Hello Everyone,
I am John Everett, and I will be co-presenting with Cherie Hennig a series of four webinars on the Enrolled Agents Exam for the National Society of Accountants (NSA). Your enrollment in this series of webinars ensures that you will have access to this blog on exam preparation.
This first post will introduce the webinars, and explain how they are presented. The purpose of these webinars is to jump-start your studying for the exam by covering as many commonly-tested topics on each part as possible. Although not intended to prepare you for the full exam, these webinars should give you a good feel for the exam and the level of specificity you will face as you continue preparation for the exam.
There are a total of four webinars, two hours each, on the three parts of the exam. Two of these webinars are devoted to Part 2, Businesses, due to the volume of material covered by that part.
Each webinar will be devoted to ten important topics that are tested extensively on the exam. You can see the list of topics for each presentation on this webpage. Comprehensive PowerPoint slides illustrating critical key points for each topic are included, and these are supplemented with sample exam questions from prior open-era exams that will be worked during the presentation. Several comprehensive diagrams are also included in each part, illustrating the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. A sample of such coverage may be seen here.
NSA is offering two bonuses for those who enroll in all four seminars. First, you will receive a significant discount on the full NSA EA Review Course, which includes hundreds of pages (and hundreds of questions) covering 50 topics on each part of the exam, a total of 150 topics (these four webinars cover 40 of the most-tested topics). You can read about the benefits of this full course elsewhere on this webpage.
Secondly, you will also receive a special feature in the full set of materials called “The Top 150 questions” for each part of the exam, along with answers. These questions are incorporated in the full materials, and represent our best bet on possible topics you will see on the exam. All questions related to the webinar topics will be included in the presentation. These questions will help guide your studying for topics not covered in the webinars.
The importance of covering old exam questions cannot be over-emphasized. Some of these questions (or close variations) may appear on your exam, and all provide insights into the level of knowledge required for each topic.
Although most questions on the exam are relatively straight-forward, there is always the tricky head-scratcher. Here's a sample: consider the question and then scroll forward for the answer: Martha Washington, single, was born on January 1, 1950.
Martha's standard deduction on her 2014 Form 1040 is:
a. $3,950
b. $6,200
c. $7,750
d. $12,400
And the answer is:
....c. $7,750. Although Martha was age 64 on December 31, 2014, the last day of the tax year, the Internal Revenue Code presumes that a taxpayer reaches age 65 on the day before his or her 65th birthday (i.e., the person has "lived" for 65 complete years). Since Martha turns age 65 on 1/1/2015, she may take the normal standard deduction of $6,200 plus the $1,550 "bump up" for being age 65 or older. Note – this rule also applies for determining the “initial amount” when determining the tax credit for the elderly and the requirements to file a return.
We look forward to having you joining us as a participant on these webinars. If you have any questions about the webinars, please feel free to post them here.
Thanks,
John
Quick Link: Preview a sample topic from Part 1: Capital Gain & Loss Netting Process
#EA #IRS #Education #Tax