[johnny1]

I take my final section (REG) next week after passing the prior three using Becker. This will be my first attempt at REG. Now – with the new tax law being tested beginning in Q1 2019, I am expecting that the exam would NOT test us on any of the prior tax law rules at all (i.e. Alimony paid deductible or not). This seems to be the case per the below:

New Tax Law Testing in 2019 (February 1, 2018) – The AICPA Board of Examiners (BOE) recently approved January 1, 2019 (19Q1) as the date on which content related to the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (Public Law No. 115-97 An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018) will be eligible for testing on the Uniform CPA Examination (the Exam).

The Exam will continue to test candidates on the tax laws and regulations in effect before the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act through the 18Q4 test window ending on December 10, 2018. The Exam’s Authoritative Literature will continue to include (through December 10, 2018) the Internal Revenue Code as published before the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. In accordance with existing policy, there will be a simultaneous introduction of content related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and removal of content related to the previous tax law.

No provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including those retroactive to periods before December 31, 2017, will be eligible for testing until January 1, 2019.

However, as I am going through the Becker study materials, I am getting so damn frustrated. The MCQ continues to spit out questions that obviously relate to the pre-2018 tax law (“Bob finalized his divorce agreement in 2016…” of which the correct answer relates to the pre-2018 tax law). These questions obviously do not help me out whatsoever, so why is Becker continuing to test it?

Which is it? Will pre-2018 tax rules be potentially tested in the 2019 sections? Has anyone taken the 2019 REG section and can chime in?