When Your Client Dies: Final Form 1040, Post-Death Elections and More (Completed)

Tax practitioners need special knowledge and skills when working with clients after a family member’s death. There are special tax rules associated with preparing a client’s final Form 1040 and a host of other issues and options that must be carefully addressed. Your clients need you to be at your absolute best as you support them through the necessary steps during those difficult times.

The webinar provides a practical review of how to prepare the decedent’s final Form 1040 and advise clients on a range of essential post-death elections and decisions.

Who Should Attend
This course is essential for CPAs, CFPs, enrolled agents, estate planners, tax attorneys and other professionals who advise clients on tax, retirement and estate planning, and other wealth management matters.

Topics Covered

• Preparing the Final Form 1040
• What should be filed and reported
• Passing income from the entity to individual beneficiaries
• Who must file the return
• Income, losses and deductions to be reported
• What is new and changed after the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
• Special Income Tax Planning opportunities for the year of death
• Addressing the portability election
• Alternate valuation date
• QTIP and QDOT decisions for the surviving spouse
• Extending the time to pay the federal estate tax (Code Sec. 6166)
• Elections for partnerships and S corporations
• Where and when to deduct fiduciary commissions
• Fiscal-year option for estates
• Disclaimer opportunities
• Treating a revocable trust as part of the estate (QRT Election)
• Special distribution opportunities from a trust or an estate
• Special Income Tax Planning opportunities for the year of death

Learning Objectives

• Describe the tax reporting requirements for a decedent client's final Form 1040
• Discuss the key unique post-death elections and decisions that should be considered for a decedent client
• Identify changes in the law resulting from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
• Recognize how to accurately answer client questions regarding tax issues for a decedent

Level
Intermediate

Instructional Method
Group: Internet-based

NASBA Field of Study
Taxes (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of federal individual income taxes and transfer taxes.

Advance Preparation
None