business planning tax exam

Business Planning: Taxation

Couldn't load pickup availability

• Contact Information

Our ICAEW products

Our ICAEW Passcards are available in print and eBook formats.

Our unique Passcards make the best use of your revision time. They summarise key topics to jog your memory when it matters, and are packed with rapid bites of exam-relevant guidance.

What do my Passcards offer?

• Revise at a glance and accelerate revision
• Summaries and visual aids
• Follows the syllabus in the same order as the Study Text for easy learning

Learning on the go

With an intuitive interface, seamless access to your content and a personalised reading experience, BPP Learning Media eBooks are ideal for students and their study needs.

Your eBook can be accessed on multiple devices, syncing your bookmarks and updates, and enables you to highlight and annotate the content using a range of editing tools.

Features include:

• bookmarking
• highlighting
• search functionality, as well as much more.

To find out more about our eBooks, how they work, the functionality & other beneifts, please visit our dedicated eBook section:

VISIT OUR DEDICATED EBOOK SECTION

Printed in the United Kingdom

High quality printed

study materials

Designed for exam success

Written by experienced subject tutors

Backed by BPPs expert knowledge

A global leader in education

Trusted by 100,000+ learners

Commited to helping students succeed

Learn anywhere

• Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
• Opens in a new window.

Jag's Journey

Sharing my life experiences including the Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) qualification

How to Pass the “Hardest ACA Exam” BPT: Including Open Book File Made Easy

If you are reading this, you are likely to either be at the dreaded moment where your Business Planning: Taxation (BPT) exam is approaching or you are intrigued about the ACA myth itself. Before you read on, just know that I have been in your position in 2019. It is an unsettling time and initially BPT probably is the most overwhelming ACA exam. That being said I do/did not rate BPT as the hardest ACA exam in the end. I went from 44 in a mock exam (the only one I failed) to achieving 81 in the real exam #notbraggingbutmadeitgreen . I hope this article gives you the confidence you need to pass BPT and I will share what worked for me!

Fun fact: BPT used to be an Advanced Level exam which means you are almost there at this point. Hang in there.

Table of Contents

What is the bpt exam actually like, mastering the skill, approach: should i spend a lot of time recapping tc and learning the content for bpt, bpt summary notes, icaew bpt question bank, model answers, sticky tabs and icaew bookshelf, bpt question reference sheet, walkthrough of my open book, nail your timing of the bpt exam.

I have already provided a breakdown of this exam but I will provide a short recap if you need it. BPT stands for Business Planning: Taxation. Yes, a tax exam. Tax Compliance is the exam where you need to perform the tax calculations itself. BPT however has a different angle. There is much more, wider tax content involved and you are instead required to provide tax advice . You are required to talk through taxes rather than performing the calculations itself although a small degree of this could be asked for.

This 2.5 hour open book exam is extremely, extreeeeemely time pressured but the content is quite consistent in terms of the syllabus areas. It will cover taxation of corporate entities, owner managed businesses and personal taxation. However, each syllabus area has so many different possible combinations of tax laws, topics and scenarios that each exam can be completely different. It also requires a vast amount of application but this does not mean you cannot pick up easy marks.

Easy Marks in BPT?!

Before I get into the more complicated areas and risk you feeling overwhelmed, let’s get you feeling positive . As hard as the exam is rumoured to be and can be, BPT does still have some easy marks available!

A big part of the exam is mastering the skill of identifying the relevant tax rule to the scenario in question. Once you can do this, you can really pick up some easy marks here. By stating the basics of the tax rule you spot applies to the question, with a good open book file which we will come to, you will pick up at least a few marks for each. This is why it is important to get through the whole exam . Spending longer getting deeper into a tax concept will hinder your success if it means you are missing the easy initial marks elsewhere.

At this point you may be thinking, “but Jag, how is that easy when you need to master the skill?” . This is a very good point. Try not to roll your eyes when I say this but the only way to master this skill and to get those easy marks is through practise . These marks are only easy if you put in the work. I kid you not, I went through all 60 ICAEW question bank questions in detail. It took me a very long time to master this skill and this happened after the mock but before the exam, hence my drastic mark increase in the real exam.

Note : If you have read my previous blog , you will know I did take some time off before the exam which is why this was achievable for me. Do not get disheartened if you do not have enough time to do this and it is not necessary to pass. Do as much revision and question practise as you can without burning out!

Do not get me wrong, I did not master this skill entirely of course as there is just way too much content and sneakiness in the exam. It does get easier though. When I first started practising, I was probably picking up about 20% of the relevant taxes in the question. I’d read the answer after a rubbish attempt and be shocked at everything I completely missed. Fast forward to the exam stage after all my question practise I would say this was around 75-85% . Remember, there are actually more marks available for the BPT questions than the maximum number of marks (cha-ching) . Go easy on yourself, you do not need to know it all!

It is not all bad, wishy-washy “just practise” news – I do have some treasure to give you…

Ethics. As an ACA student, you should know by the BPT stage that every exam after Certificate Level will have ethics marks up for grabs. In BPT there are around 5-10% ethics marks . You should aim on maxing out these marks. Ethics is not always simple but you can use your open book to help you on this. Write down all the different ethical scenarios such as tax evasion, avoidance, money laundering and so on. Then match the model answers from the ICAEW question bank to each topic as you go along. You will then have an ethics answer reference guide . All you need to do is ensure you APPLY it to the exam scenario. BPT is all about application.

If you can choose, I would advise sitting BPT after TC . It is however possible to sit/pass BPT first (a girl in my class did). Recap the content from tax compliance (TC) if you have sat this exam prior to BPT but you really do not need to go overboard here. As stated above, BPT focuses much more on tax advice rather than the calculations itself. It is good to have a good understanding of how to do the calculations such as income tax, CGT, etc but you do not need to go overboard nailing the calculations and all the little details. You have already proved/will prove you can do this in TC.

Disclaimer : this is my own personal opinion based on how I approached the exam. I have read around 60% of the marks in the BPT exam are for technical matters already tested in the TC exam . This does not mean you need to do perform 60% of the calculations, although there may be a few. It means you need the understanding to advise which is why you arguably do need to recap the content thoroughly before attempting questions.

My approach was to throw myself into BPT question practise and learn/recap from there. This was usually my approach with the majority of ACA exams. It is up to you which method you prefer but if you do throw yourself in, your debriefs of the answers need to be thorough . This enabled me to identify any weak areas . I would then learn/recap the content so I could get better at is as I went along.

I did take my TC question bank in the exam with me as a comfort blanket . I thought I could find a model answer for a calculation I needed to talk through or show a small part of. However, I did not end up finding it and had to move on . Had I followed my own advice, I would have just missed out the extra hard marks to get the easier ones later on. In reality, I actually did not get to answer all aspects of one of the questions and had to miss marks out. Luckily, it was only a few marks in the end so I was fine but I was worried though.

In terms of the new  BPT content , I would say it is important to have a decent understanding of the new concepts to begin with. However, remember this is a completely open book exam so do not think you need to nail the content first thing. Your understanding will develop as you come to practise the questions . Again, you can spend time learning the content first but practise is key as so much application is required. That being said, I do know someone who did not do too much question practise but still passed. I would say this is very risky though because of how much BPT is a skills based application exam.

Let’s now get to the good stuff, the open book…

Preparing the Open Book File for BPT

Before I start explaining what worked for me , I should highlight the fact that I am aware that ICAEW materials are now digital . This does make it harder to some extent to have the same approach I will outline below. However, it is still feasible and I will add in pointers to help make this doable.

Preparing an open book can be very overwhelming . Tutors would talk about this amazing open book that would have all the answers but did not really go on to reveal any details for how to go about it. Everyone’s approach can be different and so when it came to it, I honestly had no idea where to start. I can now say that a good starting point would be by trying not to reinvent the wheel .

If you are studying with Kaplan / BPP they should provide you with a workbook and summary notes . If not/additionally, ask people at your place of work if they have any good summary notes too as chances are they could do. I did this and these are the notes I used and will show below. Be careful though as tax rules and bands can change from year to year so if you do use other summary notes make sure you update them accordingly. You can also buy these but I do not think this is necessary.

Summary notes are good to use as the basis of the open book file. These would outline the basic knowledge/concepts and then from there you can add key points to it and really build onto it. The building really came along as I did question bank practise and when doing a thorough debrief of the answers . To have a solid open book, you should definitely incorporate the ICAEW BPT Question Bank to know where the marks are.

As stated in “ 5 best ways to Minimise Exam Stress “, I would work backwards from the exam date , plan how many questions I needed to do (60 – leaving some for college) and then pencil these in for specific dates. This worked out to be by practising around one ICAEW Question Bank question a day. In hindsight, what would have worked well is by practising questions with the same key topics on consecutive days . The ICAEW BPT Question Bank should have a contents table at the front to help with this. However, I feel I just planned the questions randomly and it was still fine.

Using my throwing myself in approach, initially with the first 10-15 questions I was really out of my depth . I wouldn’t even actually spend that long attempting the question because I knew I would struggle even with my notes. I would write down the few taxes I could spot that were relevant. This is where having good content knowledge from the onset could help. However, where I really then built up my content knowledge was by spending up to an hour debriefing the model answer. Of course you are never expected to pick up everything but this is where I really started to work on mastering the skill of identifying relevant taxes to the questions.

When going through the answer to a practise question, this is where I would start tying answers into my summary notes and building the file. I would find the relevant section in the summary notes and write down the question reference to have it as a good example to look back to. For example, a small “QB56” above the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) summary notes. I would then also write down any key parts of the answer that are generic and could be applied to other questions such as good introductions or general things to say.

As time went on, as I had started building the open book file up my confidence began to grow. My content knowledge was getting to where it needed to be so I did not need to completely rely on my notes and I was slowly mastering the skill with time. Once you get to this point, and you WILL get to this point, you will find BPT really isn’t THAT bad. This point for me did come quite close to the exam date but I still got there. The real issue with this exam is timing . You should definitely start practising questions to time as early as you can. I will help you with this further below.

When it came closer to the BPT exam and I had gone through most of the questions (leaving a few unseen for last minute testing), I was now familiar with the most popular topics . I would then write up generic answer sheets for these topics such as residency status, sole trader vs company, etc and have references to the best model answers in the ICAEW Question Bank for these topics too. This meant that if these topics came up in the exam I could start writing straight away but making sure to APPLY THE GENERIC ANSWERS TO THE SCENARIO IN THE EXAM . Application is key in BPT!!  

Fortunately for me, I had a great BPT tutor who also sent out model answer sheets for certain topics that would mean I could quickly pick up the easy marks. For example, a ready to go answer for smaller areas such as SEIS. Remember, these marks are only easy if you have mastered the skill to pick these out.

I lived for sticky tabs for this exam! Timing is the biggest struggle with BPT and so to really help cut out time , sticky tabs were key. I would tie the summary notes and the ICAEW Question Bank together with sticky tabs so it was easy to quickly flick to the relevant parts if this came up in the real exam. I did this as I went along because doing this all at the end would have been very long. I know this is where it gets tricky for the Digital Bookshelf as the ICAEW Question Bank is virtual. However, it will still work well for your summary notes.

My approach was to put sticky notes on my summary note pages where I wanted to flag key topics . I did not need to flag everything because with all this practise over time I knew where to look for some. For example, I may not have put a sticky tab for ‘patent box’ but I would know it came straight after ‘IHT’ that was tabbed. I would then use the same colour tab , in the same position along the side for the ICAEW BPT Question Bank answer. On this tab I would write “QB56” for example to flag where the model answer is. I would also annotate on the answer page to make the reference extra clear.

For the digital bookshelf, like I said you can still do this for your summary notes. You will at least be able to access the topics quickly to then find the relevant question online. I do think this could be much more time consuming though.

Here are ways to get around this :

• Use a BPT question reference sheet , as outlined below. The Question Bank will be built into the exam software and students who have used it recently have stated you can search page numbers. Instead of noting down the QB question, write down the page number
• Some students are getting hardcopy ICAEW BPT Question Banks from other students who had them. Although this may work initially, this is perhaps not a good idea as the content, questions and tax rates update. If you do get it early enough to make all the updates needed then this could work well
• Print out the best model answers you think you will need in the exam so you do not have to flick to the ICAEW Bookshelf
• Avoid overreliance on the ICAEW Question Bank for answers to exam questions. Make sure you know which topics it could be very helpful for. Otherwise, have good annotated summary notes, model answer sheets and your brain for the rest!
• Practise makes perfect – start using the ICAEW Bookshelf from very early on (this goes for the ICAEW exam software too) so you are comfortable with it

As you can tell, I had put in a lot of work to build up my open book file over time. Just because this is what worked for me it does not mean the same approach suits you. You may find you would rather spend more time learning the content initially and start off in a stronger position when first attempting any ICAEW Question Bank questions. It really is up to you how you do this.

I would also like to share another approach I have heard of which seemed to work for others. This is where they would create a table with a list of all the different BPT exam topics . They would then write a reference to the best model answers from the ICAEW Question Bank. In a way this cuts out my step of having to go to the summary notes or to my own model answers first to find the reference. You could actually do both as I did for ethics . It is also likely someone else has produced this reference sheet so ask around and see!

Another open book you are provided with for this exam is the tax tables for the year of your exam. I will keep this very brief as I did not really use these much . This is because all of the relevant rates and details would have been included in the summary notes. It is better to have all details in one place rather than wasting time flicking between different sheets if you can. I did still take this into the exam with me; I actually took in my tabbed up TC version as I sat both in 2019. However, I did not look at this at all in the exam.

As stated above, I took the following materials into my BPT exam:

• My annotated and tabbed BPT summary notes
• ICAEW Question Bank also annotated and tabbed
• My model answers including those sheets provided by my BPT tutor
• Kaplan Integrated Workbook just in case
• Tax tables just in case
• TC ICAEW Question Bank (wasted time)

You may be wondering why I have not mentioned the ICAEW BPT Study Manual . I have not mentioned this because I literally did not look at this at all. In all honesty, I can’t say I have used this for any of the ACA exams as it is way too detailed.

To give you a complete picture of what my open book was like, I have included photos below. You can see how the sticky tabs were used. Remember, these summary notes were sent to me by someone at my firm so you will not recognise these.

For those of you who have joined my journey, I will shortly be sending out a few of the model answers I created and took in to hopefully help you give you some inspiration. If you have not yet joined my journey, join now and you can still get these!

Hopefully you now have a better idea of how to approach studying for the BPT exam and an idea for how you could put together an open book file. Now we need to come onto an extremely important downfall for students sitting BPT, which is timing. This is said to be the most common reason why students fail this exam. Messing up your timing for this exam really does put you in danger as remember, the easy marks are at the initial parts of the question. You therefore need to get there to get these!

As if BPT isn’t complicated enough, you also have to allocate the marks for the exam yourself. You only get told the total marks for the three BPT exam questions, even though these breakdown into much smaller parts. A good idea would therefore be to plan your timing . Take no more than a couple of minutes to allocate marks between each sub-question. As there are 1.5 minutes per mark in this exam, you can calculate how much time you should be spending on each question. See below:

You will not always get this spot on but practising does help you get better at this. Looking carefully at the wording can help here. “Explain with calculations” is of course going to rack up more marks than “describe”. Additionally, you should know the ethics marks will be a maximum of 10% , usually 7 marks, so do not allocate too much time here.

I cannot stress how important timing is. When I first started this exam, it was as if my hands had froze up and I could not type as quickly as I usually could. Given it was already a time pressured exam, this really was not ideal at all. Therefore, by being strict with timing and moving onto the next question when needed really did help me get through.

That’s a wrap – I again would like to state that this blog outlines what worked for me . Hopefully this blog has helped give you an insight into the BPT exam, an idea for how to approach the exam as well as preparing the open book file. It is by no means the “right way”.

Additionally, please do not be alarmed or overwhelmed by how much preparation I did. I have always had the mentality that I need to get through every ICAEW Question Bank for most of the ACA exams. This was my attitude for BPT and is what I did. In all honestly, I probably did not need to put in as much work to pass BPT but I aimed to do as well as I could.

Remember, there is a reason most students rank this as the “hardest ACA exam”. Do not be hard on yourself if you do struggle as most students do. If you need any help or further support from other students, feel free to join this ACA LinkedIn group . You can also post your thoughts and comments below.

21 comments

• Pingback: How Difficult REALLY are the ICAEW ACA Exams? With ACA Exam Difficulty Ranking and Proven ICAEW Pass Rates - Jag's Journey
• Pingback: 15 ACA Exams Breakdown – Part 2 ACA Professional Level Exams and Quick Passing Tips - Jag's Journey
• Pingback: How to Successfully Pass ICAEW ACA Financial Management (FM) - Professional Level Exam - Jag's Journey
• Pingback: 15 ACA Exams Breakdown – Part 3 ACA Advanced Level Exams - Jag's Journey
• Pingback: How to Pass the ACA Corporate Reporting (CR) Exam - ACA Advanced Level - Jag's Journey

Hey, so i am sitting BPT with BST in 3weeks time (roughly have 3weeks of leave (study+annual leave from Monday). I am planning on smashing out around 80% of the QB out (that is 80% of the 59 questions on the QB) and do it roughly 3times – so do each questions or alteast attempt to complete each question 3times around (I follow the same advice I was given for certificates level exams where our tutor told us to do the QB for each exam at least twice. I just do it more 1round for my own self-assurance).

As a BPT is such a skill-based exam (so, like not similar to FAR or FM where the format of the question would be pretty similar but you just need to do know the technical knowledge), do you think its better to do 3rounds but only complete around 80% of the paper or try and do every single ques on the QB?

Also for BST, how many question did you actually attempt to complete or would advice any one sitting it with BPT to complete?

Side note: Your blog is very nice to read as the experience you have wrote about is very similar to what i currently experiences. Would love to know/read more of your experience of how you find working at the BIG4 as an AM and before, as a senior (I am going to be a senior at the Big4 in Sept and contemplating on whether its really worth sticking to Audit and move up the chain or switch to something else).

The first thing I would say on this is that doing the QB three times for Professional Level, especially BPT is likely to be more counter-productive. With Certificate Level, this advice is much more appropriate given how short the questions are and how quickly you can get through them. Professional Level exams require much more time to get through each questions. For example, for BPT to get through even a shorter question could still take up to two hours to practice, mark and debrief. You also need to factor in the time to really build on your open book file from this.

I would therefore definitely not advise trying to go through the QB three times for this. This will avoid: 1) burnout 2) ineffectiveness

Getting through the QB for Professional Level, including BPT is enough to do once. As long as you really do take the time to go through the answers and build the skills you need to do well in this exam. As mentioned, you also need to take the time to build in model answers from the QB into your open book file. The issue of repeating questions in BPT is that you may remember what taxes were relevant to the question because you have seen it before rather than actually knowing how to pull out the relevant taxes if it was an unseen question.

In terms of completing the paper, BPT is extremely time pressured. However, the easy marks are at the start of each question as you can get the marks for stating the basics of the relevant taxes you can pick out. I would always recommend for BPT to try to get through the whole paper instead of 80%. This is so rather than wasting time on the harder marks and missing those easier you can pick these all up.

For BST I found I was quite good at based on the progress test and mock exams I sat. I was already achieving 70+ so I felt quite confident for this one. For that reason, I did not do too much extra practice. I will be releasing a blog on this next Thursday but I probably spent one weekend going through and reading up on answers. Where I did practice was with the number analysis type questions as I found I could definitely improve on that and it would be beneficial to the exam.

I will definitely consider writing a blog on this! One thing I will say is that with audit you will continue to learn and grow. It is definitely a great starting point. Assess it each month or year and see where it goes or if you feel you are ready to move on.

All the best!

Thank you for the quick reply and detailed advice – very much appreciated. I guess I will switch my revision plan around to try and complete all the questions on the QB (never done that before but first time for everything) rather than only doing the majority of the ques but 2x/3x. I have actually bought an open book (BPT) notes online (from this site called ACAMasters) – so sorted for that but never thought of putting model answers from the QB into them – so that’s a great little tip!! Thank you again and I look forward to reading your future blogs!

• Pingback: How to Pass Strategic Business Management (SBM) - ACA Advanced Level - Jag's Journey
• Pingback: The Best Order to Sit The ACA Exams - Jag's Journey

Hi Jag! Thanks for the post. I’m about to retake this exam and I wondered if you had any pointers on know which points are relevant and which aren’t? I sat a marked mocked yesterday and found a lot of the points I was making were not earning any marks. Any tips would be useful! Thanks in advance

No worries at all!

BPT can honestly be so difficult to pick out what is relevant and what is not but I really do think it comes with practice.

I think what could help in your situation is perhaps to thoroughly go through the same question again with the mark scheme and see what parts of the question/scenario triggered each part of the answer. It would also help by debriefing the other way to see why your points that gained no marks were not relevant as you may find there could be rules you are missing causing the tax not to be relevant in the given scenario. If you really take the time to go through this hopefully things start to click and fall into place.

As you are perhaps short of time with the exam being next week, I would recommend asking your tutor (assuming you have a training provider) to help explain why. Hopefully it is just small tweaks of knowledge to get you in the right direction.

I would also suggest trying a few new questions and doing answer plans to see if you start to spot key things that come up and help identify relevant taxes although there are so many.

All the best with your exam next week and fingers crossed for you!

Thank you so much for your advice Jag! I kept this in mind as I just sat the exam. Fingers crossed it went well! Thanks once again

No worries at all Faith – I hope the outcome is positive for you 🤞🤞

• Pingback: Do ACA Exams Expire? – Almazrestaurant
• Pingback: How to Pass the Difficult Tax Compliance (ACA TC) Exam - ICAEW Professional Level - Jag's Journey
• Pingback: New ICAEW Exam Software Testing Experience - Exciting ACA Case Study Opportunity - Jag's Journey

Thank you Jag for all the tips! This has been very helpful. I am in the process of preparing for BPT, which I am sitting in December. Would you say BPT is more challenging than SBM, CR and Case Study? Just wondering what to expect next year.

No worries and good luck for BPT in December!

If you have seen my difficulty ranking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpKai9bELj0 I go into some detail about this where I did actually find CR to be more difficult than BPT. CR I found to be the hardest ACA exam and then BPT second. This is because with the BPT content, after a lot of question practice once you grasp the content the main difficulty comes with timing. However, with CR there is SO much content that can actually be very difficult to apply that the exam I felt did really increase in difficulty.

In this video I talk about why I almost failed CR which may be of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu6bXPKUFGE . I think had my exam not have been so difficult, I would not have felt this way but because of the exam I had, I really did experience how difficult it can be.

I hope this helps!

Tried to contact you via email, it would be super helpful if we could organise a chat!

Hi Tej, I have just emailed you!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Buy Me a Coffee

Automated page speed optimizations for fast site performance

The inside take on grad life in a big 4 firm

Business Planning: Taxation

The ACA professional level Business Planning: Taxation (BPT) exam is usually one of the middle professional stage exams sat by candidates. 

This is the only ACA exam that has variations of the same paper (as of a few years ago). The Business Planning module gives students the choice between Tax, Banking and Insurance variations. 

Although Banking and Insurance appear to be growing in popularity in recent sittings, it is still Tax which is by far the most popular and is the exam that I sat. Due to this, it is BPT which will be focused on in this post.

The BPT exam builds on the knowledge developed from the certificate level Principles of Tax (PoT) and although usually sat at the same time as Tax Compliance , also builds on many of the concepts which are introduced during that exam. 

Unless candidates work in tax, I consider this exam to be very different from work they are likely to have done as part of their day job. However a solid foundation of tax knowledge is certainly beneficial for your future career (and also future personal finances). 

Overview of Business Planning Taxation Exam

Method of assessment.

The BPT exam itself is 2.5 hours and given it forms part of the Professional level, it can only be sat in one of the quarterly exam periods, which are in March, June, September and December.

As such, in each exam sitting all candidates will be set the same questions.

The exam will consist of 3 longer form questions. One of these questions will be an integrated scenario carrying around 40 marks, with the other two questions carrying broadly even weighting. 

Given that this exam is at the professional stage, students will also be permitted to bring in their own permitted materials.

How to pass ACA Business Planning Taxation exam

To pass the Business Planning Taxation exam you need to make sure that you have a broad knowledge of each area of the syllabus. The best way of doing this is by taking the time to master the past questions from the question bank, and to really make sure that you know why the answer is the answer. 

It is also essential that you have very organised notes and know exactly where to turn when you see a certain topic appear in a question. The exam itself is very time pressured and therefore being able to find the correct section quickly will be a life saver. 

Possibly the biggest but most basic tip to passing this exam is to make sure you READ the question. Many people fail this exam because they mis-understand a question after not spending adequate time reading the requirements, meaning students can go completely off topic. I would strongly recommend reading the question multiple times and making a brief plan before tackling any question.  

How hard is the ACA Business Planning Taxation exam?

I would say that this is a very difficult exam and in my opinion is the hardest of all 15 ACA exams.

However, that is not to say that the exam is impossible; it’s not. As you can see from the pass rate, most people end up passing the exam. Make sure that you prepare well for the exam and you will be able to pass. 

I would give this exam a 5 out of 5 for difficulty. 

The pass rate for this exam is 78.50% .

Related posts

How to get qualified in a big 4 firm – How hard is the ACA?

Why working in Big 4 audit is the best way to start your career

Benefits of Working in the Big 4 – Why Leaving is so Attractive

How much do you get paid in the Big 4?

What do auditors actually do?

Is being an auditor REALLY that boring?

FAR - Full Series

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

• Feb 1, 2020

How to Pass the ICAEW ACA Business Planning: Tax (BPT) Exam

Updated: Mar 4, 2022

This article offers our top five tips on how to pass the ACA Business Planning: Tax (BPT) exam. The advice contained in this article is taught as part of our popular BPT course which has seen several attendees scored over 90% in the BPT exam. Written by an ACA tutor who won multiple ICAEW prizes as a student, including one for Tax, this is a must read for any student preparing for their BPT exam.

Tip 1 – When starting your BPT preparation, ensure that your Tax Compliance (TC) knowledge is at least at the same level as when you passed TC

The BPT exam requires students to advise individuals and businesses on UK tax matters. Clearly, this requires a good understanding of UK tax rules and the majority of these rules were already covered in the TC exam. In fact, around 60% of the marks in the BPT exam are for technical matters already tested in the TC exam.

It is therefore strongly advised that your BPT preparation begins with re-learning of the TC technical content for each tax. As we consider this to be such a fundamental part of BPT preparation, we provide our students with access to our TC tutorials to give them a head start. Our experience is that students who complete this preparatory work find the advanced BPT content much easier to understand and apply. This then enables them to focus on exam technique from an earlier stage which leads them to higher marks.

Tip 2 – Identify which ‘scenarios’ are commonly tested

The BPT exam requires students to advise individuals and businesses on UK tax matters in ‘real-world’ scenarios. In practice, there are several tax matters which individuals and businesses frequently need advice on, such as:

Whether a start-up business should incorporate or operate as an unincorporated business

Whether an existing business should incorporate

How an incorporated business can distribute returns to director-shareholders tax efficiently

How to pass assets to children without triggering a tax charge

The optimal use of a tax loss for a large corporate group

Whether an internationally expanding business should set up a subsidiary company or a branch

These common ‘real-world’ scenarios are also the scenarios examiners use in the BPT exams. Unlike TC, BPT does not usually require students to calculate the tax liability for a single tax. Instead, BPT requires students to advise on all tax matters. Therefore, by practicing lots of past exam questions you will soon start to see which scenarios are commonly tested and which taxes apply to each. This should enable you to develop a broader understanding of tax and an ability to identify the tax implications of various scenarios.

Tip 3 – Practice several exam questions of the same scenario one after another

After using lots of past BPT exams to teach our students the optimal exam technique for a particular type of BPT exam scenario, we send our students away to practice lots exam questions on a similar scenario. For example, after being taught the technical content and exam technique for business incorporation, our students then practice several other past paper incorporation questions one after another.

This has the following benefits:

It familiarises you with how the examiners structure scenarios and questions

It enables you to identify patterns in how the scenario is examined

It enables you to apply the exam technique demonstrated during tuition

It improves your efficiency when using the open book notes

It enables you to identify weakness areas so that you can focus your technical learning and exam technique development on a particular area

It familiarises you with the ICAEW exam software

It enables you to improve your speed so that you don’t exceed your time allocation

Our BPT Master Plan categorises all the past exam questions by scenario/topic to make it easy to practice lots of questions on the same scenario/topic.

All our classes teach the technical content in the context of how it is likely to be examined before demonstrating how to answer exam questions on the topic. To give you an insight, one of the classes from our BPT course can be viewed for free here .

Tip 4 – Structure your open book notes so that they can be used effectively and time-efficiently in the exam

Open book exams present both a golden opportunity and fatal time trap. The BPT exam is incredibly time pressured so any time spent looking something up in your notes is time which could have been spent typing a mark scoring point. Therefore, your open book notes need to be concise and structured in a way that you can quickly look up information should you need to.

Given the technical nature of tax, we advise that notes include a summary of the key technical points for each tax. As the same scenarios come up time and time again in the BPT exam, it is highly recommended that you have a reminder of common points to consider including for each scenario. The example below, taken from our BPT Materials , demonstrates what we mean by this. Our students constantly feedback that this is an incredibly valuable resource in the exam as it enables them to include lots of points and cover the full breath of taxes.

As mentioned above, any time spent looking something up in your notes is time which could have been spent typing a mark scoring point. Therefore, you should aim to build your tax knowledge and to a level where you use the open book notes sparingly as this will enable you to type more in the exam. Personally, other than the Common Exam Scenario reminder section, I only use the materials if a very technical matter comes up, such as the crystallisation of a gain when an incorporated overseas PE disposes of an asset within 6 years.

Tip 5 – Bag the relatively easy ethics marks

Ethics is examined is all the ACA exams and whilst ethics questions do get harder as the ACA progresses, the ethics marks remain comparatively easier to the technical marks. BPT exams include up to 10 marks for ethics which equates to 18% of the marks needed to secure a 55% passing grade. Therefore, comparatively easy ethics marks offer the opportunity to bag 18% of the marks you need to pass - in what our opinion is - the hardest ACA Professional Level exam.

The most efficient exam strategy is to ensure that you have an exam technique which will ensure that you make the ten points needed to get maximum marks for ethics.

Need Help Passing the ACA BPT Exam?

Our BPT courses focus on the most frequently examined technical content and demonstrate the optimal exam technique for each type of BPT question. Sample classes from the course and our BPT Materials can be found here .

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.

Recent Posts

How to Pass the ICAEW ACA Accounting Exam

Get the Easy Marks!

How to Pass the ICAEW ACA Case Study Exam

For exclusive Business Planning: Taxation tips, sign up to The Profit Room , our free student learning community!

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.

Zoning out-free zone.

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.

Writing style

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

Time management

You will receive advice on whether you are allocating your scarce answering time correctly through our expert knowledge of the markscheme and how marks are awarded in practice.

Technique Advice Report

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!

On-demand Course

Purchase exam room notes.

© Paradigm Shift Financial Training 2024. All rights reserved.

Business Tax Certification Exam

Free Practice Test

Access to the free practice test is sent to the email address you provide below.

Accreditation

NACPB's Uniform Business Tax Certification examination (exam) is the exam administered to candidates who want to obtain Business Tax Certification . The exam is developed and maintained by the National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers (NACPB).

Requirements

Candidates who complete the Business Tax Fundamentals course and pass the Business Tax Certification exam may communicate to employers they possess Business Tax Certification and distinguish themselves and build credibility by having authorized use of the Business Tax Certification certificate and logo.

The exam is used to test the candidate's competency. The exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions and simulations. To pass the exam, you must receive a minimum of 75% (37 out of 50 questions).

The exam tests the following:

• Business Income, Deductions, and Accounting Methods
• Property Acquisition and Cost Recovery
• Property Dispositions
• Business Entities Overview
• Corporate Operations
• Accounting for Income Taxes
• Corporate Taxation: Nonliquidating Distributions
• Corporate Formation, Reorganization, and Liquidation
• Forming and Operating Partnerships
• Dispositions of Partnership Interests and Partnership Distributions
• S Corporations
• State and Local Taxes
• The U.S. Taxation of Multinational Transactions
• Transfer Taxes and Wealth Planning

Time to Take and Pass the Exam

You have one year from the date of purchase to take and pass the exam. If you don't pass the exam, you can retake the exam by purchasing a retake exam.

Schedule to Take an Exam

Exams are taken on NACPB's Online Testing Center . You can take an exam at anytime and from anywhere with an Internet connected computer, tablet, or phone.

When you're ready to take the exam, go to NACPB's Schedule an Exam web page and schedule the date and time you want to take the exam. Access to the exam will be emailed to you the business day proceeding your scheduled date and time.

Taking the Exam

The exam is open-book and you have two hours to complete the exam.

Fee Includes

• Business Tax Certification Examination,
• Business Tax Certification certificate, and
• Business Tax Certification logo.

Nonmember $100 Member $80 (Order through the Members Only portal)

To order the Exam, click the Order button below.

If you are not satisfied with this Exam within 14 days of receipt, contact us and the fee will be refunded.

An official website of the United States Government

• Kreyòl ayisyen
• Search Toggle search Search Include Historical Content - Any - No Include Historical Content - Any - No Search
• Menu Toggle menu
• INFORMATION FOR…
• Individuals
• Business & Self Employed
• Charities and Nonprofits
• International Taxpayers
• Federal State and Local Governments
• Indian Tribal Governments
• Tax Exempt Bonds
• FILING FOR INDIVIDUALS
• How to File
• When to File
• Where to File
• Update Your Information
• Get Your Tax Record
• Apply for an Employer ID Number (EIN)
• Check Your Amended Return Status
• Get an Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN)
• File Your Taxes for Free
• Bank Account (Direct Pay)
• Payment Plan (Installment Agreement)
• Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS)
• Your Online Account
• Tax Withholding Estimator
• Estimated Taxes
• Where's My Refund
• What to Expect
• Direct Deposit
• Reduced Refunds
• Amend Return

Credits & Deductions

• INFORMATION FOR...
• Businesses & Self-Employed
• Earned Income Credit (EITC)
• Child Tax Credit
• Clean Energy and Vehicle Credits
• Standard Deduction
• Retirement Plans

Forms & Instructions

• POPULAR FORMS & INSTRUCTIONS
• Form 1040 Instructions
• Form 4506-T
• POPULAR FOR TAX PROS
• Form 1040-X
• Circular 230

Selecting a tax professional as a small business taxpayer

More in news.

• Topics in the News
• News Releases
• Multimedia Center
• Tax Relief in Disaster Situations
• Inflation Reduction Act
• Taxpayer First Act
• Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts
• The Tax Gap
• Fact Sheets
• IRS Tax Tips
• e-News Subscriptions
• IRS Guidance
• Media Contacts
• IRS Statements and Announcements

IRS Tax Tip 2024-24, March 29, 2024

When a small business decides to bring in a tax professional, they should know what to expect and how to select a reputable practitioner. The IRS has information and resources to make choosing a tax professional easier.

What a small business can expect from a tax professional

Tax professionals are often able to advise a small business on the most effective way to structure their business. For instance, they can help a business owner decide whether their business interests would be better protected as a sole proprietorship or if another business structure , such as a partnership or S corporation, would serve them better.

Many tax professionals inspect books and records to help a business make sure that it is reporting all income. They can also make sure the business claims all the deductions and credits available to it.

A tax professional can help small business taxpayers answer other questions as well, such as whether they are subject to excise taxes or need to file employment tax returns.

A qualified tax professional may be able to represent the business if it’s contacted by the IRS regarding a tax matter.

A knowledgeable practitioner is also aware of many tax-related scams , like phishing, unclaimed refunds, ghost preparers and others described on the Tax scams/Consumer alerts page of IRS.gov. A practitioner knows that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and they can help businesses avoid and report such scams.

Find a small business tax professional

Taxpayers are responsible for all the information on their income tax return no matter who prepares the return, so it’s important to find a reputable preparer. The IRS offers these tips to small businesses looking for a tax professional:

• Check the IRS Directory of Preparers . It lists preparers who hold professional credentials recognized by the IRS or a Record of Completion in the IRS’s Annual Filing Season Program .
• Check the preparer’s history with the Better Business Bureau or verify the enrolled agent’s status on IRS.gov.
• Ask about the practitioner’s fees up front.
• Find out if the preparer is an authorized e-file provider .
• Ensure the preparer is available throughout the year to help address any questions about the preparation of the tax return.
• Always review the business tax return before signing it.
• Ensure the preparer signs the tax return and includes their 9-digit Preparer Tax Identification Number. All paid preparers must have a PTIN to prepare tax returns.

IRS resources for small businesses

The IRS offers many programs to help small businesses, including the Information Return Intake System , the IRS Business tax account , and other IRS resources listed at Tax information for businesses on IRS.gov.

More information

• Topic no. 254, How to choose a tax return preparer

Subscribe to IRS Tax Tips

•  Facebook
•  Twitter
•  Linkedin

AgilePM ® Practitioner

AgilePM ® Practitioner is the advanced level of AgilePM ® certifications , focused on the practical aspects of the DSDM Agile Project Framework .

Agile Business Consortium is the owner of DSDM, and the certification program is administered by APMG International , a global examination organization.

Candidates need to be completely familiar with the following:

• The DSDM philosophy and principles
• The DSDM process and lifecycle
• The DSDM roles and responsibilities
• The DSDM products
• The DSDM techniques/practices (such as MoSCoW Prioritization)

Compared with the Foundation exam, you need to know a lot more about the process, the techniques/practices, estimating and prioritizing requirements, facilitation, value management, and testing, among others.

Preparing for the exam

To prepare for the exam, you can take courses (classroom courses or eLearning), or self-study.

The DSDM manuals are the primary references for the exam.

Exam format

The exam is either paper-based (at the end of classroom courses) or online (at the end of eLearning courses). Online exams can be taken from home or work, from [almost] anywhere in the world, and they are invigilated (with webcam and microphone).

There are 4 questions in the exam, each in multiple parts. It’s an objective examination (but not essay-based). You have 150 minutes to finish the exam, and the passing score is 50%.

It’s an open-book exam (only the official manuals).

Prerequisites

You must have the AgilePM ® Foundation certificate before taking the Practitioner exam.

Obtaining an exam voucher

To attend the exam, you need to have an exam voucher . To obtain a voucher, you would have one of these situations:

• Classroom courses : Usually, the exam is included in the package, and it will be a paper-based exam at the end of the course.
• eLearning courses : Usually, the exam is included in the package, and you will have a one-year window to book and take your exam online.
• Self-study : You need to buy the voucher separately. You can either buy it directly from APMG, or buy it from one of the accredited training organizations. The second option can be less expensive (about €350).

Written by Nader K. Rad

This is (and will be) a work in progress: More details will be added in the future, depending on the feedback.

This wiki is developed and managed by an accredited trainer, independent of Agile Business Consortium and APMG. While aligned with their guidelines, it’s not an official resource.

Discover the latest MyICAEW app for ACA students and members, available to download now. Find out more

• Benefits of membership

Gain access to world-leading information resources, guidance and local networks.

• Visit Benefits of membership

Becoming a member

98% of the best global brands rely on ICAEW Chartered Accountants.

• Visit Becoming a member
• Pay fees and subscriptions

Your membership subscription enables ICAEW to provide support to members.

Fees and subscriptions

Member rewards.

Take advantage of the range of value added or discounted member benefits.

• Member rewards – More from your membership
• Technical and ethics support
• Support throughout your career

Information and resources for every stage of your career.

Member Insights Survey

Let us know about the issues affecting you, your business and your clients.

• Complete the survey

From software start-ups to high-flying airlines and high street banks, 98% of the best global brands rely on ICAEW Chartered Accountants. A career as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant means the opportunity to work in any organisation, in any sector, whatever your ambitions.

Everything you need to know about ICAEW annual membership fees, community and faculty subscriptions, eligibility for reduced rates and details of how you can pay.

Membership administration

Welcome to the ICAEW members area: your portal to members'-only content, offers, discounts, regulations and membership information.

• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an integral part of being a successful ICAEW Chartered Accountant.

The ICAEW Chartered Accountant qualification, the ACA, is one of the most advanced learning and professional development programmes available. It is valued around the world in business, practice and the public sector.

ACA for employers

Train the next generation of chartered accountants in your business or organisation. Discover how your organisation can attract, train and retain the best accountancy talent, how to become authorised to offer ACA training and the support and guidance on offer if you are already providing training.

Digital learning materials via BibliU

All ACA, ICAEW CFAB and Level 4 apprenticeship learning materials are now digital only. Read our guide on how to access your learning materials on the ICAEW Bookshelf using the BibliU app or through your browser.

• Find out more

Take a look at ICAEW training films

Focusing on professional scepticism, ethics and everyday business challenges, our training films are used by firms and companies around the world to support their in-house training and business development teams.

Attract and retain the next generation of accounting and finance professionals with our world-leading accountancy qualifications. Become authorised to offer ACA training and help your business stay ahead.

CPD guidance and help

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an integral part of being a successful ICAEW Chartered Accountant. Find support on ICAEW's CPD requirements and access resources to help your professional development.

Leadership Development Programmes

ICAEW Academy’s in-depth leadership development programmes take a holistic approach to combine insightful mentoring or coaching, to exclusive events, peer learning groups and workshops. Catering for those significant transitions in your career, these leadership development programmes are instrumental to achieving your ambitions or fulfilling your succession planning goals.

Specialist Finance Qualifications & Programmes

Whatever future path you choose, ICAEW will support the development and acceleration of your career at each stage to enhance your career.

Why a career in chartered accountancy?

If you think chartered accountants spend their lives confined to their desks, then think again. They are sitting on the boards of multinational companies, testifying in court and advising governments, as well as supporting charities and businesses from every industry all over the world.

• Why chartered accountancy?

Search for qualified ACA jobs

Matching highly skilled ICAEW members with attractive organisations seeking talented accountancy and finance professionals.

Volunteering roles

Helping skilled and in-demand chartered accountants give back and strengthen not-for-profit sector with currently over 2,300 organisations posting a variety of volunteering roles with ICAEW.

• Search for volunteer roles
• Get ahead by volunteering

Advertise with ICAEW

From as little as £495, access to a pool of highly qualified and ambitious ACA qualified members with searchable CVs.

Early careers and training

Start your ACA training with ICAEW. Find out why a career in chartered accountancy could be for you and how to become a chartered accountant.

Qualified ACA careers

Find Accountancy and Finance Jobs

Voluntary roles

Find Voluntary roles

While you pursue the most interesting and rewarding opportunities at every stage of your career, we’re here to offer you support whatever stage you are or wherever you are in the world and in whichever sector you have chosen to work.

• ACA students

"How to guides" for ACA students

• ACA student guide
• How to book an exam
• How to apply for credit for prior learning (CPL)
• Exam resources

Here are some resources you will find useful while you study for the ACA qualification.

• Certificate Level
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level

Digital learning materials

All ACA learning materials are now digital only. Read our guide on how to access your learning materials on the ICAEW Bookshelf via the BibliU app, or through your browser.

• Read the guide

My online training file

Once you are registered as an ACA student, you'll be able to access your training file to log your progress throughout ACA training.

• Access your training file
• Student Insights

Fresh insights, innovative ideas and an inside look at the lives and careers of our ICAEW students and members.

• Read the latest articles

System status checks

Getting started.

Welcome to ICAEW! We have pulled together a selection of resources to help you get started with your ACA training, including our popular 'How To' series, which offers step-by-step guidance on everything from registering as an ACA student and applying for CPL, to using your online training file.

Credit for prior learning (CPL)

Credit for prior learning or CPL is our term for exemptions. High quality learning and assessment in other relevant qualifications is appropriately recognised by the award of CPL.

Apply for exams

What you need to know in order to apply for the ACA exams.

The ACA qualification has 15 modules over three levels. They are designed to complement the practical experience you will be gaining in the workplace. They will also enable you to gain in-depth knowledge across a broad range of topics in accountancy, finance and business. Here are some useful resources while you study.

• Exam results

You will receive your results for all Certificate Level exams, the day after you take the exam and usually five weeks after a Professional and Advanced Level exam session has taken place. Access your latest and archived exam results here.

Training agreement

Putting your theory work into practice is essential to complete your ACA training.

Student support and benefits

We are here to support you throughout your ACA journey. We have a range of resources and services on offer for you to unwrap, from exam resources, to student events and discount cards. Make sure you take advantage of the wealth of exclusive benefits available to you, all year round.

• Applying for membership

The ACA will open doors to limitless opportunities in all areas of accountancy, business and finance anywhere in the world. ICAEW Chartered Accountants work at the highest levels as finance directors, CEOs and partners of some of the world’s largest organisations.

ACA training FAQs

Do you have a question about the ACA training? Then look no further. Here, you can find answers to frequently asked questions relating to the ACA qualification and training. Find out more about each of the integrated components of the ACA, as well as more information on the syllabus, your training agreement, ICAEW’s rules and regulations and much more.

• Anti-money laundering

Guidance and resources to help members comply with their legal and professional responsibilities around AML.

Technical releases

ICAEW Technical Releases are a source of good practice guidance on technical and practice issues relevant to ICAEW Chartered Accountants and other finance professionals.

• ICAEW Technical Releases
• Thought leadership

ICAEW's Thought Leadership reports provide clarity and insight on the current and future challenges to the accountancy profession. Our charitable trusts also provide funding for academic research into accountancy.

• Academic research funding

Technical Advisory Services helpsheets

Practical, technical and ethical guidance highlighting the most important issues for members, whether in practice or in business.

• ICAEW Technical Advisory Services helpsheets

Bloomsbury – free for eligible firms

In partnership with Bloomsbury Professional, ICAEW have provided eligible firms with free access to Bloomsbury’s comprehensive online library of around 80 titles from leading tax and accounting subject matter experts.

• Bloomsbury Accounting and Tax Service

Country resources

Our resources by country provide access to intelligence on over 170 countries and territories including economic forecasts, guides to doing business and information on the tax climate in each jurisdiction.

Industries and sectors

Thought leadership, technical resources and professional guidance to support the professional development of members working in specific industries and sectors.

Audit and Assurance

The audit, assurance and internal audit area has information and guidance on technical and practical matters in relation to these three areas of practice. There are links to events, publications, technical help and audit representations.

The most up-to-date thought leadership, insights, technical resources and professional guidance to support ICAEW members working in and with industry with their professional development.

• Corporate Finance

Companies, advisers and investors making decisions about creating, developing and acquiring businesses – and the wide range of advisory careers that require this specialist professional expertise.

• Corporate governance

Corporate governance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. Find out more about corporate governance principles, codes and reports, Board subcommittees, roles and responsibilities and shareholder relations. Corporate governance involves balancing the interests of a company’s many stakeholders, such as shareholders, employees, management, customers, suppliers, financiers and the community. Getting governance right is essential to build public trust in companies.

Corporate reporting

View a range of practical resources on UK GAAP, IFRS, UK regulation for company accounts and non-financial reporting. Plus find out more about the ICAEW Corporate Reporting Faculty.

Expert analysis on the latest national and international economic issues and trends, and interviews with prominent voices across the finance industry, alongside data on the state of the economy.

• Financial Services

View articles and resources on the financial services sector.

• Practice resources

For ICAEW's members in practice, this area brings together the most up-to-date thought leadership, technical resources and professional guidance to help you in your professional life.

Public Sector

Many ICAEW members work in or with the public sector to deliver public priorities and strong public finances. ICAEW acts in the public interest to support strong financial leadership and better financial management across the public sector – featuring transparency, accountability, governance and ethics – to ensure that public money is spent wisely and that public finances are sustainable.

Sustainability and climate change

Sustainability describes a world that does not live by eating into its capital, whether natural, economic or social. Members in practice, in business and private individuals all have a role to play if sustainability goals are to be met. The work being undertaken by ICAEW in this area is to change behaviour to drive sustainable outcomes.

The Tax area has information and guidance on technical and practical tax matters. There are links to events, the latest tax news and the Tax Faculty’s publications, including helpsheets, webinars and Tax representations.

Keep up-to-date with tech issues and developments, including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, big data, and cyber security.

Trust & Ethics

Guidance and resources on key issues, including economic crime, business law, better regulation and ethics. Read through ICAEW’s Code of Ethics and supporting information.

Communities

ICAEW Communities

Information, guidance and networking opportunities on industry sectors, professional specialisms and at various stages throughout your career. Free for ICAEW members and students.

• Discover a new community

ICAEW Faculties

The accountancy profession is facing change and uncertainty. The ICAEW Faculties can help by providing you with timely and relevant support.

• Choose to join any of the faculties

UK groups and societies

We have teams on the ground in: East of England, the Midlands, London and South East, Northern, South West, Yorkshire and Humberside, Wales and Scotland.

• Access your UK region

Worldwide support and services

Support and services we offer our members in Africa, America, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Greater China, the Middle East, Oceania and South East Asia.

• Discover our services

ICAEW Faculties are 'centres of technical excellence', strongly committed to enhancing your professional development and helping you to meet your CPD requirements every year. They offer exclusive content, events and webinars, customised for your sector - which you should be able to easily record, when the time comes for the completion of your CPD declaration. Our offering isn't exclusive to Institute members. As a faculty member, the same resources are available to you to ensure you stay ahead of the competition.

Communities by industry / sector

Communities by life stage and workplace, communities by professional specialism, local groups and societies.

We aim to support you wherever in the world you work. Our regional offices and network of volunteers run events and provide access to local accounting updates in major finance centres around the globe.

• Ukraine crisis: central resource hub

Learn about the actions that ICAEW members are taking to ensure that their clients comply with sanctions imposed by different countries and jurisdictions, and read about the support available from ICAEW.

Insights pulls together the best opinion, analysis, interviews, videos and podcasts on the key issues affecting accountancy and business.

• See the latest insights
• Making COP count

This series looks at the role the accountancy profession can play in addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable economy.

• Read more on COP28

Professional development and skills

With new requirements on ICAEW members for continuing professional development, we bring together resources to support you through the changes and look at the skills accountants need for the future.

• Visit the hub

When Chartered Accountants Save The World

Find out how chartered accountants are helping to tackle some of the most urgent social challenges within the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and explore how the profession could do even more.

• Read our major series

Insights specials

A listing of one-off Insights specials that focus on a particular subject, interviewing the key people, identifying developing trends and examining the underlying issues.

Top podcasts

Insights by topic.

ICAEW Regulation

• Regulatory News

View the latest regulatory updates and guidance and subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Regulatory & Conduct News.

• Regulatory Consultations

Strengthening trust in the profession

Our role as a world-leading improvement regulator is to strengthen trust and protect the public. We do this by enabling, evaluating and enforcing the highest standards in the profession. 

Regulatory applications

Find out how you can become authorised by ICAEW as a regulated firm. 

ICAEW codes and regulations

Professional conduct and complaints, statutory regulated services overseen by icaew, regulations for icaew practice members and firms, additional guidance and support, popular search results.

• Training File
• Practice Exam Software
• Ethics Cpd Course
• Routes to the ACA
• ACA students membership application
• Join as a member of another body
• How much are membership fees?
• How to pay your fees
• Receipts and invoices
• What if my circumstances have changed?
• Difficulties in making changes to your membership
• Faculty and community subscription fees
• Updating your details
• Complete annual return
• Promoting myself as an ICAEW member
• Verification of ICAEW membership
• Become a life member
• Become a fellow
• Request a new certificate
• Report the death of a member
• Membership regulations
• New members
• Career progression
• Career Breakers
• Volunteering at schools and universities
• ICAEW Member App
• Working internationally
• Self employment
• Support Members Scheme
• CPD is changing
• CPD learning resources
• Your guide to CPD
• Online CPD record
• How to become a chartered accountant
• Register as a student
• Train as a member of another body
• More about the ACA and chartered accountancy
• How ACA training works
• Become a training employer
• Access the training file
• Why choose the ACA
• Training routes
• Employer support hub
• Get in touch
• Apprenticeships with ICAEW
• A-Z of CPD courses by topic
• ICAEW Business and Finance Professional (BFP)
• ICAEW flagship events
• Financial Talent Executive Network (F-TEN®)
• Developing Leadership in Practice (DLiP™)
• Network of Finance Leaders (NFL)
• Women in Leadership (WiL)
• Mentoring and coaching
• Partners in Learning
• Board Director's Programme e-learning
• Corporate Finance Qualification
• Diploma in Charity Accounting
• ICAEW Certificate in Insolvency
• ICAEW Data Analytics Certificate
• Financial Modeling Institute’s Advanced Financial Modeler Accreditation
• ICAEW Sustainability Certificate for Finance Professionals
• ICAEW Finance in a Digital World Programme
• All specialist qualifications
• Team training
• Start your training
• Improve your employability
• Search employers
• Find a role
• Role alerts
• Organisations
• Practice support – 11 ways ICAEW and CABA can help you
• News and advice
• ICAEW Volunteering Hub
• Support in becoming a chartered accountant
• Vacancies at ICAEW
• ICAEW boards and committees
• Exam system status
• ICAEW systems: status update
• Changes to our qualifications
• How-to guides for ACA students
• Apply for credits - Academic qualification
• Apply for credits - Professional qualification
• Credit for prior learning (CPL)/exemptions FAQs
• Applications for Professional and Advanced Level exams
• Applications for Certificate Level exams
• Tuition providers
• Latest exam results
• Archived exam results
• Getting your results
• Marks feedback service
• Exam admin check
• Training agreement: overview
• Professional development
• Ethics and professional scepticism
• Practical work experience
• Access your online training file
• How training works in your country
• Student rewards
• TOTUM PRO Card
• Student events and volunteering
• Xero cloud accounting certifications
• Student support
• Join a community
• Wellbeing support from caba
• Student conduct and behaviour
• Code of ethics
• Fit and proper
• Level 4 Accounting Technician Apprenticeship
• Level 7 Accountancy Professional Apprenticeship
• AAT-ACA Fast Track FAQs
• ACA rules and regulations FAQs
• ACA syllabus FAQs
• ACA training agreement FAQs
• Audit experience and the Audit Qualification FAQs
• Independent student FAQs
• Practical work experience FAQs
• Professional development FAQs
• Six-monthly reviews FAQs
• Ethics and professional scepticism FAQs
• Greater China
• Latin America
• Middle East
• North America
• Australasia
• Russia and Eurasia
• South East Asia
• Charity Community
• Construction & Real Estate
• Energy & Natural Resources Community
• Farming & Rural Business Community
• Forensic & Expert Witness
• Global Trade Community
• Healthcare Community
• Internal Audit Community
• Manufacturing Community
• Media & Leisure
• Portfolio Careers Community
• Small and Micro Business Community
• Small Practitioners Community
• Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Community
• Valuation Community
• Audit and corporate governance reform
• Audit & Assurance Faculty
• Professional judgement
• Regulation and working in audit
• Internal audit resource centre
• ICAEW acting on audit quality
• Everything business
• Latest Business news from Insights
• Strategy, risk and innovation
• Business performance management
• Financial management
• Finance transformation
• Economy and business environment
• Leadership, personal development and HR
• Webinars and publications
• Business restructuring
• The Business Finance Guide
• Capital markets and investment
• Corporate finance careers
• Corporate Finance Faculty
• Debt advisory and growth finance
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Private equity
• Start-ups, scale-ups and venture capital
• Transaction services
• Board committees
• Corporate governance codes and reports
• Corporate Governance Community
• Principles of corporate governance
• Roles, duties and responsibilities of Board members
• Shareholder relations
• Corporate Governance thought leadership
• Corporate reporting resources
• Small and micro entity reporting
• UK Regulation for Company Accounts
• Non-financial reporting
• Improving Corporate Reporting
• Economy home
• ICAEW Business Confidence Monitor
• ICAEW Manifesto 2024
• Energy crisis
• Levelling up: rebalancing the UK’s economy
• Resilience and Renewal: Building an economy fit for the future
• Social mobility and inclusion
• Autumn Statement 2023
• Investment management
• Inspiring confidence
• Setting up in practice
• Running your practice
• Supporting your clients
• Practice technology
• TAS helpsheets
• Support for business advisers
• Join ICAEW BAS
• Public Sector hub
• Public Sector Audit and Assurance
• Public Sector Finances
• Public Sector Financial Management
• Public Sector Financial Reporting
• Public Sector Learning & Development
• Public Sector Community
• Latest public sector articles from Insights
• Climate hub
• Sustainable Development Goals
• Accountability
• Modern slavery
• Resources collection
• Sustainability Committee
• Sustainability & Climate Change community
• Sustainability and climate change home
• Tax Faculty
• Budgets and legislation
• Business tax
• Devolved taxes
• Employment taxes
• International taxes
• Making Tax Digital
• Personal tax
• Property tax
• Stamp duty land tax
• Tax administration
• Tax compliance and investigation
• UK tax rates, allowances and reliefs
• Artificial intelligence
• Blockchain and cryptoassets
• Cyber security
• Data Analytics Community
• Digital skills
• Excel community
• Finance in a Digital World
• IT management
• Technology and the profession
• Trust & Ethics home
• Better regulation
• Business Law
• Company law
• Data protection and privacy
• Economic crime
• Help with ethical problems
• ICAEW Code of Ethics
• ICAEW Trust and Ethics team.....
• Solicitors Community
• Forensic & Expert Witness Community
• Latest articles on business law, trust and ethics
• Audit and Assurance Faculty
• Corporate Reporting Faculty
• Financial Services Faculty
• Academia & Education Community
• Construction & Real Estate Community
• Entertainment, Sport & Media Community
• Retail Community
• Career Breakers Community
• Black Members Community
• Diversity & Inclusion Community
• Women in Finance Community
• Personal Financial Planning Community
• Restructuring & Insolvency Community
• Sustainability and Climate Change Community
• London and East
• South Wales
• Yorkshire and Humberside
• European public policy activities
• ICAEW Middle East
• Latest news
• Access to finance special
• Attractiveness of the profession
• Audit and Fraud
• Audit and technology
• Adopting non-financial reporting standards
• Cost of doing business
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Pensions and Personal Finance
• Public sector financial and non-financial reporting
• More specials ...
• The economics of biodiversity
• How chartered accountants can help to safeguard trust in society
• Video: The financial controller who stole £20,000 from her company
• It’s time for chartered accountants to save the world
• Video: The CFO who tried to trick the market
• Video: Could invoice fraud affect your business?
• A busy new tax year, plus progress on the Economic Crime Act
• Does Britain have a farming problem?
• Budget 2024: does it change anything?
• Will accountants save the world? With ICAEW CEO Michael Izza
• Crunch time: VAT (or not) on poppadoms
• Where next for audit and governance reform?
• A taxing year ahead?
• What can we expect from 2024?
• COP28: making the business case for nature
• COP28: what does transition planning mean for accountants?
• What’s in the Economic Crime Act 2023?
• More podcasts...
• Top charts of the week
• EU and international trade
• CEO and President's insights
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Sponsored content
• Insights index
• Charter and Bye-laws
• Archive of complaints, disciplinary and fitness processes, statutory regulations and ICAEW regulations
• Qualifications regulations
• Training and education regulations
• How to make a complaint
• Guidance on your duty to report misconduct
• Public hearings
• What to do if you receive a complaint against you
• Anti-money laundering supervision
• Working in the regulated area of audit
• Local public audit in England
• Probate services
• Designated Professional Body (Investment Business) licence
• Consumer credit
• Quality Assurance monitoring: view from the firms
• The ICAEW Practice Assurance scheme
• Licensed Practice scheme
• Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII)
• Clients' Money Regulations
• Taxation (PCRT) Regulations
• ICAEW training films
• Helpsheets and guidance by topic
• ICAEW's regulatory expertise and history

Business Planning

Continue reading.

The Business Planning modules provide the opportunity to gain subject- and sector-specific knowledge while studying for the ACA. You only need to sit one of the Business Planning modules. There are three to choose from – Business Planning: Taxation, Business Planning: Banking and Business Planning: Insurance.

Access to our premium resources is for specific groups of members, students, users and subscribers. Click view groups to see, join, or subscribe, or if you already belong to one of those groups, simply Log in below to access this content.

This content is not freely available. To access 'Business Planning' you need to be one of the following:

This content is available to ACA students. If you want to start the ACA qualification there are several routes you can take

ICAEW CFAB is an internationally recognised certificate that provides essential knowledge in business, finance and accounting. Want to study for ICAEW CFAB? Find out more

These online resources are only available to ICAW examiners.

Gain access to world-leading information resources, guidance and local networks. 98% of the best global brands rely on ICAEW chartered accountants.

Professional education providers offering tuition for ICAEW qualifications can apply to join the Partner in Learning scheme.

Read out this code to the operator.