F6 September Feedback…

Section A

The two questions, which proved particularly difficult for candidates, were:

• Straightforward filing dates for corporation tax for a long period.

• The date which a company must notify HMRC of its first accounting period.

The examiner said that tax administration is an important area of the syllabus, so you must cover this area!

Section B

Read the requirement carefully. With OTs it is all or nothing. Some candidates missed the pro-rating of a car that was only available for 2 months. This affected their calculations.

Section C

Candidates were presented with questions drawn form these main areas:

• Extraction of profits from a company by way of salary compared with dividends.

• An individual’s residence status.

• Computation of an individual’s taxable income.

• Computation of a company’s trading loss.

• Computation of taxable total profits for a company.

• Corporate loss relief and group relief.

Exam technique

The written sections at F6 tend to be relatively short, but it is good practice to make each point in a separate paragraph. It makes it easier to mark a point and is easier for candidates to review their answer. The examiner is also hoping it prevents the same point being made more than once!

OT workings do not need to be as detailed as those for section C, where are part of your answer. Although not strictly necessary the examiner believes it is good practice to either cross out workings for OTs or clearly mark what the workings refer to.