ADIT International Tax - FAQs

The ADIT qualification used to be called the Advanced Diploma in International Taxation. The awarding body, the UK Chartered Institute of Taxation, shortened its name to ADIT or ADIT International Tax. It is a prestigious international tax certification which enables you to become an International Tax Affiliate of the CIOT.

To become an ADIT graduate, you must either pass 3 exams, or 2 exams plus successfully submit an extended essay. All ADIT student must pass the core module - Principles of International Taxation. This module covers the international tax system, and does not focus on any specific jurisdiction.

For the other two modules, you can choose any 2 from a list of thematic (e.g. Transfer Pricing) or jurisdictional (e.g. UK, US, Ireland) tax options. You can sit the papers in any order you choose. The main exam sitting is in June each year, with the most popular modules also available to sit in December.

In studying for the ADIT qualification, you will deepen your knowledge of international tax. ADIT shows your commitment to your career and continuing professional development. Achieving the qualification means that you can become an International Tax Affiliate of the CIOT, increasing your professional standing. For more on the benefits of ADIT, check out the 'Why ADIT?' section on the CIOT's website.

The total costs of studying ADIT depend on the study options you choose.

All ADIT students have to pay fees to the CIOT. The 2023 rates are £235 to register as an ADIT student and £215 to sit each ADIT exam. You will also need to buy the books which you are allowed to take into the exam with you. For example, Volume A of Kees Van Raad's Materials on International, TP & EU Tax Law, which costs £85 from Wildy's bookstore.

Some students choose to self-study for an ADIT exam, using the recommended texts listed on the syllabus for each paper. Others find that the most efficient way to study for ADIT is to join a course offered by a recognised ADIT course provider, such as ExtraTax Training.

It is possible to pass all 3 exams in one sitting and achieve ADIT over a period of 4 - 6 months, but it is not an approach we would usually recommend. Each ADIT module requires a significant time commitment. Of course it depends on your starting point, but generally you can expect to spend around 6 - 8 hours per week studying for each paper over 3 - 5 months. If you are balancing ADIT studies with working full-time and personal commitments, you may struggle to find the time needed to prepare for more than one module per sitting.

Therefore, a realistic timescale for achieving ADIT is around 2 years. For instance, if you decide to start your studies in early 2023, you could sit your first exam in June 2023, followed by your second in December 2023 and final one in June 2024. ADIT is a challenging qualification, so you may not pass every paper first time. Your ADIT student registration lasts for 5 years, so you have plenty of time to work your way through the modules, building your tax expertise as you go.

Once you've decided that you want to study for the ADIT qualification (or a standalone certificate), your first step is to register with the CIOT as an ADIT student. The registration fee is £235. There are no prerequisites for starting your ADIT studies, all you need is an email address. 

Your next step is to register for an ADIT exam. The exam entry fee is £215. This is a separate step from registering as an ADIT student. You will need to complete your student registration at least 2 weeks before applying to sit an ADIT exam.

There are deadlines for registering as a student and entering an exam before each exam sitting. For example, if you wish to sit your first exam in December 2023, you must be registered as a student by Friday 1 September 2023 and enter for your exam by Friday 15 September 2023.

When you know which paper you want to sit, you should decide how you wish to study for it. There are a range of options available from recognised ADIT course providers, including ExtraTax Training.

Once you have successfully completed 3 ADIT modules, you can apply to the CIOT to become an International Tax Affiliate. This allows you to use the ADIT letters after your name to demonstrate your expertise. It also means that you commit to upholding the professional standards of the CIOT, including continuing professional development and ethics. 

The answer to this question is - it depends. Both qualifications are prestigious and demonstrate your commitment to your tax career. Deciding which one is right for you is an important decision. You should consider what you are aiming to learn and what you hope to achieve by gaining the qualification. 

The ADIT exams remain online, meaning you can sit them from anywhere. From May 2023, the CTA exams returned to exam centres. If you are based outside of the UK, you may have to travel to an exam centre in the UK to sit a CTA paper. ADIT exams are fully remote.

We have written an article on this topic to help you consider the options - read it here. 

Of course, you may wish to do both qualifications. The CIOT offers a route to make this easier. You can effectively sit the ADIT UK Tax paper (Module 2.09) in place of the CTA Advanced Technical paper on 'Taxation of Major Corporates'. Therefore, one paper (ADIT Module 2.09) can count towards both your CTA & ADIT qualifications. 

There are a small number of bursaries each year to help students towards the costs of achieving ADIT. You can find details on the scholarship here.

For 2024, the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers is awarding 3 candidates with a bursary of £1,500 each. The scholarship is available to students from outside the UK, whose disadvantaged background means that they are unable to meet the costs of ADIT. The deadline to apply for a 2024 ADIT scholarship is 31 October 2023.

As much as we would like to, we can't guarantee you a pass. What we can promise you is a pathway to success in the exams. We know it works well when students follow it - by participating in the live classes, doing weekly assignments, attempting mock exams etc.

So, instead of a Guaranteed Pass Scheme, we offer you the opportunity to earn a Certificate of Completion on the Select option for our online courses. To be awarded a Certificate you need to gather points over the semester by completing activities that move you closer to exam success, e.g. regularly submitting weekly assignments.

As well as encouraging you to follow good learning habits, earning a Certificate of Completion gives you peace of mind. If you obtain one, but things don't go well for you on exam day, you can return to the Core option of the same course in the next semester, free of charge.

If you choose our Extra option, you can automatically return to the Core option of the same course in the next semester, free of charge. You do not need to earn points during the semester. But, of course, we encourage you to attend classes, submit assignments and attempt the mocks, as these activities lead you towards exam success.

Learn more about the actions and rewards for a Certificate of Completion here. 

Yes, the live classes are held on Zoom and recordings are made available shortly after each class.

We encourage you to attend the classes live, so you can ask questions and participate in discussions. But we know that it's not always possible. The recordings allow you to catch up, or re-visit a topic.

Yes. For Principles of International Taxation and Transfer Pricing, you will get an online subscription to Bloomsbury International Tax Service. An individual subscription would cost you £900 + VAT, but you can benefit from their range of international tax texts as part of your course fee.

For the UK and Irish Tax modules, we have developed our own online study manuals. These are written specifically for each ADIT module by tax specialists. They will guide you through the syllabus, using illustrations and questions & answers to help you learn. 

Our online courses are comprehensive, offering you live classes, study materials, questions banks & more. The only other items that you should need to buy are the Permitted Texts for your module. These are the books that you can take into the exam with you as reference materials. You will find them listed under Permitted Texts on the ADIT syllabus.

Why do we not include the Permitted Texts? There are a few reasons. You might already have them. For instance, Volume A of Kees Van Raad's 'Materials on International, TP & EU Tax Law' is a Permitted Texts for a number of ADIT modules. Also, it could work out more expensive for you, as there would be two layers of shipping costs. 

Do you need to buy all of the Permitted Texts for each module? It depends. For example, we typically do not recommend purchasing the Orange Tax Handbooks for the UK Tax module, as indirect tax is a minor part of the syllabus.

If you have any questions about Permitted Books, the ExtraTax team is happy to help you. You can email us at info@extrataxtraining.com.

Passing an ADIT exam requires serious commitment. We like you to know what's involved before you decide to sign up.

The online tuition classes start around 15 or 16 weeks before the exam date. We will set pre-reading for you before the tuition classes begin. The amount of time this takes you will partially depend on your existing knowledge level. 

Once the weekly tuition classes begin, you can expect to spend around 6 or 7 hours per week studying. You'll join the classes for 2 or 2.5 hours. Then you will have assigned reading from the study texts, along with a weekly assignment to complete. It is often a past paper question. At the start of the course, we advise taking your time to answer it. As the weeks go on, you should be aiming to do it in the amount of time you would have in the exam.

The tuition classes finish around 5 or 6 weeks before the exam date. You'll then move into the revision phase, where the study time required is more intensive. You'll join weekend revision classes, as well as sitting two mock exams. If it is possible, you will benefit from taking leave from work in the week running up to the exam, to allow you to focus on your studies.

Given the time commitment required, we usually recommend doing one ADIT paper per exam sitting.

We run small group classes, with one-to-one support available, so that our online ADIT courses are suitable for everyone. We don't assume that you have any prior knowledge of a topic. We take you through what you need to know for the ADIT exam in an easy-to-understand manner. If you need extra support in an area, we're here for you.

Each semester, we bring together ADIT students from around the world, with a range of backgrounds. Our youngest students are in their early 20s, while our oldest so far has been late 60s. To date, we have welcomed, amongst others:

• International tax professor
• Partner in a transfer pricing firm
• CTA students sitting ADIT Module 2.09

• Master's student

• Owners of accountancy & tax practices
• In-house tax managers

If you have any questions about our courses and how they would work for you, please get in touch.

This is more difficult to answer. At ExtraTax, we take honesty and transparency as core values - i.e. some of the minimum standards you can expect from us.

There are a few reasons why this is a harder question. Some ADIT course providers give their pass rates for a subset of students, e.g. only those who have paid for Guaranteed Pass schemes. What about the rest of the class?

One challenge is that we don't always know. While we follow up with all our students after the exams and once the results come out, we don't always get replies. In these cases, we don't know if they sat the exam but didn't pass, or if they never sat it.

Another challenge is that ADIT candidates come from such a wide range of backgrounds that comparing results may not be helpful. Is the success rate of a CTA-qualified tax practitioner comparable with a recent graduate with little practical experience? How comparable is a tax partner with 20+ years of experience sitting an ADIT exam in their native language with someone learning about UK tax & sitting an exam in a second or third language?

Our pass rates are above average for students who successfully complete the course, regardless of their starting point. For example, our pass rates for students who completed courses for the December 2022 exams were:

• Principles of International Taxation = 100% (CIOT pass rate = 61%)
• Transfer Pricing = 100% (CIOT pass rate = 75%)
• UK Tax = 67% (CIOT pass rate = 57%)

We don't evaluate our achievements solely on our pass rates. We measure your satisfaction level, both in terms of how we’ve helped you prepare for the exams and how we’ve improved your overall knowledge & understanding of international tax.

We have plans to develop online courses and study materials for other ADIT modules. To keep our high standards, we will only launch new courses when we have quality study manuals and tutors who are subject-matter experts with the skills to share their knowledge.

If you are interested in studying an ADIT module not currently offered, please contact us.