Switched Keys

Certification is at the heart of many professionals. While CPE is the duty of many professionals, the real duty is to keep abreast of the changes in the profession in order to meet the expectations of clients, even in areas that they may not expect you to be knowledgeable. Being a professional is more than getting a qualification… more »

Last year I confronted someone at Tax-Aide corporate headquarters about a spreadsheet on the support website that limited the amount of scholarships by the amount of the taxpayer's own money…This year the new Tax-aide worksheet for preparers has no mention of own money, and maximizes AOTC much like my own AOTC Worksheet… more »

In mid-December Congress passed the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act, including amendments titled Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) H.R. 2029. That bill addressed a wide array of concerns but it may be best known as the tax extender bill. Those interested in education credits welcomed the extender package because it made the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) permanent. Unlike many AOTC proposals made during the year that would rewrite the AOTC, unfortunately this package only makes AOTC permanent by removing the phrase "and before 2018" in IRC Section 25A(i). The amounts are the same… more »

The final Education Tax Credits book is now available. I published an abbreviated version in May that I titled Education Tax Credit Essentials. I wanted to make the most crucial content available for extended filing season and to encourage feedback as I worked on the full version. Education Tax Credits is a guide for tax professionals to better understand the many complexities related to education tax credits and other tax incentives for education. This systematic analysis guides preparers in the steps required to process education credit claims, from researching scholarships and calculating the maximum credit to coordinating with educational savings accounts and Pell grants. more »

While taxpayers will now be required to have a 1098T to claim an education credit or deduction, institutions are often not required to provide one. Until that is remedied, many taxpayers could be deprived of a credit they would have otherwise been qualified for. more »

Education Tax Credit Essentials has been published by Dana Bell and is available as a paperback and in electronic form for major eBook devices. This book attempts to help professionals better understand the many complexities related to education tax… more »

In Word you can create a document and by using styles associated with the selected theme, you can make sure the design is consistent throughout, without having to change a lot of fonts and colors. You could also create a document and then select an alternate theme and totally change the design of the document (colors, fonts, etc). While OpenOffice Writer doesn't have themes, you can actually do much the same thing in OpenOffice.… more »