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 taxpayer’s federal income tax return and the treatment of decedent income.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Recognize the new standard deduction amounts across all filing statuses,
• Identify the requirements that must be met to file as any of the five filing statuses,
• Identify the new standard deduction and additional standard deduction amounts,
• Recognize the circumstances that will disallow taxpayers from taking the standard deduction,
• Identify when a taxpayer is required to file their federal income tax return,
• Recognize the various penalties associated with filing a return or paying taxes late, and
• Identify the tax responsibilities and treatment of income associated with a recently deceased taxpayer.