Tax CPE Webinar Recaps

This estate tax session focused on when practitioners should consider Form 706 even when a taxable estate is not obvious, with practical emphasis on the deceased spouse unused exclusion, portability elections, and how estate, gift, and fiduciary filings intersect in real client planning.

• Practitioner takeaway: DSUE should be raised with surviving spouse clients because portability can preserve unused exclusion even when no estate tax is due today.
• Timing point: Rev. Proc. 2022-32 relief can make a late portability election possible within five years of death, so the nine-month deadline is not always the end of the analysis.
• Connections between Form 706, Form 709 gift reporting, Form 1041 fiduciary returns, trusts, and estates
• Client-facing planning questions around exemption amounts, asset control, and whether the filing cost is worthwhile

Audience

Tax practitioners advising surviving spouses, executors, estate clients, and families with transfer tax exposure

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.

This quarterly update reviewed current IRS notice-season issues, payment matching problems, identity verification letters, deceased taxpayer account locks, refund review flags, and other practical developments that tax offices were seeing after filing season.

• Notice-season reminder: Before calling IRS on a missing-payment notice, confirm the payment cleared and check whether the tax year, form number, or spouse Social Security number caused a misapplied payment.
• Client account issue: A CP01H deceased-taxpayer account lock can stop refunds and notices until the executor or personal representative provides the requested documentation.
• Taxpayer Protection Program identity verification and high-refund fraud-filter triggers
• E-file rejection follow-up, accepted-return status checks, and timing differences between paper and electronic correction windows

Audience

CPAs, EAs, and preparers handling post-filing IRS notices and client account follow-up

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.

This Form 709 session connected annual gift reporting to broader estate planning, DSUE, trusts, and fiduciary work. The discussion emphasized that Form 709 can look intimidating, but it is a useful planning and documentation tool when clients make taxable gifts, split gifts, or use lifetime transfer tax exclusion.

• Practitioner takeaway: Form 709 may be required even when no gift tax is due because gifts over the annual exclusion reduce the lifetime estate and gift exclusion.
• 2026 planning point: The session discussed the $15 million lifetime estate and gift exclusion for 2026 and why gift reporting should be coordinated with DSUE and Form 706 planning.
• Gift splitting, disclaimers, beneficiary issues, and how gift reporting interacts with Form 706 planning
• Practical reminders around PTIN status, IRS reporting, and keeping Form 709 work connected to the client plan

Audience

Tax professionals preparing or advising on gift tax returns, estate plans, and wealth transfers

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.

This fiduciary return session broke down how estates and trusts differ, when Form 1041 filing requirements arise, and how income distribution concepts affect the tax result. The session emphasized practical comfort with fiduciary forms so practitioners can support clients after a death or trust administration event.

• Preparation checkpoint: Do not start a fiduciary return without the trust document or will; those documents determine beneficiaries, tax responsibility, and return treatment.
• Deadline trap: Form 1041 extensions run five-and-a-half months, not six months, so fiduciary returns need their own deadline controls.
• Simple trust concepts, distributable net income, income distribution deductions, and beneficiary reporting
• Estate administration, final Form 1040 coordination, probate timing, basis, and capital gain treatment

Audience

Preparers handling estates, trusts, beneficiaries, fiduciaries, and post-death tax administration

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.

This tax controversy session explored the tension between government information gathering and taxpayer protections when offshore accounts, FBAR enforcement, summonses, and potential criminal exposure are involved. The discussion framed the Fifth Amendment as a practical issue for advisors who may be on the front line before counsel is involved.

• Controversy warning: Do not tell a client to ignore an IRS summons unless there is a good-faith basis to challenge it; possible criminal exposure calls for legal counsel.
• Offshore-specific point: FBAR and foreign-account requests can put tax reporting and Fifth Amendment issues in tension because account information may be incriminating.
• FBAR enforcement, worldwide income reporting, and foreign bank account information requests
• Practitioner coordination points when civil audit work begins to overlap with white collar tax investigation concerns

Audience

Tax professionals working around IRS audits, offshore compliance, summonses, and controversy matters

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.

This retirement-focused update reviewed Social Security benefit planning, Medicare premium issues, and tax costs that arise when clients combine retirement income, Social Security benefits, and Medicare Parts B and D. The discussion treated Social Security as a pension-style planning asset rather than a simple filing-age question.

• Tax calculation anchor: Provisional income under Internal Revenue Code § 86 includes AGI, tax-exempt income, and one-half of Social Security benefits.
• Planning reminder: Medicare Part B and Part D income-related premiums can turn added retirement income into higher health-care costs; QCDs may help manage taxable income.
• Social Security claiming assumptions, full retirement age changes, and benefit maximization questions
• Medicare Part B and Part D income-related premium adjustments and retirement income planning
• Marriage penalty examples, taxable Social Security benefit thresholds, and retirement-income timing conversations

Audience

Tax professionals advising retirees, near-retirees, and clients managing Social Security and Medicare costs

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.

This collection session explained Offers in Compromise as an IRS settlement tool for taxpayers who cannot full-pay a liability, while distinguishing OICs from installment agreements and other collection alternatives. The discussion emphasized realistic collection potential, documentation, and when an accepted offer conclusively settles liability.

• Collection takeaway: An Offer in Compromise is not an installment agreement; it asks IRS to settle for less than full liability based on collection potential or other grounds.
• Compliance point: After IRS accepts an offer, the taxpayer must stay current with filing and payment requirements for the next five years.
• Collection information statements, assets, income, expenses, and ability-to-pay analysis
• Doubt as to collectibility, doubt as to liability, penalty issues, and effective tax administration concepts
• Practical cautions around promoted penalty-recovery claims and separating legitimate relief from social media tax schemes

Audience

Tax professionals advising clients with IRS balances, collection pressure, penalties, or settlement questions

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.

This Form 4797 session focused on the sale of business property, sales price allocation, depreciation recapture, adjusted basis, and how different asset categories can change the character of income. The session treated Form 4797 as a practical problem-solving form for business sales and disposition planning.

• Audit-sensitive detail: Sales allocation matters; purchase agreements, sales contracts, and settlement statements help support the allocation IRS may review first.
• Recapture reminder: § 1245 depreciation recapture is ordinary income, while unrecaptured § 1250 gain can be subject to a different maximum rate.
• Section 1231 lookback issues, depreciation recapture, and how prior losses can change current-year character
• Sales allocation using purchase agreements, sales contracts, and settlement statements
• Repair versus capitalization decisions, depreciation elections, QBI considerations, and practical filing workflow

Audience

Preparers working with business asset sales, real estate dispositions, depreciation, and client tax planning

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.

This gambling session focused on how wagering income and losses are reported under IRC § 165(d), why itemized-deduction limits still matter for casual gamblers, and how practitioners should navigate the tension between IRS transaction-based thinking and the court-favored session approach. The discussion also connected older guidance, Notice 2015-21 safe-harbor concepts, and newer OBBBA-era changes affecting reporting thresholds and audit posture.

• Most practical takeaway: Record-keeping is what saves the client; without session-level records and supporting casino documentation, gambling loss positions are hard to defend.
• Methodology issue: The presenter emphasized the difference between transaction-by-transaction reporting and session or establishment-based analysis, especially for electronically tracked slot play.
• IRC § 165(d) loss limits, itemized deduction constraints, and why clients can still face phantom-income results
• Notice 2015-21 safe-harbor concepts, slot-machine session rules, and consistency within the same gambling establishment
• W-2G threshold changes, court-versus-IRS interpretation issues, and practical audit-defense considerations for preparers

Audience

Preparers advising clients on gambling winnings, loss substantiation, itemized deductions, and IRS examination support

Credit Context

Live webinar; CPE/CE credit requires completion of the eligible course requirements

Replay Access

Paid attendees can use the “Need Help?” button to access their account for replay links, session PDFs and handouts, certificates, or upcoming registration changes.