EXAMINER’S GENERAL COMMENTS The performance of candidates for the August 2022 diet fell below expectation compared to the previous sittings. Approximately 16% of the candidates who wrote the paper passed. The least pass rate since the inception of the new syllabus in November 2019. The trend which was experiencing some steady improvement from the last two sittings (approximately 37% and 39% pass rate in April 2022 and November 2021 respectively) suddenly witnessed a sharp drop again. Tuition providers and students who might have been conversant with the trend by now should have been aware that the August 2022 paper would not be different. Again, the questions were spread across the syllabus. The paper tested the basic principles enshrined in the relevant tax laws and regulations. It has been repeatedly echoed that the principles of taxation paper describe the Ghanaian system of taxation; outlines the basic principles of taxation of individuals and corporations (entities) in addition to outlining key aspects of realisation of assets, VAT and describes how taxes are administered by the Ghana Revenue Authority. Candidates should desist from specialising in certain topics and exert their energies in learning across the broad spectrum of the syllabus since this will propel them to pass the examination with ease. Another general observation made was the fact that candidates were not really prepared for theoretical questions which constituted about 59% of the total mark compared to the computational questions which were assigned the remaining 41%. The theoretical questions were straightforward but surprisingly candidates failed to take advantage of them. Candidates normally perform abysmally in VAT questions no matter how simple they are. They however did well in the computational questions relating to branch profit tax and capital gain tax payable but incidentally, they formed only 11% in all. Candidates however lost out heavily on the computation of Interest on Underestimated Tax and Chargeable Income of Partners which took 24%. Tuition providers and/or students should exert their energies in sharping the skills of candidates for both theoretical and computation related scenarios.

STANDARD OF THE PAPER The standard of the questions was very good for a level two paper of the examination structure. With the exception of the “Benchmark Value Discount” policy in Custom Administration (which took only 5 marks) which candidates may not be abreast with, all the questions did reflect the Principles of Taxation syllabus of which the candidates were expected to have a fair knowledge to pass. The questions were generally clear. As stated earlier, the questions fairly covered the entire syllabus and the expectations were that any average student who did prepare for the exams should have passed with ease. The marks were fairly allocated to the questions.