Chartered Tax Professional

A Chartered Tax Professional (CTP) is someone who has completed a specific series of tax courses in individual and small business income tax preparation. This nationally-recognized online chartered tax advisor course will help you to master tax preparation for individuals, small businesses, partnerships, and sole proprietorships while also helping you to earn your CTP professional credential.

The Chartered Tax Professional certificate program provides a thorough review of individual income tax...

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18 Months / 180 Course Hrs
Open Enrollment
Offered in partnership with your preferred school

Butler Community College

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Learning method

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Course code: GES219

What you will learn

  • Master preparing taxes for individuals, small businesses, partnerships, and sole proprietorships
  • Prepare for the IRS Enrolled Agent exam
  • Learn how to conduct a professional tax preparation client interview
  • Practice and work as a qualified tax professional
  • Learn how to prepare tax returns for all individual U.S. taxpayers
  • Understand the ethical responsibilities of tax professionals

How you will benefit

  • Develop a professional vocabulary and the communication skills required to flourish in the accounting world
  • Become qualified to prepare taxes for a variety of tax-holders and small companies
  • Possess the necessary knowledge and skillset required to pass the IRS Enrolled Agent exam

How the course is taught

  • Self-paced, online course
  • 18 Months to complete
  • Open enrollment, begin anytime
  • 180 course hours
  1. Individual Income Tax Preparation
    1. Comprehensive Income Tax Course
      1. Electronic Filing
      2. W-2 and 1099 Forms
      3. Form 1040 (1040 EZ/A)
      4. Interview Techniques
      5. Filing Requirements
      6. Filing Status
      7. Exemptions and Dependents
      8. Earned Income Tax Credit
      9. Due Diligence
      10. Child Care and Tax Credit
      11. Interest and Dividends
      12. Other Income
      13. Adjustments to Income
      14. Moving Expenses
      15. Itemized Deductions
      16. Employee Business Expenses
      17. Sale of Real Estate
      18. Depreciation: MACRS and ACRS
      19. Self-employment
      20. Filing Requirements
      21. Rental Property
      22. Capital Gains and Losses
      23. Education Expenses and Plans
      24. Education Tax Benefits
      25. IRAs and Retirements Plans
      26. Ethics
      27. Kiddie Tax
      28. Taxpayer Relief Act of 1977
      29. Tax Saving Ideas
      30. Alternative Minimum Tax
      31. Office-in-Home
      32. Injured and Innocent Spouse
      33. Penalties
      34. Extension
      35. Amended Returns
    2. Advanced Income Tax Course: Level I
      1. Earned Income Credit
      2. Clergy
      3. Investments
      4. At-risk Rules
      5. Passive Activities
      6. Injured and Innocent Spouse
      7. Tax Credits, Special Credits
      8. COGS, Business Start-up
      9. Depreciation
      10. Amortization
      11. Section 179
      12. Employee Business Expense
      13. Office in Home
      14. Auto Expenses
      15. Self-employment Tax
      16. Statutory Employees
      17. Capital Gains and Losses
      18. Basis of Property
      19. Sale of Stock
      20. Installment Sales
      21. Rental Properties
      22. K-1s and 1099s
      23. Sale of Business Property
      24. Estimated Taxes
      25. Extensions
    3. Advanced Income Tax Course: Level II
      1. Amended Tax Returns for Individuals
      2. Special Needs and Concerns of Seniors
      3. Tax Issues for High-income Taxpayers
      4. Net Operating Losses
      5. Schedule D: Special Issues
      6. Tax Issues for Divorced Taxpayers
      7. Tax Planning Tips and Strategies
      8. Responding to the IRS
      9. Part-year Resident State Tax Preparation Principles
      10. Nonresident Alien Returns: Form 1040NR
  2. Small Business Income Tax Preparation
    1. Small Business Income Tax Course: Level I
      1. Introduction to Small Business Tax Preparation
      2. Business Types
      3. Accounting Methods
      4. Financial Statements
      5. Business Income
      6. Schedule C
      7. COGSand Inventory
      8. Depreciation
      9. Section 179 Deduction
      10. Contractor vs. Employee
      11. Sale of Business Property
      12. Partnerships
      13. Corporations: C, S, LLC
      14. Employee Taxes
      15. Excise Taxes
      16. Estate Taxes
      17. Extensions
      18. Estimates
      19. Employee Benefits
      20. Retirement Plans
    2. Small Business Income Tax Course: Level II
      1. Understanding the Balance Sheet
      2. Partnership Issues
      3. Corporation Issues
      4. General Business Credits
      5. Tax Issues Related to Buying a Business
      6. Sale or Liquidation of Business
      7. Profit or Loss From Farming: Schedule F
      8. Amended or Corrected Business Returns
      9. What to Do When You Owe the IRS?
      10. Tax Preparation for Non-profits: 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), 501(c)(6), etc.

Instructor support is provided through email by experienced practicing tax professionals employed by Peoples Income Tax, Inc., a sister company of The Income Tax School.

Prerequisites:

A high school diploma or equivalent is a prerequisite for this course. Accounting and specific math skills aren't required, just the aptitude to work with numbers and people and to read and interpret the tax laws.

If you are taking this course to begin a career in taxation you will need to meet the following requirements:

  • Complete Comprehensive Tax Course (located within the course)
  • Register with the IRS and get a PTIN
  • Begin preparing tax returns as a tax preparer
  • Please note that your continuing education requirements will begin once your PTIN has been issued

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 8 or later.
  • Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment. The following materials will be shipped to you approximately 7-10 business days after enrollment:

  • Federal Forms
  • Federal Worksheets
  • Instructions
  • Publication
  • Tax Preparer Resources

About Certification: Income Tax School (ITS)

The Income Tax School (ITS) is a national leader in tax preparation programs and training. ITS publishes educational materials as well as management manuals and webinars. The school also offers numerous tax training courses, such as continuing education seminars and tax certificate programs. Its Chartered Tax Certificate Program can help you master complicated tax preparation concepts and will give you a competitive advantage with any employer—and you can prepare for it through a certified course with us.

The Chartered Tax Professional (CTP) designation is a high-demand certification and the undisputed professional credential for individuals advising clients on income tax situations. This designation demonstrates you have in-depth, comprehensive knowledge of the tax code and can help almost anyone complete their tax returns correctly and optimally.

Professionals who complete the CTP program are highly skilled in tax preparation, planning, and compliance. They are experts in tax law and regulations and can advise on a wide range of tax-related issues.

According to Indeed, the average tax preparer salary is $43,695 per year, with salaries ranging from $22,437 to $85,091.

Once you have successfully completed each course module (and your final exam has been graded), you will need to fill out the Request for Certificate of Completion. Your instructor will then provide you with a certificate of completion by mail. Your CTP certificate will be issued after you have completed all Chartered Tax Professional modules with an average grade of 80% or more and have documented the 500 hours of experience needed to qualify for the CTP designation.

This course is open enrollment, so you can register and start the course as soon as you are ready. Access to your course can take 24-48 business hours.

This course is self-paced and open enrollment, so you can start when you want and finish at your own pace. When you register, you'll receive eighteen (18) months to complete the course.

The time allotted for course completion has been calculated based on the number of course hours. However, if you are unable to complete the course, contact the student advising team to see what options you may have available to work out a suitable completion date. Please note that an extension fee may be charged.

Our courses are designed to accommodate various learning preferences. Depending on the course structure, you may get different forms of support. Self-paced courses are designed to be user-friendly and independent, minimizing the need for external support. In courses with instructors, our direct platform support feature includes opportunities for questions, discussions, and remediation, with email and phone support available for select courses. Our student advising team is available to guide you on program requirements and administrative requests, but they do not provide assistance with course content. Our goal is to provide you with the necessary support for success, whether it's through self-paced exploration, direct communication, or guidance from our advising team.

Upon successful completion of the course, you will be awarded a Certificate of Completion.

This course will provide you with the skills you need to obtain an entry-level position in most cases. Potential students should always do research on the job market in their area before registering.

This course is non-credit, so it does not qualify for federal aid, FAFSA and Pell Grant. In some states, vocational rehab or workforce development boards will pay for qualified students to take our courses. Additionally, some students may qualify for financial assistance when they enroll, if they meet certain requirements. Financing is available from select schools. Learn more about financial assistance.

If you have questions that are not answered on our website, representatives are available via LIVE chat. You can also call us at 1-877-221-5151 during regular business hours to have your questions promptly answered. If you are visiting us during non-business hours, please send us a question using the "Contact Us" form.

Yes. The Income Tax School is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State Boards of Accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit:

  • 45 CE hours
  • 30 CE hours
  • 30 CE hours
  • 30 CE hours
  • 30 CE hours

Total: 165 CE hours

Yes. We have a California version of our CTP course that includes the curriculum approved by the California Tax Education Council (CTEC) for qualifying education required for tax preparers to become licenses to practice in California.

The California CTP course is approved by CTEC as a qualifying course for California. There are additional requirements to become a tax preparer in California. Please visit the CTEC website for more information.

The Income Tax School is certified by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) as a private career school and is subject to the same standards as Virginia colleges governed by SCHEV. We are also a sponsor of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) to provide CPE for CPAs. We're approved by the Office of Professional Responsibility at the Internal Revenue Services as provider of qualifying continuing education for IRS Registration Tax Return Preparers (RTRPs) and Enrolled Agents (EAs). This approval does not extend to licensees of The Income Tax School.

The Income Tax School's programs were developed initially 19 years ago to recruit and train tax prepares for our multi-office practice in Virginia. Our curriculum is written and updated annually be experienced practicing tax professionals. All of the Income Tax School's programs are provided online in an interactive format with instructor support by email rather than by traditional home-study correspondence. We provide learning objectives, lesson quizzes with instructional feedback, and auto-graded exams. Although all of the student textbook content is online, we also provide a hard copy of the student text for convenience and future reference at no additional charge. Our programs are high-quality and are designed to provide students with the knowledge necessary to prepare tax returns professionally.

In this course, you will read material, print out material, work through learning activities, review questions, quizzes and/or tests offline and plug in your answers online for automated grading. You need to complete each item in the order that it appears. You will need to complete each chapter in the order that it appears as well. This is a self-study/self-paced program within your course term.

We teach students how to actually prepare tax returns manually, and we provide expert instructor support by email. Practical application by preparing actual tax returns results in the tax preparation knowledge being internalized and our quizzes and exams also serve to confirm student learning. You learn how to prepare returns without using tax preparation software with our tax courses. By preparing practice tax returns manually instead of having tax software do it for you, you will learn the tax laws and be prepared to correctly prepare tax returns. The tax returns that you are preparing are based on real-life scenarios. That enables you to internalize the knowledge and gives you a solid foundation you can continue to build on. We follow up with quizzes and an exam to make sure that the knowledge is really sinking in. You can download the quizzes and exam beforehand and prepare them of and input your answers online at your own pace when you are confident with your answers.

We teach tax preparation—not tax preparation to one particular software. This way, you can learn the art of tax preparation and apply it critically to different types of software. Remember: Software is only really as good as the operator who is using—if you don't have the knowledge, you won't know if you are asking the right questions.