Sometimes after I get home from work, make dinner, and spend time with the family, I’m just not in the mood to do tax homework. The beginning of the year is always a busy time for me at work. With all the…
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Three Customer Service Tips for Your Tax Office
As we discussed in a previous blog, keeping your current clients is crucial. Current clients represent a steady revenue stream and if retained, will provide you with referrals to help continue the growth of your business. Being a tax preparer is not…
Old Habits Die Hard
I’ve recently been talking about how I wanted to have my online progress match my offline progress but I’ve already slipped back into using the study method I used for the Comprehensive Course. I feel this is likely because I prefer to…
What Should You Do if You Will Owe Income Tax When You File?
If you expect to owe the IRS and/or the state tax department you should file your tax returns as soon as possible. However, you do not have to pay until the tax filing deadline, which for calendar year taxpayers for the…
Tax Preparers: Are Your Backing Up Your Data?
As a tax preparer, your files and client information are both very important. Lots of things could happen in the world of technology – hard drives could crash, you could download a virus, your system could be breached, etc. There needs…
Pens and Pencils
Don’t use a pen when doing your tax homework. DON’T USE A PEN. There is just never a good reason to risk the heartache involved in using a pen. Get home from work late only to realize that your mechanical pencil is…
IRS Publications: The Best Friend You Didn’t Know You Had
IRS publications and I have generally had a love/hate relationship. They are often much more accessible and helpful than the standard form instructions, but the accessibility gets considerably less appealing the longer you read them. The reading assignments for the advanced course…
Is Your Tax Office Stuck in the Wrong Decade
If you’re reading this blog while sitting at the office then stand up and take a look around (if not, do this the next time you’re there). What is the overall feel of the office? How well does your equipment work? How…
Organizing My Homework
After completing the Comprehensive Tax Course, it became readily apparent that I needed a method for organizing my completed assignments. When I sat down to do some tax homework the other day, I noticed a growing stack of forms and schedules on…
There’s Always More to Learn
As I work through the Advanced tax course it has been interesting to see how much additional information there is beneath the surface. While the Comprehensive tax course spent a lot of time getting me comfortable with basic tax return preparation (by…
Will Tax Preparers Be Regulated in the Future?
The RTRP debate is not a new topic within the tax industry. It started on January 1, 2011 with the IRS’s enactment of new IRS Preparer Regulations requiring registration, testing and annual continuing education for previously unregulated tax preparers who prepare tax…
BREAKING: Court Rules in favor of IRS
BREAKING: A federal court ruled that the IRS does in fact have the authority to provide tax credits to individuals purchasing health insurance on the health insurance exchange. Get the full story on Accounting Today here. Related Articles: The Affordable Care…