We are all (including tax practitioners) getting older, and the need for effective retirement planning has never been greater. This course is essential for participants who wish to attain a comfortable retirement for themselves and their clients by maximizing tax-saving strategies. This presentation integrates federal taxation with retirement planning. The course will examine tax and savings strategies related to determining retirement income needs, wealth building, capital preservation, and estate distribution. The result is a unified explanation of tax economics that will permit the tax professional to locate, analyze, and solve the financial aspects of retirement. Designed to improve the quality of services to clients and the profitability of engagements, this program projects the accountant into the world of retirement planning. This course will give the participant practice in analyzing problems, developing solutions, and presenting final personal retirement plans to clients. The emphasis is on practical simplicity in dealing with the self-employed and highly compensated individual. Retirement income needs are calculated; net after-tax Social Security benefits are determined, and distribution options from IRAs and retirement plans are explored. Special consideration is given to the tax treatment of the home and business on retirement. Buy-sell agreements are discussed and eldercare planning is examined.
Course No: TAX-FASTMEGA-5531
Determine the tax consequences of title holding methods by specifying ways to hold title to assets starting with the simplest and most direct way to hold property.
Determine the tax consequences of title holding methods by citing the tax benefits and drawbacks of co-tenancies, corporations (both C & S), partnerships, qualified retirement plans, and trusts particularly as they relate to a client's after-tax investment return.
Determine the tax consequences of title holding methods by identifying custodianship under the uniform acts and determining how an estate can be tax beneficial to taxpayers.
Identify the benefits of tax deferral, recall the former use of tax deferral under §1034, and cite the tax deferral advantage under §1031 listing its elements.
Recall the evolution of delayed exchanges naming allowable transfers, determine how to select qualified replacement property, specify constructive receipt safe harbors & methods to secure exchange party performance, cite the §1031 partnership underlying asset rule, identify retirement plan design, identify popular methods for providing for retirement, and select near retirement investments.
Recall the requirements for business expenses to meet the directly related test, cite the elements of the associated test, identify the business expense statutory exceptions, and recognize the application of R.R. 90-23 and R.R. 99-7 to the deduction of transportation costs to a temporary work location.
Recognize formats for income splitting, determine the tax treatment of employee and self-employed business expenses particularly home-office expenses stating the two non-exclusive use exceptions and the income limitation, cite changes made to home office deduction under TRA ’97, and recognize the ability of self-employeds to make annual deductible contributions to a Keogh plan.
Determine the uses and tax characteristics of regular and S corporations by citing circumstances when incorporation is desirable,.
Determine the uses and tax characteristics of regular and S corporations by recognizing the taxation of these entities including their ability to split income.
Determine the uses and tax characteristics of regular and S corporations by specifying initial §351 formation and capitalization issues and identifying appropriate tax form filings for each entity.
Recognize the use of partnerships to split income among partners including the use of §704(e) family partnerships and the consequences of gifting a partnership interest to a child or to another family member.
Identify the use of a custodianship to split income specifying planning considerations and good investments for children, recognize deductions and credits for childcare, education, children, and §7872 loans, and specify the income and later estate tax benefits of gifts.
Identify tax elimination techniques by recognizing the current §121 home sale exclusion citing its differences with prior tax law.
Identify tax elimination techniques by determining qualifications for tax-free state or local obligations including private activity bonds.
Identify tax elimination techniques by specifying the tax elimination aspects of family transactions such as gifts, bequests, inheritances, life insurance, and even divorce.
Recognize employer deductions as a means to increase tax-free incentive-based compensation for employees by specifying rules for excluding fringe benefits under §132 and their proper reporting on the W-2.
Recognize employer deductions as a means to increase tax-free incentive-based compensation for employees by identifying popular employee fringe benefits including employer paid accident & health coverage, meals or lodging, cafeteria plan benefits, §127 education assistance, achievement awards, group life insurance, and dependent care assistance.
Identify the goals and purposes of asset protection recognizing the objections some people have about shielding assets from creditors by citing reasons for asset protection and situations that can unexpectedly put assets and financial security at stake.
Identify the goals and purposes of asset protection recognizing the objections some people have about shielding assets from creditors by specifying sources of lawsuits and the author's concept of exploding and imploding liability.
Identify the goals and purposes of asset protection recognizing the objections some people have about shielding assets from creditors by determining asset protection using the primary concepts of insurance, asset placement, and statutory protections.
Identify the ways that insurance and buy-sell agreements can offer asset protection by citing the asset protection elements of homeowner's, automobile, and disability insurance.
Identify the ways that insurance and buy-sell agreements can offer asset protection by specifying the parties under a life insurance contract stating potential reasons for establishing an irrevocable life insurance trust, and.
Identify the ways that insurance and buy-sell agreements can offer asset protection by determining what constitutes entity purchase and cross-purchase buy-sell agreements.
Recognize the asset protection advantages and disadvantages of ownership formats and entities by determining the use of individual ownership and corporate ownership in an asset protection plan including the importance of S corporations and their estate tax planning advantages.
Recognize the asset protection advantages and disadvantages of ownership formats and entities by identifying testamentary trusts, living trusts, and subcategories of trusts recognizing asset protection elements.
Recognize the asset protection advantages and disadvantages of ownership formats and entities by specifying the various types of co-tenancy, citing their asset protection dangers, and several types of partnerships citing their variation from limited liability companies.
Recognize the asset protection advantages and disadvantages of ownership formats and entities by recognizing the unique asset protection qualities of retirement plans, custodianship, and estates as asset protection tools.
Recognize the importance of personal retirement maps to suit client objectives & lifestyles and summarize the basic guidelines of retirement planning, including common pitfalls and misconceptions of retirement.
Identify the requirements to receive Social Security retirement benefits, and determine clients’ retirement benefits following a multi-step calculation process.
Recognize self-employed plans from qualified plans for other business types and owners, and identify the requirements of IRAs, SEPs, and SIMPLEs, and tax-free Roth IRA distributions specifying strategies to maximize plan benefits.
Identify popular ways to receive distributions from a retirement plan or an IRA, specify types of annuities citing their effect on how and when participants receive payments, and determine the tax on annuity payments under the general rule or the simplified general rule.
Determine what constitutes a lump-sum distribution permitting clients to receive special tax treatment on such distributions.
Recognize the key components of rollovers that can be used to reinvest cash or other assets without including the amount in income.
Specify the tax consequences of taking premature distributions stating how to avoid the 10.
Identify the minimum distribution rules and ways to avoid the 50.
Recognize the postponement of income with a nonqualified plan by identifying nonqualified plan advantages including ways to design the plans and specifying the IRS’s position on such arrangements stating the impact of constructive receipt and economic benefit concepts.
Recognize the postponement of income with a nonqualified plan by specifying deferred compensation patterns set forth in R.R. 60-31 citing the taxability of each.
Recognize the postponement of income with a nonqualified plan by determining unfunded and funded plans stating the use of company assets or bookkeeping accounts to avoid employee taxation.
Specify reasons to purchase life insurance and the parties with rights in a life insurance policy.
Recognize the tax treatment of life insurance proceeds by identifying the tax treatment of premiums and lifetime benefits stating several exceptions to the transfer for value rule and specifying variables that influence whether life insurance is taxable for federal estate tax purposes.
Recognize the tax treatment of life insurance proceeds by determining the gift tax associated with transfers of life insurance policies.
Identify the pros and cons of types of life insurance policies to help clients choose a suitable policy.
Specify the reasons for using an irrevocable life insurance trust in an estate plan identifying trust considerations and the differences between deferred and private annuities.
Determine the relationship between home sales and the capital gains rates and specify the rate “baskets” created by the capital gain provisions stating the tax treatment of capital assets in each category.
Recognize the key elements and application of the §121 home sale exclusion and identify safe harbor regulations associated with the home sale exclusion.
Determine what constitutes estate planning for clients by identifying elements of estate tax planning that have remained unchanged by recent legislation.
Determine what constitutes estate planning for clients by recognizing the unlimited marital deduction and its effect on the gross estate of the value of property.
Determine what constitutes estate planning for clients by specifying the applicable exclusion amounts for various years of death.
Specify basic estate planning goals, and recognize the benefits and drawbacks of the primary dispositive plans.
Identify various types of estate trusts and family documents that every taxpayer should consider, and determine the advantages and disadvantages of the former private annuity format.