江西省考生注意：在ACCA考试中提前交卷后果怎么样？不堪设想……

正确答案：
(b) (i) Income tax:
Direct investment in residential or commercial property
The income will be taxed under Schedule A for both residential and commercial property investment. Expenses can be
offset against income under the normal trading rules. These will include interest charges incurred in borrowing funds to
acquire the properties. Schedule A losses are restricted to use against future Schedule A profits, with the earliest profits
being relieved first.
When acquiring commercial properties, it may be possible to claim capital allowances on the fixtures and plant held in
the building. In addition, industrial buildings allowances (IBA) may also be available if the property qualifies as an
industrial building.
Capital allowances are not normally available for fixtures and fittings included in a residential property. Instead, a wear
and tear allowance can be claimed if the property is furnished. This is equal to 10% of the rental income after any
tenants cost (for example, council tax) paid by the landlord.
Income tax is levied at the normal tax rates (10/22/40%) as appropriate.
Collective investment (shares in a property investment company/unit trust)
With collective investments, the investor either buys shares (in an investment company) or units (in an equity unit trust).
The income tax treatment of both is the same in that the investor receives dividends. These are taxed at 10% and 32·5%
respectively (for basic and higher rate taxpayers).
Investors are not able to claim income tax relief on either interest costs (of borrowing) or any other expenses.
Capital gains tax (CGT):
The normal rules apply for CGT purposes in all situations. Property investments do not normally qualify for business
rates of taper relief unless they are furnished holiday lets or in certain circumstances, commercial property. Investments
in unit trusts or property investment companies will never qualify for business taper rates.
It is possible to use an individual savings account (ISA) to make collective investments. If this is done, income and
capital gains will be exempt from tax.
Other taxes:
New commercial property is subject to value added tax (VAT) at the standard rate, but new residential property is subject
to VAT at the zero rate. If a commercial building is acquired second hand as an investment, VAT may be payable if a
previous owner has opted to tax the property. If this is the case, VAT at the standard rate will be payable on the purchase
price, and rental charges to tenants will also be subject to VAT, again at the standard rate.
The acquisition of shares is not subject ot VAT.
Stamp duty land tax (SDLT) will be payable broadly on the direct acquisition of any property. The rates vary from 0 to
4% depending on the value of the land and building and its nature (whether residential or non-residential). Stamp duty
is payable at a rate of 0·5% on the acquisition of shares.
Investment risks/benefits
Direct investment
Investing directly in property represents a long term investment, and unless this is the case, investment risks are high.
Substantial initial costs (such as SDLT, VAT and transactions costs) are incurred, and ongoing running costs (such as
letting agents’ fees and vacant periods) can be significant. The investments are illiquid, particularly commercial
properties which can take months to sell.
All types of properties are dependent on a cyclical market, and the values of property investments can vary significantly
as a result. However, residential property has (on a long term basis) proven to be a good hedge against inflation.
Collective investments
The nature of collective investments is that the investor’s risk is reduced by the investment being spread over a large
portfolio as opposed to one or a few properties. In addition, investors can take advantage of the higher levels of liquidity
afforded by such vehicles.

正确答案：
(c) There are many reasons that could be discussed in support of the view that net present value (NPV) is superior to other
investment appraisal methods.
NPV considers cash flows
This is the reason why NPV is preferred to return on capital employed (ROCE), since ROCE compares average annual
accounting profit with initial or average capital invested. Financial management always prefers cash flows to accounting profit,
since profit is seen as being open to manipulation. Furthermore, only cash flows are capable of adding to the wealth of
shareholders in the form. of increased dividends. Both internal rate of return (IRR) and Payback also consider cash flows.
NPV considers the whole of an investment project
In this respect NPV is superior to Payback, which measures the time it takes for an investment project to repay the initial
capital invested. Payback therefore considers cash flows within the payback period and ignores cash flows outside of the
payback period. If Payback is used as an investment appraisal method, projects yielding high returns outside of the payback
period will be wrongly rejected. In practice, however, it is unlikely that Payback will be used alone as an investment appraisal
method.
NPV considers the time value of money
NPV and IRR are both discounted cash flow (DCF) models which consider the time value of money, whereas ROCE and
Payback do not. Although Discounted Payback can be used to appraise investment projects, this method still suffers from the
criticism that it ignores cash flows outside of the payback period. Considering the time value of money is essential, since
otherwise cash flows occurring at different times cannot be distinguished from each other in terms of value from the
perspective of the present time.
NPV is an absolute measure of return
NPV is seen as being superior to investment appraisal methods that offer a relative measure of return, such as IRR and ROCE,
and which therefore fail to reflect the amount of the initial investment or the absolute increase in corporate value. Defenders
of IRR and ROCE respond that these methods offer a measure of return that is understandable by managers and which can
be intuitively compared with economic variables such as interest rates and inflation rates.
NPV links directly to the objective of maximising shareholders’ wealth
The NPV of an investment project represents the change in total market value that will occur if the investment project is
accepted. The increase in wealth of each shareholder can therefore be measured by the increase in the value of their
shareholding as a percentage of the overall issued share capital of the company. Other investment appraisal methods do not
have this direct link with the primary financial management objective of the company.
NPV always offers the correct investment advice
With respect to mutually exclusive projects, NPV always indicates which project should be selected in order to achieve the
maximum increase on corporate value. This is not true of IRR, which offers incorrect advice at discount rates which are less
than the internal rate of return of the incremental cash flows. This problem can be overcome by using the incremental yield
approach.
NPV can accommodate changes in the discount rate
While NPV can easily accommodate changes in the discount rate, IRR simply ignores them, since the calculated internal rate
of return is independent of the cost of capital in all time periods.
NPV has a sensible re-investment assumption
NPV assumes that intermediate cash flows are re-invested at the company’s cost of capital, which is a reasonable assumption
as the company’s cost of capital represents the average opportunity cost of the company’s providers of finance, i.e. it
represents a rate of return which exists in the real world. By contrast, IRR assumes that intermediate cash flows are reinvested
at the internal rate of return, which is not an investment rate available in practice,
NPV can accommodate non-conventional cash flows
Non-conventional cash flows exist when negative cash flows arise during the life of the project. For each change in sign there
is potentially one additional internal rate of return. With non-conventional cash flows, therefore, IRR can suffer from the
technical problem of giving multiple internal rates of return.

正确答案：
(ii) For the year ended 31 July 2007, there will be two associated companies in the group. Bold plc will count as an
associated company as it is not dormant throughout the period in question. As a result, the corporation tax limits will be
divided by two (i.e. the number of associates) giving an upper limit of ￡750,000 (￡1·5 million/2). As Linden Limited
is anticipated to make profits of ￡1·4 million in the year to 31 July 2007 it will pay corporation tax at the rate of 30%.
Bold plc can earn trading profits up to ￡150,000 (￡300,000/2) and pay tax at the rate of 19%. It will therefore
minimise the group’s corporation tax liability if maximum use is made of this small companies rate band, as it will save
￡16,500 (150,000 x (30% – 19%)) of corporation tax for the year to 31 July 2007. Bold plc should therefore make
a management charge of sufficient size to give it profits for that year equal to ￡150,000.
While the transfer pricing legislation no longer applies to small and medium sized enterprises, Bold plc should
nevertheless ensure that there is evidence to support the actual charge made in terms of the services provided.