[bwknight]

First time poster here.

The partners at a CPA firm offered me a job starting in November or December. A couple of people are leaving then. I graduated 3 years ago and I don’t remember Tax at all.

I want to study some tax to prepare for the job. I plan on taking REG in October but I figure I better learn more than what’s in the REG exam to prepare for the job.

I have only taken two tax classes and I don’t have any of those textbooks anymore. Any advice to study TAX (Individual and Corporate)?

[Anonymous]

You will probably be preparing a lot of 1040s and 1120s so familiarize yourself with those forms and the K-1 as well. Watch youtube videos and do some general research. Most likely you will mostly be doing data entry type work (inputting figures from source documents into the tax software) and not much analyzing or research. I would say focus on building relationships with your employer and coworkers as well, many of these positions will let you go after tax season.

[TommyTheCat]

HR Block offers a pretty decent tax course, I've heard of some smaller firms sending their new hires to it as a way to build a solid foundation for 1040 filings. Don't tell them you are already on board with another firm, just indicate you have an interest in tax and getting into the tax prep world and they'll be all about it. I have a few friends that went this route and they learned a LOT in a really short period of time. You should be able to complete their course before you start in Nov if you get into one in the next few weeks.

Good luck with your career.

[ryan.andrew6]

I assume the firm knows you have no tax experience? I don't think any firm is going to expect someone with only a college tax class or two to not require some serious training so you probably don't need to do too much studying. Any larger firm sends all of their associates to a tax course right out of school – they don't expect much! You are much better off reviewing all of the basic forms and related schedules (1040, 1065, 1120S, etc) that they probably didn't cover in school (if it was anything like mine), this will help you more that reviewing your tax class materials.

I started preparing taxes when I was still in high school and only took my first college tax class during my third season. Nothing we learned would have helped me the first few years as it was mostly about calculating tax versus preparing returns and nothing about planning or special circumstances.

The on-the-job experience will be more helpful than anything. You can try an HR Block course, but I've seen the work Block preparers do…

[TommyTheCat]

have you taken the HR block course ryan?

The course that they put you through and the quality of work done by HR block employees are two entirely different things.

Point being the original poster was asking for guidance on ways to brush up or study tax ahead of a tax position. The HR block course covers a TON that would be helpful going in to this gig.

Check the course out before you knock it.

[IwannabeaCPA2017]

A lot of times you have prior year's return to follow. I would say mainly its about working on the work document such as an M-1 or state work paper like state apportionment. Of course it is important to have an understanding on those area but to be honest the REG exam doesn't cover much in depth on these. It is more about the actual work experience that would help. Knowing what is deductible or non-deductible only helps so much. But it def will be good to have a basis knowledge going in the job! Best of luck!

[Author]

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