Corporate Taxation

While corporate taxation is often described as complex, this edition of Corporate Tax L6230 will unlock for aspiring specialists and generalists alike the foundation underlying the taxation of corporations and their shareholders. It will do so in a way that enables all students to have a meaningful and comfortable conversation about corporate tax with anyone from the CEO of a private equity firm to a political activist, thus preparing students to work as tax lawyers, business lawyers, public interest lawyers or, even, politicians.

Recognizing that ~97% of the S&P 500 consists of long-ago-established C corporations, our course in Corporate Taxation will not follow the chronological life of a corporation from "birth" to "death," but rather will proceed in a realistic and practical manner with contemporary corporate transactions grounded in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. The course will not only feature the detail and nuances of the statute and case law but also will emphasize the underlying tax policy and public policy reflected in the Internal Revenue Code and principal cases. In other words, students taking Corporate Taxation L6230 will leave knowing how a corporation and its shareholders are taxed, but even more importantly, students will leave knowing why a corporation and its shareholders are taxed as they are currently. In this way, all students will be prepared to understand corporate tax law both today and as it will doubtless change over their whole career.