User talk:OCNumberz

From TaxAlmanac

EA exam

Hi,

I wanted to answer your questions about the EA exam but didn't want to hijack the mortgage letter thread. I used "Tax Mama" to prepare for the exam. She (the "mama"), uses the Gleim books and computer questions, along with fasttax, and her own website. She also offers web stream real time instruction but I did not opt for that. It was slightly more expensive then just buying the Gleim program, around $900. The fee included all of the books, CDs for the software, acccess to her website and pdf and audio files of the lectures.

To be honest, I did not find the tax mama website very user friendly (from a navigation standpoint, the people themselves are very friendly and supportive. I has just hoped that there would be forums where we could ask questions about stuff we found confusing, bounce ideas off of each other etc) , and the fasttax practice exams had numerous errors in the questions (I mean flat out wrong answers), so the Gleim was the best source of information for me. I also read on this site a lot, and googled for more information on subjects that I still felt weak on.

For Part 1, the questions were very similar to the Gleim practice questions. For part 3 they were nothing like the Gleim, and very technical and legal questions.

Like you, I never memorize the standard deduction, exemption credits or the like for any given year, although I do have a rough idea of the limits and after you do a lot of returns you can't help but be familiar with that kind of information. For the test I did memorize all of that, plus thresholds on IRA deductions, adoption credits and such. But in real life I also use the computations of my software. It is good to know the information though, so you can spot any quirks in the software and can identify if something doesn't look right.

Good luck with your studies.

Mindtrick Linda Mindtrick 02:22, 25 August 2010 (CDT)

Search hints

Maybe you already are aware - but in case not: When you do a search on this site, the discussions at the top of the list are the oldest. There's no "best fit" algorithm like on other search engines. The discussions started most recently are at the bottom of the search results. For best results - expand to "500 views" (or at least 100 - if you have more results than that you might want to add some additional search terms) and read from the bottom, UP.

I'm mentioning this because you just posted to a 2006/2007 discussion on bogus deductions for police officers/firefighters, and there are many newer ones that cover the same ground, and probably more thoroughly.

More Hints and Tips on How to Search on TaxAlmanac. Hope that helps!

Trillium 15:31, 13 September 2010 (CDT)

Visa 1099 reporting link

You're welcome, Chris. I happened to come across it while I was checking into the reporting requirements a little more. It's starting to make a little more sense (more revenue for the credit card companies), but I do think it will cause a lot of problems the first year.Natalie 17:00, 23 September 2010 (CDT)Natalie

Oink

Hi OCN

Perhaps I should have not used the pig. In the early days of TaxAlmanac, WesR, Dennis, I and few others used the pig icon to denote and incorrect or iffy post by someone. I just meant I don't mind being oinked on some of my less than accurate posts. --Solomon 15:47, 28 September 2010 (CDT)

Accounting ?Bookkeeping services

Hi Chris , Yes I am not too far from you and you guessed correctly that I live in Coto De Caza. Occasionaly I have an opportunity to refer small business clients (typically S-Corp ) for accounting bookkeeping services. Would you have any interest ? If so please provide me with your E-Mail address or phone number.

Good to hear you are going for your EA designation . I obtained mine about 2 years ago. I was a CTEC for about 7 years.

Tom Rogers

Keeping issues together

Hi, Chris:

The NOL C/B question you posted here earlier today, being so related to (and in fact a bit duplicative of) your original discussion here: Discussion:Didn’t do proper Carryback Waiver in 2008; have NOL to Waiver in 2009, seemed like it could cause some confusion since both of the discussions are about the same issue, and both would be active at the same time.

What we find, typically, is that people start to post to one discussion without having seen the other, and you lose the benefit of having all responses build on those that came prior.

Therefore, I've transferred your question, and the response you'd received from nightsnorkeler, over to your original discussion and linked the two back and forth. I'm hopeful that'll avoid any cross-posting and keep things flowing logically.

Trillium 12:49, 12 October 2010 (CDT)

Got Your Message

Hi Chris. I got your message about the EA Review Complete Book. Thanks for purchasing it. I rarely get to talk to any of my buyers because my company does not retail directly. I still have some free review/proof copies of the EA workbook if you agree to leave a review on Amazon (they are specifically for book reviewers). Just contact me though my website if you are interested. Tax Writer Tax Writer 05:39, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Congrats!

Congrats on part 1! I wanted to let you know I'll be moving your discussion in a little while, over to the Practice Management Forum with the other licensing/registration discussions. I'll wait a while and do it later tonight; maybe TaxWriter will be back online by then (although I actually think she browses via the "all topics" forum, so she'll be bound to see it either way). That way when the technical tax people are back in the morning, you won't get any of those "why is this in the tax forum, it's not a tax question" curmudgeonly posts.

You'll still be able to get to your discussion via the "my contributions" link no matter where it is, forum-wise.

Trillium 05:40, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

That forum has a lot of sole practitioner tax pros

It's the practice management/business growth forum, and it has all the discussions about licensing, registration, CPE, managing clients, efiling issues, all the PTIN/EFIN/ERO stuff, setting up an office (software, scanners, printers), and then lots of discussions about how to bring in clients.

There is a lot of overlap on the user names. Some users only ever use the tax forum (and they're the vocal majority that wanted a separate place for the practice management/business growth forum so that they wouldn't be mixed in with the technical tax issues), and some only ever use the pr mgt/bus gr forum (the vocal minority that didn't want to have to read yucky tax stuff when all they were interested in was running and growing their practice). But there are those who like both kinds of questions, so you'll find enough familiar names to feel at home, there, I'd imagine. Give it a try once you've mastered the EA exams! And congrats again on part 1.

Trillium 17:49, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

From

I'm from Georgia. I haven't really been married for 40 years but I couldn't resist a comment on that original post. lol. I'm not coming by much now because I know everyone is busy with tax season but I'll throw in a few comments from time to time to stir things up. Take care! CrowJD 03:33, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

It's more than I can handle

I can hardly keep up with demand at this point. The ASGTP phone has been ringing off the hook.  :) CrowJD 18:11, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

CAF/EA

Chris,

Good luck with Part 2 of the SEE. That one took the longest for me to study, but it I was glad to learn all the additional information. Studying for the EA (all three parts) provided me a great foundation of tax knowledge. Since passing the last part, I've been working on a variety of continuing education courses/books on a variety of additional tax topics. NATP has some really good self-study books once you finish with the last test.

Let me know if you have any other questions for me. It seems like I am in a similar situation to you (just starting out with taxes, but love to learn more), so I may have already run into an issue you encounter.

MilTaxEA 01:57, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

OC

OC, I'm not taking the EA exam. That doesn't mean I might not have posted that I was. lol.

You sure you don't have me confused with another about the EA exam? Take care. CrowJD 02:02, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

Anything

I'm capable of saying anything. Honestly, I don't know much tax though sometimes I'll argue one of the finer points of the law. CrowJD 02:11, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

The latter

No problem. The latter part of that was not by me. Sometimes people will not put the four tilde and a message will get added on to another (or it will seem to be added on).CrowJD 02:18, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

I'd never

I'd never pass the EA exam even if I studied. I couldn't stand to study tax that much.  :)

I tracked it down by carefully looking at the history. That was actually posted by "Taxes & GTL". I am not familiar with them so I don't know if they ever passed Part I.

Talk to you later. Take care. CrowJD 02:23, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

My tingler tingled...

When you mentioned "financial planner" and "buy an annuity" in the same paragraph, my tingler started to tingle. The "financial planner" should be required to do a really really good job proving that borrowing money to buy an annuity is a good idea. Maybe they should be considering whether buying an annuity is a good idea at all...

Just my experience.

Spell Czech

Email notification

Hi, Chris - I got your note about the email notification issues, but I'm afraid I don't have any info on that. That system has been notoriously glitchy ever since I started posting here, and I don't really remember seeing any concrete advice for the users. You could consider leaving a note on Tim Doyle's talk page, as he has more direct access to the system and might be able to make a recommendation.

Trillium 23:14, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you, Chris. Funny, I just did that last week, and wondered if anyone would see it! Well, I'm not sure it's getting any easier. You just sort of get used to it, perhaps. But God is faithful, prayers work since we still stand and walk along. Thanks for your encouragement. Jeff

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Be sure to join the NAEA. Kevinh5

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