The Missing Tax Accounting Guide: A Plain English Introduction to ASC 740 Tax Provisions

This book explains the “how” and “why” of tax accounting concepts and mechanics according to ASC 740 (U.S. GAAP) using clear, practical, and understandable language and methods. It also contains a series of tax provision examples that start with a trial balance, work through tax provision calculations, develop the accounting entries necessary to close the books. It also explains how this process ultimately supports the tax-related figures and explanations and in the financial statements and footnotes.• Start off by diving into an example of how a tax provision works• Understand the relationship between the corporate tax return (“compliance”) and the tax provision (tax accounting)• Learn what makes up the total tax expense (or provision) of a company, how to compute it, as well as the relationship between the tax provision and a company’s financial statements• Learn about book/tax differences, permanent differences, and temporary differences, what the concepts mean, and how to handle them• Learn gives rise to deferred tax expenses, deferred tax benefits, deferred tax assets, and deferred tax liabilities, as well as how to account for them in tax provision calculations• Gain insight into the financial statement auditor’s perspective of the tax provision, as well as how to effectively interact with them• The book’s explanations and examples take into account the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“Tax Reform”)Reinforce and deepen your understanding of these and other concepts by referring to detailed examples, workpaper illustrations, and sample journal entries throughout the material. This book is the “missing guide” you have been looking for and contains the foundational knowledge necessary to learn, understand, and apply the complex rules of ASC 740 in the real world.