[WANT2BTXCPA]

Do I need to memorize the income phaseouts for personal exemptions, credits etc?

[Rach0104]

IM taking reg in a couple days and I am stressed about this too. I have tried to remember the major phaseouts that seem emphasized; mom and pop rule, AMT for ind and Corps, but i cant remember the AGI phaseouts for the credits, there are just too many of them. Any advice fellow future CPAs????

[Anonymous]

In my opinion, based off the released AICPA questions in test banks etc. (and since I took my exams 3 years ago, probably most of the questions I saw on my exams are released by now 😛 ), it seems like the exam questions are more focused on “do you know the laws if you have the numbers”, and less on “do you know this number which changes every year”. So, I didn't focus on memorizing lots of phaseouts or anything like that, and I don't think it hurt me particularly in practice or on the exam. Of course, YMMV. But, given that the released questions usually provided that information if I needed it, or there was a way to think through the question to not need it, I didn't find it was worth memorizing.

Now some very basic numbers – like standard deduction and exemption – I had memorized, but that was partially from repeatedly calculating my potential total tax for the year under different scenarios. 😛

[Skynet]

Income phase out usually occurs when guys have girlfriends or wive. The income phases out dramatically during that time. It is then replace d by Credit debt or other debt like a Mortgage : )

[Anonymous]

I am seeing some serious exam disclosure violations again two posts above. Please don't get this whole thing shut down. 🙁

[WANT2BTXCPA]

My apologies. I actually found the answer, when listening to my R2 lecture. In it, Tim states to not get overloaded with memorizing the phaseouts. Just know that anyone with an AGI over 100 is considered “rich” and will start to experience phaseouts. He also mentioned that if you miss 1 question because of not knowing the exact phaseout limits, that's fine. No need to waste brain space memorizing THAT.

[Anonymous]

C9p9a9 – I think my post is the one 2 posts up from yours that you were referencing, and I'm always quite careful about exam disclosure and caution others against it, so I'm genuinely asking – what about my post did you consider to be exam disclosure? I try to state very clearly observations based off of AICPA released questions, and even pointed out that my exam was so long ago that likely all questions from it are released by now, though I didn't specifically say what I did or didn't see on my exam (mostly since I can't remember – I've never been one of those that can leave an exam and remember what was on it), only that I don't think that my approach hurt me on the exam (I passed, and felt fairly confident during the exam). However, if my post appears to contain disclosures, I would appreciate clarity regarding the parts which are a problem, cause even after re-reading, I don't see them.

[waffle_house]

I'm studying for Reg using Becker and I'm not going to stress over phase-out numbers (kind of like I did with BEC and formulas).

@C9p9a9

Serious exam disclosure where? Lol

[Spartans92]

Neither do I.. Disclosure??

BEC- PASS

[Author]

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