The Tax Law Concentration provides students with an in-depth course of study in the area of tax law.  The concentration emphasize skills by teaching students specialized tax research techniques, culminating in the students’ preparation of a request for a private letter ruling to the Internal Revenue Service, and focus on client interviewing and counseling techniques in a substantive tax area.

Students will:

• Master the ability to read and interpret complex statutes and regulations;
• Gain an understanding of how to interview clients and make oral and written presentations to them in a clear and concise manner;
• Learn how to research the tax consequences of complex transactional and/or estate planning deals;
• Become familiar with procedural rules governing tax law; and
• Understand the historical underpinnings of federal tax law and learn how to use that background to formulate tax arguments.

Course Requirements

Total credits required: 16-19

Required courses

Credits Required: 9-10

• Basic Federal Income Taxation (3)
• Business Organizations (3-4) or Estates and Trusts (3)
• Tax Planning (3) or Estate Planning (3) (capstone)

Three Additional Core Tax Law Courses

Credits Required: 7-9

Students must choose at least three courses from the following list of core tax classes (note that a student must take either Corporate Taxation or Partnership Taxation in order to take Tax Planning):

• Corporate Taxation (3)
• International Taxation (3)
• Partnership Taxation (3)
• Taxation of Property and Business Transactions (2-3)
• Tax Policy (2-3)

*A student can appeal to replace one or more of these core tax law courses with other appropriate courses with permission from the Associate Academic Dean.

Capstone Course (one of the following two courses is required)

Credits Required: 3

Tax Planning (3) OR Estate Planning (3)

Honors Certification

If a student obtains a cumulative grade point average of at least 90 in all courses taken for the tax concentration, he or she will receive a designation of “Tax Concentration with Honors.”

Note: If a student takes more than the required courses within a certificate category, they may designate which course to count toward the honors designation.

All presentations will be from 2 – 3:15 p.m. Central Time via zoom.  Anyone who would like to join as a guest participant should e-mail Professor Gamage at dgamage@missouri.edu for details and the zoom login.

• Aug. 27 (Wednesday): Alex Zhang (Emory), “Racial Integration and Tax Exemption”
• Sept. 8 (Monday): Zhaoyi Li (Albany), “The Fiscal Theory of Corporate Governance” 
• Sept. 10 (Wednesday): Josh Blank (UCI) + Leigh Osofsky (UNC), “Audit Guides and the Administrative State” 
• Sept. 17 (Wednesday): Ellen Aprill (Loyola), “Revoking Tax-Exemption for Pursuit of DEI and Other Alleged Forms of Discrimination”
• Sept. 24 (Wednesday): Ed Fox (Michigan) + Zach Liscow (Yale) + Michael Love (Columbia), “Corporate vs. Pass Through Taxation: the Role of Economic Rents and Legibility”
• Oct. 1 (Wednesday): Jake Brooks (Fordham), “Stock Dividends and the Great Crash of 1929.”
• Oct. 8 (Wednesday): Conor Clarke (Wash U), “Duties, Imposts, and Excises”
• Oct. 15 (Wednesday): Miranda Fleischer (San Diego), “Equality of Opportunity and a Universal Child Allowance”
• Oct. 22 (Wednesday): Assaf Harpaz (Georgia), “Artificial Intelligence and Taxation’s Goals”
• Oct. 29 (Wednesday): Susie Morse (Texas) + Shuyi Oei (Duke) + Diane Ring (Boston College), “The Constitutionality of Trump’s Tariffs: A Tax Analysis”
• Nov. 5 (Wednesday): Steven Sheffrin (Tulane), “Taxpayer Realization and Economic Welfare”
• Nov. 12 (Wednesday): David Elkins (Netanya) + Mirit Eyal (Alabama), “Taxing Electronic Agency” 
• Nov. 19 (Wednesday): Kathleen Thomas (UNC), “Taxing Attention”