In order to take Business Tax in the fall, I have to take the prerequisite Income Tax over the summer.
Wake Tech isn’t offering Income Tax over the summer, only in the spring. So in order to get my Associate’s by the end of 2009 I hunted up another community college that offers the course online over the summer, checked with my advisor to make sure it would transfer, and signed up for that.
Community colleges typically enforce attendance requirements, because their state funding mandates it. For online classes, this generally means you must make a post to the class discussion board at least once per week. If you don’t, the instructor will remove you from the class roster—not to be a hardass about it, but because they have to.
Most online classes I’ve taken so far just ask you to either ask or answer a question on the discussion board. Essentially, “ping the board so we know you’re still there.”
The Income Tax class I’m taking is using the requirement to squeeze in a little more schooling. There are weekly questions that every student must answer. This week’s question is “Define personal deduction.”
Looking at the answers of my fellow students, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who struggles with these concepts. Seriously, I totally support the Fair Tax just because it would mean I don’t have to fuck with this shit any more. But I think I gave a pretty good answer: “Personal deductions are expenses incurred by the taxpayer which are subtracted from adjusted gross income.”
Most of us said something along the lines of “deductions allowed by Congress.” Some of the answers confused me; I couldn’t tell if the poster didn’t understand the concept, or if the poster couldn’t express the answer clearly in writing. I don’t envy teachers.