REG final-review chapter for issue-order practice across ethics, individual tax, entities, planning, and property transactions.
This chapter brings the REG curriculum together through issue-order review rather than isolated rule recall. The purpose is to practice deciding which framework controls first when one fact pattern spans ethics, individual tax, entity compliance, entity planning, and property transactions.
| Section | Review role |
|---|---|
| 31.1 Ethics/Procedures | Connects practitioner duties, Circular 230, return positions, conflicts, IRS notices, and penalty issues. |
| 31.2 Individual Review | Integrates income timing, deductions, capital losses, AMT, NIIT, carryovers, and documentation. |
| 31.3 Entity Compliance | Separates C corporation, S corporation, partnership, consolidated return, K-1, basis, and election rules. |
| 31.4 Entity Planning | Reviews formation, contributions, redemptions, liquidations, reorganizations, and ownership changes. |
| 31.5 Property Review | Orders property classification, amount realized, deferral, boot, recapture, and replacement-basis issues. |
Integrated REG review is about sequencing. The same fact pattern can contain a practitioner duty, an entity classification issue, a basis adjustment, and a property disposition. The first task is to identify which issue controls the next step, not to calculate the first number that appears.
| Cross-topic signal | First review question | Common REG trap |
|---|---|---|
| Practitioner or IRS communication | Is the issue ethics, procedure, penalty exposure, or authority support? | Jumping into the tax result before resolving the practitioner’s duty. |
| Individual tax facts | Which item changes income, deduction, credit, filing status, or limitation? | Treating a limit as an afterthought after computing the tax base. |
| Entity facts | Which entity form controls tax, flow-through, basis, and reporting? | Applying one entity’s basis or distribution rules to another entity form. |
| Planning transaction | What future consequence follows from the chosen structure? | Selecting the immediate tax benefit without checking later recognition or basis effects. |
| Property disposition | What are amount realized, adjusted basis, character, and recognition rule? | Computing gain before identifying deferral, boot, or recapture. |
| Checkpoint | What to do | Why it matters in REG review |
|---|---|---|
| Name the governing area | Label the issue as ethics, procedure, individual tax, entity tax, property, or planning before computing. | The first wrong framework usually makes every later calculation unreliable. |
| Identify the actor | Determine whether the key actor is the taxpayer, practitioner, shareholder, partner, corporation, estate, or IRS. | Duties, elections, basis accounts, and penalties depend on the actor. |
| Order the constraints | Apply eligibility, authority, limitation, basis, character, and timing constraints before final arithmetic. | REG integrated cases often hide the controlling limit behind obvious numbers. |
| Track carryovers | Note losses, credits, basis adjustments, suspended amounts, and deferred gains that survive the current question. | Review questions test whether candidates remember future-year consequences. |
| Support the conclusion | Tie the answer to the record, form, schedule, authority, or disclosure that would justify the position. | REG is not only a tax result; it also tests compliance support and practitioner judgment. |
For each integrated question, ask: