a misplaced figure.

Practise full computations rather than reading worked examples, and pay attention to the administration detail — deadlines and penalties are easy marks that candidates routinely drop.

See the Certificate Level overview for how Tax Fundamentals fits with the other modules, or try some free practice questions.