When it comes to preparing taxes, knowing the lingo is key to understanding them. What's the difference between a tax credit, tax deduction, and an adjustment? As a tax preparer and expert in your field, clients will come to you to help them weed through all the complicated language and they need to be able to trust you will preparer their tax return with accuracy. 

This course discusses the different types of deductions and credits that are available to individual taxpayers and which may be used to decrease the amount of tax that would otherwise be payable. The course begins by reviewing the various expenses a taxpayer may have incurred that can be deducted directly from his or her gross income. Next, the standard and itemized deductions that can further reduce the taxpayer's taxable income are presented. Finally, it reviews the tax payable on the taxpayer's adjusted gross income and presents the most commonly-used tax credits that may be available to reduce the amount of tax payable.

After completing this course students will be able to:

• identify expenses incurred by an individual taxpayer that may be deducted from gross income and correctly calculate the amount of the available deduction
• correctly determine the itemized deductions available to a given individual taxpayer and determine whether the standard deduction is more advantageous
• correctly calculate the common tax credits available to an individual taxpayer to offset the tax otherwise payable on the taxpayer's adjusted gross income

Tax Year: 2020