This advanced-level course builds upon foundational knowledge from Principles of Taxation (2.6) and equips students with the expertise to handle complex tax scenarios in Ghana and international contexts. Designed for aspiring chartered accountants, it focuses on ensuring tax compliance, identifying tax planning opportunities, and analyzing intricate taxation issues while upholding high ethical standards. Students will develop skills to compute tax liabilities for individuals, partnerships, companies, and groups; advise on fiscal policies, natural resource taxation, and transaction taxes; and address emerging trends like e-commerce and international taxation. Through practical application and ethical considerations, participants will learn to communicate tailored tax advice to diverse clients, preparing them for professional roles in tax advisory, compliance, and policy.

The course syllabus is structured around key areas, with examination weightings guiding the emphasis on each topic. Below is an itemized breakdown per syllabus weighting:

• Tax Administration (10%): Covers obligations of taxpayers and agents, implications of non-compliance, self-assessment systems, time limits for submissions and payments, compliance checks, appeals, disputes, penalties, and reforms in Ghana’s tax system, including the role of taxation in economic management.
• Business Income Tax (15%): Explores income tax bases, chargeable incomes, exemptions, allowable deductions, capital allowances, and tax computations for companies, groups, partnerships, insurance firms, trusts, and charitable organizations, including property and investment income.
• Fiscal Policy (10%): Examines fiscal policy measures using taxation for economic development, including expansionary and contractionary policies, public debt alternatives, inter-governmental fiscal relations, and revenue allocation practices in Ghana.
• Taxation of Natural Resources (15%): Focuses on mining, minerals, and petroleum taxation, including royalty and corporate tax computations, capital allowances, treatment of losses, assignments of interest, upstream operations, government revenues, and petroleum revenue management laws.
• Tax Planning and Ethics (15%): Addresses strategies for minimizing or deferring tax liabilities through legitimate measures, tax incentives for business sectors, interactions of taxes, differences between avoidance and evasion, anti-avoidance schemes, ethical dilemmas, conflicts of interest, and professional responsibilities in tax advice.
• Transaction Taxes (15%): Explains Value Added Tax (VAT) concepts such as taxable persons, supplies, registration, calculations, and refunds, alongside customs duties, assessments, and valuation methods.
• Emerging and Current Trends in Taxation (10%): Discusses contemporary issues like e-commerce taxation, transfer pricing, thin capitalization, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), digitization in tax administration, and implications of mergers, amalgamations, and business acquisitions.
• International Taxation (10%): Covers permanent establishments, double taxation treaties, benefits and challenges of international tax agreements, and distinctions between trading in Ghana versus trading with Ghana.