Few legal issues have an impact with the breadth of the federal tax system. This course is intended to equip you with a working knowledge of the tax system so that you can provide sound advice in the context of issues with tax consequences and as a foundation for further study.
Course Objectives
- Master the interaction of the statutes, regulations, and rulings that inform tax law
- Establish familiarity with the division of tax items into the categories of “income,” “income exclusion,” “deduction,” and “credit”
- Learn to evaluate the policy reasons behind considered provisions of the tax code
Reading Sources
Required casebook: Joel S. Newman, Federal Income Taxation: Cases, Problems and Materials (4th ed. 2008) (“Newman”)
Recommended codebook: Daniel J. Lathrope, Selected Federal Taxation Statutes and Regulations (June 2010 ed.) OR Steven A. Bank & Kirk J. Stark, Selected Section: Federal Income Tax Code and Regulations (2010-2011 ed.). You may access tax statutes, regulations, and rulings via online resources, but there is no substitute for seeing the interaction of these various sources in a printed form. You will not be able to use online resources to access the tax code and regulations during the exam.
Optional supplemental resource: Marvin A. Chirelstein, Federal Income Taxation (10th ed. 2005). Chirelstein is a helpful resource for expanding upon concepts learned in class and makes a good reference for your bookshelf in the practice of law.
Research Resources
BNA's Tax Portfolios [Tax and Accounting Center > Federal Tax > Portfolios List] are comprehensive guides broken into specialty areas. They are a good place to begin research in a field so that a researcher can gain initial familiarity and get ideas
Tax in Movies and on TV
Watch clips and/or the full episode of this special report on tax shelters and the leaseback depreciation scheme created by KPMG and First Union.
Watch the trailer for this look at the need for reform in the tax code.