J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax is a comprehensive, easy-to-read, and well organized book. I highly recommend this book to anyone preparing their own taxes, either by hand or by computer. It's the next best thing to having a CPA sitting next to you.
Structure and Features of J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax
J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax contains forty-eight chapters grouped into seven divisions:
- Filing basics,
- Reporting your income,
- Claiming deductions,
- Personal tax computations,
- Tax planning,
- Business tax planning, and
- Filing your return.
J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax also includes the 2011 tax tables and earned income credit tables, a glossary, and an index. There's a table of contents for the entire book, and each chapter also has its own table of contents. The authors have placed Tax News for 2011 and Key Tax Numbers for 2011 towards the front of the book for quick reference.
Throughout the book, the authors highlight important content in the side margins that are indicated with an icon:
- Filing tips,
- Planning reminders,
- Cautions,
- Law alerts,
- Court decisions, and
- IRS alerts
The authors illustrate various tax concepts with examples and court cases. Examples are set off with a blue background, making them easy to find.
Each chapter begins with an overview, and then discusses specific aspects. For example chapter 2 begins with an overall discussion of wage and salary income, and then covers more specific topics such as commissions, fringe benefits, wage repayments and stock options.
Pros:
J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax is a comprehensive, well organized, and easy-to-read guide to preparing your federal income tax return. It's easy to find information on specific tax topics, and the pages are designed for ease of reading, letting you find your information quickly. The writers have done a superb job of turning the technical, obscure, and confusing tax concepts into something we can actually read and understand.
J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax provides plenty of tax planning tips. The book covers tax strategies for students, investors, homeowners, real estate investors, senior citizens, military personnel, Americans living abroad, and the tax aspects of getting divorced.
The chapter on the Alternative Minimum Tax (chapter 23) is best explanation of AMT that I have ever read. If you have to tackle AMT, this chapter alone is worth the price of the book.
Cons:
The biggest drawback to JK Lasser's Your Income Tax is that tax laws change frequently. This is a drawback that applies to all books, not just JK Lasser. To overcome this limitation, the publisher provides year-round updates on the
JK Lasser Web site.
JK Lasser Publication Information:
Full Title: J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax
Author: Barbara Weltman, Editor
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Publication Date: November 2011
Pages: 848
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 1118072545
