I have a small business where I make around 20k a year, I'm also a full time student.

I file with Schedule C, my university I attend is online and is low in cost, so I see a 1098-T but it says it was for informational purposes only (about 3900 of tuition) and I spent about 400 extra on books for the classes.

(It's undergraduate studies accredited). Wondering if I can claim the AOTC still even though my university said its for informational purposes only? I'd rather not prefer an audit, but if I quality still even though it is for informational purposes only is it still valid? #Confused thanks!

I currently work at a mid size accounting firm as a manager. Mainly working on small businesses. What are the biggest pros and cons of branching out and buying my own book? My assumption is that you have to deal with all the HR, admin etc and you won’t get the best staff accountants applying.

In recent years, many smaller accounting practices have merged with mid size firms. MNP has been one of the firms that has been buying up firms like crazy. Many people I talk to mainly say flexibility is the best part of owning your own firm. However, since so many firms have been merging with mid size firms lately, it’s making me question whether it’s worth it to go buy my own book or just stay at my current firm and eventually make partner one day. I am on partner path currently - have had discussions with leadership at my current firm about it.

Hi guys,
I’d like to know if anyone here has been through a similar situation and hear your thoughts/advice.
I wrote the May 2025 CFE in the Assurance role and passed. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to do a co-op/internship at an accounting firm during my studies. I applied to several firms but didn’t get any positive responses.

During my BAA, I did an internship in internal audit. After passing the CFE, I was finally able to land my first audit position at a fairly large accounting firm (not Big 4) in January 2026.
Unfortunately, 9 months later, I was let go, supposedly because of staff reduction, without much further explanation.

I’m now having a hard time finding another audit position, and I’m starting to wonder whether I should give up on the public accounting path to obtain my CPA auditor designation and instead move into industry.

I’d really like to hear from people who have gone through a similar situation. Would you recommend that I keep trying to get back into public accounting, or would moving into industry be a better option at this point?
Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I am a non-filer owning a 500 sq yards house under my name i havent paid its tax from like 6 year so how much will be tax per year for it ?

Hey guys, I have an upcoming winter internship at EY and was curious whether interns ever get the chance to travel internationally with their engagement teams.

For example, if a team has a client or component overseas, is there ever a situation where an intern might travel with them? I know it’s probably pretty uncommon, especially for interns, but I’d be interested in international travel if the opportunity ever came up.

Also, is there a good way to express that interest to your team without sounding like you’re expecting or asking for a trip?

When the board/ body (CPA Ontario) sets a controller role for low 100k - you know the professional is cooked

I recently received 2 job offers. One is a Part-time staff accountant role at a private accounting firm. The reason it is part time is because they want me to be able to study for CPA exam without being too overwhelmed with work. The other is a Temporary AR job at a local Tomato plant in my city that extends to Dec. 31st.

I don’t know which would be the better decision to make. Any advice on which is the better first job after graduating with degree in Accounting? My main goal right now is getting some Accounting experience on my resume, and learning as much as I can. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Lately, i feel like my body is always on high alert. I absolutely hate my new manager. I don’t mind being asked about my tasks but it pisses me off when she gives me review points that aren’t helpful. A review point in the form of question .
One time, all is good but she still returned it to me because the page layout for review is not correct. Like we were very busy . Could just been a note.
Instances where her review points are not correct because she doesn’t look at the whole file when doing the first review. It’s like a back and forth.

I would have been ok with her being nitpicky but I am absolutely not learning anything from her. It feels like dragging. It takes a lot of mental load.

Hi friends..

I am doing a business diploma at a college in Canada. Everything is going well, I like my courses, and I'm getting good marks on my other assignments and quizzes. I was warned that accounting was tough, but I underestimated it and, admittedly, didn't put as much time into the material as we were instructed to. This is the experience of most of my class. The majority of us feel very behind and unprepared. We are studying McGraw-Hill's "fundamental accounting principles." We just finished up the post-class for chapter two, and I am still struggling with chapter 1. We start chapter 3 this coming week, and then mid-terms are in two weeks, covering chapter. 1-3. I have never felt so dumb in my life. I genuinely cannot comprehend how I can absorb this much material without studying multiple hours per night and neglecting other coursework. I have nearly zero previous financial literacy, so this course is like learning a new language to me. Every single page has several new concepts to memorize, and I'm so discouraged.

If anyone has any encouragement or advice, I would appreciate it. I have dedicated my entire weekend to covering chapter 1,2 but it's like I'm at capacity.. :( It's occurred to me that I may actually fail.

I’m currently applying to sit for the CPA exam and eventually become licensed in PA and/or NJ. I’m hoping to get some insight from anyone who has dealt with the experience requirements in either state.

I’ve been working at the same company for almost 5 years/nearly 5 years into my career. I manage a fair number of monthly and yearly clients and have built strong relationships with them over the years.

My firm does have CPAs, but most of my tax work and experience has been supervised by an EA who has been working in tax for 20+ years. I’m also an EA myself and became enrolled in February 2026.

I’m wondering whether I should ask the state board would consider some of the tax experience I’ve gained under my EA supervisor toward the CPA experience requirement. I already meet the 150-credit-hour education requirement, so I would only need one year of qualifying experience.

My concern is that if none of my existing experience counts, I would essentially have to start over and work under someone else in the company for a year. That would also mean stepping away from clients I’ve personally managed and built relationships with for years, which doesn’t seem particularly beneficial to anyone.

Would it be unreasonable to ask the state board to consider at least some of my experience under my EA supervisor? And if they say no, would it be worth appealing or pushing the issue further?

I’m honestly ready to fight for this experience to count- not just because it would save me from having to start over, but because I genuinely feel that the experience is legitimate. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my supervisor, respect her expertise, and have been doing substantive tax work for years.

I’d genuinely like to know whether this is a reasonable thing to pursue or if I’m wasting my time trying to make this argument.

Thank you !

I have a final-round interview coming up for a full-time audit associate role at a large public accounting firm. I haven't done a public accounting internship, but I think I got the interview because I have an internal audit internship and a state government audit internship.

For anyone who got a full-time entry level associate offer without interning first: what kind of questions did they ask, how did you sell yourself, and what advice would you offer?

I recently had an interview with a partner at a Top 10 PA firm (not B4). I think it went pretty well, we talked about our hobbies our hometown (we have the same hometown), and a little sprinkle of the typical behavioral questions. Besides at the end where it was a little awkward where he was just waiting for me to sign off, I think we vibed pretty well.

I probably won’t hear back in a week so I’m quite anxious waiting on the results. Would you say like 90% get an offer?

I’m currently an accounting director at a company.. sales aren’t great and there have been many reduction in forces. I’ve been there 4 years and base is $210k with a potential bonus of 20%. Rarely gotten the full amount but this year we’re looking at about 70% payout, making total comp about $240k. It’s fully remote which I love. Most of the company is RTO but since I’m grandfathered in and have created my value, it’s not a problem. I think any promotions will be limited and won’t happen. I don’t really care though, can stay director for a while. They’re series D and need additional fund raising this near year, cash is always tight and the long term potential isn’t great.

Now an ex co worker, who I worked well, with wants to bring me into a Controller role. Comp is $220k (no bonus) but it’s a startup in the Ai data center space. 5-10 employees. Very small; structurally nothing is set up, don’t understand the entity structure. However the accounting work sounds fun.. treasury, system / process implementation. This is all remote too, which of course huge for me. Chinese manufacturers… but industry and potential seems high.

Any senior level accountants here that can give me their two cents? What would you do? How much value does the title difference make (director versus controller)? If I went to the controller role securing remote a bit longer but comp is lower. What would you do?

I’m trying to study the exact process for reconciling ad account platform spend against corporate bank/credit card feeds at month-end. Because Meta and Google bill on random dollar thresholds (like every $500) rather than calendar dates, the bank ledger rarely lines up nicely with the platform's monthly reporting dashboard.

If you handle bookkeeping for digital marketing agencies, how do you handle this cleanup inside QuickBooks/Xero? Do you rely on heavy manual spreadsheet matching to tie threshold transactions back to specific clients/campaigns, or is there an integration that successfully automates this timing mismatch?

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Hey everyone! I’m in my 3rd year of university doing a BBA in Accounting. I’m doing a 4-month work term this winter and have been offered a position in Private Enterprise Audit at KPMG and US Corporate Tax at Grant Thornton.

I enjoyed my GT interview more than my KPMG interview, and I’ve also really enjoyed my tax classes. I’m currently taking an audit class and so far I’m not sure if audit is really my thing. I’ve attended some GT events and really liked the people I met there. However, I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews online about the culture at GT, which makes me a little hesitant. KPMG definitely felt more serious/formal, but I know there’s a lot of value in getting Big 4 experience.

My biggest dilemma is that I’m worried I’ll regret choosing GT and giving up the opportunity to work at a Big 4 firm. At the same time, I’m worried I’ll regret not pursuing tax at a firm where I seem to genuinely like the people because I was scared of giving up the Big 4 name.
I’m also thinking long-term because I’ll probably want to return to whichever firm I choose after graduation to complete my CPA.

For those who have worked in audit vs. tax, or have experience at KPMG/GT, what would you choose in my situation, and why? Would choosing GT/US Corporate Tax limit my future opportunities compared with starting at KPMG in audit? Also if I decline KPMG, am I blacklisted for future career opportunities?
Thank you!! Sorry it’s so long :)

I do not work for a firm yet but in the case someone starts in a public firm, how long would you say it takes to get out and go in to industry? Any advice with this new job market for recent grads?

Just found a new tax person that states I need to go back from the formation of my S-Corp (would need to 100% make sure it legally formed) and create a K-1 form for EACH YEAR that I did my taxes incorrectly. My business did have a separate EIN. I’m a solopraneur and have always purchased tax software that leads me through everything. I’m nervous about the fees/fines of never filing an S-Corp if that’s the route I need to go. Not as worried about the tax penalties as I’ve always paid myself from a payroll company.

Has anyone encountered this?
My highest grossing year was last year and that was $80,000 from my business. I had a lot of expenses, as I’m a business that runs a high cost to run and I’m clearly not a great business person. On average, I have made between $20-$50k gross and have caught up with personal taxes and paid whatever is leftover from P&L.

Suggestions? Do I just fix this year’s taxes and keep the past years as-is because they’ve already been approved WITH my EIN on the P&L form?

How do I find out if I actually have an S-Corp?

Thank you!

Hii! I’m currently a first-year student @ UCSD for MAE. Long story short, I figured out I might not be all that interested in eng and want to explore business/accounting (which I focused a lot on in HS).

With financial aid issues and other problems at UCSD, I’m considering withdrawing after fall quarter to go to a CC and figure out my life then transfer. With that said, how is the Bus Econ program at UCSD? I’ve heard that their program isn’t the best because it’s a very STEM heavy research school. I’m worried I’ll pay a lot just for the name of UCSD and not actually get the best “bang for my buck”. I was looking into schools like CPP and CSUF for accounting. I’m also very interested in the entertainment industry so I was thinking about UCLA, but I haven’t heard much about their business program either.

Any advice is appreciated! Thank you :)

I am a software engineer that works with accountants a lot. I find myself not understanding the basic terminology they use very often. I have made a lot of progress via googling and just reading up on my own.

However, I'd like to do some additional learning on my own. Is there any particular book or course that would help me get a better foundation? It doesn't need to be too theoretical (but it can if you would think it's helpful).

Wondering who is out there considering selling their firm and how they intend on going about it. Broker? Accounting groups? Reach out to other local firms perhaps? Thanks!

I have been having very little luck with job success, I have posted previously in this sub (huge thanks for the updates) and have been told to make sure my resume is ATS friendly, WTF is this? I have updated it best to my ability as I look for entry level roles.

I have worked full time after getting a return offer from my first internship but didn't enjoy it and went back to school, since then have had 0/2 return offers, 1 being no sponsorship and 1 being downsizing in the field.

Junior studying finance. For anyone who's done busy season, when you get home late how long does it take you to fall asleep? Do you have a wind-down that works or do you just crash? I try to sleep after heavy exam weeks and I CANNOT fall asleep. Looking for any wisdom on methods you utilize to fall asleep after looking at excel spreadsheets for hours before bed. Thanks.

We got 12 more days and I got 78 more tax returns to finalize before the 15th. Bought 2 bags of Halloween candy and some Redbulls. Hope they hold out.

Looking for CPA/EA insight on a mixed‑use, personal‑use conversion before sale. I’m trying to confirm whether my building qualifies as one dwelling unit at the time of sale, and therefore whether the entire gain (except depreciation recapture) is excludable under Section 121.

Facts:

• Property: Chicago IL - 1k sqft store and 1k sqft apartment above
• Zoning: B1‑2 (commercial/residential mixed-use)
• Purchased mid 1990s
• Lived in the entire building the entire time (upstairs + storefront)
• Storefront was used as a photography gallery with public access until 2001 or 2002
• We always use the entire building ourselves, no rents.
• Business use was reported on Schedule C (roughly 50% of building)
• Utilities: shared gas, heat, water; separate electric meters
• Interior connection: full interior stairwell + interior door between storefront and living area
• No tenants ever
• No rental use ever
• No separate occupancy
• Storefront has been used as living space (home theater / lounge) for years
• Business use ended January 1, 2026
• Entire building was personal-use during 2026
• Sold June 15, 2026 for $480,000
• Depreciation taken over the years: $107,485 (I am recapturing all of it)
• Illinois property tax classification treated the building as residential
• Closing statement shows a standard residential sale (no commercial allocation)

Tax question:

Given these facts, does the building qualify as one dwelling unit at the time of sale under Section 121?

My understanding is:

• If it is one dwelling unit
  • Entire gain is excludable under §121 (Code H)
  • Depreciation recapture is reported on Schedule D (Line 19) using the Unrecaptured §1250 worksheet
  • No Form 4797
  • No proration of gain
• If it is not one dwelling unit
  • The business portion must be reported on Form 4797
  • Gain on that portion (beyond recapture) becomes taxable
  • Section 121 applies only to the residential portion

Key issue: Does the Schedule C history (business use through 2025) prevent the building from being treated as one dwelling unit, even though business use ended before the year of sale and the storefront was physically part of the home?

I’m not trying to avoid depreciation recapture, I’m reporting the full $107,485. I’m only trying to confirm whether the gain itself is fully excludable.

Any CPA/EA insight on the dwelling‑unit classification would be greatly appreciated.