1 Tax 6065 Tax Data Bases, Research, & Procedure University of West Florida Set-up of the Course: This course is taught entirely through the internet. You will be provided a lecture video each week and a set of class notes which follow the lecture videos. The lecture videos are made from PowerPoint slides with voice over. The video lectures are identical to a classroom lecture without student-teacher interaction during the lecture. Any questions will be handled through e-mail. Most weeks you will be required to complete and hand-in various assignments. In addition, there are three major hand-in projects: (1) an article assignment, (2) a teaching assignment, and (3) a 20-25 page research paper. All hand-in assignments will be due by noon on Saturday of each week. On Sunday of each week the video lecture for the new week will be posted on the web. Each video lecture will go over the hand-in assignment for the previous week and cover the new material. The hand-in assignments, particularly in the first half of the course, involve the various tax reference materials available to practitioners. Each student is expected to attempt to locate the various assigned reference materials, typically through the employer firm and/or local university library. Not all the reference materials will be available to each student. A student will not be penalized for an assignment where the reference materials are not available. Some of the reference materials are provided in the class web site. You can access the class materials from the University of West Florida class web site. This web site includes all the materials available for the course. Your grade will be based on two objective 90-minute exams that will be administered through the internet along with the various hand-in assignments. Each exam is worth 100 points, the research paper is worth 50 points, and the other hand-in assignments are worth 50 points, for a maximum total of 300 points. James R. Hasselback 8-1-11
2 TAX 6065 - Tax Research James R. Hasselback Fall 2011 205 Bldg 76 850-473-7100 8-1-11 Week Hand-In Readings 1. Introduction 4-6 Research Process 47-58, 85-107 2. Tax Reference Materials p. 1, 2, 3, 7, 11, 12 119-138 3. Tax Reference Materials p. 16, 20 149-175 IRC and Regulations Gross Income 4. Secondary Reference Materials p. 24, 28, 33, 37 252-256, 273-296 Deductions 213-219 Gifts 5. Letter Rulings, p. 41, 45, 46, 47, CCH, PH/RIA p. 51, 54, 58, 62, p. 63, 67, 68 6. Citator, Mertens, BNA Rabkin & Johnson, RIA Tax Magazines 7. Midterm 8. Report to Client Cases 1-7 381-401 Computerized Tax Services 58-70, 192-212, 233-252 Tax Planning 256-259, 411-431 9. Go over Cases 1-7 Cases 8-14 7-34 Working With the IRS 437-462 10. Go over Cases 8-14 Cases 15-21 467-502 Tax Practice 11. Go over Cases 15-21 Cases 22-28 Tax Practice 12. Go over Cases 22-28 Tax Practice 13. Final Examination Article Assignment due end of 5 th week September 24 Teaching Assignment due end of 9 th week October 22 Research Paper due end of 11 th week - November 5
3 Course Materials: The course syllabus, course notes, course calendar, and course assignments are available on the University of West Florida s course web site: University web site: argus.uwf.edu Enter your university username and password Click on: My Info Click on: TAX6065 in the elearning box Click on: Content Under Unit 3: Course Videos the Course Introduction video and the video lectures for the first two week are provided. On Sunday at the beginning of the third week the new week s video will be posted. You should copy the videos and other course materials to the hard drive of your computer. Reviewing Exams If you wish to review your exams you must do that in my office in Pensacola. Since at least some of the questions on each exam come from prior semester exams, I do not discuss particular questions via email. Plagiarism Policy http://library.uwf.edu/tutorials/module_plagiarism/default.htm
4 Hasselback TAX 6065 Tax Data Bases (Research in Federal Taxation) Prerequisite - Tax I COURSE PURPOSE The purpose of the course is to familiarize the students with all of the tax research materials which are likely to be found in a practice office and to give them some opportunity to develop their own skills with respect to the use of those materials. The course is not intended to provide the students with any specific technical knowledge. Additional technical material will be acquired throughout the semester, but there is no attempt to cover any given set of rules or Code sections and concentrate attention thereon. There is no attempt to provide a macro approach. The intent is strictly to provide a taxpayer oriented (micro) approach to tax compliance and tax planning, with emphasis on the latter. Focus of attention is upon the taxpayer, whether that be an individual, a corporation, or a fiduciary. SPECIFIC GOALS OF THE COURSE 1. Become familiar with primary source materials. 2. Develop an understanding of the hierarchy of authority of primary sources. 3. Use tax services, indexes, etc., only as a way to find primary sources. 4. Become familiar with all of the commercial tax services. 5. Become familiar with tax journals. 6. Brief a case. 7. Develop an advocacy point of view. 8. Become familiar with all court reporter systems. 9. Learn to use a citator. 10. Become proficient in the use of abbreviations and citations used in tax research and writing. 11. Become familiar with the tax practice ethics of the CPA profession. 12. Become familiar with the importance of the "intent of Congress" and how to research committee reports and other sources which will reveal the intent of Congress by using the government documents section of the library.
5 This course will consist of two exams each worth 100 points each, a paper worth 50 points, and several hand-in projects worth a total of 50 points, for a total of 300 points. Each exam consists of 50 objective questions. The midterm exam will be given Saturday, October 8, 2011, and the final exam will be given Saturday, November 19. Both exam will be given through the internet. Your scores on the two exam will be posed by the last four digits of your University of West Florida ID number. The hand-in assignments are worth 50 points. All hand-in assignments are due each week by noon on Saturday. The research hand-in assignments are worth 10 points. The research hand-in assignments are not graded but only checked in. You will not be down graded for assignments you are unable to complete because of the unavailability of the research materials. For each research assignment not handed in, two points will be subtracted from the 10 points. Since the research assignments are discussed in the following week s lecture, there is no credit for late assignments. The hand-in pages are listed in the Research Assignments folder of the Course Materials in the Content section of the course. Some of the assignments involve looking up Code sections, regulations, and other research materials. Many of these materials are provided in the Homework Materials folder. Three of the hand-in assignments involve reading cases. These cases are provided in the Tax Cases folder. The journal assignment is worth 10 points. One point is subtracted for each day late. The Journal Assignment folder has pdf files of five different journals. You can select articles from these five journals or any other journals you may choose. In the second portion of the course each student will be assigned four cases to be researched individually. Approximately a one-page write up will be turned in on the day the case is due. The four cases assigned to each student are worth five points each. Again since the cases are discussed in the following lecture, there is no credit for late assignments. The cases are listed in the 28 Assigned Cases folder of Course Materials in the Content section of the course. Each student will be responsible for all 28 cases but each student has a specific responsibility for four cases. The final exam will draw heavily from the 28 cases, each of which will be discussed in the video lectures. The teaching assignment is worth 10 points. One point is subtracted for each day late. The research paper is worth 50 points and will be graded. One point is subtracted from the graded score for each day late. The journal assignment and the teaching assignment must be handed in to pass the class even if no credit is received. The textbook for this course is Federal Tax Research by Raabe, Whittenburg, and Sanders, 9 th edition. ISBN: 9781111221645 Materials for the course are provided through the internet. The grading scale for the course will be based on the 300 points. 90-100% A 80-90% B 70-80% C 60-70% D below 60% F Final grades are based on the exams and hand-in materials. Grades cannot be raised by performing extra projects.
6 The University of West Florida is in the Central Time Zone. PERIODICAL REVIEW The basic purpose of the project is to familiarize you with the periodical literature in tax. What I want you to do is look at the kinds of journals that one will find in a well-stocked professional library, to become familiar with journals that you might someday read on a regular basis. Law journals and law reviews are acceptable. This is a periodical review not a research project. The paper must be about five pages and include in the bibliography a minimum of five articles from five different journals. It must include recent material. The articles must come from journals in the library or articles Journal Assignment: folder; articles retrieved over the internet are not acceptable. Due at end of fifth week TEACHING ASSIGNMENT Prepare a set of materials to be used in a two-hour "in house" training program for some specific area of tax law. Prepare (a) lecture outline, (b) assigned reading for those who are to attend the session, (c) a quiz, and (d) solutions to quiz problems. A recent, far-reaching change in the tax law will probably make the best topic for this assignment. Due at end of ninth week RESEARCH PAPER The purpose of the Research Paper is to guide you into the primary source material. You are to review the related Code, Regulations, rulings, and court decisions. Weight various authorities and show the contrary or opposing authority. You are to place emphasis on the legal theory and justification for results as opposed to rote rule learning. Include a Table of Contents, Introduction, Headings throughout the paper, and a bibliography at the end of the paper. Due at end of eleventh week CCH Tax Service As a student enrolled in courses at the University of West Florida you have access to CCH IntelliConnect which is the CCH tax research service. This service is available through the University of West Florida library. You will probably need to use this service to complete some of your hand-in assignments. Go out to the University of West Florida web site and sign in with your username and password Click on My Campus Click on UWF Libraries Homepage Click on Online Databases Enter your 14 Digit Nautilus Card Number if off campus Click on C or enter CCH in the Title box Click on CCH Tax Research Network Click on the link to set a new user ID Enter the information to set up a user Be sure to Take the 5-Minute Intelliconnect Introduction Tutorial
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8 TAX RESEARCH PAPER Choose a topic related to taxation. Try to incorporate the Code, Regulations, Revenue Rulings, and court decisions. The paper is to include a Title Page, Table of Contents, Introduction, Headings throughout the paper, Conclusion, and a Bibliography at end of the paper. The body of the paper is to be between 20 and 25 pages, not counting Title Page, Table of Contents, and Bibliography. Footnotes are to be included at the end of the paper. One inch margins at top, bottom, and each side. Use an approximate 10 or 12 pitch (12 or 10 point) type and double space the paper. Make sure the pages are numbered beginning with the body of the paper as page 1. Place examples in the paper to demonstrate points made. Try to incorporate tax-planning ideas. Do not include long quotations from the Code, Regulations, Revenue Rulings, or court cases. If copies of any of the preceding are important, attach them to the end of the paper and do not count the copy as part of the 20-25 page requirement. Attach a statement at the end of the paper that this assignment was for the Tax Research Class and has not been used in any other class. The paper can be emailed to me or provided on a diskette or CD. Your research should include finding other articles written on the topic, searching the through the various tax reference materials discussed during the semester. Make sure that you have thorough coverage of your selected topic. Choose a specific topic for the paper. A paper on the Tax Reform Act of 2003 is not acceptable. Write the paper as if it were to be submitted to a journal for publication. Be comfortable enough with the paper that if it were submitted to a journal, you would not have a plagiarism problem. I have reworked papers from past classes and submitted the co-authored papers for publication. Several papers have been published. The following page includes a list of acceptable paper topics submitted in the past. You may choose any topic from the list or any other topic of your choosing. The topic of your paper does not have to be approved by me ahead of time. If you are selecting a topic that is not on the list, it may be good idea to run the topic by me. I may indicate that the topic is too narrow and you will have problems finding enough material for a paper or it is too broad and needs to focus on a specific area within the topic.
9 Potential Topics for Research Papers Executive Compensation: Benefits and Limitations of Stock Options Tax Planning for a College Education Using a Code Section 529 Plan The Deductibility of Education Expenditures The Foreign Earned Income and Housing Exclusions Gift or Compensation Compensatory Stock Options Section 1031: Like-Kind Exchanges Unrelated Business Income Tax Employee v. Independent Contractor Prostitution: Gift or Income? Home Office Deductions Passive Activity Losses With an Emphasis in Rental Real Estate Special Tax Issues of the Clergy Individual Retirement Accounts Employee Leasing Family Limited Partnerships Corporation Payments - Compensation versus Dividends Corporate Tax Shelter Abuse Travel Expense Deductions Tax Research Credit The Innocent Spouse Rules Deductibility of Commuting Expenses Stock Appreciation Rights Tax Issues Related to Electronic Commerce Public Policy Doctrine and Deductions Section 351 and its Application to Intellectual Property Constructive Dividends Taxation of Structured Settlements Retirement Assets in Divorce Estate Implications of Life Insurance Personal Goodwill