Federal Income Tax: Doctrine, Structure and Policy: Text, Cases, Problems

In this well-rounded and student-friendly casebook, theory and policy discussions are threaded throughout the text material, which provides the basis for dealing with the problems and questions that now appear at the end of the section or subsection to which they relate. The Third Edition is not merely an update of the Second Edition; it is a complete rewrite. To make Federal Income Tax: Doctrine, Structure, and Policy accessible to students and to facilitate understanding, the text has been revised in the following ways:

Part I is now devoted to setting out the basic structures of income taxation and consumption taxation and uses tax policy tools to explore those differences. The move toward consumption taxation is one of the prime tax policy debates today, and the tension and intersection problems created by these two paradigms in the current Internal Revenue Code are important topics to explore with students. The basic differences between these two tax paradigms are then woven in throughout the book, where relevant.

There is a new chapter on Credit Purchases and Sales as well as a new chapter on the treatment of reimbursements for losses and expenses.

Many examples are provided to illustrate statements of law.

Difficult concepts are revisited several times in different contexts.

Problems begin simply and progress in complexity. They require students to read closely and apply the Code, Treasury Regulations, cases, and rulings. Many problems involve transactions that are common or of likely interest to law students.