If you said, “attention to detail,” you’re not wrong…but you’re not completely right, either. While paying attention to the detail, you also have to zoom out & look at how the detail fits in with the client’s big picture. Here are some examples of how NOT to do that:
- Get all excited about income tax credits for a business that hasn’t yet made any profits
- Take maximum write-offs for an S Corporation for depreciation, section 179, or tangible property regulations expenses without checking whether the owners have enough basis to deduct the losses.
- Put abandonment losses into the return as section 1231 losses, thus triggering future recharacterization of section 1231 gains from capital to ordinary.
- In a family real estate partnership, forget to find out if someone (like mom or dad) guaranteed the debt.
- Blindly enter the deductions allocable to foreign source passive income from the K-1 onto Form 1116 without asking the question: hey, what are these items, anyway – are we getting to deduct them on the tax return?
- And, need I say it….SALY Autopilot!
Most Entertaining Podcasts & Public Resources for Tax Professionals
Want to be entertained and enlightened at the same time? Check out the below.
- Simply Tax Podcast, hosted by Damien Martin. Current tax developments, great interviews, career advice. https://www.bkd.com/simplytax
- Tony Nitti’s articles in Forbes. Wildly entertaining and irreverent, with tons of useful info for crunching through tax returns. Don’t forget to check out his annual Top Ten Tax Cases, or his New Year career advice. https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/?sh=2ac19697a362
- Spidell’ s California Minute Podcast. When you literally have only 5 minutes and want an update on California taxes. https://caltaxminute.com/
- AICPA Personal Financial Planning Podcast. Private Wealth specialists, this is for you. Everything you need to think about for planning. Really, everything. https://www.aicpa.org/interestareas/personalfinancialplanning/cpeandevents/learning-library.html