Tax Books for teaching

[PIGLEE]

I promised to teach a couple of girls how to do taxes for next year. I am wondering if anyone has found any books that are good for this? I am looking forward to doing this, I used to teach Income Tax at the local college, and it sure kept me sharp on tax law, I sure missed the teaching.

I wanted to ask this questin before everyone goes brain-dead on April 18th, and disapears from the Forum.

Thanks

[Koss]

Basic Tax Course

Years ago, I taught the introductory tax courses for H & R Block. I also taught a few advanced courses for HRB. More recently, I have taught CPE courses for the local chapter of the National Association of Enrolled Agents.

Block, as you may or may not know, produces their own textbooks. When I taught the courses, the books were good. Of course, there were weaknesses, but you'll find that with any textbook. Since then, Block has dramatically changed the format and methodology of their courses. When I taught it, everything was done by hand. Today, the basic tax prep course is taught using the computer to prepare returns. I'm sure they still use some sort of textbook or participant manual. But it's very different today than it was back then.

I'm not expressing an opinion as to whether the current method is better or worse, because I don't know enough about it.

But I'll give you a couple things to think about...

When I taught the basic course for Block, in addition to the proprietary textbook, Block gave every student a copy of Publication 17. And I often found Pub. 17 to be more useful, or clearer in some cases, than the textbook. Of course, the class and the textbook were not trying to cover every topic in Pub. 17.

What they didn't provide, but what I always recommended for my students, was a copy of the basic instructions for Form 1040 and the most common schedules and forms. I often found clear, concise, extremely useful explanations in those instructions that simply were not in the textbook or Pub. 17.

If I was planning to teach a basic tax prep course today, from scratch, I'm not sure I would use any textbook at all. I think it can be done the right way using Publication 17 and the IRS instructions.

You could always add the basic 1040 edition of The Tax Book.

I used to feel that the best way to learn this art, for someone with little or no experience, was in fact to do returns by hand. And for some learners, I think that's still true.

But learning styles differ among students. The world has changed dramatically in the last ten years or so, and the tax code has become more complex by an order of magnitude.

Depending on the context, it may make sense today for some students to learn most, but not all, of the tax prep process by using tax prep software.

I'll add some more thoughts when I have time...

BMK

[Koss]

Further thoughts

I was half-kidding when I suggested using the 1040 edition of The Tax Book. It certainly isn't designed as a textbook. It's a reference manual. Since you have only two students, you could certainly use a few sections as learning material. But the idea of using The Tax Book as a primary textbook for a course is probably not feasible.

What might work much better is the text provided by TMI for the Individual Tax Review CPE course. Here again, it's not meant to be a primary text for someone with no experience. It's meant as a review for tax pros who already have basic experience with 1040 returns. It qualifies for CPE for enrolled agents.

But if you take a look at the table of contents, the structure of the course might work well even for a beginner. The cost is $39.00. Here's the link to the table of contents:

http://www.thetaxbook.com/PDF/CPE2010_Individual_TOC.pdf

I purchased the 2009 edition of this course way back in January, 2010. I used it for CPE during the 2010 calendar year. I have to admit that I did not read every paragraph on every page. I skimmed through those parts where I felt I already had a good grasp of the topic. Then I passed the test.

I thought it was a very good review.

For the current calendar year, I purchased the Small Business Tax Review.

BMK

[PIGLEE]

Thank you so much for your thoughts. I had always had my students use the Pub 17, along with their texts. I told them if they were going to convince an auditor, they don't care what your text book says, you need to show them what IRS says. Also in a lot of places the IRS was easier to understand (I agree with you on that point). I also used to say if you can't do it on paper, you won't know what to expect a computer to do. I still believe that to be true, but I know NOW there are some several areas I would hate to do by hand anymore. I have taken some of TMI's classes, but there questions are on quirky things, more than the normal. Which is fine, we need to know those things, but not at the beginning. What I am looking for in a students book, are basic questions, and tax returns for them to do as homework.

Would you believe that just 1 year ago I finally threw out all the materials I had for teaching. Yes there were out of date, but they were something. I did keep all the IRS cartoon, and jokes I had collected. I use to give them one each week, keep some of them coming back, and we sure had fun with them.

Thanks again for your comments, it is getting me thinking, and also reminding me of some of the things I used to do.

[Burke]

I collect those cartoons too. Some are hilarious, most were from the newspaper and the political cartoonists. I have even framed two and they hang in my office. I love the McNelly one with the NCAA brackets.

[erchess]

NATP Course

The NATP has a course for new preparers. I think to get the lowest price a member has to buy it and say they are going to use it only for people who are going to work in their office. You might also consider helping your students become Registered Return Preparers.

Some years ago I was taking a course in technical writing and for my major project I created everything needed for a 36 hour course designed to teach someone who could read at the high school graduate level and do four figure math with a calculator to do conduct a thorough interview with special attention to identifying returns they were not supposed to tackle, determine appropriate filing status, and do a return with wages, interest and dividends, EIC, Dependent Care Credit and Child Care credit and taxability of legal settlements and insurance proceeds. My first step was to identify the competencies I wanted students to have and then develop the exam. I then developed the course outline and relied on IRS Pubs, Forms, and Instructions for the "meat" of the course. I have no doubt that you could follow this plan and devise a good course.

[Kurly]

Tax Class

IRS has a basic tax course that can be accessed and used by anyone. Its called VITA. Very basic its the course all VITA Volunteer must pass. It has three levels.
Just access the IRS web site and type in VITA.

K

[oceanlovin'ea]

This is all very interesting. Let me know what you end up doing, Piglee.

My husband is retiring in 3 weeks. He is an accountant and has helped me in my business for several years. He helps with some of the bookkeeping and he does things like my bank deposits, etc.

But he is always asking questions about the tax returns. So I was thinking that I would have him take some kind of course, whether online or correspondence, before next tax season. I would like to give him simple returns to do BY HAND to learn the concepts. I don't think he wants to prepare tax returns now but I would like him to understand the process. So I would like to know what you come up with.

Besides, it will give him something to do and keep him out of my hair this summer and fall.

Linda, EA

[VT-EA]

'Link and Learn 'is the IRS online course

http://www.irs.gov/app/vita/basic.jsp

[Koss]

VITA/TCE Exams

I was not aware that the VITA certification exams were available online.

I think this is an excellent resource for those who are currently unenrolled, and want to prepare for the coming RTR exam.

There has been some speculation that the RTR exam will be similar to the VITA exam.

It may not be similar at all. But I can guarantee that it will not be easier than the VITA basic exam.

Just for fun, I took the VITA basic exam. It was 30 questions. It took me about a half hour. I think the exam was originally timed at 45 minutes.

Yes, I passed it. Got two questions wrong. One of them was a data entry error.

The test covered filing status, exemptions, rules for QC/QR, child tax credit, EIC, and even the special rules that are applicable to undocumented immigrants who have an ITIN. It was based on current tax law, for 2010 returns. Didn't cover itemized deductions; it did include one scenario involving the education credit, and another one involving the Retirement Contributions Credit.

I think it's fair to say that anyone who can't pass this test simply shouldn't be doing taxes.

The VITA basic exam may or may not be a model for the RTR exam. But it's certainly a threshold. If the RTR exam is easier than this, then it's a joke.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the first two questions actually addressed an issue that was once the subject of a massive controversy: the meaning of the first test for a qualifying relative, i.e., the person cannot be the qualifying child of any other taxpayer.

Until the IRS issued Notice 2008-5, there was a fairly contentious debate about whether a child could be the qualifying child of a parent who had no income and was not even required to file. Some might say that I was at the center of this debate back in 2006, when the rules for QC/QR went into effect for the preparation of 2005 tax returns.

For those that are curious, here's a link to those two questions:

http://www.sgaweb.net/vita_test.pdf

The complete text of the VITA exam is also available as a PDF download:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f6744.pdf

And the site mentioned by VT-EA has other, more advanced courses as well.

BMK

[Gary2]

...Since then, Block has dramatically changed the format and methodology of their courses. When I taught it, everything was done by hand. Today, the basic tax prep course is taught using the computer to prepare returns. I'm sure they still use some sort of textbook or participant manual. But it's very different today than it was back then.

The 2010 Block Income Tax Course was designed to use pencil and paper for the first half of the course, with instructor demos of the software, and with the students using the software for the second half of the course. It was also increased in length in anticipation of the IRS testing requirements in 2011.

You haven't lived until you've used pencil and paper to do a Massachusetts return with nothing but a W-2, $150 in MA bank interest, and interest from the IRS or an out of state bank. A two page 1040EZ turns into at least 6 pages. The MA Schedule B alone will be two pages, with only four lines with entries.