Looking Ahead

Now that I have time and have started to pick up speed on the Comprehensive Course, it’s time for me to decide what will be next.  I still have a few months before tax season begins and will likely follow the course’s recommended order of:

  • Advanced I

  • Advanced II

  • Small Business I

  • Small Business II

The Comprehensive course is 20 chapters long and is expected to take about 3 hours per chapter which makes it a 60 hour course.  By the time I complete the Comprehensive Course it will have taken me about 7-8 weeks. The rest of the courses in the Chartered Tax Professional program will take about 30 hours each which means that I could reasonably finish each in 3-4 weeks.  While I could probably finish all of these before the end of the year, some of the courses would benefit from some experience preparing taxes.  I’m still not sure how I want to handle everything, but I am currently leaning towards just finishing everything as quickly as possible.  Course access is available for 18 months so if I need to go back and review anything after getting some actual tax preparation experience, that shouldn’t be a problem.  I’m getting a little ahead of myself here anyway since I still have the Comprehensive course to complete, but it’s always fun to think about where you’re going and how you plan to get there.