A diploma will not suffice to convince the examination jury. The diploma has to be supplemented with practical experience. There are various ways to gain experience, by doing a ‘traineeship’ or ‘on your own with your own supervisor’.

By doing a traineeship

In the first option, you take the ITAA traineeship route, with a trainee supervisor.
First the prospective trainee has to take a test: the entrance examination. The contents of the entrance examination depend on the trainee’s prior education. The more the prior education is specifically focused on the profession, the less taxing the contents will be. Why? Because there are exemptions for some parts of the curriculum.
You can enrol for the ‘certified accountant‘ or ‘certified tax advisor’ entrance examination.
The exemptions you can get are listed in the brochure below.

After taking the exam, a period of intensive on-the-job training (the ‘traineeship’) can begin under the watchful eye of one or more trainee supervisors and the ITAA Traineeship Committee. Traineeships officially commence once the traineeship agreement has been signed.

Professional experience

The second option entails prospective members following their own course of action. This course is slightly longer, but it has the same objective: to prepare for the qualifying examination. It is not necessary to take an entrance examination for this.

Qualifying examination

The qualifying examination is the same for everyone. Regardless of which course of action is taken, the jury and the subject matter are the same, unless it concerns a very specific kind of professional experience. For instance, company auditors who want to become certified accountants only take exams on tax subjects, while certified tax advisors who want to become certified accountants only take exams on accounting subjects.