TECEP Federal Income Taxation

[Dosada]

Also just finished. Wow. This was tough. I don't feel at all confident that I passed. I also had TECEP E. I agree with the above post on all counts. I also used up the entire time allowed and even skipped a question because I was running low on time. I printed a bunch of forms and tax guides that I really didn't end up using. I purchased a used copy of the South-Western Federal Taxation 2022: Comprehensive textbook from Amazon for less than $20 and used that for almost every question. Even if I thought I might know the answer, there is so much nuance in tax that I double checked everything. Definitely worth it - will be even more so if I manage to pass. Don't go crazy printing out any tax tables. I found that any questions that needed them, they provided them, such as the MACRS questions.

A couple of questions that specifically tripped me up - moving expenses for military personnel. I didn't study this at all because, except for military personnel, moving expense deductions are currently suspended. I went back and looked up the rules and realized I bombed that question. Another was whether or not one can claim the child and dependent care credit in certain situations. I think I got the answers right, but don't think I provided a thorough enough explanation. Another thing to look out for is some questions with errors. I came across one question that didn't really even have a question in it. It was just a list of amounts with no instruction on what they wanted you to do with those amounts. Another question used dates that didn't make any sense... why would you still be depreciating a 7 year asset 20 years later...?

One thing to know about the computational questions - they want you to show your work and in most cases provide an explanation as to why or how you got to your answer. So, it takes some extra time to write it all up.

Some of the topics I encountered:
- MACRS
- Section 179
- What counts as capital assets
- Gains and losses
- Realized vs recognized
- Deductible expenses
- Partnership basis
- Accrual method
- Calculating AGI
- Head of household
- Multiple support agreements
- Medical expenses
- Moving expenses
- Child/dependent care credit
- Like-kind exchange
- Voting to revoke an S-corp designation

Will update once I find out my grade.

Sounds like our experiences were identical!  Yes, I noticed the same thing about a couple of questions. One of the MACRS questions used the 7year table but was a 20 year asset. Didn’t make any sense. I also noticed that about one of the questions that didn’t ask a question. Just gave a bunch of random amounts. Had no clue what to do with it. 

The military moving expenses also tripped me up. I could not find anything in the book that explained what was deductible. I also was not able to show my full work on the computational questions as I was running out of time. Hopefully the work I did show was sufficient enough for partial credit at least. 

Side note: I do not suggest using the study.com practice test and study guide for this TECEP. Everything was very out of date. The content is still based on 2016/2017 tax years. 

Good luck and hopefully you passed!!