Income Tax Accounting II—AC 424

Winter, 2008

 

 

Meeting Time: 12:001:05 p.m.    M W F                Instructor:  Paul Magnall

 

Place:  Business Center 217                                          Office:  Business Center 108

       

Office Phone:  352-8428                                                   Home Phone:  352-2197 (Before 10 PM)

 

Office Hours:   M      2:003:00  p.m.                       e-mail:  paul.magnall@wartburg.edu

                                 T      1:002:00   p.m.                               

                                W      2:003:00  p.m.

                                 H      8:309:30  a.m.

 

Prerequisites:  Income Tax Accounting I (AC 423)

 

Textbook:  West Federal Taxation—Comprehensive Volume by Willis, Hoffman, Maloney, and Raabe

       (2008 edition)

 

Course Objectives:  “Income taxation of partnerships, corporations, estates, trusts.  Income tax aspects of stock options and retirement plans.  Students participate in Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program.”  (From Wartburg College Catalog)

 

This course follows Income Tax Accounting I.  The course’s purpose is to familiarize the student with the current federal income tax provisions affecting corporations (both C and S), partnerships, trusts, and estates.  The emphasis is directed towards preparing students that are sitting for the CPA exam and preparing students to work in a tax practice.

 

Assignments:  An assignment sheet for the course is attached to the syllabus.  We will start by completing the tax issues associated with individual capital gains.  Then one week will be devoted to preparing for VITA service—reviewing the issues tested on the VITA exam and learning to prepare the Iowa income tax return.    The VITA exam could be distributed on Friday, January 18, and returned on Wednesday, January 23—the VITA Exam is graded on a pass/fail basis only.  In addition to the regular course work, students will be required to spend at least one hour per week with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program during the semester.  The schedules of students and the instructor limit us to providing this community service only on Thursday afternoon and evening—2:30—6:30 PM—students are expected to be at the site 1 hour per week.

The VITA system will operate from January 31 through April 3 (but not on March 6 during Break Week or on March 20 of Easter break).  The scheduling of students to times for the first few weeks will be done sometime during the first two weeks of class.

 

We will be spending roughly two days on each chapter of the textbook covered this semester.  It is expected that students will have read the text material and attempted the questions assigned for on the first day.  For the second day, students are expected to complete the assigned computational problems.  It is hoped that the selected questions and problems will highlight the material covered in the textbook.  Students are encouraged to complete additional questions/problems from the book (a check figure sheet packet has been prepared for you).  If you have a question which has not been resolved by assigned material, make sure that you ask your question in class.  The keys to success in this course will be (1) regular class attendance and (2) diligence in working

assigned problems.

 

Academic Integrity Statement: 

By attending Wartburg College, students are demonstrating their dedication to the Honor Code.  The Honor Code reminds student of their responsibility to promote academic honesty by opposing cheating and plagiarism and reporting dishonest work.

 

The official Honor Code, as approved by faculty and Student Senate, is as follows:

 

“As a matter of personal commitment, students faculty and staff of Wartburg College are expected to demonstrate four simple principles:

 

1) All submitted work must be your own.

2) When using the work or ideas of others, including fellow students, provide full credit through

    accurate citations.

3) Ask for clarification if there is uncertainty about citation rules on a particular assignment.

4) Maintain academic honesty on examinations and class assignments.”

 

Cheating on an exam will not be tolerated.  Anyone suspected of cheating on evaluations will discuss the incident and the consequences with the instructor.  The penalty could range from a zero on the exam to an automatic F for the course.  It is the responsibility of all students to report violations of this rule. 

 

Special Accommodations:

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) provides protection from illegal discrimination for qualified individuals with disabilities.  Students requesting instructional accommodations due to disabilities must arrange for such accommodations by contacting Pathways Associate for Testing and Advising Carla Coates.  She can be reached at the Pathways Center, 314 Vogel Library, Wartburg College, Waverly, IA 50677, 352-8230, <Carla.coates@wartburg.edu>.   Presenting documentation of a student’s disability early (before the beginning of classes) is helpful and often necessary to secure needed materials in a timely way.  Accommodations should be requested PRIOR to affected assignment due dates.  For more detailed information, please see http://www.wartburg.edu/pathways/testing/AccomodationProcessStudents.pdf

 

 

Evaluation Process:

 

EXAMS:

Students will be evaluated on 5 exams (4 unit exams and a comprehensive final), completion of the special tax returns that will be expected throughout the semester, and the student’s preparation for class. 

 

For the exams, students may use their textbook and notes as reference material, but too much reliance on this material will not be helpful in preparing for the CPA exam.  The format of the 5 exams will be primarily multiple choice questions with at least one essay questions on each exam.  The exams will comprise 90% of your final grade for this class.

 

Exam 1  Chapters 14, 15, & VITA MATERIAL                Friday, February 1, 2008

Exam 2  Chapters 17, 18, 19 & 20                                     Monday, February 25, 2008

Exam 3  Chapters 21, 22, 23, & 27                                    Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Exam 4  Chapters 26 & 28                                                       Monday, April 14, 2008

Exam 5  Comprehensive Final Exam                                  Monday, April 14, 2008

 (only exam that is closed book)

 

PARTICIPATION:

The final 10% of your grade will be based on your preparation for class.  Students will be responsible for presenting solutions to the assigned questions/problems to the rest of the class—using the board if required by your classmates to show how you arrived at your solution.  The questions will be answered in a sequence of 8 (7 students and the instructor).  I have prepared a series of random lists to be used each day to determine which questions students will be asked to present.  It is important that you have prepared each question/problem for each session.

 

The final grade will be based on a weighted average of your performance in each of the above three areas and applied to the following grading scale:

 

                 90—100%         A

                 80—89%           B

                 67—79%           C

                 55—66%           D

                 Under 55%       F