[Lin]

Hi,
Trying to pick my last elective, went back to school for my 5th year after getting a finance degree 30 years ago. I need 2 more classes to be a CPA exam candidate, one will be audit (required), the other is an elective. I work as a bookkeeper in public accounting, so I thought Taxation of Businesses would help at work. But recently a professor told me many Advanced topics are on the CPA and would be better prep. I have already taken Govn’t and Non Profit, which I believe is a component of Advanced.
So not sure what way to go- or does it even matter with a good CPA review course??

Thanks!

[monikernc]

My background is similar to yours. I think the corporate/business tax will be helpful but I had 3 semesters of intermediate accounting that were essential to passing FAR and AUD on first attempts. I wonder if your advanced would be my third semester of intermediate.

FAR 7/25/15 76!
AUD 10/30/15 93
BEC 2/27/16 82
REG 5/23/16 88!
Ninja Book and MCQ and the forum - all the way!!!
and a little thing i like to call, time and effort!
if you want things to change, you have to do something different

[Lin]

My school requires Intermediate I and II, and Intermediate III is an elective that is rarely offered. So I've only had Intermediate I and II. Advanced is “Accounting for business combinations, preparation of consolidated financial statements, home office/branch relationships, foreign operations and transactions, partnerships.”
So probably pretty important for FAR?

[Vanquished]

I'd take whichever one you'll be taking the exam for first.

Both FAR and REG seem to change sort of frequently so your specifics may not translate from course to exam. Honestly, FAR was harder than anything I did in school but I used Becker and they basically teach it to you all the way through.

[Recked]

I'd probably recommend Advanced over Tax of Business.
Your REG review course should do a decent job of teaching you taxation, and in my opinion REG is far less material than FAR, so I'd spend the pick Advanced to get more exposure to the advanced topics you might see on FAR.
Or pick the one that interests you more.

[Mike J]

Actually, I think the tax class would be more useful.

When I ran through my undergraduate classes I didn't really grasp individual Taxation until I did a stint with VITA. If I recall correctly, I think Recked also studied for the EA while studying for REG. SO, I'd imagine a more formal class setting would have been more beneficial.

Also, I feel like as an entry-level or semi-senior, the chance of seeing tax issues is a lot higher than being responsible for acquisitions and foreign translations.

NINJA materials were pretty solid for acquisitions and foreign translations. Especially for the former, you could do a lot of you know debits and credits COLD.

[Author]

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