Upon successful completion of this course, students will be qualified to:
- Prepare most individual tax returns, including Schedules C, D, and E;
- Perform a thorough interview with a taxpayer
- Determine a taxpayer’s filing status and eligibility for exemptions
- Accurately report income and deductions for a taxpayer
- Determine a taxpayer’s eligibility for credits and deductions
- Compute depreciation for assets and eligibility for Section 179
- Accurately calculate a taxpayer’s refund or balance due
- Advise a taxpayer in tax planning strategies
- A User ID and password for each student will be provided once payment is received and course is nade available. This provides access to all required course content, student resources such as IRS publications, instructions, forms, reading references, chapter study questions, learning activities, appendices, worksheets, tax law updates, and so much more.
- Training is online in a group setting via Zoom. Most trainings will be recorded and put into a Facebook group.
Certificate will be issued at the end of training.
THE COURSE IS NONREFUNDABLE.
FAQ
How up-to-date are your courses? I’m looking into obtaining training for the current tax year.
We are currently updating our courses to reflect current tax laws.
The most current tax laws usually become final in the last couple months of the year. Therefore, our courses are based on the prior tax year. We will issue tax law updates sometime around the beginning to mid-December of each year to current students. The updates will detail the tax law changes for the current year. This allows you to take the current tax law course and become familiar with the tax laws as they are enacted. The practice problems in our course allow you time to apply the knowledge as you learn. The tax law updates provide the enhancement necessary to prepare you for the upcoming tax year. There is no additional cost for the tax law updates.
How much time do I have to complete a tax course? Is there a time frame that I need to finish each chapter or assignment?
All of our online tax courses are completely at your own pace.
- The term for courses of 45 hours or more is 6 months from date of registration.
- The term for courses from 31 – 44 hours is 4 months from date of registration.
- The term for courses up to 30 hours is 3 months from date of registration.
- The term for CE seminars of 6 hours or less is 1 month from the date of registration.
- For more than two 3-hour courses/seminars and up to five purchased at one time, we allow 3 months for completion from the date of registration.
- For six to ten 3-hour courses/seminars purchased at one time, we allow 4 months for completion from the date of registration.
Students who do not finish the course within the allotted time frame may extend their term for a nominal reinstatement fee.
How long will it take to complete a tax course?
All of our courses are online and allow you to work at your own pace. We give students up to 6 months to complete our Comprehensive course and up to 3 months for each of our subsequent courses. This time frame is based off completing just one chapter per week as well as giving students 2 additional weeks to study for each exam. However, some students will be able to work more quickly depending on their time constraints and/or study needs. There is no penalty if you complete your course in a shorter time frame.
If you follow along with live trainings you will finish much faster.
How much time should I allow for each online lesson?
The time spent on each chapter will vary, however; for our most popular Comprehensive Tax Course, you should expect to spend 5-6 hours per chapter to read the chapter and the reading assignment, to complete lesson problems, and to complete homework assignments.
How many chapters should I complete a week?
With any course of 30 hours or more, we recommend that you complete 2 chapters per week; however, the course may be accelerated or more time can be taken if needed. You should try to complete at least one lesson per week.
Do I have to buy additional materials?
All tax course text material and required reference material is available online with access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You may download chapters and read them offline.
Hard copies of the text books are available for an additional fee. Hard copies save the students money and time by not having to print the text. In addition, the textbook serves as a reference manual for future use when preparing tax returns. Any hard copy tax course materials will ship within 1 business day of your registration via UPS Ground or USPS. Alternative and international shipping methods are available for a fee. You must provide a physical street address, no P.O. Boxes.
What do I need to have in order to take an online course, and what are the system requirements?
In order to take our online courses, you must have access to a computer and the Internet (high speed internet access is recommended). You can access the course contents from any web-enabled computer. You do not have to use the same computer to log-in to the course every time.
The course works with Windows, MAC and Linux operating systems. We recommend that you have the latest version of Firefox. Adobe Reader is required to view the online material from our tax school.
How can I be assured that no one will have access to my course information online?
Each Student is issued a unique username and password that is required to enter the secure area of the learning management system (LMS) where their student’s data is entered and stored.
Will I be able to complete an online assignment more than once?
You will be allowed 2 attempts for chapter quizzes/tests and 1 attempt for final exams. You must successfully complete each section (70% is passing) before you are able to move on to the next one. A minimum cumulative grade point average of 80% or higher is required to receive the Chartered Tax certificate designations.
What happens if I am unable to complete my online assignment in one sitting?
If you are in the middle of a graded assignment, you can simply save your place and sign off (just be sure NOT to click “submit all and finish”). When you sign back in you will be able to click “Continue the Last Attempt” and you will be able to continue your graded assignment from exactly where you left off. To make things easier for our students, we recommend downloading the assignment and completing it offline. Then all a student has to do is input the correct answers online. This is particularly helpful for students with a dial-up connection.
How will I be notified if there is a correction for my online course?
Corrections to your student text will be posted in the Updates & Corrections forum in each course, at the beginning of each chapter.
What happens when I complete the course?
Upon successful completion of each module within your course, you will be awarded a certificate of completion from The Income Tax School. You must obtain a final passing grade of 70% or greater to be awarded a certificate. A minimum cumulative grade point average of 80% or better is required for the Chartered Tax certificate programs. The certificates can be accessed within the LMS.
I heard the IRS is now offering a voluntary Annual Filing Season Program for tax return preparers. What does that mean for people new to the industry and those already in the industry?
IRS regulations require all paid tax return preparers to obtain a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). The cost to obtain your PTIN is $35.95. In addition to this, the IRS offers an Annual Filing Season Program (AFSP), which is a voluntary IRS tax training program for return preparers. It aims to recognize the efforts of non-credentialed return preparers who aspire to a higher level of professionalism.
Please note: The AFTR course, which is part of the AFSP program, is a short federal tax refresher course for experienced tax preparers and will not enable a person who is not an experienced tax preparer to learn how to prepare income tax returns. If you are interested in becoming a tax preparer, you should consider the Comprehensive Tax Course.
To receive AFTR I recommend Platinum Courses
Do you provide the answer keys to study questions and learning activities?
Per IRS and NASBA guidelines, we are unable to provide Answer Keys to the these items. However, if you have a particular question(s), for which you need clarification or have an incorrect answer, we can provide the answer(s). We would not provide the answer(s) until you have moved on to the next assignment and you would not be allowed to go back and change your answers. Please note, we will not provide answers to any quiz or exam questions at any time.
Can I complete more than 2 lessons per week or does the system limit how many lessons I can do in a week?
You can absolutely complete more than 2 lessons per week. You can set any pace you like. The 2 lessons per week is a suggestion so that you can complete your course in a timely manner and within the allotted term for your course. And if you need more time, we do offer an extension for our 30-45 hour courses.