If a question asks about the DTL at the end of year 20XX, do i need to calculate the CHANGE in DTL for that specific year or the cumulative amount of the DTL???
THANKS VERY MUCH
sounds like theyre asking for cumulative
I ve jsut checked the answer and they ve put the change in the year rather than the whole cumulative amount… feels confusing if they dont specify what they actually want to look at…
Don’t freak out. In the worst case scenario, you’ll estimate both but they won’t give you both answers as possible, i.e. by the given answers you will be able to guess what they want. You can post the question here.
it depends on the question man, some of them would ask you to find out the impact on income tax expense so that would be:
income tax expense = tax payable + (change in DTL) - (change in DTA)
some might ask you for the DTL/DTA recognised in that period only
some might ask you for the cumulative, make sure to read the question, can get confusing.
But fret not, like Gebura said above, the answers would give you a hint as to what they’re looking for (at least, according to the CFAI mocks that’s what they do 
)
well in cfai mock pm question 45, they stated both answers and went with the C answer whilst A should be cumulative as below (the question says …the deferred tax liability at the end of 2013 is closest to
A 6720
B 420
C 2820
Aights, gotta read the question man, in this question, they ask for the DTL at the end of 2013. So it’s asking for cumulative. If it’s for the DTL recognised for that period, the question would be more specific.