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The Generally Accepted Governmental Auditing Standards, also known as the Yellow Book, provides a comprehensive framework for conducting governmental audits with a focus on high quality, integrity, competence, independence, and objectivity. The Yellow Book is used by auditors of government organizations, entities that receive government awards, and any other audit organization performing Yellow Book audits. The Yellow Book outlines all requirements for governmental audit reports, professional qualifications for auditors, and audit organization quality control. | |
In this course, industry expert Mary Schaeffer take a look some of the more common problems experienced by companies related to the invoice process and offers solutions on how best-practice companies can minimize these problems and, in some cases, eliminate them. | |
Travel expenses are, for many organizations, their second largest controllable expense. This is just one of the reasons why it is imperative that every organization have a strong policy that governs these expenditures. That being said, the number of problems that continue to plague many companies when it comes to expense reimbursements defies logic. There has to be a better way.
In this course, industry expert Mary Schaeffer take a look some of the more common problems experienced by companies related to employees, expense reimbursement requests. She not only identifies the issues, but offers solution on how best-practice companies minimize these problems and, in some cases, eliminate them. | |
This course addresses the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act most likely to be of interest to tax preparers. In so doing, it examines the tax credits available for energy-efficient home improvements, for the purchase of new and used electric vehicles, for electric car charging and natural gas-powered car fueling devices, and for clean energy generation. In addition, it discusses the expanded health insurance premium tax credits and the extension of the limitation of noncorporate taxpayer excess business losses. | |
Although, as reported in the National Taxpayer Advocate blog, the IRS suspended the automatic mailing of collection notices routinely sent when a taxpayer owes federal tax on February 5, 2022, to give the IRS an opportunity to clear its processing backlogs, such automatic mailings are likely to recur and, meanwhile, other IRS delinquent collection activities continue unabated. Statistics for fiscal year 2021, show the IRS ending inventory with a balance of assessed tax, penalties, and interest exceeding $133.4 trillion, enforcement activity involving more than 500,000 taxpayers, and 3.8 million taxpayers paying tax liabilities under installment agreements.
With IRS collection clearly continuing and likely to ramp up in the future, chances that any tax professional will need to be conversant with their collection activities and the methods available to challenge them is increasing. It is to that end this course addressing IRS collections is addressed. | |
According to a survey done by the Pew Research Center whose results were published in November 2021, 16% of Americans indicated they personally have invested in, traded, or otherwise used virtual currency additionally, the number of people investing in or engaging in transactions involving virtual currency continues to increase. These statistics strongly suggest that tax preparers must be aware of the nature of virtual currency and its tax treatment. It's to provide that awareness that Tax Treatment of Virtual Currency was written. | |
Every business has both current and long-term liabilities that must be tracked and recorded. Accounting for Current and Long-Term Liabilities is a course that discusses important characteristics of liabilities and how liabilities are classified and reported in financial statements. This course will identify how to distinguish between current and long-term liabilities. This course will identify […] | |
Internal controls are required to ensure the integrity of financial and accounting information, promote accountability, and prevent fraud. This course will describe the importance of internal controls and the purpose of audit committee. This course will review the goals for internal controls and discuss the internal control framework used by most companies based in the United States. This course will describe the interrelated components for an effective internal control system. This course will discuss the importance of identifying audit risk. Finally, this course will discuss the difference between control deficiency, significant deficiency, and material weakness. | |
This course describes the way auditors gather information to assess fraud risk in every audit and develop appropriate responses to identified fraud risks, after considering the effectiveness of management's antifraud programs and controls. This course focuses on the typical fraud techniques and highlights areas that are subject to greater risk of fraud. Once the auditor suspects fraud, it is their responsibility to gather additional evidence, often through inquiry. This course also describes the auditors responsible for making certain communications about suspected or detected fraud to senior management and the audit committee. | |
Every audit requires planning. Audit planning requires evaluating materiality and risk. Both materiality and risk evaluation require judgement from the auditor because both concepts directly impact the auditor's planned audit evidence. Materiality is important because the auditor provides assurance to financial statement users that the financial statements are free of material misstatements. This requires the auditor to develop a preliminary judgment about materiality when planning the audit, which will provide the basis for that important assurance. In addition, the auditor must consider risk to effectively address the most appropriate risks for each engagement. The auditor's understanding of the entity and its environment, including its internal control, provide a basis for the auditor's assessment of the risk of material misstatement. Using the audit risk model and tolerable misstatement for each account, the auditor determines the audit evidence needed to achieve an acceptable level of audit risk for the engagement. | |
This course will describe when the Yellow Book standards must be applied. This course will identify the types of auditors and audit organizations that may employ GAGAS to conduct their work. This course will identify the categories of requirements that GAGAS uses to describe the degree of responsibility imposed on auditors and audit organizations. | |
The American Rescue Plan of 2021 is the latest COVID-19 relief package that provides $1.9 trillion in mandatory funding, program changes and tax policies aimed at mitigating the continuing effects of the pandemic. The bill was crafted to provide urgent and targeted funding to defeat the virus and provide workers and families the resources they need to survive the pandemic while the vaccine is distributed to every American. The American Rescue Plan of 2021 was passed by the House Feb. 27, 2021, and the Senate March 6, 2021. It was signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021. The American Rescue Plan of 2021 will cost of $1.9 trillion making it one of the largest economic rescue plans in U.S. history. The American Rescue Plan of 2021 is the latest legislation to facilitate recovering from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This legislation following the CARES Act of 2020 and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. This Act extends some aspects of those bills while also creating new recovery provisions. It mixes efforts to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic with strategies to fight the virus itself. | |
When filing a federal income tax return, it is very important to know who is actually required to file a return and the criteria surrounding the filing of a federal income tax return. Due to numerous updates to the IRC and the inclusion of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, filing requirements for individual taxpayers have been drastically altered. This course will focus on the updated filing requirements surrounding individual taxpayers across all filing types. Additionally, this course will go into detail regarding the updated basic standard deduction, additional standard deduction, personal deduction, and penalty amounts. Finally, this course will go over the filing of a deceased taxpayers federal income tax return and the treatment of decedent income. | |
Effective policies and procedures in the Accounts Payable function is critical for any organization wishing to reduce or eliminate duplicate payments, prevent and detect fraud, be cost effective and compliant with all regulatory issues affecting the payment function. The first step in that battle is having a current, detailed policy and procedures manual. This course presents information the professional can use to create an effective manual, that not only documents the organizations policies and procedures, can be used as a reference and training guide. Industry expert Mary Schaeffer shows auditors, controllers, and managers how to create such a manual when none exists. She also includes an outline for a sample policy as well as a checklist they can use to determine if their current policy is best practice or something less. | |
Companies must collect outstanding accounts from customers as part of their business activities. A clear understanding of the key controls in a process can benefit internal auditors, business managers, and others who want to understand, improve, or audit the process. The course allows participants to become familiar with or brush up on, internal control definitions and concepts. The course also covers the collection process for outstanding accounts in detail. | |
This course examines and explains the basics of corporate taxation. The focus is on regular or C corporations, their formation, and operation under tax law. The advantages and disadvantages of corporations are examined; incorporation and capitalization issues are discussed; and, basic tax rates and specialty taxes are reviewed. The tax treatment of operational expenses and deductions is outlined, and accounting periods and methods are explored. Finally, the dangers of multiple corporations and corporate distributions are highlighted. As a result of studying the assigned materials, you should be able to meet the objectives listed below.ASSIGNMENTAt the start of the materials, participants should identify the following topics for study:* Corporation defined* PSC corporations* Incorporation* Small business stock exclusion* Start-up & organizational expenses* Alternative minimum tax* Capital gains & losses* Accumulated earnings* Accounting periods & methods* InventoriesLearning ObjectivesAfter reading the materials, participants will be able to:1. Recognize regular corporation elements, specify their advantages and disadvantages specifying tax treatment, and determine how to distinguish them from PSC corporations.2. Identify 351 requirements for tax-free incorporation, recognize the impact of the transfer of money, property, or both by prospective shareholders, and determine the availability of 1244 for stock losses and 195 for amortization of start-up expenditures.3. Recognize the repeal of the corporate alternative minimum, specify the corporate tax consequences of capital gains and losses, and recognize ways to avert the accumulated earnings trap identifying the potential use of the accumulated earnings credit.4. Determine accounting periods and methods available to corporations and specify the tax consequences of liquidating property distributions. | |
This mini-course brings the practitioner information on tax issues affecting interest and debt. The various types of interest and their required allocation are explored and reviewed. For the economically troubled client, special attention is devoted to debt cancellation, repossession, discounts, and foreclosure. The program also discusses installment sales, taxable interest, and bad debts. As a result of studying the assigned materials, you should be able to meet the objectives listed below.ASSIGNMENTAt the start of the materials, participants should identify the following topics for study:* Deductible interest & debt* Nondeductible interest* Below-market interest rate loans* Unstated or imputed interest on sales* Original issue discount (OID)* Allocation of deductible interest* Taxable interest * Installment sales* Debt cancellation & foreclosure* Bad debtsLearning ObjectivesAfter reading the materials, participants will be able to:1. Determine what constitutes interest specifying its key components, and identify whether the various types of interest are tax deductible or nondeductible.2. Recognize how to deduct interest that is paid or accrued during the tax year applying different methods of accounting, specify the applicable federal rate, recognize the effects of unstated interest on transactions, and cite the imputed interest rules in the context of debt instruments.3. Identify the interest allocation rules and the allocation period for a loan, recognize the difference between an allocation of loan proceeds that are deposited in an account and the allocation of loan proceeds received in cash, and cite loan repayments in the order they are deemed repaid.4. Determine when certain distributions commonly referred to as "dividends" are actually interest and the tax treatment of interest that is earned on such items as income on frozen deposits and U.S. Savings Bonds.5. Recognize an installment sale transaction, determine what constitutes the installment method, specify the parts of each payment on an installment sale, and cite the related party sales rules of 453.6. Identify exceptions to the general income inclusion rule and their effect on a taxpayer, and determine the different effects of nonrecourse indebtedness from the effects of recourse indebtedness on foreclosure.7. Specify bad debt categories specifying the impact of nonbusiness bad debt recovery, identify when a business deducts its bad debts from gross income, and recognize which accounting method to apply to business bad debts. | |
Participants will learn how to apply, implement, and evaluate the strategic tax aspects of marital dissolutions and living together arrangements. Current perspectives on property transfers and asset divisions are examined with an emphasis on planning considerations. This mini-course reviews property settlements and other transfers incident to divorce. Basis allocation, third party transfers, and purchases between spouses are also examined. Common pitfalls for the unwary such as transfers in trust, installment notes, and purchases between spouses are analyzed. Application of these tax principles is exampled in selected asset divisions of the residence, business interests, insurance, and pension benefits. As a result of studying the assigned materials, you should be able to meet the objectives listed below.ASSIGNMENTAt the start of the materials, participants should identify the following topics for study:* Property rights* Premarital agreements* Application of 1031* Incident to divorce* Property basis* Purchases of residence between spouses * Purchases of business interests between spouses* Selected asset divisions of residence & business interests* Real & personal property* Pension benefitsLearning ObjectivesAfter reading the materials, participants will be able to:1. Identify the various forms of marital property and how to proceed with a tax structured property settlement stating the benefits of premarital agreements to avoid potential divorce problems.2. Recognize property settlements under 1041 by:a. identifying its application to interspousal and third party transfers, b. specifying the factors that determine whether or not a property transfer is incident to divorce under 1041, c. determining property basis for the transferor and transferee spouse under 1041.3. Identify remedies for the deferred tax pitfall of 1041 by:a. determining deferred tax liability of interspousal purchases,b. recognizing the tax deferral of 1031 exchanges, c. specifying the key elements of the home sale exclusion and stating their application; d. recognizing benefit distribution problems and the tax advantages of QDROs. | |
Today taxpayers must plan for their children's education. Touching on various topics such as qualified tuition programs (QTPs), scholarships, and fellowships, this mini-course examines the tax treatment of costs related to education. Practitioners will learn the ins and outs of the tax benefits concerning education and will be able to identify those educational expenses that are deductible. Additionally, financial planning strategies and techniques are outlined to better prepare taxpayers for future educational costs. As a result of studying the assigned materials, you should be able to meet the objectives listed below.ASSIGNMENTAt the start of the materials, participants should identify the following topics for study:* Work-related educational expenses* Educational expense credits* Education savings accounts* Deduction for student loan interest* Qualified tuition programs* Higher education expense deduction* IRA withdrawals for education expenses* Scholarships & fellowships* Educational savings bonds* Educational incentives & financial aidLearning ObjectivesAfter reading the materials, participants will be able to:1. Identify deductible education expenses and travel costs under the requirements of 162.2. Determine the qualified credit amounts under the HOPE (American Opportunity) Credit and the requirements of Coverdell education savings accounts.3. Identify the deductible amount to claim for 221 student loan interest and recognize the permissible benefits of 529 qualified tuition programs. 4. Specify the tax-free benefits of 117 scholarships and fellowships and who is eligible for a 132 qualified tuition reduction.5. Identify educational incentives and financial aid requirements to meet college funding needs. | |
Before launching into an estate planning program, its important to know who owns what and exactly for whom you are planning. This requires that methods of holding title must be analyzed, considered, and selected. Sole proprietorships, S corporations, C corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies are analyzed as to formation, operation, and ultimate disposition. Since who or what holds title imposes its own unique tax and legal consequences on the estate plan, emphasis is given to the maximization of tax benefits in each business format. While each has its own separate characteristics, several may be used together in more sophisticated planning. As a result of studying the assigned materials, you should be able to meet the objectives listed below.At the start of the materials, participants should identify the following topics for study:* Individual ownership & sole proprietorships* Corporations* Trusts & co-tenancies* Co-tenancy taxation, percentage interests & partition* Partnership taxation & recapitalization* Family partnerships* Limited liability companies* Retirement plans* Custodianship* EstateLearning ObjectivesAfter reading the materials, participants will be able to:1. Specify the various types of corporations, identify S corporation rules and their tax advantages and disadvantages, cite the advantages and disadvantages of corporations relative to other types of entities, and determine how leasebacks to corporations work;2. Identify the different types of joint ownership and how to use the benefits of partnerships, trusts, and limited liability companies to hold property; 3. Recognize the various retirement plans specifying how they can be used to provide substantial lifetime benefits to a business owner and to employees. |