Niamh McCarthy - OCMC
I had always wanted to do the tax exams and had contemplated doing them back in 1990, but time passed and I put it on the long finger. I had trained as an accountant in practice and had then spend 11 years in industry before returning again to set up in practice with a colleague from college. I felt that I needed to do some sort of detailed tax compliance course to feel competent in the day to day work in a practice having spend so much time in industry.
The TMITI course seemed perfect because it was both a qualification in its own right and also it focussed on tax compliance, which is a large portion of tax work done by tax practitioners. In addition, because I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend three more years studying for the full AITI, the TMITI course seemed like the perfect alternative in the meantime.
It’s a very practical course, the core subjects covered much of what a tax practitioner has to deal with on a day to day basis. I learned so much from the lecturers because they shared their own practical experiences with us when explaining certain issues. And the actual exam questions were real practical examples of day to day tax problems.
I felt more competent in my daily work having completed the course and in my dealings with our clients and with Revenue. It also gave me the confidence go on and complete the full AITI because I wanted to become fully competent in dealing with the more complicated tax issues that arise, particularly tax planning issues.
TMITI was beneficial for me in the transition back to practice when I had been in industry for so long and not up to date on tax compliance work. Other class mates found it extremely helpful because they were working in industry as accountants and wanted to understand more fully how they could help their auditors and tax advisers going forward and even prepare the company tax computations themselves in the future in order to reduce fees. Some were lecturers in business subjects and were doing the course to help them in their own lecturing. Others were contemplating doing tax compliance work in the future in order to supplement their present income or perhaps to just work part-time from home. Others were using it as a stepping stone to do the full AITI. I would recommend it to anybody who for whatever reason wants to understand how the main taxes work in Ireland.
The TMITI course covers most of Part 1 of the AITI so it was certainly useful. I had no hesitation in continuing on with the full AITI and am beginning Part 2 lectures in October.