The Institute of Indirect Taxation (IIT) was a distinct professional body in the United Kingdom prior to its merger with the Chartered Institute of Taxation in August 2012.
The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) is a registered charity and the leading professional body in the United Kingdom concerned solely with taxation. The CIOT deals with all aspects of direct and indirect taxation.
Contents
Members of the IIT specialised in the study and practice of indirect taxes. The body was formed in July 1991 and formally launched in October 1991. It gained permission to call itself an institute in December of the same year. It operated as a company limited by guarantee.
An indirect tax is a tax collected by an intermediary from the person who bears the ultimate economic burden of the tax. The intermediary later files a tax return and forwards the tax proceeds to government with the return. In this sense, the term indirect tax is contrasted with a direct tax, which is collected directly by government from the persons on whom it is imposed. Some commentators have argued that "a direct tax is one that cannot be charged by the taxpayer to someone else, whereas an indirect tax can be."
Entry to the Institute was normally gained by taking up to four professional examinations in indirect taxation. There were two routes through the exams, the Value Added Tax route and the customs route, which reflect two of the most major areas that indirect taxation is applied to in the United Kingdom. It was possible to gain exemptions from some of the exams through possessing other suitable qualifications which include those from various British accountancy professional bodies, the Chartered Institute of Taxation and HM Revenue and Customs.
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of state support and the administration of other regulatory regimes including the national minimum wage.
The four papers were:
- I: Legal, Business and Professional Ethics
- II: optional paper which is dependent on whether the VAT or customs route through the qualification is being taken
- III: Other Indirect Taxes
- IV: Stamp Taxes, Direct Taxes and Interaction of all Taxes
Those who have passed the examinations and been accepted into membership were entitled to use the designatory letters AIIT (Associate of the Institute of Indirect Taxation). Upon submission of a thesis to the institute it was possible to become a Fellow of the Institute of Indirect Taxation which allowed for the use of the designatory letters FIIT. Other categories of member, which were without designatory letters, were student members and affiliate members. It was also possible to be made an honorary member or Fellow.
