2024 Wild West Tax Fest - Sept. 26-27, 2024

Overview

2024 Wild West Tax Fest - September 26-27, 2024

10:00 AM - 4:30 PM CDT - Both Days

Adventure with us this fall for 12 hours of CPE in beautiful WESTERN NEBRASKA held two days before the Monument Marathon!

Join us for live, relevant, screamingly current, interactive and difference-making CPE this fall presented by a nationally recognized tax attorney.

Day 1 (6 hours)

Disregarded Entities (3 hours)
Now You Don’t See Them, Now You Do: The Chameleon Takes On the Color of Its Context - But, Not Always
Employee Retention Credit (ERC) Update (1.5 hours)
On the Bus, Outside the Bus or Under the Bus: How and Where to Go From Here

Is Use of Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT) Fit for Tax Practice? (1.5 hours)

Day 2 (6 hours)

Tax Chaos (6 hours)
Unpiling from the Debris of Recent Tax Developments
A Midyear Tax Update Course the Likes of Which You've Never Seen Before

Cost will increase to $225 for the 2-day pass if registered after August 31, 2024. Registration will remain open until the course date, but please register by September 21st to guarantee lunch!

Highlights

Join us for live, relevant, screamingly current, interactive and difference-making CPE this fall in Western Nebraska presented by a nationally recognized tax attorney, Bradley Burnett, J.D., LL.M.

Day 1

Disregarded Entities (3 hours)

Now You Don’t See Them, Now You Do
The Chameleon Takes On the Color of Its Context - But, Not Always

What is a disregarded entity (DE)? It is a business entity that is generally disregarded from its owner for federal income tax purposes, but not disregarded for (some or all) other purposes. If an entity is "disregarded" for federal income tax purposes, it may be "regarded" for other federal tax and state law purposes. Yes, indeed, a plethora of exceptions to being "disregarded" exist. This unexpected, eye opening course capably explores and drills into what the tax planner, tax preparer and taxpayer must know about the disregarded entity rules and exceptions to them.

Highlights

Disregarded entities (DEs) for income, employment, transfer tax and foreign asset reporting purposes
Asset protection benefits and pitfalls
Liabilities of SMLLCs as partners in partnerships for allocation of basis among partners
Charitable contributions of land and SMLLCs to protect the charity
Like kind exchanges and disregarded entities
LLCs, transfer (estate and gift) taxes and valuation (long live Pierre!!)
The funny thing and not-so-funny things about DEs and reporting of foreign assets
When a DE must get a separate EIN from its owner
Tax reporting (K-1s, 1099s, etc.), IRS matching and W-9s
Spouses owning and operating LLCs
The interesting thing about estate tax liens and SMLLCs
Can an owner and DE have different methods of accounting?
LLC (partnership), SMLLC (single member LLC), grantor trust and QSub compared
Nooks and crannies in the check-the-box regs and rules – Why you can't afford not to care
Tax effects of sale or liquidation of Des
State vs. federal distinctions – Sales tax, franchise tax and other oh-so-lovely matters
DE state law vs. federal law liability distinctions and intricacies a/k/a Some states are better (or worse) than others

Employee Retention Credit (ERC) Update (1.5 hours)

On the Bus, Outside the Bus or Under the Bus: How and Where to Go From Here

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) took America by storm. In so doing, it itself created a storm of Biblical proportion. Legitimate businesses via legitimate tax professionals applied for it. Half-baked bystanders jumped in and winged it. Greedy, non-tax professional, loose-cannon profit seeking rampant fools jumped onto the bandwagon.

A well-intended Congress in the legislation wrote lofty and loose qualification standards. IRS fleshed out mostly helpful low-level guidance which got us started into the woods. In places, IRS concocted nonsensical, adversarial rules that stepped off track away from Congress’ skimpily drafted legislation.

What resulted is nothing short of chaos. Everyone and their dogs plunged headlong into the ERC fray. IRS eventually blew a whistle to stop processing ERC claims. Congress now threatens to cut off the filing date for claims retroactively.

This course walks through the following:

Is it too late to file an ERC claim? Pros and cons on whether to do so
If you’ve filed an ERC claim with IRS and it’s just sitting there in limbo, what do you do now? Later?
If IRS has responded to your ERC claim and disallowed it (or is giving to you other flack), how do you respond?
If you’re associated with a filed ERC claim that is improper, how best to proceed (and attempt to save your bacon)?
How to approach income tax amended returns (to reduce wage expense) and manage clients in the process
Ethical (including Circular 230) landmines along the merry path
How to advise clients who may be on the ERC bus, outside of it or under it
How to not make more mistakes (than those already on the table)

Is Use of Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT) Fit for Tax Practice? (1.5 hours)

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) chatbot ChatGPT has taken the country by storm. ChatGPT reached 1 million (1M) users within only 5 days of its release. What is ChatGPT? It is a computer program designed to generate answers to questions posed in human-like, conversational responses.

ChatGPT is being utilized by young and old alike in federal tax practice as we speak. But, is it ready for prime time? ChatGPT has its strengths, but also currently has notable weaknesses. Blink your eyes and it will change (and likely get a lot better very quickly). If tax practitioners do not jump on the GAI train now, they’re likely to get left at the station.

How many of the following questions can you confidently answer?

Is the use of general AI (ChatGPT in particular) helpful in tax practice?
If helpful, in what contexts may it best be used?
How can using AI in tax research save you time and make you money?
What SKILL SETS capably aid you in your approach utilizing AI in tax research?
What are the practical limitations on its use? Can it be harmful?
Does ChatGPT hallucinate?
What are the legal, accounting and tax ethics rules applicable to the use of GAI?
What must you know and do to prevent generative AI from getting you into trouble?

This course answers the above questions through a series of case study ChatGPT searches and second effort. Objectives:

To learn the strengths and candid weaknesses of currently commercially available generative AI (GAI) (such as ChatGPT)
To learn skill sets as to how to successfully utilize AI in tax research
To learn the legal, accounting and tax ethics rules applicable to the use of AI in tax research

Day 2

Tax Chaos (6 hours)

Unpiling from the Debris of Recent Tax Developments
A Midyear Tax Update Course the Likes of Which You've Never Seen Before

We invite you to join us for a midyear tax update course the likes of which you’ve never seen before. The context in which we stand tax has shifted and continues to shift. The U.S. Supreme Court in recent cases has pretty much blown everything out of the water. We cannot look at taxes the old way and keep up with the times. If we think the way we formerly thought, we’ll be left in the dust.

Courts are opening up whole new worlds of opportunity for taxpayers and doling out a major league slap-down on Treasury and IRS. Treasury is issuing new guidance that shakes the earth on how we’ve always played the game. IRS is stumbling along at best, yet asking the lion’s share. Deadlines to contest tax liabilities appear to be opening up (the Red Sea and Jordan River have both parted). Timing of income and deductions have new protocols. The way we approach most everything is turning upside down. This course opens the future to you and how to best proceed.

This course is not just about recent court cases, it’s about everything new that’s relevant to individual and small business tax practice. Covered are a myriad of new tax developments. The course is kept current up-to-the-minute it is delivered.