This course provides an overview of the taxation of business entities, including corporations, partnerships, and s-corporations. Students will learn about the federal tax treatment of business transactions, including entity formations, operations, distributions, liquidations, and sales of businesses. The comparative approach is designed to teach students about the tax advantages and disadvantages of different types of business entities. This class provides an essential foundation for both tax and business law practices.

This seminar will examine the major approaches to the formulation of federal tax policy, including their political and economic ramifications. Particular consideration will be given to: tax simplification efforts and the tax legislative process; base-broadening and its potential for lowered rates; the concept of “tax expenditures” in the federal budget; and the phenomenon of taxpayer noncompliance. Current legislative proposals and significant recent legislation will be examined as well.

Sequence and Prerequisites: Income Taxation (Law 647) is a prerequisite. Specific coursework in micro-economic theory or American political institutions is not required, but some familiarity with those fields will be helpful.

Evaluation: Students are expected to prepare a research paper on some currently vital tax policy issue and to present such paper for discussion.

This is the introductory course in federal income taxation. Topics covered may include, for example, the definition of gross income, the determination of permissible deductions from gross income, timing issues, and the taxation of property transactions. The course will also address various tax policy issues. The principal source of law is the Internal Revenue Code and its accompanying regulations, and the course therefore also serves as an introduction to statutory reading and analysis. 

This course provides an in-depth study of the taxation of corporate transactions, including corporate formations, distributions, liquidations, sales of the corporate business and corporate reorganizations. Many students choose to take both Corporate Taxation and Partnership Taxation; however, if a student’s schedule will only provide for enrollment in one of these two courses, Corporate Taxation is recommended.

Sequence and Prerequisites: Income Taxation (Law 647) is a prerequisite.

Evaluation: Administered Final Examination.

This course addresses federal income tax aspects of conducting business and investment activities through entities taxed as partnerships under Subchapter K of the Internal Revenue Code. It covers topics such as choice of entity;  partnership formation; the transfer of assets to and from a partnership; the allocation of partnership tax attributes; the treatment of partnership liabilities; the restrictions on the deductibility of a partner’s share of partnership losses; partnership distributions; and the liquidation or sale of partnership interests.