For the CPA Program • Elective subject
Australia Taxation for the CPA Program, cut to 45 pages of notes, 66 flashcards, a two-page cheat sheet and a 101-mark practice exam, so you study what carries the marks. Packs $45 to $120 AUD, instant PDF download.
Instant PDF download after checkout. Study on any device. Summo Notes is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any professional body.
About the subject
Australia Taxation is an elective in the CPA Program. This study guide covers the Australian tax system: the law and its administration, taxable income, capital gains tax, individuals, other entities, and GST and FBT.
The exam mixes multiple choice with extended response, and most questions are built around a taxpayer's facts. You have to take a rule, a deduction test, a CGT step, an FBT category, and apply it to a situation you have never seen before, which is where most marks are won or lost. The notes are built for that: the rules and the wording first, then how to use them in the exam.
The subject splits into six modules. The notes match the exam, so the biggest module, taxable income, gets the most of your time. The 2026 edition reflects the 2024-25 tax year the exam is based on.
What's inside
Three parts that work together. Learn it in the notes, drill it with the exam, lock it in with the cards.
The whole subject rewritten in plain English, the way a colleague who passed last year would explain it.
Fifty-one multiple choice and five extended-response questions, built around real taxpayer scenarios and written for an open-book exam.
The last-week toolkit. Quick recall on the go, and one quick reference sheet for the open-book exam.
A look inside
This is the actual work, not a description of it. Genuine pieces from the notes, flashcards, cheat sheet and exam, so you can see the quality before you spend a cent. It is a taste. The full pack goes a lot deeper.
Taxable income = assessable income - deductions. Tax payable = tax on taxable income - offsets + Medicare levy and surcharge - PAYG credits. A deduction reduces income; an offset reduces tax.
The exact structure to use, pulled out so you cannot miss it.
The three-way distinction the exam tests early and often.
A net capital gain is assessable; a net capital loss carries forward against future capital gains only.
Which Acts make up the main tax law in Australia?
The ITAA 1997 holds the core rules on income, deductions and capital gains tax; the ITAA 1936 keeps older provisions such as Part IVA and the partnership and trust rules; the TAA 1953 covers administration. The GST Act, the FBTAA 1986 and the TASA deal with GST, fringe benefits and tax agents.
Knowing which Act a rule lives in saves search time in the open-book sitting.
A public or private ruling binds the Commissioner, so a taxpayer who follows a ruling that applies to them is protected even if a court later reads the law differently. The taxpayer is not bound to follow the ruling.
A one-way protection the exam likes to test from both directions.
Repair against improvement is a favourite. Replacing part of an asset with a modern equivalent can still be a repair; replacing the whole asset, or bettering it beyond its original state, is capital. Read what was done, not what it was called.
Tips and traps sit right where people slip, so you learn the mistake before you make it.
Personal use asset losses are simply lost; they cannot reduce any gain. A question that lets you net a loss on a private boat against a gain on shares is testing whether you know the loss is disregarded.
The notes flag the wrong answer before the exam offers it to you.
A taxpayer owned a dwelling for 10 years. It was their main residence for 8 of those years and was rented out for the other 2 years, and they had no other main residence. Broadly, what is the capital gains tax outcome on sale?
Fifty-one multiple choice and five extended response, every one worked through.
Where a dwelling is the main residence for only part of the ownership period, the main residence exemption is generally partial: the gain is apportioned, and the part that relates to the non-main-residence period is taxable. It is not an all-or-nothing outcome.
Renting for part of the period generally removes the full exemption. The main-residence period is still exempt, so some relief applies. And the 12-month rule is the discount condition, not the main residence test.
Every question is marked up like this. The five extended-response questions come with a model answer and the marking guide, so you can see exactly where the marks sit.
And this is a sample. The full pack has all 45 pages, 66 cards, the cheat sheet, and the complete 101-mark exam with worked solutions.
Made for studying after work
You are fitting this around a full-time job. The notes are cut down so your study time goes to the parts that earn marks, not to re-reading the textbook.
Six modules of material sorted into what gets tested and what does not.
The modules that carry the most marks get the most space. The rest is kept short.
Worked solutions show how to take a principle and answer a scenario you have not seen.
Choose your pack
Prices in Australian dollars. Every pack is an instant PDF download.
For revision when you know the theory and want to practise under exam conditions.
Everything for the subject, from first read to the final open-book exam.
For learning the subject from scratch and building recall.
How it works
Pick the pack that fits where you are in the subject.
Checkout is handled by Lemon Squeezy. No account needed.
Your PDFs land in your inbox and on the confirmation page.
Good to know
More subjects
Get the full pack and have every note, exam and card for Australia Taxation in one download.