Any tips on succeeding in Income Tax when you're tax illiterate? Forum

[z0mbiecatz1234]

Does anyone have any advice on succeeding in Income Tax with absolutely no background knowledge of the subject? My class uses Burke & Friel's Taxation of Individual Income (11th edition).

Any and all advice on this is appreciated. Not looking forward to this class one bit.

[Sprout]

Purchase this book and read it. https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Income-T ... 1599419378

edit: actually study this one.

[Sprout]

Also, this isn't really a supplement but for me I was completely tax illiterate and a friend let me borrow this book for basic concepts/understanding. It reads like a story, and is sort of hilarious, but helped me for big picture stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/Taxes-Paradise-D ... 0837733014

[z0mbiecatz1234]

Purchase this book and read it. https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Income-T ... 1599419378

edit: actually study this one.

Awesome, I actually have this one because I mistakenly bought it thinking it was required. Thank you for your recommendations, just ordered the second one! I'm sure they will help a ton!

[lavarman84]

Does anyone have any advice on succeeding in Income Tax with absolutely no background knowledge of the subject? My class uses Burke & Friel's Taxation of Individual Income (11th edition).

Any and all advice on this is appreciated. Not looking forward to this class one bit.

Good outlines. There have to be people at your school with outlines for the class. At my school, there were outlines for the final exam and outlines with the questions to the book problems done. I had the same book and my professor was Friel (one of the guys who wrote it). He went over the questions in class, so it helped to have the answers for when you got cold-called.(and didn't prepare for class)

If you have good outlines and pay attention in class, you should be okay. You just have to pay attention to how everything is done and then practice.(in addition to having a good outline that puts the relevant code provisions and rules under each topic)

The key with tax is knowing how to spot the issues and then knowing how to handle the procedure for that issue. If you know both, it's really easy.

[dabigchina]

I actually think the Chirelstein book is overkill. Buy the E&E and just do all the practice problems. Income tax is very much numbers driven. The only way you can get comfortable with working with the numbers is if you practice.

[Sprout]

I actually think the Chirelstein book is overkill. Buy the E&E and just do all the practice problems. Income tax is very much numbers driven. The only way you can get comfortable with working with the numbers is if you practice.

Ime & imo, this depends completely on the professor. Pm me, Ill send my outline if it helps. My prof was very policy driven/focused.

[BigZuck]

I actually think the Chirelstein book is overkill. Buy the E&E and just do all the practice problems. Income tax is very much numbers driven. The only way you can get comfortable with working with the numbers is if you practice.

Ime & imo, this depends completely on the professor. Pm me, Ill send my outline if it helps. My prof was very policy driven/focused.

Yeah my tax final had like no numbers at all. If it had numbers, there wasn't really much work to be done with them.

OP- just cop the E&E and you'll cop median at the very least, probably more. That's a #bigzuckguarantee. You should feel privileged, not many of those are given out.

If you're a secret tax nerd (impossible to predict before taking FIT) then you'll do very well. But at least cop the E&E.

/thread

Mods, please lock TYIA

[lavarman84]

I actually think the Chirelstein book is overkill. Buy the E&E and just do all the practice problems. Income tax is very much numbers driven. The only way you can get comfortable with working with the numbers is if you practice.

Ime & imo, this depends completely on the professor. Pm me, Ill send my outline if it helps. My prof was very policy driven/focused.

Yeah my tax final had like no numbers at all. If it had numbers, there wasn't really much work to be done with them.

OP- just cop the E&E and you'll cop median at the very least, probably more. That's a #bigzuckguarantee. You should feel privileged, not many of those are given out.

If you're a secret tax nerd (impossible to predict before taking FIT) then you'll do very well. But at least cop the E&E.

/thread

Mods, please lock TYIA

That sounds terrible.

[BigZuck]

I actually think the Chirelstein book is overkill. Buy the E&E and just do all the practice problems. Income tax is very much numbers driven. The only way you can get comfortable with working with the numbers is if you practice.

Ime & imo, this depends completely on the professor. Pm me, Ill send my outline if it helps. My prof was very policy driven/focused.

Yeah my tax final had like no numbers at all. If it had numbers, there wasn't really much work to be done with them.

OP- just cop the E&E and you'll cop median at the very least, probably more. That's a #bigzuckguarantee. You should feel privileged, not many of those are given out.

If you're a secret tax nerd (impossible to predict before taking FIT) then you'll do very well. But at least cop the E&E.

/thread

Mods, please lock TYIA

That sounds terrible.

Mods, please lock and ban. Thnx.

/thread

[lavarman84]

I actually think the Chirelstein book is overkill. Buy the E&E and just do all the practice problems. Income tax is very much numbers driven. The only way you can get comfortable with working with the numbers is if you practice.

Ime & imo, this depends completely on the professor. Pm me, Ill send my outline if it helps. My prof was very policy driven/focused.

Yeah my tax final had like no numbers at all. If it had numbers, there wasn't really much work to be done with them.

OP- just cop the E&E and you'll cop median at the very least, probably more. That's a #bigzuckguarantee. You should feel privileged, not many of those are given out.

If you're a secret tax nerd (impossible to predict before taking FIT) then you'll do very well. But at least cop the E&E.

/thread

Mods, please lock TYIA

That sounds terrible.

Mods, please lock and ban. Thnx.

/thread

I barely had to write anything on my exam because of the numbers. It made it super easy and very straight-forward. You missed out, bro.

[BigZuck]

I actually think the Chirelstein book is overkill. Buy the E&E and just do all the practice problems. Income tax is very much numbers driven. The only way you can get comfortable with working with the numbers is if you practice.

Ime & imo, this depends completely on the professor. Pm me, Ill send my outline if it helps. My prof was very policy driven/focused.

Yeah my tax final had like no numbers at all. If it had numbers, there wasn't really much work to be done with them.

OP- just cop the E&E and you'll cop median at the very least, probably more. That's a #bigzuckguarantee. You should feel privileged, not many of those are given out.

If you're a secret tax nerd (impossible to predict before taking FIT) then you'll do very well. But at least cop the E&E.

/thread

Mods, please lock TYIA

That sounds terrible.

Mods, please lock and ban. Thnx.

/thread

I barely had to write anything on my exam because of the numbers. It made it super easy and very straight-forward. You missed out, bro.

I barely had to write anything either because multiple choice so jokes on you/looks like I got the last laugh

(Mods plz)

OP- E&E. Cop it and cop a good grade. EZ game.

[lavarman84]

I barely had to write anything either because multiple choice so jokes on you/looks like I got the last laugh

(Mods plz)

OP- E&E. Cop it and cop a good grade. EZ game.

Multiple choice is terrible, dude.

[z0mbiecatz1234]

I'll definitely give E&E a try, thanks for the advice! Our test will be multiple choice too, and I never had an entirely multiple choice exam before so it will be different.

[jbagelboy]

It doesn't matter, fed tax is a self contained subject that doesn't require any prior knowledge about tax law, accounting, tax filings, or whatever else.

[Leprechaun]

I used the Acing Federal Income Tax book and thought it did a good job for a basic tax class. A lot simpler to work through than the B&F textbook