Paging Poodlebrain - Personal Tax Planning Literature (Posted on 12/3/12 at 10:52 am)
Looking for some good resources/literature for basic individual tax planning. I am not averse to going the professional route, but also want to increase my knowledge base on personal taxation.
I am actually a CPA; although tax-illiterate as far as CPAs go.
Poodlebrain LSU Fan Way Right of Rex Member since Jan 2004 12895 posts Online
re: Paging Poodlebrain - Personal Tax Planning Literature (Posted on 12/3/12 at 2:59 pm to Duck)
I've never had any sort of tax planning guides in my career. It's been mostly accumulated knowledge. I joined the AICPA Tax Section, and I get regular updates on tax developments without having to subscribe to more expensive services. Staying current requires regular reading.
I guess you could start with a Master Tax Guide. It has sections on how to determine taxable income for individuals and corporations as well as checklists of items of income and deductions to consider in your planning. The checklists are pretty comprehensive, so most of the items won't apply. An alternative is to get a 1040 preparation checklist and use it as a guide of things to consider. This will cover the items to consider, or at least give you a starting point.
Then you could invest in some tax planning software to prepare actual plans. Most of the packages are fully compatible with the popular tax return preparation software, so you can transfer information from one to the other to improve efficiency.
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