IAS 12 Deferred Tax Accounting Training Course

Course overview

Deferred tax errors commonly arise where accounting carrying amounts, tax bases, enacted tax rates and recovery assumptions are not reconciled consistently. Finance teams must determine whether temporary differences create deferred tax assets or liabilities, assess whether losses are recoverable, account for business combinations and prepare disclosures that can withstand audit scrutiny. This course gives participants a repeatable IAS 12 method for moving from transaction-level facts to supportable tax provision entries, reconciliations and financial statement disclosures.

Participants work through the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure requirements of IAS 12 Income Taxes. They learn to calculate tax bases; identify taxable and deductible temporary differences; apply the initial recognition exception; test deferred tax asset recoverability; account for unused tax losses and credits; measure balances using enacted or substantively enacted rates; and analyse special cases including revaluations, leases, share-based payments, business combinations and uncertain tax treatments. The course also addresses the IAS 12 amendments concerning Pillar Two model rules and their disclosure implications.

Instruction combines worked calculations, transaction-led case studies and structured Excel tax provision schedules. Each participant builds an IAS 12 deferred tax workbook containing a temporary-difference register, deferred tax roll-forward, tax-rate reconciliation, deferred tax asset evidence assessment and disclosure checklist. The final workshop requires participants to review a simulated year-end tax pack, identify accounting issues and present recommended adjustments and disclosures to an audit-review panel.

The programme is designed for finance and tax professionals with existing financial reporting responsibilities who need to prepare, review or challenge deferred tax balances under IFRS. It is equally valuable to managers approving tax provision work who need clearer audit trails, fewer late close adjustments and stronger control over judgemental tax accounting decisions.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Calculate tax bases and carrying amounts for assets, liabilities and equity items under IAS 12
• Identify taxable and deductible temporary differences using a transaction-by-transaction analysis method
• Prepare deferred tax asset and liability calculations using enacted or substantively enacted tax rates
• Assess deferred tax asset recoverability through forecast taxable-profit and reversal-pattern evidence
• Apply the IAS 12 initial recognition exception to leases, decommissioning obligations and similar transactions
• Construct a deferred tax roll-forward that reconciles opening balance, profit or loss, OCI, equity and acquisitions
• Draft IAS 12 tax-rate reconciliation and deferred tax disclosure notes for IFRS financial statements
• Review a year-end tax provision pack and document adjustment recommendations with supporting rationale

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Financial Reporting Managers — who own IFRS close deliverables and need defensible deferred tax balances
• Tax Managers — who translate tax positions, losses and forecasts into IAS 12 provision calculations
• Group Accountants — who consolidate entity-level tax packs and prepare group disclosures
• Financial Controllers — who review tax journals, balance-sheet reconciliations and audit evidence
• Senior Accountants — who prepare deferred tax schedules during monthly, quarterly or year-end close
• Internal Auditors — who test controls, assumptions and documentation supporting tax accounting judgements

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand double-entry bookkeeping, basic financial statements and the distinction between accounting profit and taxable profit. Familiarity with IFRS presentation, corporation tax computations and Excel formulas such as SUMIFS, IF and XLOOKUP is helpful because exercises use tax provision schedules and financial statement extracts. Participants should ideally have worked on a close process, tax return, audit file or management accounts pack. Prior experience preparing deferred tax calculations is not required, and no specialist tax software or advanced corporate tax planning knowledge is assumed.

Training methodology

The instructor demonstrates IAS 12 calculations from source transaction data, then participants complete progressively more complex Excel-based tax provision exercises. Short technical sessions are followed by table-group reviews of lease balances, tax losses, business combinations and rate changes, with participants required to justify recognition and measurement conclusions. Case materials include ledger extracts, tax computations, forecast profit evidence and draft disclosures. On the final day, each participant completes an application plan identifying the schedules, controls and review questions to implement in their own reporting cycle.

Course outline

Day 1: IAS 12 foundations and temporary differences

• Purpose, scope and interaction of IAS 12 with the IFRS financial statements
• Current tax versus deferred tax: recognition, presentation and journal-entry logic
• Accounting carrying amount and tax base determination for assets
• Tax base determination for liabilities, provisions and revenue received in advance
• Taxable and deductible temporary differences using the balance-sheet approach
• Permanent differences, tax credits and items outside the deferred tax calculation
• Recognition exceptions including goodwill and the initial recognition exception

Workshop: Participants complete a tax-base mapping workshop for a trial balance and produce a temporary-difference register with deferred tax classifications.

Day 2: Measurement, rates and deferred tax assets

• Measurement using enacted or substantively enacted tax rates
• Expected manner of recovery or settlement and rate selection
• Recognition criteria for deferred tax assets
• Probable taxable-profit assessment and evidence hierarchy
• Unused tax losses, unused tax credits and expiry-date tracking
• Reversal patterns and scheduling of deductible temporary differences
• Offsetting current and deferred tax balances under IAS 12

Workshop: Participants build a deferred tax asset recoverability model using loss carry-forwards, forecast taxable profits and scheduled reversals.

Day 3: Complex transactions and special applications

• Business combinations and deferred tax at acquisition under IFRS 3
• Fair-value adjustments, goodwill effects and acquisition-date tax bases
• Leases and the amended initial recognition exception for equal taxable and deductible differences
• Decommissioning obligations and asset retirement cost temporary differences
• Revalued property, OCI allocation and capital-gains tax consequences
• Share-based payments and excess tax deductions
• Uncertain income tax treatments and the interaction with IFRIC 23

Workshop: Participants prepare acquisition-date and post-acquisition deferred tax entries for a business combination case, including a revalued asset and lease portfolio.

Day 4: Tax provision process, presentation and disclosure

• Designing a deferred tax register and entity-to-group reporting pack
• Deferred tax roll-forward by profit or loss, OCI, equity and business combinations
• Tax expense bridge and effective tax rate reconciliation
• Allocation of current and deferred tax to profit or loss, OCI and equity
• Deferred tax asset and liability presentation on the statement of financial position
• IAS 12 disclosure requirements for temporary differences, losses, credits and investments
• Pillar Two model rules amendments, temporary exception and disclosure requirements

Workshop: Participants convert a completed tax provision schedule into a deferred tax roll-forward, effective tax rate reconciliation and draft IAS 12 note disclosures.

Day 5: Review, controls and year-end application

• Year-end deferred tax close timetable and information-request design
• Control points for tax rates, tax bases, forecasts and journal postings
• Audit-ready support for deferred tax asset recognition
• Analytical review of deferred tax movements and effective tax rate variances
• Common IAS 12 errors in consolidation packs and financial statement notes
• Review questions for management, tax advisers and external auditors
• Documentation of significant judgements, estimates and disclosure conclusions

Workshop: Participants perform a simulated audit review of a year-end tax pack and produce an issues log, adjustment journal list, evidence requests and implementation plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, IAS 12 Income Taxes, IFRS 3 Business Combinations, IFRIC 23 Uncertainty over Income Tax Treatments

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions