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Mentor
Side by side review with the PY return. The biggest challenge is finding the missing items.
I agree. Flip the return with the prior year page by page. Most preparers don’t take that step (although they should) and that’s the easiest way to identify items that changed year to year. If something is missing or doesn’t match the work paper, you don’t have to try to figure out why you just need to ask why. I think the biggest hurdle is to resist re-preparing the return. Review should be from a different perspective.
In addition to the excellent advice above, look for variances from PY that seem really large one way or another and dig in to find out if there is a reason why. Some things will usually be stable-ish over the years (mortgage deductions, charitable deductions, wage income). Some will vary more but look into big variances to see if something is missing or unusual.
Yes to this. I always look at the two year comparison in the tax software.
Mentor
Understand what you’re looking at and know how you arrived at the amount you have. Learn the filing requirements and what triggers them
I agree. Always make sure nothing looks “off” for a start ( let’s say you expected a client to be paid in and there is a big balance with the return). I work in PW and I think these are a few things that might help you. Always make sure that things tie, check overpayments, payments and refunds, it can be easy to miss an email or a voucher so triple check. Look trough statements (you can print statements behind forms in CCH). Do side by side compare, make sure all the boxes are checked, and look at statement to see if it falls in like with the PY. If you have “hedge fund heavy” clients, always double check the footnotes, make sure things are classified correctly. And think about where that would be on the return. Have instructions to the forms pulled, there might be an easy answer there. Another way to double check for easy errors is 8960 when it comes to P/NP/TOB income. A lot of people miss simple “check a box” which can make a big differences. Check carry forwards. See if there were any attachments in the PY (NR withholding/foreign forms/1099-B). When reviewing, know what you are looking for, meaning, while reviewing WP, this about where it should go on the Form and if not sure check instruction. For example, if there is US interest on 1099, remind your self that’s a subtraction for state and see if it’s there. If there is bonus, remind yourself to check for additions. if there are a lot of states, pull a smarchart and confirm) . Try to leave notes rather than fixing yourself very often explaining it to yourself will help you identify “tricky” item plus it will help the staff to see it themselves next time. That what helped me back when I saw a new senior. Good luck!