Advanced Technical

Moving on from ATT to CTA?

It can be daunting to move to CTA exams from ATT exams. You may be having difficulty in adapting how you answer questions.

Click here to see an article by the ATT Chief Examiner/ CTA Deputy Chief Examiner on how to adapt your answers.

Detail

Important Note: The Advanced Technical exams changed in 2021. Read the guidance notes for more detail.

The Advanced Technical exams are separate three and a half hour exams. Each Advanced Technical exam is a 'stand-alone' exam and you will be expected to answer all of the questions which comprise the exam. The questions in each of the seven Advanced Technical exams will be either for 10, 15 or 20 marks. 

You can see past exams.

Syllabus Descriptions

You can view the syllabus descriptions for each of the Advanced Technical exams:

• Taxation of Owner-Managed Businesses
• Domestic Indirect Taxation
• IHT, Trusts & Estates
• Human Capital Taxes
• Taxation of Individuals
• Cross-Border Indirect Taxation
• Taxation of Larger Companies & Groups
• Cross Border and Environmental Taxes (from May 2025)

Important information for Indirect Tax candidates for the 2025 exam onwards

From May 2025, the current Cross Border Indirect Taxes Advanced Technical paper will be replaced with the Cross Border and Environmental Tax paper. The new paper will continue to be predominantly VAT and Customs Duty (approximately 70%-85%) but will also include environmental taxes (15%-30%).

Sample paper

The first two questions are past paper questions taken from the current syllabus, testing predominantly VAT (and some duty) and are included to illustrate a full paper.

The question writers aim to keep questions as short as possible, so that they are clear, do not contain any ambiguous or irrelevant information and are easy to digest in the time. Question 1 is an example of this. Sometimes, however, questions will need to be longer so that key points can be drawn out in the scenario for candidates to explore in their answers. Question 2 is an example of this.

Customs Duty will be examined at a more in-depth level than at present so in question 3, candidates need to give appropriate recommendations rather than repeat information they have read in a study manual. This question requires thought on how Inward Processing, Customs Warehousing and the TCA between the UK and EU interact together to provide the best solution for the company. In previous years questions have generally covered a single ‘relief’. ‘Customs Duty’ and ‘Import Duty’ continue to be interchangeable terms when importing into GB.

All taxes may be tested in combination with other taxes such as questions 1, 4 and 5 or as stand-alone questions, such as questions 2, 3 and 6.

Also included is the syllabus relating to the new Cross Border Indirect Taxes paper.

Please note that the Environmental Taxes will not be examinable in the Application & Professional Skills paper until 2026.