Chapter 1 – Federal Taxation of Individuals (1 of 2)
The REG section of the CPA exam includes federal taxation (Chapters 1 to 6 of BOOST) and business law (Chapters 7 to 9 of BOOST).
Overall, the business law content on the REG section of the CPA exam is generally easier than the federal taxation content. The federal taxation content includes the following content and is listed from hardest to easiest:
Taxation of a trade or business and rental activities as a C corporation, S corporation, partnership, and sole proprietorship
Taxation of property transactions
Individual income taxation
Federal tax authority
Other entity taxation
Gift taxes
Taxation of a C corporation, S corporation, and partnership, covered in Chapters 4 and 5 of BOOST, are the most difficult topics tested on the REG section of the CPA exam given the complexity of the material and the many slight differences in tax treatment among the three types of entities. The next most difficult topic is taxation of property transactions (Chapter 3 of BOOST). There is a significant drop off in difficulty in the remaining topics on the REG section of the CPA exam.
The REG BOOST material is organized by chapter based on topics rather than an equal amount of material in each chapter. Thus, when assessing your progress, the following summary of the number of minutes of lecture for each chapter (from longest to shortest) may be helpful:
Chapter 5 (338 minutes)
Chapter 1 (305 minutes)
Chapter 3 (287 minutes)
Chapter 4 (259 minutes)
Chapter 7 (212 minutes)
Chapter 6 (198 minutes)
Chapter 8 (178 minutes)
Chapter 2 (173 minutes)
Chapter 9 (104 minutes)
A few of the videos for the units in the REG BOOST program are 75 to 90 minutes long. You should consider taking a short break in the middle of these longer videos to ensure you are fully comprehending the material. The quality of your studies is as important, if not more important, than how long you study.
Overall, please don't rush through this material and take your time to understand it. Remember, an additional week of studying (if needed) will be well worth it if the additional time is the difference between passing and failing the regulation section of the CPA exam!
As a reminder, these are the steps you should be following:
Listen to the BOOST videos below with the corresponding outlines in the BOOST CPA Review textbook (remember, you do not use the textbook or listen to the videos from your other review course). Listen to the BOOST videos to understand and be an active learner!
Consider reading/studying the BOOST outline again to ensure you are "fairly" comfortable with the material.
Using the BOOST Content Comparison of BOOST Material and related Becker, Roger, or Wiley CPAexcel documents, determine which multiple choice and simulations to complete in Becker, Roger, or Wiley CPAexcel.
Complete the multiple choice and simulations in that section of Becker, Roger, or Wiley CPAexcel.
Move to the next BOOST video (FYI - you will be repeating these steps over and over again.)
The BOOST CPA Review textbook has a number of flowcharts and illustrations in the various appendices. Often students prefer to have these separate from the textbook so they can have the textbook and related appendix visible at the same time. Overall, we do not believe you will need to print out all of them, but wanted to make them available to you. The following pdf file includes all of the appendices in the BOOST CPA Review regulation textbook to print out separately. We hope this is helpful!
Good luck as you begin your study of Chapter 1! Some of the page numbers in the videos are not the same as the page numbers in the BOOST textbook. Please use the page numbers in the BOOST textbook.
Remember, please contact BOOST CPA Review by email if you have any questions as you work through Chapter 1.
AFTER WATCHING EACH VIDEO BELOW, please complete the appropriate multiple choice and simulations related to each of these videos. Please refer to the document with content comparisons of BOOST and Becker, Roger, or Wiley CPAexcel to determine which multiple choice and simulations to complete.
Here are the five videos for Chapter 1 of BOOST (Let’s go!):
Before watching the video for Unit 1-3 of REG, please change the percentage from 80% to 85% for item 11(a) on page 17 of the BOOST textbook as follows "However, if a taxpayer's provisional income exceeds a specific amount, up to 85% of the benefits may be included in income.”
The Stimulus bill at the end of 2020 increased the business loss limitation on page 33 of the BOOST textbook. Thus, please change item xi(3) on page 33 of the REG BOOST textbook to the following "The maximum net business loss allowed in 2021 is $524,000 for married filing jointly taxpayers and $262,000 for all other taxpayers".
Should you create a subset of the BOOST outlines or flashcards? Given that you have worked through a number of BOOST videos and outlines, you now have a better idea of the BOOST material and are in a better position to assess this question. Please download the following file which provides guidance regarding this question: Should you create a subset of BOOST outlines?