EXAMINER’S GENERAL COMMENTS The final level paper is designed to help students practice tax alongside accounting after their qualification. The paper was set taking into account the level of difficulty appropriate for the final level and the technical level in my estimation, was not above any well prepared candidate. Candidates would naturally wait until last minute and try to do “cramming” in order to pass. This way is certainly a slippery-slop as it cannot guarantee success. The Institute should continue to support students in their bid to pass with intervention classes and technical journals on relevant areas to enrich and deepen their understanding on some topics in taxation and fiscal policy

STANDARD OF THE PAPER The questions as usual assumed the normal trend depicting the spread in the syllabus and the weighting in line with the syllabus grid. The marks allocation appeared good and followed previous examination diets. There were no ambiguities in the questions. The clarity of the questions was not in doubt as most students demonstrated understanding of the requirement of questions but others showed largely the usual lack of preparation in the way they answered some of the questions. The performance of students was not affected in the negative at all from the point of the administration of the examination. The performance largely could be judged by their individual preparation and access to tax literatures. Some of the questions had subquestions and were equally clear in a well-constructed English language. The questions were not also error-ridden and conveyed the thoughts of the examiners in a clear and concise manner not capable of creating confusion in the minds of the candidates. The typing of the questions was very impressive and the choice of the words used were exceptionally good just so nobody could complain of not seeing the words clearly. In short, the standard of the paper was appropriate for the final level professional examination in taxation.