About the Center for Tax Studies
Taxation has traditionally been a small part of the accounting and law curriculum. Generally, the tax offerings consist of two tax courses: individual income tax and a corporate/partnership survey course. These courses give the student the tax knowledge necessary to pass the CPA and bar exams.
However, the body of knowledge required to competently practice tax is enormous. It takes twelve courses or blocks of knowledge to cover the basic subject matter. In addition, there are numerous specialty areas.
In spite of the complexity and overwhelming body of knowledge required for competency, tax accounting students usually have only the two tax classes at the bachelor's level before beginning their practice. Attorneys may have as few as one class before becoming "tax attorneys."
There are numerous Master's of Taxation programs being taught around the country. However, generally these tax programs are part of the Master's of Accounting program, and as a result, may consist of as few as three tax classes.
The burden of training new professionals in the field of taxation has, in the past, fallen on the CPA firms themselves. Although this works well, though at considerable expense, in the national firms, many of the smaller firms simply do not have the resources to adequately train their staff. There is no reason that the technical training of tax professionals cannot be assumed by educational institutions. In fact, by so doing, the level of competency on the part of the professionals could be improved.
The CENTER FOR TAX STUDIES offers a tax program that gives the student the opportunity to have a clinical internship in addition to the substantive tax training. Students in the program will be required to take eleven substantive tax courses. The substantive tax courses are then followed by four tax practicum courses or electives.
Thus, a student coming out of the program will not only have a wealth of background in the substantive law of taxation, but may also have the equivalent of a tax season or more of experience in all facets of tax practice, and may have been involved in planning, a function usually reserved for experienced professionals
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