Course Description:

Governments have historically used a “carrot and stick” approach to encouraging individuals and businesses to behave in ways it deems desirable: tax credits for acting as requested and tax penalties for failing to behave as required. The U.S. government similarly promotes multiple forms of socially-beneficial actions—adopting children, becoming employed, providing funds for dependents’ education, and other socially-desirable activities—by offering incentives in the form of tax credits for engaging in them. This course examines the various tax credits that may be claimed by individual taxpayers and explains how each tax credit works, its eligibility requirements, limitations, phase-outs, etc. and, for refundable tax credits, their due diligence requirements.

Learning Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe and identify the requirements for claiming the various income tax credits available to individual taxpayers;
• List the due diligence requirements a tax preparer must meet when preparing a tax return claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EIC), American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC), Child Tax Credit, Additional Child Tax Credit, and Other Dependent Credit (CTC, ACTC, ODC);
• Recognize the records a tax return preparer is required to keep to support a client’s claim for the EIC, AOTC, CTC, ACTC and ODC; and
• Identify the penalties that may be imposed on a tax preparer and his or her employer for failing to comply with due diligence requirements when preparing a client’s tax return claiming the EIC, AOTC, CTC, ACTC or ODC.