I have applied to AAT for a practising certificate and part of the initial feedback is that they won't authorise me to do tax work.
To become authorised to do tax work I must carry out tax work under supervision of a qualified accountant experienced in tax.
I would not be allowed to charge for tax work during the mentoring period.
I have a suggestion which I would like those of you who offer tax services to consider.
I am thinking of offering tax services to clients "in association with" an accountancy firm. The client would become the client of the accountancy firm for the purpose of tax services. My arrangement with the accountancy firm would be that I would prepare the tax computation free of charge to the accountancy firm, this would then be vetted by the accountancy firm for correctness. The client fees would go to the accountancy firm.
The accountancy firm would, after an appropriate period, provide a reference to the AAT regarding my competence in tax.
Is this a viable suggestion? (I don't know if the AAT would accept this).
Does anyone have alternative suggestions? Getting a job in a practise would not be an option as I would have to take a salary drop.
Kind regards,
David.
-- Edited by David Ballantyne on Friday 3rd of October 2014 12:30:47 PM
Is this for Business Tax? I took the module as an add on to my qualification through my local college -they actually gave me a practice licence to do this without this module but I wanted to do it through personal choice- this may be an option for you ?
I am surprised they wont allow it with your qualifications listed
This is for personal tax, business tax (sole traders and partnerships), capital gains tax and corporation tax.
If I remember correctly, you were already in practice when you obtained your tax qualification, so perhaps they felt you satisfied the experience requirement?
Yes I was in practice with my licence being with ICB-i only applied through AAT because they wouldn't give me MAAT status without applying for MIP status which I found odd.
I don't remember them asking much about my ICB qualifications though
I would be happy to help but I feel you are more qualified than me !
I think that this is one of those situations where it is the experience you have that counts, not what qualifications you have. Even though I have done an exam in business tax with CIMA, the only tax experience I have is in payroll and VAT (both of which the AAT have agreed that I can practise in).
Thank you for your kind offer of help. I am going to get in touch with the AAT and clarify how this could proceed. I will get in touch as soon as I have worked out what I need to do next.
