Partnership Tax (JD/Gen.LLM) (724-1)
Instructors
Sarah Beth Lawsky
312/503-1855
sarah.lawsky@law.northwestern.edu
Meeting Info
Rubloff Building 203: Thurs 8:50AM - 10:15AM
Registration Requirements
Basic Federal Income Taxation is a prereq
Learning Objectives
This course serves as an introduction to the federal taxation of entities taxed as partnerships. By the end of this course, you should have a better understanding of the basic principles of how the U.S. tax system treats entities taxed as partnerships. We will also discuss some tax policy issues related to these principles. Finally, this course serves as an advanced study of how to read and analyze complex statutory and regulatory language.
Teaching Method
Lectures are prerecorded; in class we work problems together.
Class Materials (Required)
(1) Schwarz, Lathrope, & Hellwig, Fundamentals of Partnership Taxation (most recent edition)
(2) Selected sections of the tax Code and regulations, which can be downloaded in a PDF format from the course webpage; alternately, you can obtain a professionally published version such as CCH, Federal Income Tax, Code & Regulations - Selected Sections (or any other relatively current edition of the relevant selected sections of the Federal Income Tax Code and Regulations)
(3) Selected readings that will be posted on the course webpage.
Class Materials (Suggested)
Cunningham & Cunningham, The Logic of Subchapter K (6th ed. 2019), ISBN 978-1642429794
Wootton & Lawsky, Partnership Taxation (2d ed. 2019), ISBN 978-1684671144.
There are a large number of copies of the Wootton & Lawsky book on reserve at the library; also, you can access it for free through Westlaw.
Class Notes
First, this course is a ""flipped class."" Here's how it works each week:
(1) Read the assigned material.
(2) Prepare the assigned problems.
(3) Watch the prerecorded lectures for each week. There are questions embedded in the lecture that you will answer in order to move forward in the video.
(4) Ask questions or engage in discussion on the discussion board.
(5) Come to class and work on problems in small groups. I will go from group to group listening and answering questions. Periodically we will come back together and one of the small groups will present the answer to the problem to the class.
(6) Keep reviewing the material, including coming to office hours on Friday morning; office hours are like an optional class session, where we can do more problems and I can answer more questions.
Second, the exam is in person, at the law school, scheduled, on the time and day and at the location set by the registrar.
Class Attributes
This course has an asynchronous meeting component
Business/Corporate transactions an element
Taxation Practice Area present in course
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Basic Federal Income Tax is a pre-requisite for this course.