Taxation

Lecture - 4 hours. This class is an introduction to the federal income taxation of business entities including corporations and partnerships. This course will examine the federal income tax relationship between corporations and their owners and will cover the transfer of funds into a corporation on formation and the re-transfer of money and property from the corporation to its shareholders.

Lecture - 3 hours. This course is an examination of the federal income tax relationship between corporations and their owners. The class will cover the transfer of funds into a corporation on formation and the re-transfer of money and property from the corporation to its shareholders. The course also considers taxable and non-taxable corporate restructuring in the form of sales, mergers, acquisitions, and divisions of corporations. 

Prerequisite: Law 220 Federal Income Taxation
Final Assessment: Exam

Discussion - 4 hours. There are no prerequisites, although this course is a prerequisite for most other tax courses. This course surveys the federal income tax system, with consideration of the nature of income, when and to whom income is taxable, exclusions from the tax base, deductions and credits, and tax consequences of property ownership and disposition.

Discussion - 3 hours There are roughly 80,000 local government entities in the United States which provide essential services and spend billions of dollars. This course takes a broad approach to state and local government law, both practically and theoretically. Topics to be covered include: federalism, relations between states and localities, governmental liability, zoning, educational equity, and public finance. Readings will be drawn not only from case law and statues, but from history, theory and public policy.

Discussion plus document drafting skills - 4 hours. This course is a combination skills class and a lecture course.  Students learn the special legal rules and concepts applicable to nonprofit organizations (particularly IRC 501(c)(3) nonprofits) and then, in a workshop class structure, they apply those rules and concepts to complete drafting assignments regarding the formation of nonprofit organizations under state law and the application for tax-exempt status for nonprofit organizations under Federal tax laws.

Discussion - 3 hours. A great number of businesses utilize the partnership structure, including closely-held operating businesses, most investment entities, including private equity, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds, and publicly-traded master limited partnerships.  This course constitutes a study of the federal income tax treatment of partnerships and partners (including entities classified as partnerships).

Discussion - 3 hours. This course will introduce students to the international aspects of taxation and how the regime bears on broader social debates. The course will begin by discussing the idea of worldwide taxation, particularly as applied to individuals and as intersecting with immigration law. Then the course will proceed to discussing source of income definitions in American tax law; concepts in inbound taxation i.e. the U.S. taxation of foreign persons; and then concepts in outbound taxation i.e. the U.S. taxation of foreign income.

Seminar - 3 hours. This seminar presents tax policy as an exploration in public finance, politics, special interests, and sociology as well as a reflection of society’s biases, priorities, perceptions of distribution and redistribution, and justice in the most fundamental sense of fairness and opportunity. It embraces the view that tax law is constructed and contingent. And it exposes students to a generation of “critical tax” scholarship, which has been influenced by critical legal studies and its progeny, including critical race theory, feminist legal theory, and queer theory.

Lecture - 2 hours. This course will explore public finance issues from a theoretical and practical perspective. Initial readings will be theoretical as we consider what the government should do and why. We will then move on to the various bodies of law that govern public finance practice: local government law, federal securities law and federal tax law.

Seminar - 2 hours. This course explores workers’ and prospective workers’ choices to move from one place to another, both across and within national borders.  In particular, we will explore how tax policy and broader economic forces shape those choices.  A paper option may be available for those pursuing either the Immigration or Tax Law Certificate.

Law 292 Immigration Law and Procedure is recommended.