The STEP Advanced Certificate in UK tax for international clients is a “unique” exam and costs £795, according to director of professional development Nigel Race, who said it has been “prompted by all the recent focus on issues of domicile and residence, and the corresponding tax treatment. It was felt that some experts had acquired the knowledge through years of practice but we wanted to fast track the acquisition through qualification.”
Enrolments close on 28 September for a January 2013 exam sitting and there will also be an exam in July 2013, held at centres currently including London, Jersey, Guernsey, Bahamas, Hong Kong, Geneva and Zurich. But Race adds that “we would open a centre wherever demand is sufficient – these are simply the centres we anticipate good demand in.”
Three months of study is recommended and support includes the bespoke manual which is kept fully up-to-date and revised for each exam sitting, as well as online support materials including self-assessment questions. The exam takes the form of a case study, the bulk of which will be emailed to participants in advance.
The concept behind the new qualification came from Julie Hutchison, head of international technical insight at Standard Life who is also deputy chairman of STEP’s professional development committee. She is the syllabus manual’s editor with the writing of the course commissioned out to Boodle Hatfield who have expertise in this field.
Hutchison said: “My idea for the new qualification came from personal experience and the gap I saw in this area. More and more families have an international element to their lives and finances, but from all my experience with both legal and STEP qualifications, there was no specialist qualification which really had this as a focus.
She added: “The UK tax system has changed significantly just in the last few years, with complexity in terms of the taxation of non-UK domiciled clients, so this is also an emerging technical need in response to new legislation.”
The syllabus covers the concept of domicile: guidance on the current residence rules and the current draft statutory residence test (due in 2013); identifying where trusts and companies are resident; details of income, capital gains and inheritance taxes and their relevance and application to the international client; the remittance basis: and “elephant traps and wealth preservation opportunities.
