This course integrates federal taxation with retirement planning. The course will examine tax and savings strategies related to determining retirement income needs, wealth building, capital preservation, and estate distribution. The result is a unified explanation of tax-economics that will permit the tax professional to locate, analyze, and solve financial aspects of retirement. Designed to improve the quality of services to clients and the profitability of engagements, the course projects the accountant into the world of retirement planning.
Learning Objectives
- Identify short-term financial goals and investment purposes, recognize the importance of defining, listing and prioritizing realistic goals noting how investing allocation changes with age.
- Identify money management noting income types, recognize causes of increased taxable income for itemizing taxpayers, and specify taxable income types and their proper reporting.
- Identify spending habits noting how to design a budget to increase discretionary income, determine net worth using a balance sheet, and select assets and liabilities for an inventory on which to base financial goals.
- Identify the benefits of tax deferral, recall the former use of tax deferral under 1034, and cite the tax deferral advantage under 1031 noting its elements.
- Identify tax credits noting qualified computational expenses, limitations and restrictions.
- Recognize formats for income splitting, determine the tax treatment of employee and self-employed business expenses particularly home-office expenses noting the two non-exclusive use exceptions and the income limitation, cite changes made to home office deduction under TRA '97, and recognize the ability of self-employeds to make annual deductible contributions to a Keogh plan.
- Determine how to value fringe benefits according to IRS regulations, identify how to comply with ERISA requirements, specify the proper reporting of reimbursed and unreimbursed business expenses under accountable and nonaccountable plans, determine the substantiation of auto expenses using a fixed and variable rate, and specify eligible retirement benefits exempt from social security taxes.
- Determine the differences between "stepped-up basis" and repealed "modified carryover basis" for estate tax purposes.
- Recognize the importance of creditor types associated with asset protection and fraudulent.
Major Topics
- Financial Tax Planning
- Building an Estate
- Preservation of Wealth
- Deferral
- Reduction
- Income Splitting
- Elimination
- Estate Planning
- Asset Protection
