CPE Catalog
Note
AICPA On-Demand & Self-Study courses take up to 24 hours to process.
Surgent's Basics of Employment Law for Non-HR Professionals
-
Online
4.00 Credits
Learn the basics of employment law and how they affect best practices to help control the interview and discover hidden talents of applicants.
Surgent's Achieving High Levels of Compliance and Customer Service in Your Organization
-
Online
4.00 Credits
Probably one of the greatest conflicts in an organization is determining which is more important: compliance or customer service. This program digs deeply into the issue and prepares the finance professional to achieve high levels of compliance and customer service in the department and in the entire organization. We will examine both disciplines from an analytical standpoint, proving why they are necessary for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations to achieve success.
Surgent's Adapting to OBBBA Changes: A Strategic Review
-
Online
2.00 Credits
Accounting and finance practitioners are continually asked for strategic planning advice. In this course, we will cover topics that will make clients, and their advisors, tax smart and tax prepared for the coming year and beyond. This program is a two-hour review and analysis of what we consider some of the most important changes from the OBBBA impacting both individual and business clients.
Surgent's Understanding Corporate Taxation: Formation and Shareholder Compensation
-
Online
2.00 Credits
When a new business is formed, there are a lot of questions. What is the most tax-advantageous way to structure the entity? What issues do we need to be aware of? How should owners pay themselves? For corporations, these questions are even tougher since they are regulated so heavily. In this course, we will discuss how new shareholders can form a corporation tax-free. We will also discuss how basis is calculated for the shareholders, including what to do when debt is involved. Finally, we will discuss different ways that shareholders may be compensated and the pros and cons of each.
Surgent's International Tax Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Filers
-
Online
3.00 Credits
Globalization continues to make it easier for taxpayers to live abroad, do business in other countries, or invest in foreign enterprises. This creates significant complications and tax planning opportunities when it comes to filing U.S. tax returns. This course provides an overview of the unique tax challenges and solutions presented to U.S. expats or investors living or investing abroad. It examines how foreign-source income is taxed in the U.S. and how the tax consequences could be mitigated by applying the tax treaties, claiming credit for foreign taxes paid, or excluding foreign-earned income. Additionally, the course discusses the numerous foreign informational form reporting requirements and the significant penalties that could be imposed by the IRS. Examples from real-life client scenarios are included.
Surgent's Artificial Intelligence for Accounting and Finance Professionals
-
Online
2.00 Credits
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the accounting and finance profession at an unprecedented pace. What began as automation of repetitive tasks has evolved into systems capable of complex data analysis, natural language processing, and predictive modeling. Modern AI tools — such as generative AI, machine learning, and intelligent automation — are reshaping how professionals audit, forecast, analyze risk, and deliver client insights. This course provides accounting and finance professionals with a comprehensive understanding of how AI is reshaping workflows, client services, and decision-making. Participants will explore current applications of AI within firms and corporate finance, assess risks and governance considerations, and learn strategies for adapting professional roles in an increasingly automated landscape. The program also examines the emerging ethical, regulatory, and data privacy challenges associated with AI adoption.
Surgent's Financial Reporting Considerations for Current Year-end Reporting
-
Online
2.00 Credits
From implementing new accounting standards to accounting for the impact of tariffs, entities have many considerations when preparing their current year financial statements. This course will address many of the financial reporting topics that entities must navigate when preparing their year-end financial statements.
Surgent's Post-death Planning and Estate Administration Strategies
-
Online
2.00 Credits
After a client's death, financial and tax outcomes are shaped not only by the estate plan itself, but also by decisions made during the administration process. Executors and advisors must evaluate liquidity needs, asset disposition, valuation choices, and available tax elections, all while coordinating estate, income, and transfer tax considerations. This course introduces the practical and strategic issues that arise after death and explains how post-mortem decisions can materially affect taxes, cash flow, and beneficiary outcomes.
Surgent's Understanding S Corporation Taxation: Shareholder Basis, AAA, and Retained Earnings
-
Online
2.00 Credits
Even though they have been around for several years, the tax laws pertaining to S corporations remain some of the more difficult areas of the Internal Revenue Code. Given the rising popularity of S corporations, understanding how shareholder basis and the equity section of the balance sheet work together for tax purposes is imperative for nearly any tax practitioner. In this course, we will discuss this relationship. Using examples and illustrations, we will show how contributions, operating transactions, and distributions affect shareholder basis as well as equity.
Surgent's Ethical Considerations for the CPA
-
Online
4.00 Credits
CPAs today face greater challenges than ever to maintain the high ethical standards of their profession. It is vitally important that all CPAs understand their professional responsibilities related to all aspects of their job. This course, which focuses on key components of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, reviews a history of the CPA profession and focuses on ethical requirements that CPAs must adhere to in their everyday practice, including practical examples of potential ethical dilemmas that practitioners may encounter, particularly those related to objectivity and independence. PLEASE NOTE: THIS COURSE COVERS GENERAL ETHICS AND IS APPLICABLE IN STATES IN WHICH STATE-SPECIFIC ETHICS IS NOT REQUIRED. This course does not qualify for IRS credit.
Surgent's Fundamentals of Public Charity Taxation and Form 990
-
Online
4.00 Credits
If you work for or with not-for-profit entities and have questions about the IRS Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, and the related schedules, this is the course for you! The program focuses on common issues that professionals will likely encounter when they prepare the Form 990 and additional tax rules applicable to not-for-profits.
Surgent's IRS Tax Examinations and Hot Issues
-
Online
4.00 Credits
The IRS began replenishing its workforce with the additional funding only to have to terminate workers or lay them off due to mandated federal workforce reductions. The IRS trains its audit workforce by examining the tax returns of individuals and small businesses. As the IRS continues to examine tax returns, Accounting, Tax, and Financial Professionals need clients to understand the need for documentation and procedures to substantiate what IRS examiners are pursuing. Learn the high audit risk areas and ways to help clients survive an IRS audit with little or no change. It is critical for Accounting, Tax, and Financial Professionals in public accounting to understand the risk to clients and to themselves in tax return preparation and planning since the IRS continues to increase its audit coverage and is examining more taxpayers than it has in the recent past.
Surgent's S Corporation Taxation: Advanced Issues
-
Online
4.00 Credits
This course goes beyond the basics and addresses important practical issues that an experienced practitioner must know about S corporations.
Surgent’s Tax Policy Hour With Ken Kies
-
Online
1.00 Credits
This program features renowned tax attorney Ken Kies, who has extensive experience in both government and private practice. Drawing on firsthand experience working with the U.S. Treasury Department and as Acting Chief Counsel of the IRS, plus his years advising clients and practitioners in private practice, he provides a unique perspective on how tax legislation, Treasury regulations, IRS guidance, and tax policy translate into practical planning opportunities. Ken's program examines significant current tax developments and their implications for individuals, businesses, and their advisors. Particular attention will be given to emerging tax policy, recent legislative changes, IRS and Treasury guidance, and planning strategies that practitioners should consider in advising clients. Rather than simply reviewing the law, the program focuses on what the changes mean in practice, including how tax professionals can identify opportunities, anticipate potential developments, and incorporate new rules into their tax planning and compliance practices. Participants will benefit from the speaker's insider perspective on the development and administration of federal tax policy, combined with practical insights gained from representing taxpayers and advising businesses. This program provides an experienced insider's perspective on why the tax rules look the way they do, how Treasury and the IRS are likely to interpret them, and what practitioners should be doing about them now.
Surgent's Understanding How the IRS Rewards Whistleblowers
-
Online
2.00 Credits
In 2006, Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act. Prior to the Act's passage, rewards to individuals who provided information to the IRS regarding tax fraud were capped at $10 million. The Tax Relief and Health Care Act authorized the IRS to create a Whistleblower Office dedicated to investigating, processing and recovering claims concerning the underpayment of taxes. Under the IRS' new program, whistleblowers may recover 15 to 30 percent of the amount collected provided the taxes and amounts in dispute exceed $2 million. If the whistleblower's claim does not meet these criteria, the IRS may still consider granting an award under its pre-2006 Tax Relief Act discretionary authority. Given the rapid growth of this program, practitioners should have a basic understanding of the procedure and content for IRS Whistleblower claims, both from the perspective of a claimant's potential to recover and a taxpayer's exposure to liability.
Surgent's Understanding S Corporation Taxation: Compensation Issues and Entity-Level Taxes
-
Online
2.00 Credits
Even though they have been around for several years, the tax laws pertaining to S corporations remain some of the more difficult areas of the Internal Revenue Code. In this course, we will examine how S corporations break away from the normal tax rules for flow-through entities. We will explore which employee benefits are disallowed for S corporation shareholders, as well as which taxes are assessed at the entity level. Finally, we will discuss how state level taxation may have changed permanently with the addition of PTE elections.
Surgent's Buying and Selling a Business: Tax and Structuring Overview
-
Online
4.00 Credits
One of the major transactions CPA clients are faced with is the purchase or disposition of a business. To help tax professionals advise those clients, this course offers a comprehensive analysis of the business and tax aspects of buying and selling a business. It is a practical guide to help practitioners and industry CPAs understand structuring techniques. All CPAs, including controllers and executives in industry, should understand how difficult the process of buying and selling a business has become.
Surgent's Government and Nonprofit Frauds and Controls to Stop Them
-
Online
4.00 Credits
The cost of fraud, dearly paid by governments and nonprofits, is too severe to not learn from past experiences. This course examines real-world fraud cases to uncover the lessons they provide and translate them into practical, preventive controls. Using a highly illustrative and innovative format, the course engages participants with over 15 focused exercises designed to build a strong working knowledge of fraud risks and effective anti-fraud controls. Whether you are an auditor or an industry professional, you'll gain actionable strategies to strengthen oversight, reduce vulnerabilities, and safeguard your organization.
Surgent's A Complete Tax Guide to Exit Planning
-
Online
2.00 Credits
When exit planning, it is important to weigh various issues, including tax implications, to achieve an effective management and/or ownership change. Many envision tax-free reorganizations being the most preferable structure to avoid capital gains tax, but the opportunities come at a cost to the seller. This course will provide a well-rounded discussion of the various strategies to consider when advising on exiting a business.
Surgent's Review and Analysis of Crucial OBBBA Changes
-
Online
2.00 Credits
Accounting and finance practitioners are still grappling with the many changes OBBBA has made to the tax laws, many of which will impact tax filings. This program is an introduction to and review of some of these critical changes and their impact on taxpayers. Accounting and finance practitioners will gain a better understanding of this very complex set of new tax rules. Practitioners will grasp what is new and what is a continuance of prior rules to develop deeper insights into the many changes that the OBBBA made to the law. If you still feel you need to learn more about how OBBBA works, this program is for you. We have assembled a two-hour review and analysis of what we consider the most important changes from OBBBA that impact client transactions. To the extent that Treasury has provided guidance relating to these new OBBBA changes, we will discuss that guidance. Where guidance is lacking, we will point out areas that require future attention from Treasury.