Course 08 · Tax Planning
Form 1040 and Tax Projection Fundamentals
Learn the tax return and projection from the ground up, with no prior tax knowledge assumed.
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What this course covers
This course teaches the skill under tax planning: reading a return the way a planner reads it — as a map of opportunities, not just a compliance document — with no prior tax knowledge assumed.
Working with the same example households, you learn Form 1040 shape, where income lands, how books flow into the return, and how to read and explain a tax projection with confidence.
What you leave with
The ability to navigate Form 1040, trace its major inputs, and read and explain a tax projection.
Included with the course
- Full video lessons taught from real firm workflows
- Module resources, worksheets, and implementation notes
- A concrete next step for your firm after every module
- Lifetime access after you open the course — no subscription required
Syllabus
13 modules
Preview the full module list here. Lessons, implementation notes, and downloads open inside the Academy after you get started.
- 01
What a Tax Return Actually Tells You
Read a completed return as evidence about the household while separating prior-year facts from the open-year planning work.
~18 min
- 02
The Shape of the 1040
Trace the arithmetic spine of a return from total income through taxable income, tax, payments, refund, or balance due without relying on line-number memorization.
~18 min
- 03
Wages, Investments, and Retirement Money
Identify the personal-side income sources and documents behind total income, then name what controls each source and when it becomes taxable.
~19 min
- 04
Business and Rental Income
Read business and rental income as the result of something the client owns and runs, while keeping return structure separate from book-to-tax reconciliation.
~19 min
- 05
From the Books to the Tax Return
Bridge a bookkeeping profit figure to the tax return by separating cleanup errors from legitimate book-to-tax adjustments.
~19 min
- 06
Why the Same Dollar Saves Different Amounts
Understand marginal rate, effective rate, stacking, deductions, credits, phaseouts, and cliffs so the same decision can be priced differently for different clients.
~20 min
- 07
Credits and the Family Return
Read the credit section as a map of the household and understand how qualification, income, tax liability, and refundability shape what a credit is worth.
~19 min
- 08
What Something Actually Cost: Basis
Treat basis as stored, already-taxed value: identify what enters it, what reduces it, where it hides, and how to rebuild the record when documents are missing.
~20 min
- 09
What Happens When Something Gets Sold
Apply basis to a sale by tracing proceeds, holding period, character, losses, and the planning questions created when an asset is sold.
~19 min
- 10
State Taxes and the Multistate Client
Understand how states start from the federal return and diverge through residency, source, credits, entities, and moves without pretending one lesson can answer every state rule.
~20 min
- 11
Building the Current-Year Projection
Assemble a defensible baseline projection from last year’s return, what changed, current inputs, honest estimates, and documented assumptions.
~19 min
- 12
Pricing a Decision: With and Without
Run the whole return with a decision in it and without it, compare the result honestly, and present the range with assumptions before anything executes.
~19 min
- 13
Managing the Payment Side
Turn a projection into a payment plan by managing withholding, estimates, safe-harbor direction, refunds, and the standing fall payment checkup.
~20 min
Related courses
Course 07
Building a Tax Planning Practice
Design and deploy tax planning as a reliable value-add inside the client relationship.
Course 09
The Top 25 Tax Planning Strategies
The twenty-five strategies that carry most real-world planning value, counted down one at a time.
Course 10
The Complete Tax Planning Strategy Library
The Next 25 beyond the core Top 25: rarer plays, specialist shelves, and the 2026 personal deduction stack.
Ready when your firm is.
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