ACCT 695, Current Topics in Federal Taxation, Syllabus, Summer 2008

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: Sunday, May 18, 2008, 10:11 PM.

OBJECTIVES

This course is an in depth study of current federal income tax issues including recent court decisions, treasury regulations and other pronoucements and proposed legislation. Extensive use will be made of tax research resources including journal articles, treasury pronouncements and commercial tax services.

Prerequisites

Students taking this course must have successfully completed ACCT 344 or have the permission of the instructor.

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 and Fairmark Forum.

Other sources of tax information are listed on the tax section of my Accounting and Taxation page which includes links to tax discussion boards and blogs and tax news pages.

TEXT

GRADES

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

Letter grades are in 10 point increments 90+ is an A, 80-89.9 is a B and so on.

Individual Homework

Analytical Reports are due each week on an assigned topic (including relevant code sections, Treasury pronouncements, court decisions and journal articles). These reports 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 not later than 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Thursday of the week assigned. [Exception: The assignment for the week of June 30th is due on Thursday, July 10th.]

Be sure to provide proper and complete citations of sources used.

Participation

Participation points are earned by meaningful contributions to discussions. The topic of each week's discussion is shown on the Assignment Schedule.

Longer Paper

This paper will be a discussion of a recent change in tax law or treasury pronouncement on tax law. It should be appropriate for submission to a professional meeting on taxation or to a tax practitioner joural.

Be sure to provide proper and complete citations of sources used.

COMMENTS
Students can expect to spend a minimum of 10 hours working on this class each week. 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: Bad weather should not be an issue unless electicity fails..

Computer Usage: All students must have an active email account. Students will become more familiar with and make regular use of CCH's online service, Tax Research Network. Other computer resources in the library and on the Internet will also be used by all students.

Updates: Revisions to this syllabus or the assignment schedule will appear on the Longwood web server at http://www.longwood.edu/staff/wpbrown/acct495.htm.

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

Sally Scott, Director of Disability Support Services
mailto:scottss@longwood.edu
434-395-2392(voice)
800-828-1120(TT relay).

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

The assignment schedule for this course is at http://www.longwood.edu/staff/brownwp/asgn495.htm.

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

Disclaimer

These web pages and the related course materials 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.