uwloo

AFM 462Specialized Topics in Taxation

Units
0.50
Faculty
Arts
Subject
Accounting and Financial Management

When it runs

  1. F24
  2. W25
  3. S25
  4. F25
  5. W26
  6. S26
  7. F26
  8. W27
  9. S27

Ran in 3 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

This course introduces specialized topics in taxation with emphasis on basic planning for private companies.

Prerequisites

Antirequisites

None listed.

Leads to

No course lists it as a requisite.

Fall 2026 sections

Enrolment from UW Open Data, which can trail Quest by up to two days. Instructors and rooms: Schedule of Classes.
SectionClassEnrolledMeets
LEC 001342263 / 65M 13:00–14:50
Th 14:30–15:50
LEC 002342326 / 65M 15:00–16:50
Th 16:00–17:20
LEC 003342465 / 65T 10:30–12:20
Th 10:00–11:20
LEC 004342556 / 65T 12:30–14:20
Th 11:30–12:50
LEC 005348665 / 65T 14:30–16:20
Th 14:30–15:50
TUT 1018357275 / 325F 10:00–11:20
TST 2013801275 / 325Oct 9 12:00–14:20
Nov 13 12:00–14:20

Reviewed on UW Flow

38% liked it6% easy89% useful

From 13 ratings and 4 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

  • This course is a big fat waste of time, effort, energy, blood, sweat, and tears. It's too much for a student who doesn't plan on pursuing a tax-based career, and a lot of what you learn will be heavily automated anyways. So there really is no point in it. It should have been a Master's elective. Whoever designed this course is ridiculous - basically the profs spend 95% of lecture time taking up problems that could have easily been self-taught if you had access to the solutions. But wait! The profs don't post the solutions because "they'll get in trouble" - which is even more ironic considering that one of the profs WROTE the book! Another glaring flaw is the participation weighting.…

    Nov 2018 · didn’t like it · 9 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • So people say AFM491 is the hardest course in AFM, this is not true. AFM462 is. 491 has hard concepts and complex problems, but on exams they give you simple ones. 462 is different, the concepts are hard, and they are all in cases. You can't memorize your way through like other courses, you'd have to actually understand. If you plan to do tax in the future, this is a course that will actually expand your knowledge, depth and apply to real world situations (cases). For those of us who don't want to do tax as a career...it's honestly a bit too much.

    Dec 2017 · didn’t like it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • I had Julie, she's a sweetheart. The APSs are great practice for the midterm/finals if you actually do them. We got to do videos which were super ez, but wasn't great practice hehe. Practice the question in the midterm format, ie assess the sitch/analyze. It's a lot of writing, which is super, but supposedly preps for MAcc. Content is heavy. But the midterms weren't as bad as 491, cuz it's marked on a competency scale. And there's no final :)

    Dec 2025 · liked it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Tax 3 was pretty challenging, it's very easy to fall behind because it felt like 2 course loads of work was assigned every week. You just have to work hard and ride the curve.

    Dec 2018 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

33 posts and comments in 22 threads mention AFM 462, September 2016 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Fall 2024

Spring 2024

afm 4B average 3 points, 5 comments

u/Historical-Title-503: “Hi, does anyone know the average for the challenging courses like afm 491 and afm462? even afm482 for 4B term? i am genuinely concerned about my last term to get it into the Macc program lol. or any tips for these three coureses?”

u/TeemoG0d69: “… AFM 462 is a mid 70s average after the curve (low 70s before the curve). The reason why it often gets curved is because all the tax topics covered are complex (e.g. wind-ups, amalgamations, trusts, death of taxpayer, etc) and they like to test you in multiple areas. …”

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Fall 2023

AFM 462 Under Review 2 points, 32 comments

u/Fit-Introduction6546: “Checked my Quest grade tdy and received a 'UR' for my AFM 462. It will affect my MAcc admission if I don't pass and have no clue about why I was issued for policy 71. Any suggestions?”

u/Zealousideal_Fly_940: “I'm surprised you received a UR for AFM 462, given that I'd assume the final exam was administered in person. Also, they would have informed you earlier if any academic integrity concerns were raised for the group assignments. …”

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Seeking Recommendations for MAcc Course Selection 1 point, 4 comments

“I've applied for the MAcc program and I'm looking for some advice on course selection. Specifically, I'd like to know which two CPA-Elective Courses out of ACC 607, ACC 650, ACC 685, and ACC 690 are …”

u/Key-Tiger-712: “Bit of a hard question to answer without knowing what you want to do after grad. I'm going into tax so I chose to take the tax elective. …”

u/EnergyBubblePop: “… How does it compare to AFM 462 and 362, and are there any new concepts introduced in the MAcc Tax course, or is it a deeper dive into familiar concepts with some integration? …”

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Spring 2022

AFM 4B 10 points, 3 comments

u/Hero_villain: “… I'm going into my final AFM term and will be taking AFM 462 and AFM 482 in person, however I have been very unsuccessful in finding a place near campus to rent. Due to this, I just want to know about the viability of commuting 2 hours each way for these courses. …”

u/Zealousideal_Fly_940: “… With that said, I believe AFM 462 has in-class participation, weekly assignments and a midterm/final exam (like AFM 362/363). I think AFM 482 is mainly assignments, a midterm and final. I don't think there is class participation for AFM 482. …”

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FARM vs MATH/CPA 2 points, 7 comments

“Hey everyone, &x200B; I have been fortunate enough to be accepted into both FARM and Math/CPA and have been very grateful for it:) Nevertheless, I am VERY struggling to choose between these two and …”

u/AFMISFULLOFNOOBS: “… 391 Intermediate Financial Accounting 2 AFM 433 Business Strategy AFM 451 Audit Strategy AFM 462 Special Topics in Taxation AFM 482 Performance Measurement and Org. Control AFM 491 Advanced Financial Accounting ECON 100 Principles of Econ. …”

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Winter 2022

MAcc Courses 10 points, 13 comments

“Hey I'm starting the MAcc program and I'm finalizing the courses that I'm taking, but cannot decide on my 4th course. …”

u/sdfjh32r: “If you're choosing courses in the hopes of it being easy, don't stress out about it given that you essentially can't fail out of the program. …”

u/themossywangs: “How would you compare the difficulty of the content to AFM 462?”

u/sdfjh32r: “… With respect to 607, how well did you do in AFM 462? Are you keeping up and putting some effort into the weekly cases in the course? If so, I would say that you're most likely fine. …”

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Spring 2021

Spooked about CFE and MAcc 10 points, 8 comments

“So I'm an AFM student and I'm about to wrap up my last co-op before my 4B. I have a few friends who are taking the CFE this year (some through the MAcc and some through the capstone route) and …”

u/hisshissss: “Interested to know as well. Also curious as to whether there’s content from particular undergrad courses that we’ll need for the CFE, or will we be taught everything we need to know during MAcc?”

u/leea0526: “You'll be needing all the knowledge from the financial accounting courses for MAcc, along with most of the tax (especially AFM 462, if you're doing the MAcc tax course) - that's why they make you do the end-of-course summary document. …”

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How is AFM 4B? 10 points, 3 comments

u/obscurekoala: “… the only course that took some more time was AFM 462 (ie: if you want to actually learn/retain the concepts, which is recommended if you plan on taking ACC 607 in MAcc; you will have to know majority of these concepts). …”

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Fall 2020

Retake AFM 291 2 points, 11 comments

“Hi, I'm a fourth year Math/CPA student. Unfortunately, my grade for AFM 291 was 58% after second try. As I'm entering my 4B term, I want to know what options I have in order to get a grade above 60% …”

u/pwcunt: “I don't think 291 is a basket course for the MAcc application, is it possible for you to apply UW Macc? …”

u/RMfollower: “… I still need to take AFM 341, 351, 401, 462, 479, 482, 491, and I will take 401, 462, 479, 482 and 491 this term. So I think my cumulative GPA might be at least 75% after this term. Why the MAccFin is not that good? …”

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Spring 2020

Waterloo AFM GPA 0 points, 26 comments

“Hi everyone, as much as I’ve seen countless people bash afm kids, I want to know the difficulty of the program and how hard it can be to maintain a high gpa. …”

u/StoreyedArrow17: “I have friends that are in law school / called to the bar and went to Waterloo for their undergrad (one of the SAF programs) and MAcc. …”

u/StoreyedArrow17: “… So yes, people will find it difficult to cram AFM 462 (Taxation 3), if they retained no knowledge from AFM 362 (Taxation 1) and AFM 363 (Taxation 2) because they crammed their way through those courses as well... …”

u/StoreyedArrow17: “Also wanted to note (again) since I just saw it in another response you got: Which is directly related to my previous point about the work ethic (academically) of upper-year SAF students. …”

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Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026

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