All ICAEW members subject to the CPD Regulations must identify into which CPD category they belong, based on the type of work they do. 

There are three CPD categories for members working in practice, setting out a minimum number of hours of CPD that must be undertaken each year, a proportion of which must be verifiable.

• Category 1: 40 hours, 30 hours of which must be verifiable.
• Category 2: 30 hours, 20 hours of which must be verifiable.
• Category 3: 20 hours, 10 hours of which must be verifiable.

CPD requirements for those in tax?

Tax work is divided into the three practice categories to reflect the risk profile and the complexity of the work:

Category 1

Those providing direct or indirect tax services to large companies, listed or international companies or groups, or high-net-worth individuals. For CPD purposes:

• a large company is one which does not meet the small or medium-sized company criteria in the Companies Act 2006; and 
• a high-net-worth individual is one with net worth greater than £20m.

Category 2

Those providing tax services that do not fall into category 1 or category 3.

Category 3

Those only providing the following tax services:

• simple income tax self-assessment returns for individuals and partnerships who are UK resident, UK domiciled, and not high-net worth-individuals; and/or
• VAT compliance (not advice) for entities that are not large companies, listed or international companies or groups; and/or
• payroll administration.

If you do more than these services listed in category 3, but do not deal with the types of clients detailed in category 1, then you are within CPD practice category 2.

Members who also undertake work in other areas of finance and accountancy should look at the guidance published on the CPD categories to see how their CPD categorisation might be affected.

If your work covers more than one category, then your CPD requirement will be based on the category with the highest number of hours.

The CPD self-assessment tool has a ‘general practice’ option which helps you to assess whether any of the services you provide would put you into CPD practice category 1 or 2.

Free ICAEW resources on tax

ICAEW’s Tax Faculty can keep you up to date with: 

• tax news,
• the Tax Track podcast,
• practical articles in TAXline,
• TAXguides,
• webinars, and
• events.

ICAEW members have unrestricted access to these materials which can provide verifiable CPD and can join the Tax Faculty for no additional cost.

Tax Faculty members receive the weekly TAXwire news bulletin and the TAXline bulletin containing new features and articles on a monthly basis, directly to their inbox.

Alongside the faculty’s resources, members have access to other faculty and community content which focus on tax from different industries' perspective, from agriculture to tourism.

Meanwhile, eligible ICAEW member firms have free access to Bloomsbury Professional’s comprehensive online library, comprising more than 80 titles from some of the country’s leading tax and accounting experts.

The service provides integrated and up-to-date legislation, HMRC manuals, case summaries and current awareness to support firms in advising clients.