CTEC’s renewal window is quickly coming to an end on October 31st.  Do you have all your continuing education requirements completed? If not, we are here to help with any last minute courses you may need to complete your registration.

We will be submitting completed courses daily from now until our last submission on October 31st at 8PM PST.  Below are all our courses that meet the CTEC 20 Hrs of continuing education requirement.

*Pro Tip: Our Unlimited Membership is good for 1 year, so you could get this year and next years education completed for the price of one.

5 Hours California State Tax Law

• • California Registered Domestic Partners (2hrs)
  • Form 540 CA California Adjustments (1hr)
  • Determining California Resident Status and Income (1hr)
  • CA Military Personnel (1hr)

10 hours Federal Tax Law

• • Selling Rental Real Estate (1hr)
  • Tax Issues for Divorced or Separated Individual (2hrs)
  • Charitable Contributions Form 1040 Schedule A (2hrs)
  • Form 1040 Schedule A: Medical and Dental Expenses (1hr)
  • Taxes Form 104 Schedule A (1hr)
  • Travel Entertainment Gift and Transportation Expenses (2hrs)
  • Taxable and Nontaxable Income (2hrs)

3 Hours Ethics

• • Ethics 101 (2hrs)

2 Hours Tax Law Updates

• • 2020 Federal Tax Law Update (3hrs)

2021 – 2022 IMPORTANT Information
Aug 1st through Oct 31st registration fee $33.00

Nov 1st through Jan 15th registration fee $33.00 plus late fee $55.00 ($88.00)

Dec 31st  CRTPs who plan to participate in the IRS voluntary Annual Filing Season Program (AFSP) must have their CTEC renewal registration completed no later than December 31, 2021, which is required by the IRS.

Jan 16th and later registration must include a new 60 hour qualifying education course and you must register as a new preparer.

Tax preparers who do not complete their registration by Oct 31st will have expired licenses until they renew and are not allowed to prepare tax returns.

Education providers have 10 days after you complete your courses to submit them to CTEC. Students who wait too long to complete their education risk the possibility of not having it submitted in time to renew. They would then have to retake the 60 hour qualifying education course to obtain a license for the 2021/2022 year.

2020/2021 Registration for Renewal of CTEC Licensed Tax Preparers opened August 1st.

IMPORTANT DATES:
Aug 1st through Oct 31st registration fee $33.00

Nov 1st through Jan 15th registration fee $33.00 plus late fee $55.00 ($88.00)

Dec 31st  CRTPs who plan to participate in the IRS voluntary Annual Filing Season Program (AFSP) must have their CTEC renewal registration completed no later than December 31, 2020, which is required by the IRS.

Jan 16th and later registration must include a new 60 hour qualifying education course and you must register as a new preparer.

Tax preparers who do not complete their registration by Oct 31st will have expired licenses until they renew and are not allowed to prepare tax returns.

Education providers have 10 days after you complete your courses to submit them to CTEC. Students who wait too long to complete their education risk the possibility of not having it submitted in time to renew. They would then have to retake the 60 hour qualifying education course to obtain a license for the 2020/2021 year.

Continuing Education requirements:
20 hours total
• 10 hours Federal Tax Law
• 3 hours Ethics
• 2 hours tax law updates
• 5 hours California State tax law

10 CPE Federal Tax Law, 3 CPE Update, 2 CPE Ethics, 5 CPE California Tax Law (20 total CPE)

Tax Courses Online Course Breakdown

Federal Tax Law

• Tax Issues for Divorced or Separated Individuals                       2 CPE
• Charitable Contributions                                                                           2 CPE
• Form 1040 Schedule A Medical and Dental Expenses             1 CPE
• 1040 and More the Income Tax Return                                             2 CPE
• Travel Entertainment Gift and Transportation Expenses       2 CPE
• Taxable and Non Taxable Income                                                          2 CPE
• Moving Expenses                                                                                            1 CPE

Total available 12 CPE

Pick any of the above courses to get to 10 CPE

• 2020 Federal Tax Update
• Ethics 

Both of these are required courses

California Law

• California Registered Domestic Partners                                         2 CPE
• Form 540 CA California adjustments                                                  1 CPE
• Determining California Resident Status and Income                 1 CPE
• CA Military Personnel                                                                                   1 CPE

Total Available  5 CPE

All California Courses are required

You must take all required courses to satisfy the CTEC continuing education requirements before you can renew your license

Tips for preparing returns with Form 1095-A and PTC

If a taxpayer brings in Form 1095-A and there is no Advance Premium Tax Credit then we need to look up the SLCSP (Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan) premium to see if they qualify. When a taxpayer pays full price for their insurance the Form 1095-A comes with 0.00 in column B. That is not correct. This number (SLCSP) needs to be looked up and entered into the software for column B in order to properly calculate the Premium Tax Credit.
The Marketplace only puts numbers in Column B when there is Advance PTC it will be up to us to look up SLCSP for all others.

Healthcare.gov

“If you paid full price and want to see if you qualify for a premium tax credit based on your final 2015 income
Use the Health Coverage Tax Tool to find the premium for the second lowest cost Silver plan (SLCSP) that applied to you for 2015. (If you paid full price, this information will be missing from your 1095-A.)
Use this figure to fill out Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit (PDF). When you’re done, you’ll find out if you qualify for a premium tax credit based on your final 2015 income.
If you qualify for a premium tax credit, you must complete Form 8962 and attach it to your federal income tax return.”

If a taxpayer brings in Form 1095-A and they have utilized the Advance Premium Tax Credit all we have to do is input that information into our software and our software should calculate correctly.

Identity theft is an increasing problem for tax preparers.  Tax preparation offices are great places to hack. Here are some best practices  we need to do to protect us and our clients. 

1. Create logins and passwords to your system that are hard to hack.

• Use the maximum characters allowed.
• If you want to use for example:
  • “I was born in Houston Texas in  January 5,1992” You could use iwbihtj592 and then add symbols and numbers to complete the maximum characters allowed.
  • “My mother’s maiden name is smith and she married John Doe in Los Angeles ” could translate to mmmnisasmjdila.
  • Song lyrics work to. ” Rudolf the red nose reindeer had a very shiny nose and if you ever saw him” could translate to rtrnrhavsnaiyesh

These are things that make no sense to someone else but are easy for you to remember.

Using a password generator will do this for you and you only have to remember one PW

2. Change passwords on a regular basis. If you haven’t done so recently take the time to revamp your passwords. Passwords should be changed at a minimum of once per year. Every 90 days is even better. Chances are we are not going to change our passwords every 90 days. So, make your passwords strong as possible

3. Always encrypt and password protect any data sent to clients. Emails are easy to hack using encryption will help safeguard the data. If your software offers a secure file exchange portal be sure and check it out. Those portals are designed to exchange information more securely.

4. Always Encrypt any hard drives that contain client data. Encrypting the hard drives adds another level of security.

5. Update your firewall,anti-spyware and anti-virus software. Regularly check for the latest update and security patches for your software.

6. If you are also and ERO, you should regularly check your e- services account on a regular basis. IRS updates our e-services accounts on a regular basis. We should be checking our account to look for abnormal activity. If it appears that your EFIN may have been compromised notify the IRS immediately.

7. Never click on links in emails. Always go directly to the website.

Tax preparers  are subject to the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and the FTC Financial Privacy and Safeguards rules. We are required to monitor, evaluate and adjust our security practices to protect client data. Penalties may apply for failure to do so. IRC imposes criminal and monetary penalties for knowingly or recklessly making unauthorized disclosures.

To participate in the Annual Filing Season Program a tax preparer needs to take 18 hours of continuing education from an IRS approved CE provider by December 31st each year.

This includes:

• A six hour Annual Federal Refresher course (AFTR course)
• 10 hours of Federal Tax Law and
• Two hours of ethics.

Certain tax preparers are exempt from the AFTR course:

• Anyone who passed the Registered Tax Return Preparer test between November 2011 and January 2013.
• Return preparers who are active registrants of:
  • Oregon Board of Tax Practitioners.
  • California Tax Education Council (CTEC).
  • Maryland State Board of Individual Tax Preparers.
  • Tax preparers who passed the Special Enrollment Exam part 1 within the past two years.
  • VITA/TCE volunteers
  • Other accredited tax focused credential-holders
    • Accreditation Council for Accountancy
    • Taxation’s Accredited Business Accountant/Advisor (ABA)
    • Accredited Tax Preparer Programs

PTIN holders who meet one of these exemptions will need to complete annually:

• 3 hours of federal tax law updates
• 10 hours of  federal tax law
• 2 hours Ethics

Only Unenrolled Return Preparers who complete these requirements annually will allowed the limited representation rights before the Internal Revenue Service

The limited rights for unenrolled return preparers with AFSP certificate allow them to only represent clients whose returns they prepared and signed, but only before revenue agents, customer service representatives, and similar IRS employees, including the Taxpayer Advocate Service. They cannot represent clients whose returns they did not prepare and they cannot represent clients regarding appeals or collection issues even if they did prepare the return in question.

Things CTEC registered preparers should know about their registration.

CTEC made a policy change starting January 15,2013 preparers who do not renew their registration by January 15th of each year will have to retake the 60 hour qualifying education course. This new policy shortens the grace period for late renewals from 12 months to 10 weeks.

Preparers should know that their registration expires on October 31st of each year until renewed.  A preparer whose registration is expired is not permitted to prepare Tax Returns until their renewal application is processed by CTEC.

The following is a list of CTEC renewal requirements and important dates.

Renewal Requirements:

• Renew by October 31st pay $33.00 renewal fee.
• Renew after October 31st and pay and additional $55.00 late fee.
• Renew after January 15th retake 60 hour qualifying education course.
• Have a current $5000.00 tax preparer bond

Continuing Education requirements:
20 hours total

• 10 hours Federal Tax Law
• 3 hours Ethics
• 2 hours tax law updates
• 5 hours California State tax law

CTEC Continuing Education  requirements for 2016

10 CPE Federal Tax Law, 3 CPE Update, 2 CPE Ethics, 5 CPE California Tax Law (20 total CPE)

Tax Courses Online Course Breakdown

Federal Tax Law

• Tax Issues for Divorced or Separated Individuals                       2CPE
• Charitable Contributions                                                                           2 CPE
• Form 1040 Schedule A Medical and Dental Expenses             1 CPE
• 1040 and More the Income Tax Return                                             2 CPE
• Travel Entertainment Gift and Transportation Expenses       2 CPE
• Taxable and Non Taxable Income                                                          2 CPE
• Moving Expenses                                                                                             1 CPE

Total available 12 CPE

Pick any of the above courses to get to 10 CPE

• 2015 Federal Tax Update
• Ethics 

Both of these are required courses

California Law

• California Registered Domestic Partners                                         2 CPE
• Form 540 CA California adjustments                                                  1 CPE
• Determining California Resident Status and Income                 1 CPE
• CA Military Personnel                                                                                   1 CPE

Total Available  5 CPE

All California Courses are required

You must take all required courses to satisfy the CTEC continuing education requirements before you can renew your license

Below you will find ten new questions we need to ask each of our clients before we can prepare their tax return.

January 2015 is fast approaching and the next phase of the Affordable Care Act is becoming a reality. The IRS has been assigned the task of collecting the additional taxes required which puts tax prepares right in the thick of it. Continue reading →