The ACCA TX exam (Taxation, United Kingdom) is a three-hour computer-based exam with three sections and a pass mark of 50%, sat in ACCA's four exam sessions across the year. It teaches you to compute the tax liabilities of individuals and companies, and to apply the basic tax planning that goes with them.
This guide covers what the exam looks like on screen, the three sections and how the marks fall, the syllabus, the pass rate, and how to prepare for the two big computations that decide most results.
What is ACCA Taxation (TX-UK)?
TX is one of the six Applied Skills exams, the level above Applied Knowledge. It is a self-contained paper: unlike Financial Reporting, it does not build on an earlier exam, so most people can start it cold. What it does demand is comfort with structured computations and a willingness to learn the rules of the UK tax system precisely. If you are mapping out the whole qualification, our guide to the ACCA exams in order shows where it fits among all 13 papers.
Older materials call it ACCA F6, or Taxation. It is the same paper at the same level; ACCA simply renamed it when the old paper codes were retired. There are several national variants of the tax paper; this guide is the United Kingdom version, TX-UK, which is the one most UK-based students sit.
TX is a session exam. ACCA's exam pages confirm the Applied Skills exams are sat in four sessions a year, in March, June, September and December, with results a few weeks after each sitting. One practical point: the syllabus is based on a specified Finance Act, so the rates and allowances you are examined on are fixed for a given exam year. You do not have to memorise them, because the exam gives you a tax rates and allowances sheet to work from.
The ACCA TX exam format
The structure is set out on ACCA's TX-UK essentials page. The exam lasts three hours, is computer-based, and every question is compulsory. There are 100 marks available and you need 50 to pass. It is split across three sections.
Section A is 30 marks: 15 objective test questions worth two marks each, drawn from across the syllabus. These are standalone questions in the usual OT formats, so no tax can be skipped safely; a VAT or inheritance-tax question you never revised is two marks gone.
Section B is 30 marks: three case scenarios worth ten marks each, and each case is five OT questions of two marks tied to that scenario. Same question style as Section A, but the shared scenario means you read one taxpayer's situation and answer five linked questions on it.
Section C is 40 marks: three constructed response questions, one worth 10 marks and two worth 15 marks. This is where you build the computation yourself. The two 15-mark questions are usually a full income tax computation for an individual and a full corporation tax computation for a company; the 10-mark question can come from any part of the syllabus.
Section C is 40% of the paper and it rewards clear, laid-out computations: constructed-response answers earn method marks even when a figure is wrong. A tidy income tax computation with labelled workings banks marks that the objective sections never give away for a wrong answer.
The ACCA TX syllabus at a glance
TX covers the main UK taxes an accountant meets, for both individuals and companies. Here is what the syllabus covers and where candidates tend to lose marks.
Notice how much of TX is computation rather than recall. It is a doing paper: the people who pass it are the ones who worked full income tax and corporation tax computations over and over until the layout was automatic.
The ACCA TX pass rate
ACCA's published pass rates put TX at 55% for the December 2025 sitting, so a little over half of candidates pass. That makes it one of the more forgiving Applied Skills papers, which fits its nature: the rules are fixed, the computations are repeatable, and the marks are there for anyone who has drilled them.
Where failures cluster is predictable. The first is the two big computations in Section C: if your income tax or corporation tax layout is shaky, you lose a large block of marks in one go. The second is breadth. The smaller taxes, VAT, inheritance tax and capital gains, are easy to under-revise, and Sections A and B test all of them. Cover the whole syllabus and drill the two main computations, and the pass rate is firmly on your side.
If you want the wider context on which papers punish under-preparation hardest, our breakdown of which ACCA exams are the hardest puts TX's numbers alongside the rest of the qualification.
How to pass ACCA TX first time
TX rewards two things above all: income tax and corporation tax computations you can lay out without thinking, and enough breadth that the smaller taxes never surprise you. Reading the rules is necessary, but it is working computations, again and again, that actually moves a TX score.
Drill the two main computations until they are automatic
A full income tax computation and a full corporation tax computation are close to certain in Section C, and together they are the biggest block of marks in the paper. Work the standard layout for each until the order is routine: the columns of income, the reliefs, the personal allowance and the tax bands for income tax; the adjustment of profit, capital allowances and losses for corporation tax. Once the layout is automatic, the scenario is just numbers slotting into steps you already know.
A quick self-test for TX: from a blank page, can you lay out a personal income tax computation, in the right order down to the tax payable, without a worked solution in front of you? If not, that is the highest-value thing to practise next.
Cover the smaller taxes, then use the rates sheet well
VAT, inheritance tax and capital gains are where breadth is won or lost. They are heavily tested in Sections A and B, and they are the easiest to skimp on. Give each one real practice rather than a read-through. And get familiar with the tax rates and allowances sheet the exam provides: knowing where each figure sits on it saves time you will want for Section C.
The fastest way to build all of this is to work real computations rather than read about them. If you would rather learn TX by doing, the whole free ACCA TX course teaches every tax inside real taxpayer scenarios, with instant marking as you go.
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A study plan for ACCA TX
TX is a broad paper, and because it is session-based you are working towards a fixed date rather than sitting when ready. Eight to ten weeks of steady study is a realistic shape for most people, weighted towards computation practice.
Weeks 1 to 2: the tax system and income tax. Learn how self assessment, deadlines and penalties work, then start building personal income tax computations from short questions.
Weeks 3 to 4: employment, self-employment and National Insurance. These feed the income tax computation, so work them as full computations rather than as isolated rules.
Weeks 5 to 6: corporation tax and capital allowances. Adjust accounting profit to taxable profit repeatedly until the layout is second nature.
Weeks 7 to 8: capital gains, inheritance tax and VAT. The smaller taxes, drilled as questions so they are exam-ready rather than merely familiar.
Weeks 9 to 10 if you have them: full timed mocks in the exam's three-section shape, so the pacing across the objective questions and the Section C computations is familiar on the day.
TX stands on its own in the qualification, but the discipline it builds, working precise computations under time pressure, carries straight into Advanced Taxation later. It sits among the six Applied Skills papers alongside Financial Reporting.
Frequently asked questions
Is the ACCA TX exam hard?
TX passed 55% in the December 2025 sitting, which makes it one of the more forgiving Applied Skills papers. The difficulty is breadth and the two big computations: the syllabus covers several taxes, and Section C almost always asks for a full income tax and a full corporation tax computation. Candidates who drill those layouts and revise the smaller taxes generally find it fair.
What is the pass mark for ACCA TX?
50%. The exam is marked out of 100, so you need 50 marks to pass, and every question is compulsory. Section C is constructed response, so partial method marks are available for clearly laid-out computations even when a final figure is wrong.
Is ACCA TX the same as F6?
Yes. TX was previously called F6, Taxation, and was renamed when ACCA retired the old paper codes. It sits at the Applied Skills level. This guide is the United Kingdom variant, TX-UK, which is the version most UK-based students sit.
How is the ACCA TX exam structured?
It is a three-hour computer-based exam of 100 marks in three sections. Section A is 15 objective test questions worth two marks each (30 marks). Section B is three ten-mark case scenarios, each five OT questions (30 marks). Section C is three constructed-response questions, one worth 10 marks and two worth 15 marks (40 marks), typically a full income tax computation and a full corporation tax computation.
Do I need to memorise tax rates for ACCA TX?
No. The exam gives you a tax rates and allowances sheet to work from, and the syllabus is based on a specified Finance Act, so the figures are fixed for a given exam year. What you are marked on is applying them correctly in a computation, not recalling them from memory.