Introduction and BackgroundScott and Kourtney Smith have been clients of Footem and Filem, LLP $($F&F$)$ for thepast few years. Scott owns a landscaping business, Smith Landscaping, which he operates as asole proprietorship. Kourtney is an elementary school teacher. The couple has also receivedinvestment income in recent years, including royalties from an oil and gas property.F&F is a CPA firm that provides tax and assurance services. As a staff accountant forF&F$,$ you are assigned to prepare a personal income tax return and supporting documentation forMr. and Mrs$.$ Smith for the current tax year $(2024$ in this case, also labeled CY$)$ in accordancewith the firms best practices described above. You will be provided with prior year $(2023$ in thiscase, also labeled PY$)$ work papers, provided by client $($PBC$)$ documents, a copy of last yearstax return, as well as a letter and PBC documents from the client for the current year. Tocomplete the case, you will roll forward the PY work papers, complete the $2024$ tax return, andsubmit a complete $2024$ engagement file for senior review.Details about the case assignment are provided below and in the supporting materials. Inaddition to your textbook and course materials, you may consult professional research materials$($Checkpoint$,$ Bloomberg$/$BNA$,$ etc.$)$ to assist you with any of the clients tax positions that youdont understand and$/$or which you feel may warrant additional documentation for the firmswork papers.Getting Started$/$Exploring the provided files:Your first task in this project is to familiarize yourself with the client and begin the preparationof the current year tax return. This will require your review and understanding of severaldifferent documents you will receive from your senior, discussed below: Prior year $2023$ tax return information folder in iCollege This folder contains the Excelversion of the $2023$ income tax return which F&F prepared for Scott and Kourtney, the$2023$ tax return Excel work paper file, and pdf copies of all work papers used to completethe $2023$ engagement. The Excel work paper file is tick marked $($a tick mark is a uniquesymbol indicating that a task has been performed, accompanied by a comment in thework papers to reconcile and$/$or clarify amounts recorded on PBC documents$)$ and tiedwithin the work papers, and should be traceable to the tax return. Tickmarks in REDindicate that an item is either coming from or going to another work paper, while items inBLACK indicate that an item appears somewhere else on the same work paper. Lookhere first to see if and how a particular item was handled last year, and thendetermine if any applicable law has changed that might impact the way you handlesimilar items in the current year. Prior year $2023$ Excel work papers in the $2023$ tax return work paper subfolder iniCollege This file contains the electronic work papers used by F&F staff to complete the$2023$ engagement. The file includes a list of questions presented to the client during lastyears engagement $($including client responses$),$ a schedule of itemized deductions to beclaimed on Schedule A$,$ a schedule of business income and deductions to be claimed on$2$Schedule C$,$ and a lead sheet tying all calculations in the work papers to the final balancesreported on the tax return. You will need to roll forward $($i$.$e$.,$ update$)$ the $2023$ Excelwork papers to complete the $2024$ tax return, although minor revisions may benecessary to adapt last years work papers for the current year. This will makeefficient use of your time and maintain consistency with last years engagement.Note: Your project is not complete without proper work papers. Failure to providethe updated spreadsheet in the same file format as the prior year will result insignificant grade reductions. Handwritten and$/$or self$-$created spreadsheets are notacceptable use Excel to update the prior year spreadsheets you were given to meetyour needs for the current year $($in real life, your bosses wont want you to reinventthe wheel when theyve already given you a template they find acceptable$).2024$ Current year client tax return information items prepared by the client for $2024.$They consist of a letter Kourtney Smith wrote to describe some of the major events sheand her husband experienced this year, various W$-2$ forms for Kourtney, as well asseveral $1099$ forms $(1099-$B$,1099-$DIV, $1099-$INT, $1099-$MISC, etc.$).$ Each $1099$ formprovides detail for a specific type of transaction the client experienced during $2024.$ Youwill also see two documents in an Excel spreadsheet prepared by the client. The first is anincome statement for Smith Landscaping $($Scotts company$)$ for $2024.$ The seconddocument is a listing of the couples $2024$ expenses. It is categorized into personalexpenses and expenses for their oil and gas property. You will utilize these taxdocuments to prepare a comprehensive workpaper file for the $2024$ tax returnutilizing a Dropbox or Google Drive shared access folder. The tax returnworkpaper file in the Dropbox$/$ Google Drive folder should be organized in the exactsame manner as the prior year $2023$ Tax Return Workpaper folder in iCollege.Please ensure that you grant Dr$.$ Henley access to the Dropbox$/$Google Drive folderat the completion of your project. Blank $2024$ Tax Return in Excel use this file to complete the $2024$ Tax Return. IRSforms are provided in PDF$,$ but these forms are not always fillable in PDF$,$ and often printstrangely. The tax return in Excel also does some of the computations for you, and is auseful diagnostic tool to help make sure that your workpapers are correct.Completing the Project:The deliverable for this project is the completed $2024$ Engagement file. You mustcomplete the preparation of the current year $2024$ Excel workpapers and the $2024$ taxreturn for Scott and Kourtney Smith using the information provided. As mentioned inTask $1,$ to complete the workpapers for $2024,$ you must first roll forward the electronicwork papers from the previous year. Use the $2023$ prior year engagement file folder iniCollege as the example of the documentation which should be created for the currentyear.To prepare the $2024$ tax return for your clients, please utilize the file entitled $2024$ Form$1040$ Excel File posted on iCollege. To facilitate the preparation of the file by yourgroup, it is recommended that you upload this file to a cloud$-$based shared access file in$3$Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. As you prepare this years return,make sure you have completed the following forms and schedules in the file: Form $1040$; Schedules $1,2,3,$ A$,$ B$,$ C$,$ D$,$ E$,$ and SE $($Part $1)$; Form $2441$; Form $4562$; Form $8812$; Form $8829$; Form $8863$; Form $8995.$Submitting the Project:Your final task is to complete the preparation of the current year $2024$ Engagement File,which will include the completed Excel workpapers and the completed tax return. One personper group must upload BOTH files to the Tax Return Project submission link in the TaxReturn Project module in iCollege.