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Phone:
(800) 822-4194
(406) 556-0115
Fax:
(206) 774-1285
E-mail: wcpe@westerncpe.com
243 Pegasus Drive
Bozeman, MT 59718
Office hours:
Monday - Friday
7 A.M. - 6 P.M. MST
2009-2010 Federal Tax Update
Streaming Video Courses
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2009-2010 Real Estate & Investment Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV82 | Credits: 3.00 | Run Time: 1h 29m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rules affecting real estate taxation.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Examining the new $8,000 credit and the previous $7,500 “loan” from the government to encourage first-time low-income taxpayers to purchase a home.
· Analyzing a primer on the tax ramifications of a foreclosure or repossession including evaluating the cancellation of debt calculation and problems with short sales.
· Reviewing an old but enduring topic, the real estate dealer versus real estate investor controversy.
· Learning that the exclusion of gain rules may no longer apply to vacation homes converted to a principal residence.
· Examining some nasty passive loss cases, including the real estate professional exception, and how to avoid these foul results.
· And closing with a discussion on two like-kind exchange issues, the time limits on deferred exchanges and potential problems when using qualified intermediaries.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting real estate & investment taxation.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 Payroll & Self-Employment Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV85 | Credits: 1.00 | Run Time: 36m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rules affecting payroll and self-employment taxation.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Introducing a new deduction and credit for businesses providing differential military pay.
· Examining, in-depth, the factors used to determine if a worker is an employee or an independent contractor.
· Followed by a discussion of the employee versus independent contractor safe harbor rules.
· Analyzing, in-depth, an amazing attempt by the IRS to disqualify Realtors from using an S corporation.
· And closing with an in-depth discussion on the 100% trust fund penalty.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting payroll and self-employment taxation.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 Limited Liability Company (LLC) & Partnership Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV88 | Credits: 2.00 | Run Time: 45m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rules affecting partnership and LLC taxation.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Examining what the IRS is looking for in the revised Form 1065.
· Electing to take three years to make the entity classification.
· Reviewing the shortened extension of time period for filing the partnership return.
· Limiting access of tax return information to other partners.
· Reminding ourselves about the new increased penalties for late filing of partnership returns, and how to get them waived.
· Discussing who has to file employment tax returns in a single member LLC.
· Analyzing how to make the §754 election, which is one of the top five malpractice issues.
· Emphasizing to our single-person LLCs that they may not have limited liability - this is scary.
· Glancing at how LLCs can make an S election.
· Reviewing the basics of establishing an LLC, including the check-the-box regulations.
· And closing with a discussion on when LLC members will be subject to self-employment tax.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting LLC and partnership taxation.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 IRS Practice & Procedures Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV89 | Credits: 2.00 | Run Time: 56m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current cases and rules affecting the tax preparer’s relationship with the IRS.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Examining the new “substantial authority” standard that has replaced the “more likely than not” standard used to penalize tax preparers, and the substantially increased penalty for violation of this standard.
· Researching the changes in our ethics, Circular 230, and what we have to do every time we give tax advice.
· Listing the IRS’s extreme proposed sanctions for Circular 230 violations by tax preparers.
· Discussing the new, and very aggressive, IRS tactics used against professional tax preparers.
· Understanding how careful tax preparers must be when releasing client’s tax returns and social security numbers.
· Seeing who is being audited, and who isn’t.
· Learning about the current tax scams hitting our clients.
· Catching up on what’s happening in the world of tax shelters.
· Identifying the IRS’s electronic options.
· Discussing the numerous methods the IRS uses to reconstruct unreported income.
· Learning the time limits on filing for a tax refund... unless its called a deposit.
· Catching up on how Congress made offers-in-compromises even more unattractive.
· Understanding the new rules on releasing client information to third parties.
· Marveling at the IRS’s program directed at fraudulent tax preparers.
· And closing with a recap of the innocent spouse relief provisions.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting tax preparers’ and taxpayers’ relationships with the IRS.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your own, your clients’ and/or your employer’s relationship with the IRS.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 IRA & Individual Retirement Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV81 | Credits: 2.00 | Run Time: 53m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rulings affecting IRA and individual retirement plans.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Reviewing the rules affecting traditional and Roth IRAs.
· Identifying all the 2009 inflation adjustments that affect the amount that can be contributed into IRAs and Roth-IRAs.
· Analyzing the stunning elimination of the income limits when rolling over into a Roth-IRA.
· Followed by the stunning elimination of any required minimum distributions in 2009.
· Understanding how to transfer tax-free IRA distributions to charities.
· Marveling at the new rule that qualified plans can transfer funds directly to a Roth-IRA.
· Learning about the new slick change allowing non-spouse beneficiaries to receive inherited IRAs.
· Reviewing the age-50 catch-up contribution rules.
· Analyzing the option permitting employees to contribute their elective deferrals into a Roth-IRA.
· Discussing the good and the bad excuses used by taxpayers to seek waiver of the 60-day IRA rollover requirement.
· And closing with an in-depth discussion on the exceptions to the 10% early withdrawal penalty.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting IRA and individual retirement taxation.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 Individual & Employee Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV80 | Credits: 4.00 | Run Time: 2h 42m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rulings affecting individual taxation.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· A discussion of personal exemptions including the stricter rules for qualifying a child as a dependent and who can claim the child after a divorce.
· Moving to a discussion on the new exclusion for unemployment income.
· Discussing the miscellaneous gross income items including social security and cancellation of debt (and how to avoid it).
· Marveling at the ways divorce attorneys can screw up the alimony requirements: this one is my favorites!
· Followed by a myriad of adjustments to gross income, such as health savings accounts and prepaid tuition accounts.
· Analyzing the new additions to the standard deduction for property taxes, cars and casualty losses.
· Reviewing itemized deductions, including the new charitable contribution rules, and an extensive discussion of how the IRS is denying home acquisition debt for the uninformed.
· Learning when a PhD can be deducted, and when it can’t, and when work clothes can be deducted, and when they can’t.
· We then move on to learning about the new casualty and theft loss deduction rules after the Madoff-like Ponzi schemes.
· And we’ll close with an examination of all the individual tax credits, including the new Work Pay credit and the new college credit called the American Opportunity Tax Credit.
· We’ll even slip in a discussion on the different payment options available to the taxpayer.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting individual and employee taxation.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 Estates, Trusts & Beneficiaries Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV83 | Credits: 1.00 | Run Time: 37m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rules affecting gift, estate and trust taxation.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Refreshing our memories with a primer on filing Form 706, the estate tax return.
· Looking at the new $3.5 million estate tax exclusion.
· Analyzing the 2009 cases and rulings affecting estates and gifts.
· Reviewing the changes on Form 709, the gift tax return.
· Discussing family limited partnership planning and current good fact, and bad fact, cases.
· Introducing two more cutting edge tax planning techniques, SCINS and grantor trusts.
· Studying the numerous valuation methods used to establish an estate’s or gift’s fair market value.
· Glancing at the generation skipping trust.
· And closing with a look at trusts, including the new Supreme Court limitation on deducting investment management fees.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting the taxation of estates, trusts and beneficiaries.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 C & S Corporate Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV87 | Credits: 3.00 | Run Time: 1h 29m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rules affecting corporate taxation.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Analyzing the most recent major tax legislative changes, including tax provisions contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
· Reviewing the 0% rate on dividends for certain investors, and estimating how long it will last.
· Understanding how to structure the self-employed health insurance deduction for S corporation shareholders.
· Looking at the huge penalty for filing S corporation returns late.
· Trying to determine the difference between a shareholder loan and a capital contribution... and the debt versus equity factors announced by the IRS.
· Analyzing a myriad of exempt organization cases and ruling.
· Dissecting the reasonable compensation issue as it applies to both C corporations and S corporations, including the new taxpayer-friendly Menard case, and an extensive discussion on information needed for an S corporation reasonable compensation audit.
· And lastly, glancing at the ability of rolling over the gain on Qualified Small Business Stock and currently deducting small business stock losses.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting the taxation of C corporations and S corporations.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 Business Pension Plan & Issues Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV86 | Credits: 1.00 | Run Time: 18m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rules affecting pension and IRA contributions and distributions.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Looking at new legislation affection pensions, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
· Reviewing all the inflation adjustments on the amount that can be contributed into all the retirement plan options, including the age-50 catch-up contribution rules.
· Looking one more time at the single-person 401(k) plan.
· Examining the rules on loans to participants.
· Discussing the hardship distributions rules.
· And closing with a review of some miscellaneous pension developments.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting the taxation of business pension plans.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
2009-2010 Business Federal Tax Update
| Course Nbr: HOV84 | Credits: 4.00 | Run Time: 2h 22m |
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In this course, Vern discusses the current Tax Codes, cases and rules affecting business taxation.
Highlights of this Chapter:
· Identifying all the tax provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
· Understanding the new COBRA rules, a must for all businesses.
· Studying the 2009 Federal mileage, lodging and meal per diem rates.
· Rejoicing about the new tax-free fringe benefits for biking to work.
· Clarifying when a gift is really not a gift for income tax reporting purposes.
· Checking out the recordkeeping rules for travel, entertainment and cell phones.
· Reviewing the “away-from-home-overnight” requirement for travel expense deductions.
· Learning about the $250,000 §179 expensing allowance and the 50% special bonus depreciation allowance.
· Learning about the major new tax relief provisions for businesses in federally declared disaster areas.
· Introducing the new 5-year NOL carryback provisions.
· Discussing the new depreciable lives on restaurant buildings.
· Taking a look at farmer/ranchers new depreciable lives for equipment and horses.
· Reviewing the health reimbursement arrangements and what recently changed.
· Looking at the Agri-Plan, Biz-Plan idea of the sole proprietor hiring spouse and deducting medical expenses above the line... and seeing if this works in an S corporation.
· Glancing, again, at the 6% domestic production activity deduction, who qualifies, what qualifies and where to put it on the return.
· Analyzing what’s happened under accounting methods and periods.
· Examining the office-in-home limitation rules.
· And closing with a discussion of the business credits.
Learning Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Recognize key tax changes effective in 2009, affecting business taxation.
· Identify numerous tax issues and provisions impacting your clients’ or employer’s tax returns.
· Apply various tax rates and computations to scenarios just like those you see in your office, to better prepare you for the upcoming tax season.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of tax preparation.
Program Level: Update
Program Published to the Web: November 2009
No advance preparation required.
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