Sole proprietorships/Individuals

Income

• Wages, salaries, tips, etc.

• Interest (Schedule B)

• Dividend Income (Schedule B)

• Other income ( state and local income tax refunds, alimony, business income/loss (Schedule C), other gains or losses (Form 4797), taxable IRA distributions, pensions and annuities, rents, royalties, partnerships, S corporations, estates, trusts, etc. (Schedule E), unemployment compensation, social security, other

Deductions (for AGI)

• Moving expenses

• Self-employment health insurance deduction

• IRA contribution

• Payments to Keogh retirement plan

• Penalty on early withdrawal of savings

• Student loan interest deduction

• Alimony paid

• Tuition and fees deduction

• Health Savings Account deduction

Itemized Deductions (Schedule A) -- Deductions from AGI

• Medical and dental

• Taxes

• Interest expense

• Contributions

• Casualties and theft losses

• Miscellaneous (subject to 2% of AGI limitation and not subject to 2% limitation)

Additional Taxes

• Alternative Minimum Tax (Form 6251)

• Parent's election to report child's interest and dividends (Form 8814)

• Lump-sum distributions from qualified retirement plans

Tax Credits/ Non-refundable  -- Federal level

• General business credit ( investment credit, alcohol fuel credit, low income housing credit, disabled access credit, employer social security credit)

• Credit for the elderly or the disabled (Schedule R)

• Credit for child and dependent care expenses (Form 2441)

• Education credit (Form 8863)

• Adoption credit (Form 8839)

• Foreign tax credit (Form 1116)

• Credit for prior year minimum tax

Tax Liability

• Self-employment tax (Schedule SE)

• Advanced earned income credit payments

• Social security tax on unreported tip income (Form 4137)

• Tax on IRAs and other retirement plans (Form 5329)

• Household employment taxes (Schedule H)

Payments/Refundable credits

• Tax withheld on wages

• Estimated tax payments

• Earned income credit

• Amount paid with extension

• Excess FICA paid

• Credit for federal tax on special fuels (Form 4136)

• Credit from a regulated investment company (Form 2439)

Taxpayer penalties

• Late filing or failure to file penalty, and late payment tax

• Late payment

• Accuracy-related penalty

• Negligence penalty

• Substantial understatement of income tax penalty

• Substantial overstatement of pension liabilities penaltty

• Gift or estate tax valuation misstatement penalty

• Tax shelter transactions

• Civil fraud penalty

Partnerships

• Partnership formation

• Partnership income, expenses, distributions, and flow-through 

• Family partnerships

• Partner's dealings with partnership (e.g., exchange of property, guaranteed payment, contribution of property to partnership)

• Basis of partner's interest

• Disposition of partner's interest

• Transactions with controlled partnerships

• Sale of partnership interest

• Pro rata distributions from partnership

• Optional /mandatory adjustment to basis of partnership property

• Termination of Partnership

Corporations

• Filing requirements and due dates

• Earnings and profits

• Net operating loss

• Shareholder dividends (definition and reporting requirements)

• Special deductions (e.g., dividends received deductions, charitable deduction).

• Reconciling books to return (e.g., Schedule M series)

• Distributions and recognition requirements

• Liquidations and stock redemptions

• Alternative minimum tax (ATM)

• Adjusted current earnings (ACE)

• Minimum credit

• Small corporation exemption

• Charitable contributions

• Dividend received deduction

• Affiliated and Controlled corporations

• Personal holding company and accumulated earnings taxes

Forming a corporation

• Services rendered to a corporation in return for stock

• IRC section 351 exchange

• Section 1244 small business corporation stock

• Transfer of money or property; receipt of money or property in addition to the stock of that corporation

• Mortgaged property transferred

• Exchange of property other than a IRC section 351 exchange

• Controlled groups

• Closely held corporations

• Personal service corporations

S corporations

• Requirements to qualify including election procedure (Form 2553 election, attachment to return)

• Tax law related to S corporation

• Treatment of distributions

• Shareholder’s basis

• Status (e.g., terminated and reinstated)

• Debt discharge

• Non-cash distributions

Farmers

• Farm inventory

• Depreciation for farmers (e.g., special use)

• Various disaster-area provisions

• Disposition of farm real estate

Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)

Tax-exempt companies and associations

• Filing requirements (e.g., 1023, 1024, Annual 990)

• Qualifications for tax-exempt status (e.g., 501(c)(3))

• Trust types (e.g., grantor, irrevocable, tax shelters)

• Distributable net income

• Exclusions and deductions

• Income in respect of a decedent

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