15-Hour Annual Filing Season Program Bundle (Exempt Tax Preparers)
$89.00
Description
Important Note:
This bundle is not designed for Enrolled Agents. EA’s please view our List of All Courses to select other options.
15-Hour Annual Filing Season Program Bundle (Exempt Tax Preparers)
This bundle fulfills the continuing education requirement to be eligible for the IRS Annual Filing Season Program Record of Completion for PTIN holders. When purchasing this bundle, your account will be enrolled in the following 6 courses:
- (3 credits) Federal Income Tax Changes – 2025
- (2 credits) IRS Collections & Installment Arrangements
- (3 credits) Keeping Taxpayer Data Secure
- (3 credits) Navigating Form 1040 Schedule C
- (2 credits) Practice before the IRS
- (2 credits) Ethics
All courses must be completed by December 31, 2025 in order to fulfill the CE requirements and qualify for the Annual Filing Season Program in 2026.
Scroll down for more details about each course.
Course 1: Federal Income Tax Changes – 2025
Course Description
Each year, various limits affecting income tax preparation and planning change. Some changes commonly occur each year as a result of inflation indexing, while others occur because of new legislation or the sunsetting of existing law. This course will examine those tax changes that are more significant from the perspective of an income tax preparer. Some context will be supplied, as appropriate, to assist readers in understanding the changes. This is a basic tax course with no prerequisites, and qualifies for 3 CE credits in the IRS Federal Tax Law Updates category.
Course 2: IRS Collections & Installment Arrangements
Course Description
Although, the IRS suspended the automatic mailing of collection notices routinely sent when a taxpayer owes federal tax on February 5, 2022 to give the IRS an opportunity to clear its processing backlogs, use of such automatic mailings is likely to recur and, meanwhile, other IRS delinquent collection activities continue unabated. Statistics for fiscal year 2021, show the IRS ending inventory with a balance of assessed tax, penalties and interest exceeding $133.4 trillion, enforcement activity involving more than 500,000 taxpayers, and 3.8 million taxpayers paying tax liabilities under installment agreements.
With IRS collection clearly continuing and likely to ramp up in the future, chances that any tax professional will need to be conversant with IRS collection activities and the methods available to challenge them is increasing. It is to that end this course addressing IRS collections is addressed. This is a basic tax course with no prerequisites, and qualifies for 2 CE credits in the IRS Federal Tax Law category.
After completing this course, students should be able to:
• Identify the rights specified in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights;
• Describe the maximum period of time the IRS may collect taxes due from a taxpayer;
• List the tax payment alternatives available to a taxpayer;
• Recognize the IRS decisions that may be challenged by a taxpayer; and
• Compare the Collection Due Process and Collection Appeals Program.
Course Description
The annual global cost of cybercrime is high and getting higher all the time. In fact, cyber criminals reap a windfall from their activities that is likely to be in the trillions. Almost all of that cybercrime began with—and continues to start with—a social engineering concept known as “phishing.”
Certain business organizations, among which are those referred to as “financial institutions,” are charged by the FTC with taking particular steps to protect their customers’ financial information. Included in the category of financial institutions are professional tax preparers. Professional tax preparers normally maintain a significant amount of taxpayer information in various files—electronic and paper—that would be a treasure trove for cyber criminals.
In this course, tax preparers are introduced to the problem of cybercrime and its costs, offered methods that can be expected to reduce the chances of becoming a cybercrime victim, and informed of proper steps to take if they do become victims of cybercrime. This course is a basic tax level course with no prerequisites, and qualifies for 3 CE credits in IRS Federal Tax Law.
Learning Objectives
- •Recognize the pervasiveness of cybercrime;
•Identify the potential costs of experiencing a data breach;
•Understand the best practices that may be implemented to protect a tax preparer from cybercrime; and
•List the responsibilities of a tax preparer who has experienced a taxpayer data breach.
Course Description
There is little doubt in the minds of many observers that the world of work—an environment in which a legion of wage earners commute to an employer’s office or worksite to toil from 9 to 5—is changing, and that impression is bolstered by recent studies. Among those studies is a Gallup report titled “The Gig Economy and Alternative Work Arrangements.” The changing nature of work for many taxpayers is likely to have an effect on tax preparers’ need to prepare Schedule C.
The gig economy, an economy characterized by multiple types of alternative work arrangements including independent contractors, online platform workers, contract firm workers, on-call workers, and temporary workers, engages 36% of U.S. workers. Gallup, in its report, also estimates that 29% of all workers in the U.S. have an alternative work arrangement as their primary job.
Whether the strength of the gig economy is due to the flexibility and freedom it affords, the fewer limits on income it exerts compared to being a wage earner or results from some other advantage it offers, it seems clear that, barring a cataclysmic event affecting the economy, the gig economy is here to stay and intent on growing larger with each year. With that growth is the likely growth of tax preparers’ need to be familiar with preparation of Schedule C. This course is a basic tax level course with no prerequisites, and qualifies for 3 CE credits in IRS Federal Tax Law.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the types of income reported on Schedule C;
- Determine proprietors’ installment sale income when using the installment method;
- Describe the business expenses deductible on Schedule C;
- List the differences between a business and a hobby; and
- Apply the rules governing the deduction for business use of a taxpayer’s home.
Course Description
Despite predictably frequent calls for simplifying the U.S. Tax Code, it becomes increasingly complex over time. At its more than 3% annual growth in size since 1945, it is projected to exceed 100,000 pages in the near term. Because of the enormity of the Code and its complexity, taxpayers often seek the assistance of knowledgeable professionals to represent them with respect to tax and other matters before the IRS. However, the ability to represent a client before the IRS is, with certain exceptions, extremely limited. This course will look at the important subject of client representation before the IRS. Practice before the IRS addresses the nature of practice before the IRS, identifies those permitted to engage in such practice and examines the power of attorney under which a taxpayer authorizes another to engage in it on his or her behalf. This course is a basic tax level course with no prerequisites, and qualifies for 2 CE credits in IRS Federal Tax Law.
After completing this course, students should be able to:
- Define “practice before the Internal Revenue Service”;
- Recognize the general scope of permitted enrolled agent practice responsibilities;
- Identify the extent of practice privileges possessed by individuals permitted to practice before the IRS;
- Describe the nature and function of a tax power of attorney and identify the acts that may be performed for a client under it; and
- Understand how to withdraw from and revoke an existing tax power of attorney.
Exam Questions: 10
Course 6: Tax Return Preparer Ethical Issues
This course examines tax preparer conduct standards. It addresses the issues of confidentiality, accuracy, conflict of interest, taxpayer omissions and return of client records. The ethical rules governing these issues are discussed, and tax preparers are presented with real-world scenarios that focus on the ethical issues that may be encountered in their professional activities. A final examination covering the course material is administered. This course is a basic tax level course with no prerequisites, and qualifies for 2 CE credits in the Ethics category.
Learning Objectives
- Recognize the permitted scope of tax return preparer responsibilities;
- Identify the best practices for tax advisers in preparing or assisting in the preparation of a submission to the Internal Revenue Service;
- List the various sanctions that may be imposed for a preparer’s failure to comply with applicable conduct rules.