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Monthly Archives: October 2012
10 posts
When is the Deadline for Renewing my CTEC?
When is the Deadline for Renewing my CTEC?
By Tim Frye
Everyone knows that America's national pastime is no longer baseball. And no, it's not the NFL either. It's procrastination. We all do it. So don't feel bad when it's Halloween night this year and as your sliding on your monkey suit and headed out to party, you realize you had to complete your 20 Hour CTEC continuing education requirements by midnight. We are not here to judge, just ever-present to remind you to not be that guy.
If you are tax preparer, and you do not complete your 20 hours of continuing education for CTEC by the October 31st deadline, you can still complete the hours after. There will, however, be an extra $55 CTEC late fee tacked on the regular $25 rate.
Preparing Taxes for Students
Preparing Taxes for Students
By Tim Frye
In order to be a successful tax preparer you should find a specific area of taxes to specialize in, and find a good niche market for that area. Compartmentalizing your tax knowledge can help you focus on more narrowed client base when just starting out. A good example of this is offering your services to the younger generation, such as college students.
There are aspects of preparing a student’s tax return that can be different than simplified returns, and this article will discuss a few of those variations.
How Hard is it to Become an Enrolled Agent?
How Hard is it to Become an Enrolled Agent?
By Tim Frye
As you begin down the road of becoming a respectable tax professional, you will first want to establish yourself as a competent, honorable, and proficient tax preparer. Once you develop this reputation, it would be prudent to look into ways to expand your repertoire and explore new avenues of certification. Becoming an enrolled agent is a logical next step for the aspiring tax preparer that is looking to climb the professional ladder. Let's look at the process in becoming an enrolled agent and its possible pitfalls.
Explaining the Earned Income Credit
Explaining the Earned Income Credit
By Tim Frye
One of the biggest components in the amalgamation of skills it takes to be an expert at tax preparation is the knowledge of the credits that create the largest refunds. After all, isn't your client or anyone for that matter, looking for the biggest bang for their buck? Well in the world of income taxes that means your client is looking for the biggest refund. The earned income credit is one of the more refundable and substantial credits that can create that very favorable outcome for your client: The gargantuan refund. Here are a few pointers to assist in articulating the specifics on the earned income credit to your client.
How Much Do I Charge as a New Tax Preparer?
How Much Do I Charge as a New Tax Preparer?
By Tim Frye
Preparing someone's taxes can be a very personal and intimated experience for you and your client, considering that by the end of the tax interview you will know your their most private financial details. So when setting your prices the process can be quite subjective, because every tax interview is different. Here are a few different ways to determine you’re billing methods.
How to Find Your First Job as a Tax Preparer
How to Find Your First Job as a Tax Preparer
By Tim Frye
With the use of turbo tax exploding in the last five years, and the "big guys" of the tax prep industry still around and going strong, the tax preparation business is as competitive as it has ever been. In this competitive environment, how do you get your first job as a new tax preparer?
Read this article and we'll give you tips on finding your first tax preparation job. There are more than 1 million people tax preparers in USA. So you must find a way to distinguish yourself from the crowd.
How to Make Big Money Doing Taxes
How to Make Big Money Doing Taxes
By Tim Frye
Anybody can jump into the tax preparation game for a few years and make decent seasonal scratch, but the serious money you can make four months a year is what separates the big dogs from the rest of the pack.
Making great money doing taxes is a challenging and ego-testing endeavor indeed, but once you get your game fully on point, you can make some REAL NICE MONEY doing taxes.
This article will show you a few ways to make big money as a tax preparer.
How Much Does It Cost to Renew Your CTEC Registration?
How Much Does It Cost to Renew Your CTEC Registration
California tax preparers must renew their registration with the California Tax Education Council (CTEC) each year. Tax preparers in California who are not registered with CTEC cannot legally prepare tax returns for pay in the State of California and may become subject to fines of up to $5,000 per incident if their CTEC registration expires and is not renewed. CTEC requires two things as a condition of renewing your CTEC registration: you must 1) complete a 20 hour CTEC-approved continuing education tax course and 2) pay a renewal fee to CTEC.
In this blog post, we will tell you exactly how much it costs to renew your CTEC registration and give you a helpful tip to save money on CTEC renewal costs.
Deductions Tips for New Tax Preparers
Beginner Tax Preparer Challenge of the Day: Maximize Your Client’s Work-Related Deductions without Exposing Your Client to Undue Risk
By Tim Frye
As a tax preparer, you must strive at all times to maximize your client's tax deductions—within the bounds of the tax laws administered by the IRS. The true measure of a tax preparer's utility really comes down to you accessing all the available and legitimate deductions a client may have.
Any shaky preparer can punch random, fat, questionable deduction numbers into a 1040 and reach a favorable conclusion for the client. However, this flippant approach will not leave the client comfortable and free from the IRS' ever-expanding eye of scrutiny. For the beginner tax preparer, striking this delicate balance can be challenging to say the least; that’s why we teach this balancing skill extensively in Pronto Tax Class.
In this article, we’ll give you a few tips for maximizing your client's work-related write-offs without sacrificing your integrity or exposing the client to undue scrutiny from our friends at the Internal Revenue Service.
