[jeff]

Welcome to the Q4 2016 CPA Exam Study Group for REG.

If this is your first post in the study group – please post your target exam date (just the time frame to preserve your anonymity), and your past history with this exam (optional, of course).

[jpowell31]

can you put the whole question?

[jonm857]

I'll try to dig it up when I get back on tax. Reg_Slayer must've moved on. I'm treading water in UCC sales at the moment.

B - 81
A - 87
R - 73
F - July 5th

[jpowell31]

yep I'm head down trying to read all of chapter 8 in becker and do 50 more Ninja questions before I'm done today. I still have 1200 left (this second round) and want to do them all before my exam so i'll be aiming to do 150 tomorrow and 75 each weekday. I'm off work the week after next so 100 questions a day with SIMS and rewriting notes. I hope it's enough. it's a beaUTIFUL day outside. sigh.

[jonm857]

You will knock it out of the park. Have you taken REG before? My last scores were a joke. I got stronger in three MCQ categories, and comparable in the other three, but my SIMS were weaker. Final score: 73. The sims are stupid hard for REG. They trip me up every single time.

B - 81
A - 87
R - 73
F - July 5th

[jpowell31]

yeah I took it last month. I felt over prepared and BOMBED. I got a 66! that doesn't say, nearly had it…that says there are major holes and yet I feel so good about most of this stuff.. my testlets never got harder. I got maybe 11 calcs the whole MCQ and 3 of them were the SAME. I got theory I hadn't seen before and of course the tricky worded ones where you could say why one option was right or another but unfortunately you have to pick one. I definitely would've said it wasn't split tax and bus law. I got a LOT of theory from nowhere. SIMs were brutal and time consuming. one was on such BS detail that's barely covered anywhere and two others I'm still trying to find the answers to. seriously. I don't understand how to answer them and am scared AL was useless but mostly just not enough time (could use for some lines/items in a multi part question but not all). i'll get them again knowing I had a chance to look it up.
I got comparable on everything but one area and weaker on SIMs. those reports never make any sense.

[jonm857]

I feel your pain. I'm almost tempted to buy Ninja MCQs just for the extra exposure to REG sims. The authoritative literate is pretty useless in my opinion under time constraints. The IRC is so technically written that it's sometimes too hard to understand what's actually being said. Very tough………

Riddle me this, why does UCC Sales suck so bad? Passing of title is just annoying.

B - 81
A - 87
R - 73
F - July 5th

[jpowell31]

so effing annoying. we work with lawyers/compliance officers and would definitely defer to their judgment…there's almost no reason we need to know as accountants when some stupid thing has passed title and when an agent effed up and is liable. having a general understanding for these things is important, sure, but it's where they place the trickiest nuggets and it's mostly useless in our profession.

[Reg_Slayer]

Kant, a cash-basis individual, owns and operates an office building. Kant received the following payments during the current year:
Current rents $ 30,000
Advance rents for the next year 10,000
Security deposits held in a segregated account 5,000
Lease cancellation payments 15,000

What amount is included in gross income?
a. $55,000

Ok that is easy. But Why does the renal income rule of 25 max, recuded by 50% agi over 100 not apply here?

[jonm857]

@Reg_Slayer

I think you are you referring to passive LOSSES having a maximum of $25,000 against ordinary income IF AGI is b/w $100,000 and $150,000? I don't know if there's a rule that say $25,000 rental INCOME is the maximum when AGI is b/w $100,000 and $150,000.

In this problem, they don't give you any info about losses. It's all income on schedule E and reported on the 1040 to get total gross income.

B - 81
A - 87
R - 73
F - July 5th

[jpowell31]

there's another question that is similar with regard to medical expenses it gives you but the options that would include the AGI limitation are not even an option. it's annoying that some questions are very specific (in saying things like “ignore limitations” or “before the limitation)” whereas some you just have to guess. I wish I had a detail of MCQ topics to just click on an example every time you needed it. ugh

[Reg_Slayer]

@jon

Yes, thank you for that. I was mixing up “passive income” with “rental income”. Just becuase it is rental, does not mean it is passive, but rental income could be passive.

@jpowell

it was from a becker sim in the 2nd set of r1.

[jpowell31]

oh I didn't even notice…good point Jon. the brains are starting to fry for the day. where's my whiskey?

[jpowell31]

I only have the becker book (borrowed for my retake) I have Ninja (10 point) MCQ/SIMs

[jonm857]

@Reg_Slayer

I need to re-work those questions because I'm starting to confuse myself on this. The 50% reduction is not how I'm used to calculating the deduction.

For example, if my AGI is $110,000, then I just take 10,000 (the excess over $100,000) divided by 50,000 (the max ceiling for the deduction, or $150,000) = 0.2
Then I multiply that by $25,000 (the max deduction) = $5,000

This means that $5,000 is phased out, and $20,000 of the passive loss can be deducted.

Now my next question is… is that $20,000 deductible against ordinary income? Or does it have to reduce specifically passive income.

B - 81
A - 87
R - 73
F - July 5th

[jonm857]

Actually you end up with the same answer either way.

B - 81
A - 87
R - 73
F - July 5th

[Author]

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