Tax Law
In response to a growing demand for attorneys with expertise in the field of tax law, KU has recently expanded the number of course offerings in the tax area. For students seeking a strong tax focus, KU offers a comprehensive selection of courses that cover the major substantive areas of tax law and practice. These courses allow students to acquire the practical and technical skills they will need to build a successful career.
Curriculum
Federal Income Taxation
This course surveys the federal income tax system and its operation upon individual taxpayers. Issues fundamental to the taxing structure are considered: What is income, when is it income, and whose income is it? The course also introduces students to the use of judicial and statutory law in the tax field and administrative sources of law promulgated by the IRS. Federal Income Taxation is a prerequisite for all other tax offerings.
Taxation of Business Enterprises
In contrast to the Federal Income Taxation course that focuses primarily on individual taxpayers, this course examines the operation of the federal income tax laws upon corporations and their shareholders and upon pass-through entities such as partnerships, S corporations, and limited liability companies. Among other topics, the course examines the influence of tax laws upon reorganizations, recapitalizations, liquidations, and distributions.
Estate Planning: Principles
Principles: A study of the legal principles relating to transmission of property by gift or at death and the vehicles available for these purposes. Primary emphasis is on estate and gift taxation and income taxation of estates and trusts. The course introduces students to the estate planning process and provides a foundation for the advanced-level course on estate planning practice.
Estate Planning: Practice
The course replicates the estate planning process, providing experience in gathering facts, analyzing alternatives, and implementing a plan through preparation of wills, trusts, and other documents. Under the supervision of the professor, students work in teams to prepare an estate plan for a hypothetical client and draft the complex documents necessary to carry out the client's wishes.
Federal Tax Procedure
Federal Tax Procedure covers the chronology of tax disputes, from examination by the IRS to final disposition of the case by settlement or court decision. Topics covered include the IRS's procedure for return administration, the administrative appeals process, Tax Court jurisdiction, refund procedures, and the collection process. Ethical considerations confronting the tax practitioner are also discussed. The course integrates administrative and case materials with a clinical approach. Students draft a series of writing projects, including letter ruling requests, protest letters, Tax Court petitions, and claims for refund.
Taxation of Mergers and Acquisitions
This course examines the income tax treatment of corporations and their shareholders arising from taxable and tax-free acquisitions and dispositions of corporate stock or assets. Topics covered include statutory mergers, triangular reorganizations, corporate divisions, and recapitalizations. To ensure greater understanding of the technical rules, the course also focuses on the non-tax motives underlying these types of transactions, including strategic and economic considerations.
Business Planning Seminar
Business Planning utilizes a problem approach to planning important business transactions, such as organization of a close corporation; organization of a public company; dividend and other corporate distributions; corporate liquidations; and corporate combinations. The course allows students to integrate their study of corporate, tax, and securities law and to learn how those sources of law impact the choice of legal form for a business entity, financing techniques, and compensation alternatives.
Related Course Offerings
The tax-intensive courses listed above are complemented by a wide array of business and corporate law offerings that round out a tax student's course of study. Even those students who do not wish to concentrate in the area of tax law greatly benefit from having taken tax courses. As any practicing attorney knows, a thorough understanding of federal tax law is crucial if the attorney is to represent a corporation or business client effectively. Students are, therefore, encouraged to complete courses that, although not specifically tax-related, are heavily impacted by tax considerations. These include Estates and Trusts; Wills and Trusts; Business Associations; Securities Regulation; and Elder Law.
Certificate Program
Along with expanding its tax offerings, KU has created a Tax Law Certificate Program. Certification assures employers that students not only have a mastery of basic principles of individual and entity taxation, but also have been exposed to some of the finer points of tax law and practice.
With so many tax courses to choose from, few students have the opportunity to take them all. As a result, some KU students decide to continue their studies and obtain a Masters of Taxation (LL.M.) degree. These students have been accepted at some of the finest graduate tax programs in the country, including Georgetown and New York University. Because of the excellent foundation KU provides, KU students have excelled in their graduate studies.