ATXACCA Paper ATX exam was - March 2021 Exam - Instant Poll and comments

How was it for everyone? I did the UK version and I feel I could have done better especially on the first question

Absolute disaster, not helped by the remote system locking me out because a small program/process on my computer kept starting up in the background which I had to keep turning off in task manager. Happened about five times. The invigilators seemed understanding at least. But also, there was a 16 mark question on relocation costs that I had to completely ignore because I ran out of time answering the other questions, badly. This was a resit, I studied hard for it (took all of last week off work and went back through the entire bpp text book again), but I'll be lucky if I score better than the 38 I got back in December. So deflated right now.

Anyone tell me what was the Q3 and Q4?

Hello All, I found this exam was a disaster for me - not sue how you lot found it? I have so many questions but i would like to start off by asking what did people write for Q1 where there are losses in the final tax yr and no terminal loss relief is to be claimed. Did you lot add the overlap to the loss in the final tax yr to achieve a bigger loss and then offset this against the other income in the previous tax yrs?

Is there another forum where the answers are discussed in detail? Understandably a long shot, but would help anticipate whether a re-sit is about to hit me

Omg i had no idea what to do with the basis periods.. the first period was 20/21 and the other period was 22/23 so I just did 6 Apr 21 - 5 Apr 22?? And deducted the original overlaps? Obviously wrong! The first losses question caught me a bit feel i could have written more - The interest payable i said wasn't for trade so it was a interest loss and therefore could be offset against total profit CY and CF but only interest profit PY? For trading loss I said it was MCINOT so couldn't carry forward losses or back losses? I feel they wanted more on trade losses between the groups but I ran out of time :(

I did my exam at 2pm and didn't experience any technical issues

I sat in Atx UK, my last ACCA exam and I dont know what hit me failed for sure, help me out here how to prepare for June attempt ?

For question 1 with loss relief I have no idea if I did it right but added final period to last year profit so reduced loss slightly then added overlap profits to increase loss to around 70k then managed to offset some of it against cap gain on sale of business building but only had a small tax saving because of ER and AEA. There was alot in going on in that question. I assumed no carry forward as not UK tax payer going forward. Couldn't think of any issues with sending her sister 18k a year once he leaves as it was out of income assumed not even considered a Pet.

@sandra thought it was 4 years he was going for initially. If it was months that changes everything with the residency question?

I spoke that it could be exempt but that there was not enough information to say for sure as we did not know enough abot the job and the wealth that would come from it, other wise it would be treated as normal IHT.

Did anyone get the question with CGT and IHT calculation on sale of shares guy died left to 2 sisters and one left to their kid etc.. I so wanted there to be a relief but couldn't find one.. No ER on daughters sale as not 2 Yr. On PET transfer for death tax No annual exemptions, no NRB. No QSR more than 5 year not even tapper relief.. Feel like there was somthing I missed.?

Yes UK ATX but seems software dishes out different questions. I think it makes it less even in terms of topics covered in the exam mine was heavily self employment and CGT/IHT and almost nothing on IT and related topics.

There was a question on explain what Tusk needs to know when deregistering for VAT? I only put that output tax needs to be charged to the NCA & Stock , that he has claimed input VAT on and that is it ! Is that what people wrote?

Questions: 1) Tusk - losses, VAT deregistration, IHT 2) Group relief, disposals, ethics marks 3) Mathilde, Iris - gifts, IHT 4) Basis periods, cost of additional employee, VAT An extra hour and I’d be comfortably passing. Not enough time to work through all the points to get results, so lost professional marks by not arriving at conclusions. No easy marks. Everything required a broad knowledge of whole syllabus. Hoping to scrape enough for a pass.

Wasn’t one of the transfers to the wife in his death estate? According to HMRC, if a qualifying beneficiary of a death estate was an officer or employee of that trading company and held the shares for 1year, they’d be entitled to the ER. I don’t recall materials going into that level of detail but I guessed the ER could be transferred between spouses.

DSAV90 wrote:Wasn’t one of the transfers to the wife in his death estate?

Iris mathilda question - I thought shares were to daughter so can't add on ownership period. So need to have 2 years for ER.

DSAV90 wrote:Questions: 1) Tusk – losses, VAT deregistration, IHT<br>2) Group relief, disposals, ethics marks<br>3) Mathilde, Iris – gifts, IHT<br>4) Basis periods, cost of additional employee, VAT

I had same 4 questions and ran out of time. Exam was too focused on self employment and not enough income tax covered. Also 17 marks for part a of Tusk was alot to talk about without a breakdown of marks for each sub section. Final question with car lease was the hardest TX knowledge question I've seen come up it's usually easier TX knowledge needed this was very niche.

I attend the Q2 very well regarding the LTD companies which were SSE, 75% gain group, and Ethics. But I completely lost in Q3, Q4.

Do the grade boundaries come down by ACCA if overall everyone did not perform too well?

Just realised where I lost at least half a marks: In Q4 of my exam there was a question about the cost of taking on a second employee with a company car. I answered the VAT part regarding the VAT well enough (only half of the VAT on the lease costs is reclaimable). But I did not include that extra VAT in the calculation of the cost of the second employee. If I score 49 I am going to be so gutted. Though I'll be honest, I reckon I'll be lucky to have scored in the 40s at all...

This exam was extremely time pressured and there were many things to do in especially Q1 Tusk part (a) for 19 marks. As soon as you open and start your exam, the first question you see is this big question for large marks allocation. It somehow pressurise and puts you off immediately because you know this requires more time to assimilate the information (but, this is what is expected from strategic professional exams). I couldn't do Q2 even though I wanted to do and knew how to do it. I did Q3 and Q4. I am already preparing for June 2021 sitting. The only thing is why do I have to wait till June 2021 when I know with all my heart that I am ready for exam. My other strategic professional exams are due to expire soon. Before my other strategic professional exams expire, I want to pass my remaining strategic professional exams. I work full-time in one of UK's largest listed company. My employer is not flexible and won't allow any holidays for exams. I have two questions with ACCA, as follows: (1) Why can't ACCA allow strategic professional exams (or any other Applied skills exams) to be available whenever student is ready or whenever student feels they are ready they can book an exam and get it done? Now that, there is a seven year time limit for strategic professional exams to expire, you might be better off to allow students to attempt exams (strategic professional or applied skills) whenever they are ready. You can still keep your seven year time limit for strategic professional exams. You can keep your exam formats and exam time as they are now. (2) Why can't ACCA arrange or permit to take exams over the weekend. Why do students have beg their employer for holidays so that they can attempt an exam at least (Forget holidays for exam preparation nowadays; time has changed with COVID)? If you available exams over the weekend, then I don't even have to speak to my employer about holidays. I am sure this is possible as ACCA managed to immediately moved to remote invigilated exams in times of COVID. Thank you Opentuition

I think if all students collectively struggle they have to bring the bandings down. I genuinely thought I would get approx. 40 for SBR in December. The exam was incredibly tough. I got 60. I am hopeful that for a really tough exam, putting enough in the workings and giving it all a good stab will be enough. Think positive!

There was a disposal of a property and motor boat in Q1 i think - did people work out the gain and apply PPR to reduce the gain?

Q2 where there was a transfer of a building from A to B - I said it was at NGNL Then it said if B buys another building then A will sell the exisitng building. I worked out the gain as normal without any degrouping charge/and the other calculation as It said A will sell it - not B will sell it?

khilen wrote:There was a disposal of a property and motor boat in Q1 i think – did people work out the gain and apply PPR to reduce the gain?

Yes for the house but for the motorboat I said no gain as not bought for investment purposes?

Agreed Paper was to lengthy, That's why wasn't able to complete, Unfortunately.

What a good point; that didn’t even cross my mind but motor boat would not be exempt from CGT?

Hi Leanne12 Where did you take your classes/Lectures? Mahindra

i agree good point but irrelevant as there was still a gain that he was liable for.