Are you on top of the basics? Five lessons for when your client calls

Ready for some straight talk? If you’re a tax practitioner, you need to be across these five topics and if you’re not, you need help, warns tax expert Ray Cummings.

“These are the ones that will strike again and again!” says Cummings, expert program author of Checkpoint Tax e-Learning. “Just because you’re practising, doesn’t mean it’s a dress rehearsal!”

“In practice, every moment counts, and you’ve simply got to be on top of these essential areas. You can’t be in doubt when your client calls.”

Hungry for knowledge?

Those five core topics? They’re covered in each of the five modules in the Intermediate level in the Thomson Reuters’ Checkpoint Tax e-Learning program. There are 15 modules across three levels of experience – Core, Intermediate and Advanced. Each module is one hour long and earns you one CPD point.

Designed to prepare you for client meetings, the modules step you through the many technical issues in each topic.

“Each module assists you with the myriad of tax issues that arise when dealing with the structures and transactions flowing within family groups,” explains Cummings.

But first, we have some samplers to introduce you to each of the module topics.

Ready?

Take a bite from these 5 mini-module tasters and listen to Cummings’ brief overview of each topic:

  1. CGT on small business concessions [Listen]
  • Application of the $6 million net asset test
  • $2m turnover test
  • Issue of associated and connected entities
  1. Company loss [Listen]
  • Continuity of ownership test
  • Same or similar business tests
  • Relevant test periods
  1. Division 7A – Private companies: Loans & unpaid trust entitlements [Listen]
  • Concept of distributable surplus
  • Self-correcting a Div 7A error
  • Use of funds from a company loan made for business or private purpose
  1. Unpaid present entitlements and loans from trusts [Listen] 
  • Failure to distinguish between unpaid present entitlements (UPEs) arising before, on or after 16 December 2009
  • Not distributing to corporate beneficiaries
  • Consequences when loans are made by a trust and UPE is outstanding
  1. Trust loss provisions – closely held trusts [Listen]
  • Distinguishing between fixed and non-fixed trusts
  • Income injection test
  • Family trust election

“Your everyday practice depends on getting these pillars of practice right,” concludes Cummings. Not something you can leave to chance.

Find out about Tax e-Learning’s five intermediate modules or the full suite of 15 CPD modules

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