It’s that time of year again. Tax Season! Opening day has come and gone and you’ve got your team out on the field driving hard toward the goal line. You’ve been here before and you’re ready. Is your team as ready as you are?
The More You Know
They say that the more you know, the better prepared you’ll be to face future challenges. Nowhere is that more true than the tax industry. As any CPA will admit, tax forms can be complicated and tax laws change, well – continuously.
New staff accountants, data processing employees, para-professionals and bookkeepers will soon need to prepare complicated federal individual income tax returns. Surgent’s upcoming webinars on PITR (Preparing Individual Tax Returns) can make sure that even the most junior members of your staff know this year’s tax season playbook cold and are ready to help the team succeed.
A Comprehensive, IRS Approved PITR Course
Tax law is comprehensive and Surgent’s PITR course covers it all. Here are the major topics this IRS approved course addresses:
- Preparation of various Form 1040 individual tax returns and schedules; provided answers include “filled-in” forms
- Tax filing status – Rules for filing status and planning opportunities and pitfalls
- Dividends and interest – Ordinary, return of capital, and capital gain distribution dividends; tax-exempt interest, original issue discount, etc.
- Security transactions – From Form 1099-B to Form 8949 to Schedule D, plus mutual fund sales and related basis issues
- How the Affordable Care Act affects tax returns
- Self-employed person issues
- Sale and exchange of property – Understanding Form 4797 and depreciation recapture; capital gains
- Schedule C deductions
- A working understanding of passive losses – How to handle rental property and how the passive loss rules flow to the tax forms
- Itemized deductions – A thorough understanding of what’s deductible and what’s not
- Interest deductions – Limitations and timing problems
- Retirement contributions and education credits and deductions
- Tax computation – The Kiddie tax, AMT, regular tax, tax credits
- Individual problems illustrating form preparation for various items
- Impact of recent legislation and forms changes on the 1040
Learning Objectives
Surgent’s PITR course has very specific learning objectives to get new staff, and anyone who could use a refresher, familiarized with what they need to know. The course will allow your staff to:
- Learn complicated issues of filing status and dependency exemptions
- Learn about taxable/tax-exempt interest issues and dividend income
- Understand issues with reporting capital gains transactions
- Complete a comprehensive problem related to Schedule C of the Form 1040 and also one related to Form 4797
- Overview of passive activity rules
- Complete a comprehensive problem related to Schedule A
- Learn about IRA contributions, Self-employed retirement plans, child-care credits, and the adoption tax credit
- Complete a comprehensive problem related to computation of an individual’s federal income-tax liability
Experience Matters
As any CPA will tell you, experience matters when it comes to preparing taxes. For over 30 years, Surgent has provided thousands with the tax training they need to succeed. Let us do the same for you! Learn more about our PITR webinar today!