Why should you attend?

As Cyprus is increasing its reputation as an international financial center, tax is becoming a critical part of the work of most professionals since they are facing more and more challenges and more complex tax structures in their daily routine.

A key characteristic of international corporate tax advisers is that they have a variety of backgrounds and typically spend time in more than one country. This unique specialist Advanced Diploma meets the needs of international tax practitioners in the corporate area.

The Advanced Diploma in Taxation (‘ADIT’) was developed by the Chartered Institute of Taxation (‘CIOT’), which is the leading professional body in the United Kingdom (‘UK’) concerned solely with taxation. The Advanced Diploma is supervised by an Academic Board of distinguished international tax practitioners.

ADIT was launched in Cyprus in an effort to fill the gap of professionally qualified international tax planners and to help entrepreneurs and local tax practitioners to meet the needs of their international clients.

ADIT is now being offered in leading western countries and through highly reputable universities. The overall standard of the Advanced Diploma is comparable to the tax advisor examinations in the UK and successful students will be able to demonstrate a high level of competence.

Who should attend?

• Lawyers
• Law students
• Accountants
• Tax advisers
• Management consultants
• Financial advisors
• Notaries and
• Others who have an interest in taxation

All the above would benefit from this internationally recognized qualification in international tax. As ADIT is an international qualification, advisers moving from one country to another will have a global benchmark and a common qualification as an important credential.

The option papers

The format of ADIT is freestanding, modular and with no pre-conditions. It allows scope for tax advisers to demonstrate their high level of competence in a home country’s taxation system, and an awareness of an away country's system.

There are three components:

Paper I - Principles of International Taxation (Individual certificate is also available for candidates who complete Paper I)

• Basic principles of international tax law
• Double Taxation Conventions (DTCs) focusing on the current version of the OECD Model Tax Convention (MTC)
• Transfer pricing and thin capitalisation rules
• International tax avoidance
• Miscellaneous topics

Paper II – Advanced International Taxation – Primary Jurisdiction

Candidates are expected to have a detailed knowledge of their home country’s tax regime regarding international tax matters. Candidates may choose one of the established papers or they can substitute a thesis for either Paper II or Paper III.

Paper III – Principles of Corporate and International Taxation – Secondary jurisdiction

This paper is designed to test an awareness of the key features of the international corporate tax system, in a secondary jurisdiction. Candidates are expected to be able to answer questions in relation to a “non-home” country, without being expected to offer detailed advice on that country’s domestic tax system. Accordingly, candidates will be required to pass Paper II and Paper III relating to different countries.

Format

The Diploma is in modular form and is awarded when all stages have been completed. If candidates pass an ADIT paper, pass will remain valid for the next five years after the pass has been achieved. If the entire qualification is not completed within five years then candidates may re-register as ADIT students but will have to take and pass any papers which were passed more than five years previously. However, all papers may be sat at one sitting over three days. There will be an element of choice in most papers.

Thesis option Paper II/Paper III

Candidates have the option of writing a thesis as an alternative to either (but not both of) Paper II or Paper III. The thesis must be between 15,000 and 20,000 words on international taxation. If a candidate wishes to submit a thesis instead of Paper II, the topic of the thesis should relate to some aspect of international tax primarily concerning the candidate’s primary jurisdiction – “home” country. If a candidate wishes to submit a thesis instead of Paper III, the topic of the thesis should relate to some aspect of international tax as it primarily affects a secondary jurisdiction – “non-home” country or transnational grouping such as the EU. Prior to commencing work on a thesis, candidates must have a thesis proposal form approved. The thesis must be submitted within three years of approval being given but it is recommended that candidates submit it within two years in order to maintain the momentum of the qualification. Full guidance notes are included in the syllabus.

Previous question papers and examination results

Candidates need to be aware of the standard of questions set in the Diploma examination. Previous question papers are available from: www.adit.org.uk . Under ordinary circumstances results will be issued 10 weeks following the date of the examination sitting and approximately four months after the submission of a thesis.

Registration Entry Procedures

Registration Conditions for ADIT

The only pre-condition for registration is the possession of an e-mail address. Applicants are welcomed from all parts of the world. Residence in Cyprus is not necessary in order to register.

Candidates are strongly encouraged to register an interest in sitting a Diploma Paper, five months prior to the first examination they wish to sit. They can then be contacted via e-mail with any important information.

Cyprus Educational Committee Restrictions

The Cypriot responsible Educational Committee (PS & KDC) reserves the right to cancel the lectures if the number of people registered for the course is below seven at the first sitting, because of the cost of a bespoke course. In the event of cancellation a notice will be delivered and any amount of money that has been paid will be fully refunded in one week’s time.

Examination Centers

The examination centres in 2011 are as follows: Australia, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, London, Malta, Mauritius, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Romania and Singapore. If a candidate wishes to sit in a country which has not been listed it is likely that this can be arranged. It will be the responsibility of candidates to obtain an examination entry form. The last date for receipt of examination entry forms (the closing date) will be the last day of February immediately prior to the examination in June which the candidate intends to sit. All examination entries will be acknowledged within 10 working days. Candidates should e-mail or telephone if this is not received. Entry forms arriving after the closing date will not be accepted.

Current Examination

The fee for the 2011 examination will be STG £140 per paper or STG £350 if all three papers are sat at the same sitting, which includes technical articles, current tax notes, digests of tax cases and news from the Institute. Thesis fee is STG £150.

Certificate

Upon successful completion of the ADIT exams (or completion of two exams and a thesis) candidates will receive a certificate. Individual certificates are also available for candidates who complete Paper I – Principles of International Taxation and Paper III – Transfer Pricing.

Forthcoming Exam Dates and Cancelation fees

Students need to be registered personally. An application for student registration must be submitted with a fee of £180 and be valid for five years. For any further help on the process we are happy to assist. The current exam dates for 2011 are the 7, 8 and 9 of June. No examination fees are refundable but for more information check with the Educational Team at the CIOT education@ciot.org.uk

Tuition Fees

The Institute will provide for June 2011 exams, only Paper I - Principles of International Taxation. The level II and Level III (together with Level I) will be provided for June 2012 exams and onwards.

The Tuition Fee will be €1.550 which covers all the necessary material for student’s success. This includes:
• the tuition provided by Amanda McDonough
• the intensive revision course also by Amanda McDonough
• The correspondence course from Lexis Nexis (includes study manual, question bank, link exam and pre-revision mock)

Registration and examination fees to the CIOT are not included.

The course dates in Cyprus will be as follows:

Level 1 Introductory course: 25-27 March 2011

Level 1 Revision course: 21-23 May 2011

The deadline to register for the current examination is set at the end of February 2011. However as this course is running for a first time in Cyprus, the Chartered Institute of Taxation has provided to us (exceptionally for this time) an extension to the deadline up to 25 March 2011. This extension only applies to students that are studying through our Institute. Consequently for all the registrations made between the period 01.03.2011 to 25.03.2011 please inform the association that you are students from Cyprus attending the course at Pantelis Stylianides of Accountancy in order to be allowed with the extension.

Benefits of being an ADIT member?

The CIOT considers that there are significant benefits in having an internationally recognized Diploma. Just as having the CTA indicates that the individual has a certain level of competence in UK tax matters, so ADIT indicates a high level of competence in international corporate taxation and a successful candidate will be able to demonstrate knowledge in three areas:

• the principles of international taxation
• in-depth knowledge of international tax issues for their primary jurisdiction
• an awareness of basic tax issues, particularly in relation to international tax, in at least one secondary jurisdiction

Holders of the Diploma may apply to become an International Tax Affiliate of The Chartered Institute of Taxation. This ongoing link with the CIOT will entitle the individual to receive a number of benefits including:

• the status attached to affiliation with the premier professional body in the UK concerned solely with taxation
• The right to describe oneself as an ‘International Tax Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation’.
• Subscription to the monthly journal ‘Tax Adviser’, which includes technical articles, current tax notes, digests of tax cases and news from the Institute.
• Access to the ethical standards and practice guidelines.
• CPD opportunities.
• Use of the Institute’s Tony Arnold Library at King’s College, London
• Participation in the technical and social activities of the UK and international branches.
• Holders of the Diploma are entitled touse the designator letters ‘ADIT’ after their name, accordingly they will join a growing global network of students, graduates and affiliates in over 85 countries.

Tutor

We believe that tutors make the difference. We are happy to announce that we have managed to get an exclusive representative through one of the most prestigious training organisation in U.K. that specialized in international tax.

Tax Exam Training (part of LexisNexis) was established in 2003 by a group of tutors who felt passionate about providing a high quality training environment for all students sitting tax examinations. Since then it has grown and now has a nationwide presence in the UK, as well as running courses outside the UK.

Tolley has supported the ADIT examination since its inception and is the only establishment to provide a full distance learning product with tutor support and the pass rates for our courses are well above the national average, full details of these can be found at www.tolleytraining.co.uk.

It is a specialist tutorial organisation, which only runs courses for tax examinations and it is this which makes Tolley Tax Exam Training the ideal provider for the ADIT qualification, which is itself the ultimate in specialist qualifications.

Amanda McDonough CTA ACA

Amanda graduated with a first class degree in accountancy having won prizes in each year’s exams. She joined KPMG where she trained as a chartered accountant, later moving to the tax department where she was involved in many projects. After eight years at KPMG working mainly with large corporate groups, Amanda moved to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

At PwC Amanda was a senior manager. As well as running a corporate group, Amanda worked as part of a corporate finance team advising on the tax aspects of takeovers, buy-outs and off-market purchases. In addition Amanda worked alongside a tax partner developing tax planning schemes which she took to Tax Counsel and, where appropriate, used in her work with the corporate finance team.

Amanda has a reputation for bringing humour and a practical slant to the CTA and ADIT classes. Students enjoy the many anecdotes she uses to bring the course to life. Having worked in the tax field over 20 years, Amanda has a wealth of experience and depth of knowledge that is hard to match. Amanda’s many years of experience working in a ‘Big 4’ environment makes her the ideal tutor for the ADIT and CTA Advanced Corporate Tax papers.

Amanda joined the team at Tolley Tax Training in early 2003. As well as lecturing in the classroom, she has responsibility for the structure of the CTA corporate courses and has written most of the correspondence and computer based material for this area. Amanda is also responsible for designing and devising the ADIT courses. As well as being involved in examination training, Amanda writes and presents professional development courses for large accountancy firms on overseas aspects of corporate tax and international accounting standards.

Pass rates

The most important measure of success for a training organisation is their pass rates. Since Tolley Tax Training was launched we have consistently published our pass rates for all examinations. We have published below our recent pass rates but for our latest pass rates please see our website at www.tolleytraining.co.uk.

We are confident that pass rates will continue to significantly surpass the national average. This, we believe, will be down to two factors:

• Our targeted study material enabling you to focus specifically on the requirement of your particular examination, coupled with our online offering meaning that you can maximise your study time, and study whenever and wherever you want; and

• Our dedicated tutorial and client services team whose unrivalled knowledge of the examinations and your options mean that your queries can be answered in one place. We can offer the best service because we only offer training and advice for the tax examinations.

ADIT June 2010 Examinations

* Tolley's pass rates are for those enrolled on the correspondence course and who attended all days of the classroom and revision courses.