Students and prospective students may download the most book here. Other persons interested in federal tax
procedure issues may download the book free of charge.
I ask those downloading to advise me by email
that they have downloaded the book and the expected use. I also ask
that, if you find any portion of the book that you believes need correction
or clarification, please advise me at the same email address.
|
Townsend Tax Procedure (Fall 2008 - No Footnotes) |
This is the edition for the 2008 class. The
class text has no footnotes. I provide a footnoted edition below, but for
class I do not want the students to read the footnotes. |
|
Townsend Tax Procedure Materials (Fall 2008) |
These are materials (case and law review articles) that I
will ask the Students to read outside the text. I will assign these
materials to students in the class. |
|
Student
Questionnaire |
|
Townsend Tax Procedure (Fall 2008 - Footnoted Edition)
Townsend Tax Procedure (Fall 2008 - Endnoted Edition) |
I provide both a footnoted and an endnoted
edition. As noted above, for the class, I recommend the edition with
any footnotes whatever, for there are readers who will be distracted by
the footnotes. The footnoted and endnoted editions are provided for
those who have a need to go into the sources for the text statements.
Most often this will be practitioners rather than students. |
For extra reading to round out your tax procedure
education (you need to get good at both of these):
Strunk & White, The Elements of Style (4th ed. 2000)
Frankfurt on Bullshit (1st ed. 2005) |
Strunk & White from
Amazon.com Frankfurt from
Amazon.com (although an earlier, less bullshit version from the
internet can be downloaded
here. |
FOR REVISIONS OR ERRATA
TO THE BOOK, GO TO UPDATE MATERIALS BELOW.
1. The course combines text materials, code sections and case
and other materials. The cases are relatively few and are designed to encourage
active student
participation in the class. Students will be pre-assigned cases for
class presentation.
2. The text (non-footnoted version for class) is 448 pages. The text will thus be, on average, less than
50 pages per 2
hour class. There is more reading, however. You should generally
read the Code Sections that are cited in the text (not in the footnotes for
those who may work from the footnoted or endnoted versions). I expect students to read and understand the
key Code Sections. The Code Sections may add an additional 5-10 pages per class
(probably less).
I also will assign cases and articles for you to read for some classes.
The cases and articles are in the download materials above. Cases will be assigned so that students will know in
advance when they will be called upon.
3. The classes will not require an extraordinary amount of
reading for law school. The classes will, hopefully, require that you
think about the larger process of the revenue function of Government and how
it interfaces with the citizen. The class is not designed to teach
you a lot of nitpicking rules, with exception upon exception. You will
suffer that punishment when you become a tax lawyer. Instead, the class
will teach you broad principles and introduce you to the
highlights of tax procedure. I hope to engage your thinking and reasoning capacities
rather than your memorization capacities.
4. The digital files that you download are in Adobe Acrobat
format. Many of you will already be familiar with that format because it
is ubiquitous in business and on the Code. For best use of the file, you
should have a recent version of the free Acrobat Reader (7 or higher) or a
version of Adobe Acrobat (the latter of which is not free).
5. In the digital file, you can navigate around in several ways using the Acrobat Reader. First, you can use the bookmarks feature to see an
outline of the book (like a table of contents) that you can then click to move
to the relevant text.
6. If you prefer to review from a hardcopy, you can print out
the materials. My recommendation is that you not print out
indiscriminately because the number of pages is great.
Unit 1
8/28 |
Introduction to Class
Ch. 1 Purpose and Scope
Ch. 2 Organization and Structure of the Federal Revenue Function
Ch. 3 Taxpayer Access to Information - FOIA and the Privacy Act
Ch. 4 Confidentiality and Disclosure of Tax Return Information |
Unit 2
9/4 |
Ch. 5 Returns
Read the Williams v. Commissioner and Badaracco Cases
Ch. 6 Statutes of Limitation, through p. 111
Read Badaracco, Brockamp and Estate of Branson Cases
Case Assignments: -
Badaracco - Abarado, Cowan, Dunson |
Unit 3
9/11 |
Missed Because of Hurricane Ike |
Unit 4
9/18 |
Missed Because of Hurricane Ike Curfew |
Unit 5
9/25 |
Note to Class:
Victoria Sherlock of KPMG will teach this class
Ch. 8 Penalties
Read Addington, Boyle, and Streber
Case Assignments:
Addington - Cowan, Knox, Warley
Boyle - Abarado, Dunson, Wingo
Strebert - Rhodes, Smith, Whalen, Knox |
Unit 6
10/2
|
Ch. 9 The Examination Function
Read the Powell, Gertner and Frederick
Cases
Case Assignments:
Powell - Abarado, Smith, Whalen
Gertner - Cowan, Rowland, Wingo
Frederick - Rhodes, Warley, Knox, Dunson |
| Special Note |
By class
consensus on 10/2, effective 10/2 and for the rest of the semester, we
commence the class at 7:20 and go through 9:30 to make up the lost classes. |
7
10/9
|
Ch. 9 - Finish the Chapter (pp. 242-245;
253-257; we are omitting the pages on International Evidence
Gathering, pp. 245-252. )
Ch. 10. Appeals (pp. 259-268)
Ch. 11 Notice of Deficiency (pp. 268-279)
Ch. 12 Litigation (pp. 280-293, stopping at B. District Courts)
Total text pages - 54
For those interested in the dynamics of tax cases before Appellate
Courts, download the
following discussion.
Extra Material on the Courtroom Experience:
Dress
appropriately.
Opening
Arguments.
Expert
qualification. |
8
10/16 |
Ch. 12 Litigation (cont.) (pp. 293-322,
commecing at B. District Courts)
Ch. 13 Assessment Procedures (pp. 323-326)
Ch. 14 Collection Procedures (pp. . 327-338)
Total text pages 45 |
9
10/23 |
Ch. 14 (cont. pp. 339-372, stopping at XVI.
Collection from Third Parties)
Drye - Abarado, Knox, Warley,
Rodgers - Cowan, Dunson, Whalen
Williams (Sup Ct case) - Rhodes, Rowland, Smith, Wingo
Total text pages 33 |
10
10/30 |
Ch. 14 (cont. 372-399 (omit balance of Chapter))
Ch. 15 Partnership and S Corporation Audit and Litigation
Procedures (pp. 404-412)
Total text pages 37 |
11
11/6 |
Some Cushion here to catch up
Ch. 16 Overpayments (pp. 413-416)
Ch. 17. Miscellaneous (pp. 417-436)
Ch. 18 Trends in Enforcement Efforts (437-439); also read pp.
401-403.
Total text pages - 28
Case Assignments
Compaq Computer Cases (Tax Court and Fifth Circuit)- all |
12
11/13 |
Function at JAT House - 1 hour (actually app 50
minutes) of which will be devoted to discussing the following Chapter and
materials. The articles will be discussed in drama format. The
drama involves a not untypical family planning situation to avoid transfer
(estate or gift taxes) by transferring stock in a closely held corporation
to a child. The players in the drama are: Mom, Dad, Caroline,
and lawyer (Corneel). The actual words of the drama are set forth in
the first article, but I want those who volunteer (or are volunteered by the
Professor) to read the materials and perform without reading the actual
text. In other words, extemporize tracking the themes in the text.
Ch. 19 Ethics, Malpractice and Tax Procedure (pp. 440-448)
Total text pages - 9 (but see extra reading materials)
Read the two articles in the class materials file -- All Students.
Richardson, Audit Avoidance via Intent
Modification -- Is Fred Corneel onto Something ... or Not, 2001 TNT
131-93
Corneel, Audit Avoidance: A Response to David
Richardson, 2001 TNT 131-91
Also read the excerpt from an article I prepared which can be
downloaded here.
These excerpts track the sceanrio in the articles and present some other
related materials. |
13
11/20 |
Ch. 6 Statutes of Limitations - p. 112
through end of chapter
Ch. 7 Interest (pp. 143-155)
Total text pages 43
Case Assignments:
Brockamp - Knox, Rhodes, Rowland
Estate of Branson - Smith, Warley, Whalen, Wingo |
14
12/4 |
Review Class |
| 12/??/?? |
Tax Procedure Exam - |