Friday, August 31, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXIX

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The tax benefit rule is one of those tax doctrines that at one time or another affects almost, if not, all taxpayers. The core question is h...
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXVIII

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Special rules apply when a taxpayer disposes of property and receives one or more payments for the property in a year or years after the yea...
Monday, August 27, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXVII

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Although throughout the semester students have touched on the question of when gross income or a deduction is taken into account, they don’t...
Friday, August 24, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXVI

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Another component of gain characterization is depreciation recapture. Simply put, the portion of gain that reflects previous depreciation cl...
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXV

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After taking the students through the basic definitions relating to capital gains and losses, my next goal is to have them explore the provi...
Sunday, August 19, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXIV

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Early in the course, when studying gross income derived from property transactions, students with some previously acquired tax knowledge wil...
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXIII

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The next topic receives at best one minute of class time, and the message essentially is a repeat of what was noted during the overview pres...
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXII

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The tax law is structured so that after taxable income is computed, a taxpayer must compute tax liability. Again students arrive with the sa...
Monday, August 13, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXXI

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Many students share the same mistaken impression of the basic income tax course as do some law faculty and people not involved in the law. T...
Friday, August 10, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXX

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It takes very little time to work through the computation of adjusted gross income. It’s simply a matter of looking at a list of those deduc...
Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXIX

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Finally, it is time to turn the students’ attention to the deduction for personal and dependency exemptions. It is yet another topic that re...
Monday, August 06, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXVIII

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After working through the deductions that are covered in the course, it is time to turn to the overall restrictions that apply to deductions...
Saturday, August 04, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXVII

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There are three deductions available only to individuals that I consider essential for J.D. students to understand, even if only in general ...
Thursday, August 02, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXVI

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Wouldn’t it be nice if the applicable tax principle were so simple as the allowance of a deduction for the value of property or money transf...
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXV

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There are at least two ways to teach the casualty loss deduction. One is to cover the core concepts. The other is to examine not only the fu...
Monday, July 30, 2007

Two Years In a Row: BlawgWorld and MauledAgain

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For the second year in a row, MauledAgain has been featured in the latest Blawgworld. Take a look at BlawgWorld 2007 . This honor follows th...
Sunday, July 29, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXIV

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Teaching J.D. students about the deduction for taxes is less challenging than teaching most of the other topics. Essentially, the Internal R...
Friday, July 27, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXIII

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Once upon a time, when I was first teaching the course, I used three minutes to teach the interest deduction. Interest was deductible, with ...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXII

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The provision permitting deductions related to for-profit activities, to use a loosely-formulated succinct description, is fairly easy to co...
Monday, July 23, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XXI

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Six specific trade or business deductions receive more than passing mention in the course. Two of these are left to the students to learn o...
Saturday, July 21, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XX

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Finally, usually 2 or 3 classes behind schedule, we reach deductions. After a brief overview of the four groups of deductions, I jump into t...
Thursday, July 19, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XIX

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The gross income segment concludes with a close look at the tax consequences of alimony, child support, and property settlements. It is not ...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XVIII

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Because the taxation of damages depends on what the damages represent, it makes sense to leave this discussion to near the end of the gross ...
Sunday, July 15, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XVII

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When it comes to teaching the taxation of investment income, I let the students teach themselves the two easiest topics, and use classroom t...
Friday, July 13, 2007

I Doubt I Agree, But I'm Not Complaining

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OK, so I don't interrupt my blog series on designing the introductory J.D. income tax courses to comment on the recent change-of-heart i...

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XVI

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There are dozens of nonrecognition provisions in the Code. Many would require several classes to study in detail. Putting all of them, or ev...
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XV

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Only 25 minutes are budgeted for a study of section 121, the exclusion of gain from the disposition of a property owned and used as a princi...
Monday, July 09, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XIV

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Once the employment issues have been explored, an almost abrupt shift occurs. The tax consequences of property dispositions takes center sta...
Saturday, July 07, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XIII

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The next subtopic within the employment topic that I choose to include in the course is one that generates complaints from students and crit...
Thursday, July 05, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XII

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After dealing with the section 132 general fringe benefit provision, I spend about 30 minutes on the Code section applicable to employer-pro...
Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part XI

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Most people who have been employed know that fringe benefits are an important consideration in selecting among jobs. Some people take jobs f...
Sunday, July 01, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part X

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After examining the several serendipitous transactions selected for close study, the course changes tack and focuses on employment. The topi...
Friday, June 29, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part IX

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Although not every instance of debt cancellation is a serendipity, many are, and thus I deal with this issue as the last of those in the “Se...
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part VIII

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There are a variety of interesting tax issues implicit in the tax treatment of scholarships. I include them in the “Serendipities” batch eve...
Monday, June 25, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part VII

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Continuing with serendipitous transactions, I devote about half of a 50-minute class to the tax consequences of receiving a prize or award. ...
Saturday, June 23, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part VI

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After using the gross income exclusion applicable to gifts to introduce the students to the notion that a simple rule doesn’t necessarily an...
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part V

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Surely there’s no one right way to sequence the various income exclusion and inclusion provisions in the Code, or those that one selects to ...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part IV

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When it is time to turn to analysis of substantive federal income tax law, almost every teacher, if not all of us, begins with gross income....
Sunday, June 17, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part III

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It is difficult for students to appreciate the context in which cases, rulings, and other tax law sources are developed without understandin...
Friday, June 15, 2007

Structuring the Basic Tax Course: Part II

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One of the important questions faced by someone teaching the basic tax course is how to introduce students to the many sources of tax law. M...