ACCT 345, Income Taxation II, Syllabus, Spring 2010

Instructor: William P. Brown Office: Hiner 106.3
web: http://www.longwood.edu/staff/brownwp/ Office telephone: 434.395.2365
Office Hours email: brownwp@longwood.edu

Last update: Monday, January 11, 2010, 09:55 PM.

OBJECTIVES

This course is a continuation of ACCT 344 with particular emphasis on federal income tax law for corporations, partnerships and other entities. During the semester, students should (1) learn the applications of the tax law to these organizations, (2) make use of tax research resources to determine the answers to increasingly complex tax questions, (3) be able to complete moderately complex corporate and partnership tax returns, and (4) develop greater familiarity with the requirements of being a successful tax practitioner.

Prerequisites

Students taking this course must have successfully completed ACCT 344.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

To better meet these objectives students are expected to regularly read The Wall Street Journal and other business publications. Students will also regularly access and read tax related files and publications available on the Internet including the Usenet news group, misc.taxes.moderated.

TEXT

Pope, Anderson, and Kramer, Prentice Hall's Federal Taxation 2010 Comprehensive (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010)

GRADES

Each student's grade will be computed using the following weights:

Individual Homework

Individual homework has several components
Research Problems and Cases
Homework assignments will require use of a major tax service such as CCH's online service, Tax Research Network, or other resources available on the Internet. Answers are due by email before class on the date specified.
Online Quizzes & Study Guide
Submit the true-false quiz for each chapter in the text book publisher's line study guide. Each chapter's quiz is due before the first class meeting dealing with that chapter.
In Class Quizzes
Several chapter quizzes may be given during the semester. Quizzes will be given near the end of the class meeting and be of about 10 minutes duration or will be. These short quizzes cannot be made up but a valid excuse (see below) may eliminate a quiz entirely from computation of the final grade.

Lack of active participation will increase the frequency of in-class quizzes.

Tests

Four tests will be given during the semester on the dates indicated in the class schedule. Tests may be rescheduled on an individual basis if a valid excuse is approved by the Dean of the College of Business & Economics. Generally, hangovers, heavy dates, upcoming parties, and/or several tests on the same day will NOT be considered as valid excuses by the Dean or anyone else. Each test will have an in-class and take-home component.

Final Exam

A comprehensive exam of 2.5 hours duration will be given will be given on the date and time specified in the Longwood University exam schedule.

ATTENDANCE
Attendance is expected but not mandatory. However, as noted above, quizzes cannot be made up and attendance will likely effect your group's grade and peer evaluations by your fellow group members. Also, experience indicates that those who regularly cut class (1) do not turn in homework on time (if at all) and (2) usually do poorly on tests.
COMMENTS
Students can expect to spend a minimum of 3 hours working on accounting outside of class for each classroom hour. This equals about 9 hours per week plus 3 hours of classroom time. Each of you must decide upon a set of priorities for allocating time among this and other courses, job, family, recreation, etc. This is a personal decision that you will have to make for yourself. Whatever choice is made, each person will have to abide by the consequences of the decision.

As with most college courses, an individual student will get no more out of this course than he or she puts into it. It is important that each of you come to class prepared for the day's assigned topics. To be prepared (1) read the assigned chapter(s) including the examples and (2) review the In-class questions and problems and determine the answer, if possible. Be ready to both answer questions in class and to ask questions about aspects of the material not understood.

HONOR CODE

The faculty of the School of Business and Economics authorized including this statement in course syllabi.

Academic Dishonesty Policy: Cheating in any form will not be tolerated in the College of Business and Economics. If the instructor determines that a student has cheated on an assignment, the grade of "F" may be assigned for the entire course. "Cheating" is the use of unauthorized resources and/or work of another including but not limited to homework, tests, papers, presentations and exams. Unless specifically instructed otherwise, students are to assume that all coursework is to be the work of the individual student alone. If a student is unsure as to whether collaboration is permitted, the professor should be contacted in advance of performing the work.

All students are expected to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the Longwood University Honor Code. While study groups are encouraged to do study together, individual assignments (including homework) must be completed by each individual working alone.

OTHER ISSUES

Bad Weather: Students should become familiar with the University's policy on bad weather. In a nutshell, if the University is open students residing on campus are expected to attend class. Students residing off campus are expected not to take undue risks in attempting to get to School.

Computer Usage: Each student must have an active email account. All students must enroll in the Blackboard version of this course. Students will become more familiar with and make regular use of CCH's online service, Tax Research Network.

Othemaywill be held in the library for introduction to its resources. Sessions outside of class meeting time will also be scheduled for those students who need to learn use of web-browsers, search engines and other resources to locate and exploit information on the Internet.

Updates: Revisions to this syllabus or the assignment schedule will appear on the Longwood web server at http://www.longwood.edu/staff/wpbrown/acct345.htm.

Disability access: Students wishing to request accomodation for a disability should begin that process by contacting

Susan Rood, Director of Disability Services
mailto:srood@longwood.edu
434-395-2392(voice)
800-828-1120(TT relay).

My office hours are shown at http://web.longwood.edu/staff/brownwp/wpboffhr.htm.

The assignment schedule for this course is at http://web.longwood.edu/staff/brownwp/asgn345.htm.

A list of Internet sites for this course is at http://web.longwood.edu/staff/brownwp/wpbtax.htm#tax

Disclaimer

These web pages and the related course materials and class room lectures are designed to provide accurate and authoritative information about complex areas of tax law. The information contained in these pages, materials and lectures may change as a result of new tax legislation, Treasury Department and IRS pronouncements or court decisions. These pages, materials and lectures are not intended to provide legal, accounting, or other professional services. They are provided with the understanding that I am not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services.

The information contained in these web pages and the related course materials and class room lectures represent a general overview of federal tax law. They should not be relied upon without an independent, professional analysis of how provisions of federal tax law apply to any specific situation.

These web pages and the related course materials and class room lectures should not be used as a substitute for professional advice. If legal advice other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent tax advisor should be sought.

Circular 230 Disclaimer: Any tax advice contained in the body of these web pages and the related course materials and class room lectures is not intended to be used, and cannot be used, by any recipient for the purpose of (1) avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code or applicable state or local tax law provisions, or (2) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

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If you have any questions, please e-mail me at brownwp@longwood.edu.