Pace
University
Lubin School of Business
New York City Campus, Pace Plaza, New York
Syllabus
Tax 645 Summer 2003 Monday and Wednesday
evenings
Instructor:
Dean L. Surkin, Esq., Adjunct Professor
Rosen Seymour Shapss Martin & Co., LLP
757 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017-2049
Phone: (212) 303-1887; Fax: (212) 755-5600; Internet: dsurkin@rssmcpa.com
Office hours:
By appointment, during regular business hours
Required and Recommended Materials:
Required Textbook: Gerald J. Robinson, Federal Income Taxation of Real Estate, with current Supplement, Publisher: Warren, Gorham & Lamont
Required Materials: Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and Internal Revenue Regulations (current edition)
Course Description
This course covers Federal income taxation of real estate sales and exchanges, income and deductions and financing. The prerequisite for this course is and undergraduate course in taxation, and such other prerequisites as may be set out in the Pace University course catalog.As of the printing of this syllabus, the course catalog lists the following prerequisites: Tax 626, Tax 627, Tax 695 and Tax 646. Warning: pursuant to departmental policy, students may be removed from class if they lack the prerequisites, if any, or a written waiver.
Course
Objectives
To teach substantive tax law, how to analyze a tax situation, how to recognize tax issues, how to learn the applicable tax law for a situation the student has never before encountered, and ultimately to learn the political and social shaping of the tax law. Students will address ethical issues in tax law as they relate to each topic.
Procedure for students with disabilities who wish to obtain accommodations or auxiliary aids for this course
Pace University has a procedure that must be followed to insure that any disabled student who is entitled to accommodations and auxiliary aids may obtain them.
If you have a disability for which you wish to obtain an accommodation or auxiliary aid for this course or any other course or program at the University, you must contact the University’s Counseling/Personal Development Office. For New York, call extension 1526. For Pleasantville and White Plains, call extension 3710. Trained professional counselors will:
Evaluate your medical documentation;
Conduct or refer you for appropriate tests
Make recommendation for your plan of accommodation; and
Contact your professors and pertinent administrators (with your permission) to arrange fore the recommended accommodations.
Your professors are not authorized to provide accommodations or aids prior to your arranging for accommodations or aids through the Counseling/Personal Development Center. Neither are your professors authorized to contact the Counseling/Personal Development Center on your behalf. You must contact the Counseling/Personal Development Center directly in order for the University to be placed on notice of your request for accommodation. In order to insure that the Counseling/Personal Development Center has sufficient time to process your request, you should contact the Center at the earliest possible time, in advance of your need for the accommodation, preferably before the semester begins.
Following this procedure will ensure timely and efficient handling of your request for accommodation or auxiliary aids.
Course requirements and grading
Exams: There will be a final exam, given in class on the day of the last class meeting. The exam is open book, and all students will be on the honor system, The exam will likely comprise essay/computational problems.
Components of the final grade: The exam will be 75% of the final grade, and class participation will be 25% of the grade. See below for a discussion of class participation.
Penalties for late work: This doesn’t apply to this course.
Attendance policy: Class attendance is vital to understand the course work. If you must miss a class, have a classmate tape the lecture, or loan you notes (make sure you have a friend who takes good notes).
Class participation: The burden of learning is yours. If you have ever tried to teach something, you will understand this little gem of philosophy. I use a variation of the Socratic method, combined with some lecturing. The Socratic method means that I ask you questions, and you answer them. Based upon your answers, I ask different questions. Ideally, my questions will guide you to an understanding of the topic. For this to work, you must do all assigned reading before the class session, and work out all the assigned problems, if any. Do not hand in the homework, but use your answers as a guide to the class dialogues. I will call on you each, in turn. You will learn best if you are prepared. Your answer does not have to be right. I recognize effort. I do not expect you to know the correct answers, and in fact, we will have the best dialogues if your answer is a well thought wrong answer. You have to pay close attention to my dialogues with other students, and not doze off when I have not called on you: you will also learn well if you can follow another student’s mistakes and determine what he or she did wrong, and why. You will get a good grade for class participation if you try. You will get a bad grade if you are unprepared.
Course Schedule
Because the Socratic method takes varying amounts of time depending upon class size or student enthusiasm, I cannot tell you exactly when we will cover each of the units below. My goal is to do about one chapter per session.
Assignments:
VERY
IMPORTANT: CHECK BLACKBOARD (blackboard.pace.edu) FREQUENTLY, AS I POST
HOMEWORK PROBLEMS, DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND OTHER MATTER. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
FOR CHECKING BLACKBOARD.
Chapter
1, Purchase of residence
Chapter
2, Deductible expenses for residence
Chapter
3, Sale of residence
Chapter 4, Rental income
Chapter
5, Leases
Chapter
6, Expenses, depreciation
Chapter 7, Mortgage financing
Chapter
8, Ownership structure
Chapter
9 and 10, Settlement and foreclosure
Chapter 11, Sales and exchanges in general
Chapter
12, Installment sales, exchanges
Chapter
13, Involuntary conversions
Tax planning
Chapters
14-18, as time permits