Tax Essentials & S Corporation deep dive

Build comprehensive skills in individual taxation

Establish a strong set of core skills necessary for all areas of individual client service, including how to use concepts during tax planning to reduce taxes for individual clients.

Learn about basic and intermediate individual client services, including these areas of focus:

• Income
• Deductions
• Credits
• Passive losses
• AMT
• Estimated payments

Learn to maximize tax benefits in areas such as:

• Sales of capital gain assets
• Stock options
• IRA conversions
• Divorces
• Self-employment
• College planning

Courses included in this series:

• Individual Tax Fundamentals
• Intermediate Individual Taxation
• Individual Tax Planning

Tax Staff Essentials is a comprehensive, integrated curriculum that provides tax training for four different experience levels and is available in four different formats: Online, On-site, Tax Schools, and Webcasts.

Who Will Benefit

• Tax professionals seeking in-depth training on individual income taxes

Key Topics

• Medicare surtax on net investment income
• Dividends, interest, and planning opportunities
• Compensation issues, deferred plans, and fringe benefits
• Distributions from IRAs and other qualified plans
• Gross income exclusions
• Passive losses
• Travel and entertainment
• Depreciation and amortization
• Gain and loss recognition and basis rules
• Property transactions — capital vs. ordinary income
• Itemized deductions
• Tax computations and tax credits
• Maximizing tax benefits for sales of capital gain assets and real property
• Planning for employer stock options, employer stock held in retirement accounts, and restricted stock
• Roth IRA conversions, withdrawals, retirement planning, and estate planning
• Maximizing tax benefits for personal residence transactions
• Tax planning opportunities with vacation homes, timeshares, and co-ownership arrangements
• Tax planning for marital splits and married same-sex couples
• Self-employed planning to reduce Social Security and Medicare taxes
• Self-employed health benefits strategies
• Tax-smart college financing for middle-class clients and high-income clients and procrastinators

Learning Outcomes

• Identify how to apply the latest changes when preparing federal individual income tax returns.
• Recognize how to advise individual clients on new developments and tax-saving ideas.
• Determine when selling capital assets, business assets, and real estate are to a client’s advantage.
• Recognize like-kind exchange rules under Section 1031.
• Identify ways to advise clients on how to minimize taxes on employer stock options and employer stock held in qualified retirement plan accounts.
• Differentiate between incentive stock options (ISOs) and nonqualified stock options (NQSOs).
• Determine ways to help clients obtain maximum tax savings from vacation home and timeshare properties.
• Differentiate between the rules for “regular” vacation homes, timeshares, and co-ownership deals.
• Determine appropriate federal income tax advice for clients who are separated, divorcing, or divorced.
• Recall ways to help middle-class clients identify college financing tax breaks.
• Identify tax-saving college financing maneuvers for higher-income clients who are ineligible for the well-known education tax breaks.
• Identify strategies of husband-wife businesses that will reduce Social Security and Medicare taxes.
• Identify strategies for how parents can employ their children through their closely held business.

Develop skills in S corporation taxation

Establish a strong set of core skills necessary for all areas of S corporation client services. Learn basic and advanced S corporation concepts to work through how to use those concepts during tax planning to reduce taxes for small business clients.

Determine when S corporation status may be advantageous for a business and what requirements must be met, then focus on the areas of income, deductions, distributions, basis, and other issues such as passive losses, involuntary terminations, and fringe benefits.

Courses Included:

• S Corporation Fundamentals
• Advanced Tax Planning S Corporations
• Tax Planning for Small Businesses

Tax Staff Essentials is a comprehensive, integrated curriculum that provides tax training for four different experience levels and is available in four different formats: Online, On-site, Tax Schools, and Webcasts.

Who Will Benefit

• Tax professionals seeking in-depth training on S corporation income taxes

Key Topics

• Why elect Subchapter S
• S corporation qualifications
• S corporation election
• Termination of S corporation status
• Tax on S corporation built-in gains
• S corporation pass-through activity to shareholders
• Shareholder basis and losses
• Distributions
• S corporation passive activity rules, fringe benefits, and other considerations
• Basis in S corporation stock
• Compensation planning
• Qualified subchapter S subsidiaries
• Liquidations, reorganizations, and redemptions
• Estate planning and the use of trusts

Learning Outcomes

• Determine when an S corporation may be advantageous for a business.
• Identify the potential disadvantages to operating as an S corporation.
• Identify the requirements that must be met to qualify as an S corporation.
• Recognize individuals and entities that are eligible to own S corporation stock.
• Determine how to make a proper S corporation election and when it becomes effective.
• Identify who must consent to the election.
• Identify causes of voluntary and involuntary termination.
• Identify revocation of the election.
• Recall methods of allocating income for the short years caused by a termination.
• Determine whether an S corporation is subject to tax.
• Recognize how to calculate the tax on built-in gains.
• Determine income or loss that passes through to the shareholder.
• Identify the items of income, gain, loss, and deduction that adjust basis of shares and indebtedness and the order of application of the items.
• Determine how losses can be offset by debt basis after stock basis has been reduced to zero.
• Identify the concept of distributions.
• Determine how accumulated earnings and profits (AE&P), an accumulated adjustments account (AAA), another adjustments account (OAA), and the shareholder’s basis are affected by distributions.
• Determine permitted fiscal years, elections, and user fees.
• Identify situations in which a fiscal year is allowable.
• Recognize when a Section 444 election and resulting required payments should be made.
• Recognize active and passive income and determine material participation.
• Determine whether and to what extent passive losses can be deducted against other income.
• Identify which fringe benefits are deductible by the shareholders.