Study Guides for 2L/3L Classes

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The Lexis Digital Library is an e-book collection of primary and secondary legal materials, plus a range of study aids for law school subjects from LexisNexis. Contains over 700 titles on 60+ legal topics, including the Understanding, Skills & Values, and Questions & Answers study aids series. Complimentary access is provided by the W&L Law Library to current W&L Law students.

West Academic offers hundreds of study aids written by top legal scholars that are designed to help you succeed in law school, including Nutshells, Hornbooks, Black Letter Outlines, Sum and Substance Audio Lectures, and more. All are free to view online or download to your mobile device with a valid W&L Law account through the linked heading above.

Online access available through West Academic. This comprehensive and clearly written text is designed to help students recognize and understand the basic principles and issues covered in law school courses in corporate taxation at both the J.D. and LL.M. levels. It explains all the fundamental concepts and transactions affecting C and S corporations and their shareholders, and includes numerous illustrative examples, self-test questions with answers, and sample exam questions. The Ninth Edition incorporates all relevant provisions of the 2017 legislation known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Online access available through West Academic. Black Letter Outlines are designed to help a law student recognize and understand the basic principles and issues of law covered in a law school course. Black Letter Outlines can be used both as a study aid when preparing for classes and as a review of the subject matter when studying for an examination. Each Black Letter Outline is written by experienced law school professors who are recognized national authorities in their subject area.

Online access available through West Academic. Black Letter Outlines are designed to help a law student recognize and understand the basic principles and issues of law covered in a law school course. Black Letter Outlines can be used both as a study aid when preparing for classes and as a review of the subject matter when studying for an examination. Each Black Letter Outline is written by experienced law school professors who are recognized national authorities in their subject area.

Online access available through West Academic. This comprehensive and clearly written text is designed to help students recognize and understand the basic principles and issues covered in law school courses in partnership or pass-through entity taxation at both the J.D. and LL.M. levels. It explains all the fundamental concepts and transactions affecting partnerships, limited liability companies, and S corporations and includes numerous illustrative examples, self-test questions with answers, and sample exam questions. The Ninth Edition incorporates all relevant provisions of the 2017 legislation known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Learn how to extract key financial information in discovery with The Business Tax Return Handbook. A companion volume to bestselling 1040 Handbook, this is an invaluable tool for reviewing commercial business and professional practice returns to gather information and prepare a complete discovery plan for family law cases. A variety of hypothetical examples using business returns are used to illustrate points in the text, including the most common forms and schedules for partnerships, corporations, and unincorporated businesses. This line-by-line guide can be used as a complete introduction to the family law aspects of business tax returns or as a quick reference for lawyers who want to concentrate on particular areas of business taxation. The author discusses fundamental tax issues that impact on family law matters and offer comments to explain line items and statements for all four types of business tax returns.

Online access available through West Academic. The eighth edition of this popular student supplement retains the cradle-to-grave ordering of prior editions and is updated to reflect changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as well as other recent changes in the law. In addition to using a "cradle-to-grave" approach to corporate taxation, the book features a discussion of taxable and tax-free corporate acquisitions and penalty provisions. It also surveys the tax treatment of S corporations and (briefly) consolidated groups.

Online access available through West Academic. This highly-acclaimed text explains the conceptual basis of federal income taxation. It is designed to help students quickly pull together the entire subject for end-of-semester review and provide perspective about where a topic fits within the federal income tax scheme. While focusing on the present income tax, the text provides an explanation of the often-discussed consumption tax and contrasts the two taxes in a note at the end of the volume. The new edition reflects developments since the fourteenth edition, including the promulgation of regulations interpreting major provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Online access available through West Academic. This helpful study aid addresses the international taxation aspects of the U.S. tax system. In recent years, there has been an effort among the G-7 nations to better align their domestic tax laws. As a result, principles and enforcement mechanisms found in the U.S. tax system increasingly may resemble those of other nations. However, even though there may be similarities in the design of the tax laws of different nations, ultimately the study of international taxation represents a study of the laws of a particular nation. Thus, this book focuses on the study of U.S. taxation as applied to economic activity with an international element.

Online access available through West Academic. This book provides the simplest possible introduction of partnership taxation to students and beginning practitioners trying to understand the taxation of partnerships. Partnership taxation is an intricate body of law with the result that any "simplified" description of its rules would be so misleading as to be useless. We have therefore tried to make the subject accessible not by paraphrasing the rules, but by including over one hundred and forty examples of the rules that are as straightforward as possible. The text and examples focus on simple partnerships and limited liability companies that hold few assets and engage in routine transactions.

Online access available through West Academic. Accounting for income taxes has become a critically important issue for both financial accounting and income taxation purposes in recent years. However, there is nothing new about the need to account for income taxes for purposes of presenting, or to opine upon, the financial accounts of corporations or other business entities. The process of accounting for tax matters has been a traditional aspect of the responsibilities of finance and taxation officers of business entities, particularly publicly traded corporations, for many years.

Online access available through West Academic. Completely revised and up to date with all the new tax laws, this third edition of Exam Pro on Federal Income Tax contains 200 multiple-choice questions derived from actual final examination questions. The questions are "challenging" and provide you with a comprehensive landscape of the concepts and topics covered in a typical Federal Income Tax course. The "Answer Keys" contain thorough analyses that explain relevant Federal Income Tax rules in a logical, step-by-step approach to help you skillfully apply the rules to various fact patterns. The questions, and accompanying answers, also serve as a valuable resource for approaching and answering exam essay questions.

Online access available through West Academic. The Second Edition of the Exam Pro on Partnership Taxation extends the approach of the original as a partnership tax study guide with questions and answers. Completely revised and updated, it includes lectures and study questions on the deduction for qualified business income under section 199A, the new regulations on allocating partnership recourse debt, and the choice of entity for conducting business and investment activities. New sample exams at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels give you an even better shot to ace your partnership tax exam.

A favorite classroom prep tool of successful students that is often recommended by professors, the Examples & Explanations (E&E) series provides an alternative perspective to help you understand your casebook and in-class lectures. Each E&E offers hypothetical questions complemented by detailed explanations that allow you to test your knowledge of the topics in your courses and compare your own analysis.

A favorite classroom prep tool of successful students that is often recommended by professors, the Examples & Explanations (E&E) series provides an alternative perspective to help you understand your casebook and in-class lectures. Each E&E offers hypothetical questions complemented by detailed explanations that allow you to test your knowledge of the topics in your courses and compare your own analysis. Here's why you need an E&E to help you study throughout the semester: Clear explanations of each class topic, in a conversational, funny style. Features hypotheticals similar to those presented in class, with corresponding analysis so you can use them during the semester to test your understanding, and again at exam time to help you review. It offers coverage that works with ALL the major casebooks, and suits any class on a given topic. The Examples & Explanations series has been ranked the most popular study aid among law students because it is equally as helpful from the first day of class through the final exam.

Online access available through West Academic. This comprehensive guide can serve either as a course supplement or as a refresher for members of the bar. Expert commentary summarizes the law and offers critical perspectives on the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes, including lifetime and testamentary transfers, joint-and-survivor tenancies, life insurance, annuities, and powers of appointment; inclusion and valuation; exemptions and exclusions; deductions; and tax liabilities. Additional chapters cover basic tax and estate planning concepts, reform proposals, and fundamental alternatives to the current transfer tax system.

Online access available through West Academic. This full-color eBook of Federal Income Tax Logic Maps, which supports any classroom text, is designed to assist in the understanding of key provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and how those provisions interact and generally flow. Visual aids, including graphic and color cues, offer a step-by-step method to help analyze the tax consequences of many transactions of everyday consequence to taxpayers. Visual references show the interplay among rules and subparts of rules. In some cases, applicable treasury regulations, revenue rulings, and case law are also referenced. The visual format provides a comprehensive overview, allowing students to review the subject quickly prior to final exams.

Online access available through West Academic. This edition has been completely revised to reflect the 2017 Act and developments through October 2023. The text focuses on the corporation as a taxable entity and tracks the corporate life cycle from incorporation through complete liquidation. It includes discussion on nonliquidating distributions, redemptions, and stock dividends. It also addresses advanced problems in corporate taxation, such as taxable acquisitions, tax-free reorganizations and corporate divisions, and carryover of corporate tax attributes.

Online access available through West Academic. This volume can serve either as a course supplement or as a refresher for practicing lawyers. It provides a clear and accessible explanation of the federal income taxation of estates, trusts, and beneficiaries, focusing on key provisions of the Code and regulations as well as judicial decisions and administrative rulings. Numerous examples illustrate practical applications of the relevant rules. Topical coverage includes the decedent's final income tax return; income in respect of a decedent; classification of estates and trusts; distributable net income; simple and complex trusts; distributions; grantor trusts; charitable trusts; and foreign trusts.

Online access available through West Academic. This Nutshell summarizes the U.S. federal income tax law for individuals, defines income, and identifies the different types of deductions available to a taxpayer. The book explains statutory inclusions and exclusions from gross income, profit-related deductions, mixed deductions, personal deductions, other allowances, and the rules for determining taxable income. Sales and dispositions of property, taxation of capital gains and losses, and special tax rates are covered. The book also explores the policy and purposes of, and alternatives to, existing legal rules.

Online access available through West Academic. This book provides a concise overview of federal partnership taxation. It covers partnership formation, including contributions of property and admission of service partners, allocation of income and loss, tax accounting, and sharing of recourse and nonrecourse liabilities. Building on this foundation, the book also addresses advanced topics, including transactions between partners and partnerships, sales of partnership interests, distributions of property, optional and mandatory basis adjustments, and planning for retirement or death of a partner. Numerous concrete examples illustrate the tax treatment of specific transactions, allowing students to grasp the principles of partnership taxation in a problem-oriented course.

Online access available through West Academic. This Gilbert Summary on Estate and Gift Taxation includes a detailed substantive discussion of estate and gift taxation, including the generation-skipping transfer tax, marital deduction, powers of appointment, portability of the deceased spousal exclusion amount, valuation, disclaimers, and computation and payment of the taxes. It includes 100 multiple choice review questions and answers and numerous practice exam essay questions and answers.

Online access available through West Academic. This outline discusses taxation of partnerships, including current partnership income, contributions of property to partnership, sale of partnership interest, distributions, and liquidations, as well as the taxation of corporations, including formation, corporate distributions, sales of stock and assets, and reorganizations, S corporations. The book has been updated to include discussion of the special taxation of Qualified Business Income and other changes adopted as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Online access available through West Academic. Comprehensive outline on Income Tax law with detailed explanations of relevant law, capsule summary, and exam tips.

Online access available through West Academic. This title contains briefs for each major case in Bankman's casebook on Federal Income Taxation. These briefs will help you identify, understand, and absorb the core knowledge points from each case. They are followed by legal analysis, providing contextual background about each case, and connecting the case to the broader concepts developed throughout the casebook. This title also supplies case vocabulary, with definitions of new or unusual legal words found throughout the cases.

Online access available through West Academic. This title contains briefs for each major case in Lind, Lathrope, and Field's casebook on Federal Income Taxation. These briefs will help you identify, understand, and absorb the core knowledge points from each case. They are followed by legal analysis, providing contextual background about each case, and connecting the case to the broader concepts developed throughout the casebook. This title also supplies case vocabulary, with definitions of new or unusual legal words found throughout the cases.

Online access available through West Academic. This Nutshell, which provides an introduction to U.S. international taxation useful to both U.S. and non-U.S. students and practitioners interested in the topic, has been revised and updated with the most up-to-date discussion of recent regulatory guidance interpreting the significant changes to the U.S. international tax rules introduced by the 2017 tax act. It also includes a discussion of how the newly enacted U.S. book minimum tax interacts with the international tax rules. Referenced throughout are the global tax developments of recent years and how those rules and proposals interact with the U.S. international tax regime.

Online access available through West Academic. Gain the advantages of office hours with professors on your own schedule! The West Academic Office Hours series is a collection of short audio and video tracks that tackle some of the thorniest questions plaguing law students. The professors answer students’ most frequently asked office hour questions. With clear and easy-to-understand explanations, these professors will help you reach that “lightbulb” moment of comprehension, just as they have with their own students in their own offices. You now have virtual faculty explanations available at the click of a button! The Office Hours series features a variety of notable law faculty explaining these tough topics in new and thoughtful ways.

Online access available through West Academic. Gain the advantages of office hours with professors on your own schedule! The West Academic Office Hours series is a collection of short audio and video tracks that tackle some of the thorniest questions plaguing law students. The professors answer students’ most frequently asked office hour questions. With clear and easy-to-understand explanations, these professors will help you reach that “lightbulb” moment of comprehension, just as they have with their own students in their own offices. You now have virtual faculty explanations available at the click of a button! The Office Hours series features a variety of notable law faculty explaining these tough topics in new and thoughtful ways.

Online access available through West Academic. Gain the advantages of office hours with professors on your own schedule! The West Academic Office Hours series is a collection of short audio and video tracks that tackle some of the thorniest questions plaguing law students. The professors answer students’ most frequently asked office hour questions. With clear and easy-to-understand explanations, these professors will help you reach that “lightbulb” moment of comprehension, just as they have with their own students in their own offices. You now have virtual faculty explanations available at the click of a button! The Office Hours series features a variety of notable law faculty explaining these tough topics in new and thoughtful ways.

Online access available through West Academic. The book is not organized according to the chronological life of a corporation. Instead, the book begins by examining the tax treatment of a withdrawal of property from an existing corporation. The reason for choosing that organization is that the concepts embodied in such topics as dividends, earnings and profits, and stock redemptions are the fundamental building blocks on which the more complex provisions of corporate taxation rest. The authors explain the technical operation of the various Code provisions and provide numerous examples illustrating how they are applied and how several provisions must be read in concert with each other.

Online access available through West Academic. The perfect companion for students in law school tax courses and practitioners seeking a helpful introduction, this popular reference has been completely updated to reflect recent developments. Like prior editions, it includes analysis of cases and concepts from the leading casebooks on federal income tax, complete with explanations, diagrams and flow charts. The book includes extensive treatment of the time value of money issues.

Online access available through West Academic. The new edition of Principles of Tax Policy explains the essential building blocks of the American tax system clearly and concisely, including the changes adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation in 2022. Chapters focus on the political process, individual and corporate income taxes, Social Security and other payroll taxes, state and local budgeting, international tax planning, and more. Each chapter opens with a brief description of the policy topic, providing a synopsis of the current state of the law, and is followed by a discussion of the arguments made on all sides of the major debates over the topic.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. The second edition of Questions & Answers: Federal Income Tax is a comprehensive updated study guide designed to prepare students for midterms and finals. This study guide contains over two hundred multiple-choice and short-answer questions which progress through topics similar in sequence and manner to many federal income tax courses taught at the law school level. This student guide also contains a comprehensive practice exam designed to prepare students for final exams with explanations about each correct and incorrect answer choice.

Online access available through West Academic. Designed to make the study of federal estate and gift taxation simple, clear, and convenient, this updated fourth edition provides a basic explanation of the federal gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. Written to facilitate an understanding of the overall structure of these taxes, the text discusses critical statutory provisions as well as relevant regulations and important cases. Topics include: valuation, the definition of a gift, the gift tax requirement of completion, the annual exclusion, the gross estate, estate tax deductions, and the generation-skipping transfer tax.

Online access available through West Academic. Corporate taxation is widely considered one of the more difficult courses in the law school curriculum. The purpose of the book is to make the subject matter slightly less daunting by familiarizing the student with some of the core concepts of corporate taxation: distributions, redemptions, liquidations, divisions, reorganizations, and the like. Integrating black-letter law with a healthy dose of critical analysis, this Short and Happy tome can serve either as a stand-alone volume or as a complementary study aid to a longer and undoubtedly dourer textbook.

Online access available through West Academic. A pleasant stroll through the thickets of the basic law school income tax course. Newman addresses all of the usual suspects, including income, deductions, capital gains, and timing. There are photos of narrow Amsterdam canal houses, an English building with bricked-up windows, and a short-tailed dog, to show how tax laws can change just about everything. Also, there is a photo of an outrageous ABBA costume, presumably deductible. Finally, there is a series of applications of basic tax principles to some of your favorite fairy tales.

Online access available through West Academic. We spend a fair amount of time in law school talking about the taxation of income. What about taxing other things, like spending, wealth, luxury and sin? What about funding government in other ways, like borrowing money, printing money, building toll bridges, and selling lottery tickets? This Short and Happy Guide considers all of these possibilities. This book considers each of these ways of funding government--how they work, and what makes them good or bad.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changed the substance of tax law, but not the language or structure of the Internal Revenue Code. Accordingly, this Student's Guide does not teach substantive tax law, which constantly changes, but rather the language of the Code, which largely remains constant. The Guide will help the student develop the skills of reading, interpreting, and applying statutory language.

Online access available through West Academic. The Sum & Substance Audio Series allows you to assimilate the essentials of the course at your convenience - listen while working, commuting, exercising or just relaxing. The information and ideas you struggled with previously are now brought to life simply and succinctly. The series provides Quick Reference Indexing, allowing you to quickly locate every topic in the entire recording. Also provided are exam tips to maximize your performance and Lifetime guarantee. These audios are time saving, convenient and effective.

Online access available through West Academic. Taxes impact every individual and business in the United States and around the world. Countries are constantly changing, modifying, and occasionally reforming their tax systems. Understanding tax policy and implementing changes in the tax law that are consistent with sound tax policy is critically important. This compact guide explains essential concepts in tax policy, including theories of taxation and their implementation, criteria in evaluating a tax system, tax bases, the Haig-Simons definition of income, Samuelson depreciation, the Cary Brown Theorem, capital gains and losses, tax expenditures, the distribution of the tax burden, and issues in corporate and international taxation. The book discusses the tax policy considerations of contemporary law, including the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the most comprehensive U.S. tax system reform in over thirty years.

Online access available through West Academic. The Sixth Edition of Tax Procedure and Tax Fraud in a Nutshell is designed to acquaint students with the theoretical and practical aspects of tax practice, from administrative or civil actions involving the Internal Revenue Service to criminal prosecutions brought by the Department of Justice. Specific coverage includes IRS and treasury rulemaking; IRS confidentiality and disclosure; ethical issues of tax practice; civil audits and administrative appeals; assessment issues; the collection process; civil and criminal penalties; statutes of limitations; civil litigation considerations in the various tax forums; civil and criminal IRS investigations; and tax crimes and prosecution.

Online access available through West Academic. The Subchapter S rules are complex. This book describes the basic rules that apply to S corporations and their shareholders with sufficient detail to alert the reader to potential pitfalls. The topics covered include: (1) the qualification requirements for a Subchapter S election, (2) the allocation of tax items among the shareholders, (3) the effect of those allocations on a shareholder's basis in stock and debt, (4) the limitations on the deduction of pass through items, (5) the treatment of corporate distributions, (6) the voluntary and involuntary termination of Subchapter S status, (7) the treatment of the year in which a Subchapter S election is terminated, (8) the limited availability of certain Subchapter S provisions after a Subchapter S election is terminated, (9) the taxation of an S corporation's passive investment income and built-in gains, and (10) the business income deduction.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. This clearly written treatise is designed to make the complex subject of corporate taxation very accessible. It uses straightforward language, charts, checklists, diagrams, and numerous examples to aid readers' understanding, and the fourth edition is fully updated for the 2017 tax changes and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). Understanding Corporate Taxation also includes discussion of relevant cases.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. Understanding Estate and Gift Taxation is designed primarily for use by law students taking a course on the United States transfer tax system, i.e., a course on the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. The book consists of 26 chapters, each addressing one of the basic topics typically covered in a course on the transfer tax system, including the computation of estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes; the gift tax annual exclusion; the estate and gift tax marital deductions; and the estate and gift tax implications of transfers with retained powers or interests.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. The seventh edition of Understanding Federal Income Taxation is a guide for students studying federal individual income taxation. Adopting material from the authors' casebook Taxation of Individual Income, thirteenth edition, the book is specifically designed for law students using other casebooks who seek supplemental material to assist them in their study of federal individual income taxation. The book consists of forty-two chapters with each chapter addressing a basic topic in individual income taxation, e.g., the taxation of personal physical injury award, gifts, devises and inheritances, the taxation of gains from the sale or exchange of property, and the tax consequences of divorce.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. Understanding Nonprofit and Tax Exempt Organizations is a guide for the law student or practitioner who is looking to understand the law governing the nonprofit, tax exempt sector. This text deals with the many types of tax exempt organizations; the rules, regulations and limitations imposed on tax exempt organizations by the courts, the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and the Treasury Regulations (Regulations); the charitable contribution and fundraising issues affecting tax exempt organizations; the unrelated business income tax, excise taxes and intermediate sanctions imposed on tax exempt organizations; and the rules regarding private foundations.

Online access available through the Lexis Digital Library. Understanding Partnership and LLC Taxation provides a comprehensive analysis of one of the most complex areas of the Internal Revenue Code. Using examples and computational illustrations, this treatise is designed for ease of use by practitioners and law students. In addition to clear, to-the-point explanations of law, Understanding Partnership and LLC Taxation includes practice and planning notes and extensive citation to relevant cases, statutes, and regulations, thereby making it an excellent quick-reference tool.