In grading the assessment tasks completed in this unit the Macquarie University Grading Policy will be applied. Please refer to the policy at http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html. Further detail relating to assessment tasks are set out in the Assessment Guide available on ilearn

Classes

There are 3 hours of face-to-face teaching per week consisting of a 3-hour seminar. Please refer to the following webpage for the specific seminar day and time http://timetables.mq.edu.au.

Students are required to attend all classes.

Required and Recommended texts and/or Materials

Required texts

CPA Program: Advanced Taxation, Deakin University, January 2015 (provided to you by CPA Australia)

Recommended texts

Students will need to refer to legislation throughout the course.  No legislation reference is prescribed as compulsory, but students would find useful:

CCH Core Tax Legislation and Study Guide (2014 or 2015 editions), or

ATP Fundamental Tax Legislation (2014 or 2015 editions).

Alternatively, students can access tax legislation at www.comlaw.gov.au.

Additional references

The following books are not required to be purchased, but students would benefit from reference to any of the following as additional reading:

CCH Australian Taxation Law, Woellner, Barkoczy, Murphy, Evans and Pinto (2014 or 2015 editions)

CCH Australian Master Tax Guide (2014 or2015 editions), or

ATP Australian Tax Handbook (2014 or 2015 editions).

Students would also benefit from referring to the 24th edition of the CCH Australian Taxation Study Manual (Nethercott, Richardson and Devos) which provides questions and suggested solutions to tax problems for the 2013/14 tax year.

Many of the recommended texts and additional references are available in the Library and for purchase from the Macquarie University Co-op Bookshop.

Unit Web Page

Course material is available on iLearn.

Teaching and Learning Activities

The unit is broken up into seminars in which students and the lecturer discuss readings, case studies and assigned questions on specified taxation topics that correlate with the 13 modules. Each seminar will be held on the scheduled date for 3 hours. In between these seminars, students are required to work through and complete nominated modules in the CPA program, as well as work on assessment tasks.

In preparation for a seminar, students should work through the relevant modules in the CPA program, as well as work on assessment tasks and self-assessment tests.

Each seminar will consist of a mixture of activities based around the CPA program modules. These will include:

• discussion of case studies, examples and questions relating to the previous week's module, and
• review of the main concepts and content, and their practical application, arising from the current week's module.

Group work is required in completing the assignment and associated presentation.

Technology Used and Required

Students are expected to have:

• proficiency in Word, Excel and Powerpoint
• knowledge of Macquarie University's online system for downloading materials, and
• knowledge of the library resource database for accessing additional research material.

Class date                  Topic

2 February 2015         Introduction

 -- week 1                   Module 1: Tax administration

                                   Module 2: Principles of assessable income

9 February 2015         Module 3: Principles of general and specific deductions

-- week 2

16 February 2015       Module 4: Capital expenditure allowances

-- week 3                     Group assessment topics and groups handed out

23 February 2015       First Multiple Choice exam in class

-- week 4                    Module 5: Capital gains tax

2 March 2015            Module 6: Individuals

-- week 5

9 March 2015            Module 7: Partnerships

-- week 6                   Module 8: Trusts

16 March 2015          Module 9: Companies and dividends

-- week 7

23 March 2015          Module 10: Consolidations

-- week 8                   Module 11: Transfer pricing

30 March 2015          Module 12: Fringe benefits tax

-- week 9                   Module 13: Goods and services tax

Week 10                   Second Multiple Choice exam in class    

                                  DATE TO BE ADVISED BECAUSE OF PUBLIC HOLIDAY  ON 6 APRIL 2015

13 April 2015             Revision

-- week 11                 Written assignments due

Week 12                   CPA exam -- date to be advised

27 April 2015            Return of written assignments

-- week 13               Presentation of group assignments

Addition of research and practice, global and sustainability.

No other changes.

This unit addresses global and sustainability issues and the relevant implications arising from the materials, assessment, academic discussion and debate in classes/seminars. This unit promotes sustainability by developing the ability in students to research and locate information relating to recent developments in taxation law.  

The CPA Australia Advanced Taxation Study Guide includes a reference list at the end of each module containing a number of references that students may use and provides some guidance to references that could be used to research particular issues.