Baruch VITA Training

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Baruch VITA Training

• Post-Test Tips

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When? Where?

• Saturday, January 24th
• OR
• Sunday, January 25th
• Registration VC, 2nd floor lobby

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Schedule

• Both parts are open-book
• Use any reference materials you wish!
• TIP! Bring federal and NYS instructions we will
  not have extra copies
• You can leave whenever you are done with Part II

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Part I (90 minutes max)

• Number of questions 3
• Question type short-answer questions
• i.e. complete specific worksheet/form
• Question material basic federal and state tax
  concepts that you will be dealing with most often
• TIP! Study Workbook Problems 1-5a 5b, 10a 10b

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TIP! Know the tax formulas!
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Part II (3 hours max)

• Prepare full federal and NYS return for a given
  situation
• We will be testing you on items in every section
  of the main forms. You will have different types
  of
• income,
• federal adjustments,
• NY adjustments,
• non-refundable and refundable credits, etc.
• TIP! Look over Workbook problems and pay specific
  attention to Problems 6, 7, 8 9
• TIP! Know how to interpret taxpayer forms (our
  Textbook has box-by-box instructions for all of
  them)
• Exam format is identical to the Workbook problems

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What WILL be on the TEST?

• Dependent income
• know how to recognize it and what to do with it
• Self-employment/cash income
• Retirement income
• Earned Income Credit (including AEIC)
• Federal NYS adjustments
• Refundable non-refundable credits
• Recovery rebate
• Real Property Tax Credit

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Cheating Automatic Failure

• Baruch VITA program will maintain its quality of
  service and reputation by allowing only qualified
  volunteers to serve the public.
• Study! Know where to look up detailed
  qualifications. We will be watching!

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10 (1) Automatic Failures

• Volunteer signs a return
• Site Identification Number (SIDN) is missing
• Messing up tax formula
• Messing up self-employment income
• Including dependents income
• Claiming any credits for a dependent
• Claiming personal exemptions on NYS return
• Tax liability after non-refundable credits is
  negative
• (Form 1040, line 56 or IT-150, line 37 or IT-201,
  line 62)
• Federal AGI on Form 1040 is not equal to federal
  AGI on NYS return
• (Form 1040, line 38 not equal IT-150, line 11/
  IT-201, line 18)
• Forgetting to claim Household Credits (if
  qualified) and/or NYC School Tax Credit (if
  qualified) on NYS return
• 1 CHEATING

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Failure 3 examples

• Ways to mess up tax formula
• Tax is more than gross income
• Taxable income is more than gross income
• Subtracting tax from taxable income
• Adding adjustments to income when they should be
  subtracted (or vice versa)
• Etc.

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Failure 4 examples

• How to mess up self-employment income
• Report it on line other than Form 1040, line 12
• Forget to attach Schedule C-EZ / SE
• Complete Schedule C-EZ when not qualified
• Complete two Schedules C-EZ for the same client
• Forget 50 SE tax adjustment on either federal or
  NYS return
• Forget to add SE tax on federal return
• Complete Form IT-150 for NYS return