[jeff]

Welcome to the Q2 2017 CPA Exam Study Group for REG. 🙂

[famh110]

@Teal..i know, its very detailed which is probably a good thing! i have printed it and keep a tally of how it corresponds to the Becker chapters even though I am pretty certain Becker ensured that as well! 🙂 The statement that makes me really mad is this “The tasks in the blueprints are representative and are not intended to be (nor should they be viewed as) an all-inclusive list of tasks that may be tested on the Exam It also should be noted that the number of tasks associated with a particular content group or topic is not indicative of the extent such content group, topic or related skill level will be assessed on the Exam …”(AICPA). Why do they do this?!!

[Floreat]

@RE2PECT: Thanks for the words of advice. After doing an intensive study session today, I think I may be getting the hang of things. I'm glad Gleim served you well for REG. I'm hoping it does the same for me. And congratulations on your CPA victory!

For others who are considering Gleim I can say that their SIMS were near identical to what I saw for AUD & FAR. The MCQ's are were excellent practice, too. I'm inclined to say REG will follow suit.

FAR: 80 (10/28/2016)
AUD: 85 (2/6/2017)
REG: DSIT (Dragon Slayer in Training) (5/2017)
BEC: DSIW (Dragon Slayer in Waiting) (7/2017)

[jack yassa]

@Jalls

How're you gonna function regarding the new Exam changes?

[CPA788]

@teal – I like the Blueprints. I'm not hyper focusing on them, but it helps recalibrate and remind you where to focus. Esp since you and I are both retaking – it helped break down the new category weights. At the end of the day, what I do is just write out the 5 categories and their over all %s and move on. Don't get too hung up in the Blueprints after reviewing a time or two.

@arshipman – Many people have made it through REG with only Becker. I am not one of them, but I'm also struggling more than the average bear on REG. I don't think you need to buy new materials for your retake, but focus on your weak points. For me, I have never gotten property and entity tax mastered, and it has been my downfall every time. Step back from the material and try to really learn the tax processes, forms, etc. For me, learning the flow of a partnership return to schedule k to k-1, to the 1040 is an example of how I'm approaching my retake. Yes my 5th attempt don't judge 🙂 Also, don't just focus on your weak points, always do a full review of all material, in case that wasn't assumed.

BEC - 74, 77
FAR - 72, 71 (retake 7/29)
REG - 69
AUD - Q4 '16

CA Candidate

[Stryker]

73 on REG 3/10. Damn. Retake April 11th. I still don't have the email explaining what I did well / didn't do well on for the first exam.

For BEC I used Becker + Ninja and for REG I just went with Becker. Already bought the MCQ and notes haha. I learned my lesson.

[thelatebloomer]

I would suggest anyone using Ninja MCQ to restrict new questions to the most important areas on the 2017 exam. “Federal Tax Process, Procedures, Accounting, and Planning” will not be on the exam, and Business Law will only be 10-20%, whereas it represents 39% (736/1892) of the total Ninja questions. I noticed I was getting crushed in these areas because the updated CPAexcel materials have removed a lot of this. It was a little discouraging, but I slogged through it. Now with over 65% of the questions done, I'm excluding all business law questions until I get through everything else, and my average score is going up a ton because I'm actually getting questions relevant to the material I've studied. If I were to do it over again, I would exclude Negotiable Instruments/Commercial Paper and Sales Law from the b-law questions from the beginning. Just a heads-up.

[Wanna_B_TXCPA2014]

I posted this as its own topic not sure of the response it will get so I am posting in here too

Corporations

Shareholder
Adjs basis of transferred prop
+ gain recognized
-boot received

Corporation
Transferor’s adj basis
+gain recognized to transferor

S-Corps

Shareholder basis
+Increased for all income items
-decreased for distributions that are excluded from gross income
-decreased for non-deductible, non-capital items
-decreased for deductible expenses and loses

Partnerships

Partner

Beginning capital account
*Cash
*FMV Services
*NBV asset-liability

plus % of All income
*ordinary
*capital
*tax free

(less) % of all losses
*may take partnership loss as a tax deduction up to basis

(less withdrawals)
*Non taxable
*reduce by adjs basis of property; can not go past $0.00

+% of recourse liabilities

Year End Basis

Partnership Basis
*NBV or Debt assumed if greater
Adjs basis of asset sold
Purchased property basis= cost
+capital improvements
-accumulated depreciation

Gift property basis
Donor’s rollover basis
Exception: lower FMV at date of gift
Sell higher- gain from donor basis
Sell lower- FMV loss
Sell between- No gain or loss

Inherited property basis
Date of death FMV= basis
Alternative Valuation date
*Distribution date
*6 months after death or distribution
Property automatically considered long term

Like Kind Exchange when boot received
Adjs basis of the property given up
+gain recognized
-boot received
+boot paid

[thelatebloomer]

@Wanna_B_TXCPA2014: Great summary of some of the critical formulas. I feel that if you can get all of these property transaction basics down you can cover a lot of ground. NBV = adjusted basis, correct?

[thelatebloomer]

Oh nevermind, I see you listed them separately.

[Teal]

I can't remember which I am supposed to be looking at on the NINJA MCQ's. The average score or the average trending score? Thanks!

FAR (66,68) Aug 26
REG (66) July 25
AUD (66) December 1st
BEC - October 3rd

[thelatebloomer]

@Teal: I guess it really matters what information you're trying to get from it. Average score measures how well you've done overall, while average trending score looks at a more recent and narrower range of results to determine your trend. I would love to know how the trend is calculated, because I've seen it swing hard in different directions very frequently. I guess the idea is that as you do questions, you will get more familiar with the material and you should be trending higher than where you did when you started doing questions. And with that logic, it should only matter where you're trending before you take your exam. That's why Jeff says that if you're trending in the 80s in the review phase, you have a very high chance of passing. But if you had a really low average score and then you re-did the questions so many times that you juiced your trend way up, that trend may just be due to memorizing questions. Whereas if you had an average score in the low 70s, but you only did 25% of the questions and your trending wasn't much higher than your average, I would argue you will probably do better than the one in the previous example. However, just being exposed to more questions, regardless of your score, seems to increase your likelihood of passing as well. The only thing I have to go on is with BEC I think I did about 70% of the questions, selecting new questions, and I averaged in the high 60s and trended in the 70s, while passing with an 88. In that case I had done all of the CPAExcel questions before I started Ninja.

[Eaglebig4]

any advice on the new format?

[Teal]

@thelatebloomer thank you for the detail!! that helps so much! 🙂

FAR (66,68) Aug 26
REG (66) July 25
AUD (66) December 1st
BEC - October 3rd

[Teal]

Hi everyone-

Does anyone know if the dividends in this situation are not separately stated because they are dividends distributed to the shareholder and not dividends received by the s corp?

Carson owned 40% of the outstanding stock of a C corporation. During a tax year, the corporation reported $400,000 in taxable income and distributed a total of $70,000 in cash dividends to its shareholders. Carson accurately reported $28,000 in gross income on Carson's individual tax return. If the corporation had been an S corporation and the distributions to the owners had been proportionate, how much income would Carson have reported on Carson's individual return?

A.
$28,000

B.
$132,000

C.
$160,000 – correct answer

D.
$188,000

Explanation:
Shareholders in C corporation stock report as income their percentage ownership multiplied by the dividends that are distributed. It does not matter how much taxable income the C corporation reports.

Shareholders in an S corporation report as income their percentage ownership multiplied by the taxable income and separately stated items for the S corporation. There are no separately stated items, so Carson would report $160,000 ($400,000 × 0.40) as his share of the S corporation's taxable income.

FAR (66,68) Aug 26
REG (66) July 25
AUD (66) December 1st
BEC - October 3rd

[CPA788]

@thelatebloomer – Your advice on weights is a little contradictory to what's in the blueprints. I keep those handy for the purpose you are trying to convey, of maximizing time. Tax Procedures are definitely still tested, don't over look those. Content areas copy pasted directly from the 2017 blueprints:

Content Area Allocation Weight
I. Ethics, Professional Responsibilities and Federal Tax Procedures 10–20%
II. Business Law 10–20%
III. Federal Taxation of Property Transactions 12–22%
IV. Federal Taxation of Individuals 15–25%
V. Federal Taxation of Entities 28–38%

BEC - 74, 77
FAR - 72, 71 (retake 7/29)
REG - 69
AUD - Q4 '16

CA Candidate

[Author]

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