As noted in the title, I have worked on the tax side of the public accounting business for over twenty years. The part not in the title is that I am the second generation of my family to work in public accounting. My father has been in the business for over forty years. Therefore, between the two of us, we have seen decades of tax and audit staff passing and failing the exam. Although there are plenty of places to learn about the subject matter of each exam section, I wanted to pass along a few points you might not hear from other people. [click to keep reading….]
Accounting Majors: The Three Tax Books Used by CPA Firms Every Day that Colleges Do Not Give You
College tax textbooks do provide good information. But they are rarely used in a public accounting firm’s tax department. The reason is that these books are usually designed to discuss basic tax theory rather than to discuss the day-to-day items that you will run into in a typical public accounting tax practice. Therefore, a tax textbook has the luxury of spending several chapters discussing tax reorganizations even if you might not see one for the first several years of your career (if at all).
But in the real world, you want practical tax information that is easily accessed. You want to know what specific types of medical expenses are deductible on Form 1040 Schedule A or real estate expenses on Form 1040 Schedule E. Yes, there are times when you want to research a difficult topics. But on most occasions, the issue of whether an item is deductible or includible in income has already been decided. You only need to find the answer (in plain easy to read English).
As a result, there are three tax books that have been created to solve this problem that are used daily in a public accounting firm’s tax department. [click to keep reading…]