[wjun15]

Sometimes, I have a hard time with research questions. Today, I spent nearly 35 minutes trying to figure out where to find the support for an “individual receiving refund of state taxes that he deducted on schedule A. What code section and subsection addresses how he should treat receipt of the refund”

I literally typed in a million different words “standard deductions, tax refund, state taxes, itemized deductions”

I also looked through the whole itemized deductions allowed and couldn’t find anything.

The answer says the keyword is “Recovery of tax benefit”

how am I supposed to figure that out?

Thanks

[10keyLeah]

Keep in mind that the practice programs generally have limited search functions. It seems like I remember the AICPA practice exam had more functionality than Wiley… you may want to give that a try if you haven't already.

I felt frustrated by research questions, and seemed to always select the paragraph above or below the correct answer in Wiley. I typically did fairly well on an exam though. Have you taken a real exam with research questions yet?

I wasn't sure practice would be helpful, but I think it did help me to get more comfortable with searching, and thinking in terms of what a question was asking. Is the topic about individual? Is it Corp? Is it Estate? Then think about the headings for sections and subsections.

Ninja Combo, Yaeger, Wiley -- Licensed CPA, May 2015

[JamesBJames]

Yeah, that “recovery of tax benefit” one was impossible to find. I spent 10 minutes trying to find ANYTHING when I was doing it for the Becker practice exam and just gave up because it was impossible.

My actual research question that I had yesterday was way easier.

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