[jeff]

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Post by Another71.

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[BEACPA]

Has anyone struggled with C corporations? This section has been a nightmare for me and I haven't even began the MCQs yet. I cringe at the thought of doing the MCQs. I listened to the Becker lecture and just finished reading through the text, but it's a lot to comprehend. Does anyone have any suggestions while studying C corps? Thank you in advance!

FAR - 2/28/14 PASS Praise be to God!
AUD - 7/5/14 PASS Praise be to God!
BEC - 11/29/14PASS Praise be to God!
REG - 2/28/14 PASS Praise be to God!

[The_AmYam]

Mika – are you using Becker, if so open your book to page R3-31 and look at that along w/ this explanation, hopefully it will help the question above make sense.

You calculate your Gross AMT. The only credit allowed for corps is foreign tax credit, so you subtract that. then after that, you subtract your regular liability to get your alternative minimum tax.

Think of it as calculating the excess over what you would owe regularly.

REG - 81
FAR - 79
AUD - 94
BEC - OCT 15

[Gabe]

THANKS The_amyam! do you have any AMT questions for individuals?

So for corps…..

PRE ACE adjustments= PMS really?

Percentage of completion

MACRS 150/200

SL Depreciation

Real estate '86-99

Adjustments to arrive at AMTI= MOLD

Municipal bonds

Org expenditures

Life insurance proceeds

DRD- 70%

tax rate= 20%

Correct?

CPA, CFE
CISA- Experience will be completed by August 2016

[Gabe]

Cranking out some BLAW this afternoon…

Under the Negotiable Instruments Article of the U.C.C. (Article 3), an instrument will be precluded from being negotiable if the instrument:

A.

fails to state the place of payment.

B.

is made subject to another agreement.

C.

fails to state the underlying consideration.

D. is undated.

Answer is B. Can someone give me a real life example of “made subject to another agreement.” I have no idea what that means.

CPA, CFE
CISA- Experience will be completed by August 2016

[The_AmYam]

just finished a practice exam – ugh! I need to work on sims and brush up on corp and what goes on the k/k1's it looks like.

Basically the answer above is not payable at a definite time, since that agreement has to happen first before this negotiable instrument can happen. i don't think it really matters what the other agreement is. but an example would be

“pay to the order of Gabe on Another 71, once he completes his obligation to deliver 100 widgets to The_AmYam per their contract dated 1/10/2015.”

REG - 81
FAR - 79
AUD - 94
BEC - OCT 15

[Gabe]

Thanks @the_amyam! Did you do a Becker exam? From the REG experience thread people seem to be harping on Corp taxes and BLAW, so that's kind of what I am focusing on…well someone said, know Taxes and Blaw- so basically everything lol.

CPA, CFE
CISA- Experience will be completed by August 2016

[The_AmYam]

gabe – I do have individual AMT questions. Will post once I'm done doing some review.

your AMT question above isn't 100% correct… there are other things to consider but probably not likely to actually see. but just in case I'd know all of them. (And you forgot an extra D in your MOLDD)

Corporations:

Adjustments: LID

LT contracts/Installment Sale dealers/Depreciation adjustments

Preferences: PPP

Percent depletion

private activity bonds

pre-87 ACRS depr

then after that, your ACE adjustments: MOLDD

Muni interest income

Organizational expenses

Life ins on key employees

Diff btw AMT and ACE depr

DRD (70%)

Don't forget there are 2 steps to your ACE calc:

Step 1 – determine your ACE (the MOLDD step above)

Step 2 – calc the ACE adjustment

ACE

-AMTI

=Difference

x .75

= ACE Adj (*** can be negative***)

I have a study notebook. I opened to 2 blank pages – on the left side I wrote the long calc for corporate plus misc notes, on the right side I have LID/PPP/MOLDD/ACE calc steps listed out, and on the back side of that page the AMT exemption calc. and i have a little tab to refer to this page.

writing it out will really help remember it.

REG - 81
FAR - 79
AUD - 94
BEC - OCT 15

[Gabe]

@am- can you write out your notes/calcs for individuals as well?

CPA, CFE
CISA- Experience will be completed by August 2016

[The_AmYam]

haha – I did a Wiley exam. About to do a becker one next. I get thru the MCQ's in < 15mins per testlet but right now I'm bombing the sims, some for stupid reasons. but the partnership/schedule k/k1 killed me so i really need to go study that page in the becker book i guess.

I strongly recommend that you know Ch. 3 inside and out. Again, just based off of the CSO, Corporate tax/partnerships/estates/etc can be up to 25% of your exam. business law up to 21%. Individuals 19%, property transactions 16%.

I'm having the hardest time with the nuances of Corp treatments, so I'm focusing my efforts there. The Blaw stuff is really just a lot of memorization, so if you can get that down (make notecards) then you'll be alright.

To me personally, I feel like the sims are probably going to me more tax involved than law, where there's more room for error just due to the nature of computations.

Everyone has their own approach – that's mine.

Last week I spent 5 hrs Sat/5 hrs Sun and lots of time during work doing MCQ's so I got caught up in my review to where I needed to be. this last week I'm hitting my deficient areas hard/looking at the last few things I know i need to review. thankfully I have bosses who don't care for these 2 weeks before my test that I study during work hours as long as my work gets done.

REG - 81
FAR - 79
AUD - 94
BEC - OCT 15

[Gabe]

Today I am going over BLAW then focusing my efforts on Ch3. Luckily, I get a K-1 every year so I was kind of already familiar with it. I have been printing out some of the tax forms that I don't understand and that has helped a lot- seeing how everything flows through (especially for k-1)

CPA, CFE
CISA- Experience will be completed by August 2016

[step73121]

Just took my first Becker practice test. Ended up getting a 75 on the button after calculating the score. This is after I've been averaging a 90 on the progress tests and been doing well on the sims. I'm happy that I “passed” but feel terrible in the fact that my test is Friday and I feel even less prepared than I've ever felt before.

REG (1/16/15): 82
FAR (5/28/15): 78
AUD (8/20/15): 85
BEC (10/8/15): 82

[The_AmYam]

haha I can write out what I would have if I had written them. I seem to remember individual AMT better than corp but here you go:

refer to R2-45 for the overview (they combine adjustments/itemized as “adjustments” – i break it out separately while studying)

Adjustments: PANIC (+/-) **note that some of these overlap w/ corporate*

PAL add back

Accelerated depr adj

NOL recomputed

installment method not allowed

contracts (LT)

Itemized: TIMME (always + to income)

tax refund add back

interest add back (home unless used to buy/build/improve/investment recalc)

medical expenses: must be > 10% (remember if 65 you only need 7.5% for regular tax so theres your diff)

misc deductions (2%) – add back

exemptions – add back personal exemptions/std deductions

Preferences:

PPP – same as corp above

Exemption – make notecards w/ the calculation for single/MFS/MFJ

Single – 52,800/117,300

MFJ – 82,100/156,500

MFS – 41,050/78,250 (<– this is half mfj so just remember single/mfj/half of mfj youll be fine)

Exemption calc MFJ:

AMTI

-156,500

= EXCESS

X .25

=reduction

82,100

-reduction

=amt exemption

REG - 81
FAR - 79
AUD - 94
BEC - OCT 15

[The_AmYam]

individual AMT credits: FACCE

Foreign

Adoption

Child

Contribs to retirement (or “crotchety” if you want to remember child/crotchety as in young/old – baby/retirement) 😛

Earned income

REG - 81
FAR - 79
AUD - 94
BEC - OCT 15

[The_AmYam]

your permanent differences for Individual AMT:

PP TIMME

priv. activity bond interest

percent depletion

and TIMME per above.

if AMT paid b/c of these items, it's never recovered.

REG - 81
FAR - 79
AUD - 94
BEC - OCT 15

[The_AmYam]

wiley practice exam: Overall Score : 74.5% in 1:10:54

STEP73121 don't let your score freak you out – you can do it. I just got a 75 and I'm consistently getting 90's on MCQ. I just bombed the sims lol. … need to review. I think I remember doing well and doing a practice test before I took REG the last time, and I passed it then… so don't worry. You know what you know. Brush up where you need to for the last few days, and Thursday take it easy.

you can do it! I'm sitting Saturday. I think Gabe is Sunday? sooooooooo ready to get it over with.

REG - 81
FAR - 79
AUD - 94
BEC - OCT 15

[Author]

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