What are the Must-Do Trainings Before Next Tax Season?

There are a lot of education and training programs available for tax professionals. To help you save time and better focus your efforts ahead of tax season, here is a “must-do” list of trainings and education programs to consider to ensure you’re ready for tax season 2018.

Tax Law Updates

Changes to tax laws, forms and publications occur annually. As tax professionals, the tax code, forms and publications are your currency. It’s important that you stay up to date on the latest changes in order to serve your clients and save them money on their taxes.

Tax law update classes will include important tax year 2017 changes. The Tax Book offers a three-hour New Tax Law class that includes information about new tax laws affecting the preparation of income tax returns for individuals, partnerships and corporations.

Professional Ethics

Tax practitioners should always stay current with professional ethics, rules of conduct and Circular 230 (regulations governing practice before the IRS). Tax professionals should check with their state as to when they are required to take an ethics course and how many credits are needed per registration period. Many states also have state-specific requirements.

Professional Education Services offers a wide array of state and non-state specific continuing education for professional conduct courses.

Safeguarding Data and Identify Theft Prevention

Tax fraud is an industry-wide issue. This increases the potential for stolen identity information to be used to file tax returns. The Identity Theft course offered by the Income Tax School covers identity theft, how it happens, to whom it happens and what we can do to help prevent it from happening.

The seminar addresses tax identity theft; in particular, the warning signs that a taxpayer may have become a victim, what to do if the taxpayer becomes a victim and how to prevent becoming a victim. The seminar also covers creating a secure tax office, Preparer Tax Identification Number theft and Electronic Identification Filing Number theft.

Practice Management Insights

Tax professionals can always benefit from tips around growing their practice, saving time and managing workflow within the office, all of which improve their bottom line. For example, as we progress further into the technology age, practitioners can learn how to acquire new clients by utilizing social media, or how to become more efficient by transforming their practice into an electronic/paperless system.

The QuickBooks® Connect conference, for example, can offer resources to help you to continue to learn and grow your practice, including connecting you with industry leaders, other professionals and experts.

What’s New in Your Tax Software

Almost as vital as staying up to date with changes in the tax laws and tax forms is finding out about the latest changes in your tax software. Getting a leg up on these changes before tax season starts can pay dividends down the road. Vendors not only make software changes to stay consistent with tax law and form changes, but also update the software to make your life easier, such as automating computations and improving the user interface. Find out the latest from Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax Online, Lacerte® and ProSeries®.

In addition, the IRS established its voluntary Annual Filing Season Program (AFSP) to encourage uncertified preparers to participate in continuing education courses. The AFSP is beneficial for a number of reasons, including staying up to date on tax laws and changes, reducing the risk to taxpayers from unknowledgeable preparers, and allowing preparers to stand out from competition.

Under this IRS program, preparers need to complete 18 hours of continuing education requirements by year-end to obtain a record of completion and to be included in a database of certified and qualified tax preparers on IRS.gov. The continuing education requirements include a six-hour refresher course, 10 hours on federal tax law topics and two hours on ethics.

The directory also includes practitioners with recognized credentials, and higher levels of qualification and practice rights, including attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents. Return preparers who have passed recognized national or state tests are exempt from the six-hour refresher course and can participate in the program by taking 15 hours of continuing education.

You can learn more about the requirements and IRS-approved continuing education providers here.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in AccountingWeb.