It's live. OBBBA Field Guide is now open in the Classroom. Here is why I built it. Your clients already heard the headlines. No tax on tips. No tax on overtime. A write off on the car loan. A break for seniors. They are walking into your office in January expecting a bigger refund, and most of what they heard is wrong. You are the one who has to say the true version out loud, with a straight face, while they are sitting across from you. This course gives you that version. The eight lessons - What passed, and what your client heard. The five deductions in plain language. - Overtime. The premium only, and the divide by three rule you will use all season. - When the W-2 does not show it. Rebuilding the premium off the last pay stub. - Tips. Bigger deduction, more conditions, and the exclusion that catches employees too. - Car loan interest. Five vehicle tests, the VIN on the return, and when the business return is the better answer. - The senior deduction, and the December withdrawal that costs three things at once. - The rest of the law that hits your desk. The raised state and local cap, the 2026 gambling change, Trump accounts. - Your exposure, and the file that survives being looked at. The one thing most preparers are going to get wrong. These deductions total onto Schedule 1-A and land on Form 1040 line 13b. That is below the line. They come off after AGI, so they do not lower AGI at all. Nothing that keys off AGI or MAGI moves. Not the premium tax credit. Not the IRA limits. Not IRMAA. Not most state returns that start from federal AGI. If you tell a client this fixes their marketplace credit, you are going to be wrong in front of them. What comes with it - Slides for every lesson, attached as a PDF you can download. - A one page desk card you can print and tape next to your monitor. - The full student manual as a PDF, 33 pages, yours to keep. - Worked examples with real numbers, and a check yourself set at the end of each lesson. - A source list for every figure, so you can verify it yourself before you teach it.

I am putting together the next free class and the next course, and I would rather you tell me than guess. Pick the one that costs you the most time or the most money right now. One vote each. If your answer is not on the list, put it in the comments and I will read every one of them. I will build whichever one wins. CG6LLC

First one in the series. Free, every time, no catch. Here are nine things that separate a Schedule C you can defend from one you cannot. 1. Make them open a separate bank account. Not a suggestion. One account doing double duty is the fastest way to lose a case you should have won, because now every deposit is a question and every withdrawal is a fight. 2. Decide business or hobby on purpose. Profit in three of the last five years is a presumption, not a rule, and the factors are what actually decide it. If your client has posted losses year after year, write down the business reasons now, while you remember them. Not when the letter shows up two years later. 3. The business code on line B is not filler. It decides which crowd the IRS compares your client against. Put a landscaper under the wrong code and a completely normal return starts looking strange next to the wrong neighbors. 4. Reconcile gross receipts to the paper before you type a number. Add up every 1099-NEC and 1099-K first. If the forms total more than what the client told you, find out why now. Finding out later means an amended return and a conversation you will not enjoy. 5. Stop dumping things into Other expenses. If there is a named line for it, use the named line. A fat Part V with a vague label is one of the easiest things in the world to spot from the outside. 6. Exclusive use means exclusive. The home office has two tests, exclusive use and regular use, and the first one is where most claims fall apart. The simplified method is 5 dollars a square foot up to 300 square feet. The regular method needs Form 8829 and it is capped by business income, so a loss year does not get you a bigger deduction. 7. The log is the deduction. Mileage without a contemporaneous log is not a deduction, no matter how honest the number is. Date, miles, where, and why. Get the app on their phone in January, not in April. 8. The home office unlocks the mileage. This is the one most preparers walk right past. When the home office qualifies, the drive from home to the first stop stops being a commute and becomes business miles. For a contractor running five stops a day, that is often worth more than the office deduction itself.

Your EFIN is the thing your whole practice sits on. Lose it and you are done for the season. Most preparers set it up once and never look at it again, which is exactly the problem. 1. It is free. If somebody offers to sell you one, walk away. You cannot buy an EFIN, you cannot sell one, you cannot rent one, and you cannot share one. People lose their careers over this. 2. Apply early, and I mean months early. The IRS says to allow about 45 days to process the application. Every year somebody applies in December and spends January watching other people work. 3. They check you before they approve you. The suitability review looks at your own tax compliance, your credit, and your record. If your personal returns are behind, fix that first. It is the most common reason a good application gets stopped. 4. Fingerprints take scheduling. Anyone on the application who is not already an attorney, a CPA, an enrolled agent, or in one of the other exempt groups has to be fingerprinted through the IRS authorized vendor. It is an appointment, not a same day thing. 5. Here is the one nobody does. Check your EFIN activity every week during the season. Your e-Services account shows how many returns have been transmitted under your EFIN. Compare it to what you actually filed. If the IRS number is higher than yours, somebody is filing on your number and you need to know that in week two, not in May. This takes about ninety seconds and almost nobody does it. 6. Update the application within 30 days of any change. New address, new phone, new owner, new responsible official. A stale application is its own compliance problem and it is a stupid way to get in trouble. 7. Keep your e-file application summary handy. Every software company is going to ask for it before they let you transmit anything. Have the PDF saved where you can find it in two minutes. 8. A second office needs to be on the application. If you open another location that actually originates returns, that belongs on the paperwork before the first return goes out of it.

Welcome! This is the home for tax preparers who want to get sharper and build a real practice. How to get started: • Introduce yourself in Start Here: your name, where you're based, and where you are in your tax journey (brand new, seasonal preparer, or firm owner). • Read the community rules. • Check out the Master Class in the Classroom 21 days to a complete individual return. • Ask anything in Tax Prep Q&A. No question is too basic. Glad you're here. Let's grow. CG6LLC