CCH Federal Tax Course: A Guide for the Tax Practitioner 2008 costs $270 and has 2376 pages.
Has anyone used the book? What did you think of it and why?
Can the entire Federal Tax Law be summarized in 2376 pages in a way that would be accessible to an EA who knows little of Entities? I could afford to buy this book every year if each year I added an entity to my repertoire and I also found it handy for looking up things that were not in less expensive and shorter guides like TTB..
By the way it occurs to me that someone may question how an EA could know little of Entities since the SEE has always had more about them than about Individuals. When I began to prepare for the exam I had five years of experience in an office that handled only Individuals. Each off season starting with the one before my first year of work had been a time of great learning about individual tax issues but there had been none about entities. Then I sat down to study for the SEE. I quickly determined that I was ok on IRS Policies and Procedures and that I was ok on Individuals except that I needed to learn to calculate Sale of Residence and AMT mentally according to the rules at that time. I filled my head with trivia about Entities that I also feel in no way helped me prepare returns. Just to name one example, I learned how to calculate mentally the value of a AAA Account but I could not have told you what one was if my life had depended on it. I knew that would not be on the test. Every other off season in my career has been a time when I learned to do do returns I would have sent to another preparer or attempted only with someone looking over my shoulder the previous year. I have fun studying taxes and I have fun doing returns for honest clients.
Thank you for all replies.
Has anyone used the book? What did you think of it and why?
Can the entire Federal Tax Law be summarized in 2376 pages in a way that would be accessible to an EA who knows little of Entities? I could afford to buy this book every year if each year I added an entity to my repertoire and I also found it handy for looking up things that were not in less expensive and shorter guides like TTB..
By the way it occurs to me that someone may question how an EA could know little of Entities since the SEE has always had more about them than about Individuals. When I began to prepare for the exam I had five years of experience in an office that handled only Individuals. Each off season starting with the one before my first year of work had been a time of great learning about individual tax issues but there had been none about entities. Then I sat down to study for the SEE. I quickly determined that I was ok on IRS Policies and Procedures and that I was ok on Individuals except that I needed to learn to calculate Sale of Residence and AMT mentally according to the rules at that time. I filled my head with trivia about Entities that I also feel in no way helped me prepare returns. Just to name one example, I learned how to calculate mentally the value of a AAA Account but I could not have told you what one was if my life had depended on it. I knew that would not be on the test. Every other off season in my career has been a time when I learned to do do returns I would have sent to another preparer or attempted only with someone looking over my shoulder the previous year. I have fun studying taxes and I have fun doing returns for honest clients.
Thank you for all replies.
Comment