The National Society of Accountants is providing a free Web tutorial to help tax practitioners get ready for the Internal Revenue Service’s upcoming Registered Tax Return Preparer competency tests.

John Ams

Under the IRS’s new regulation regime, tax preparers who want to prepare federal tax returns will need to take the RTRP exam by Dec. 31, 2013 (see IRS Begins Scheduling Tax Preparer Competency Tests). The NSA is offering a free Web tutorial to help preparers familiarize themselves with the exam.

“Surviving the RTRP Exam: A Web-Based Tutorial” is available online at http://connect.nsacct.org/RTRP. Presented by John O. Everett, CPA, PhD, co-author of the NSA RTRP Exam Review Course, the tutorial will help members brush up on what they need to know to take an online, multiple choice, true/false examination.

For those who desire more in-depth preparation, the NSA also offers a self-study Exam Review Course. Written by subject matter experts John O. Everett, Ph.D., CPA and Cherie J. Hennig, Ph.D., CPA, the NSA RTRP Exam Review Course provides a review of all the federal taxation topics and subjects outlined by the IRS.

The course is available in three formats: file download, CD-ROM, and print. For NSA members, the cost of the file download and CD-ROM versions is $100, while the cost of the print book is $150. Costs are $50 higher for nonmembers.

“The IRS will update the tax law on which the exam is based in early April 2012 so that the exam available after April 15 will be the 2011 Code—the very same Code preparers will be working with for hours and hours during the upcoming tax season,” said NSA executive vice president John Ams in a statement. “In other words, if you prepare a number of Form 1040 returns during tax season, you will also be taking a cram course on the tax content in the exam. Why not take the exam right after that tax season cram course?”

The NSA also has an RTRP site with information that paid preparers need to know at http://connect.nsacct.org/RTRP. For more information about the NSA, visit www.nsacct.org.