Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Corporate Taxation- Cases and Materials (University Casebook)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My professor used the latest (7th edition) in class. I got the 6th very cheap, so I used it. I could barely tell the difference. Save yourself some $$$ and buy the 6th edition used instead. They only made superficial changes from the 6th the 7th from what I can tell. The page numbering was off by like 1 page; all the cases were the same and they changed 1 or 2 (out of dozens) of the problems at the end of the chapters slightly. They just cranked out a "new" edition to sell more books.

(Plus you're going to need to buy a study-guide anyway; this text isn't that helpful.)

The book is great for case law. However, in order to grasp major concepts, you will need many supplements. There is a case brief book out on the market, which is keyed to the Lind book. Additionally, West publishes an accompanying book that serves as an outline and summarizes general concepts.

I literally read this book cover-to-cover for my corporate tax class. It is really of questionable quality. It glosses over major issues, assumes readers' knowledge of many areas of tax law (for instance, it does not contain even a brief description of the intricacies of OID, even though it references OID throughout), and it does a mediocre job of explaining even the issues into which it delves in detail. I would have been totally lost if not for my excellent professor, who explained the high-level stuff well (the book fails to parse out the really important information from the more theoretical, leaving readers confused attempting to figure out what is truly relevant). Additionally, this textbook almost reads like a tax history book; easily as much of the book is spent explaining old common law doctrines as the current code. This is probably a function of the authors' laziness and their unwillingness to edit out the material that is no longer relevant. I want to echo the sentiment of a previous poster, who noted that the changes between this 7th Edition and the previous 6th Edition are superficial at best (I used a 6th Edition checked out from the library for the first two weeks of class while I waited for this book to arrive and noted virtually no differences). Astonishingly, the book almost entirely fails to mention the Bush Tax Cuts, which effectively gut many of the provisions detailed in this book (such as the different treatment between capital gains and dividends).

If you are a corporate tax professor thinking about assigning this book as required reading, PLEASE, for the sake of your students, look into what other textbooks are available in the market. This one really fails to deliver.

I'm taking partnership tax. The instructor admitted on day one of class that the book is bad. Its examples are convoluted and not well developed. Its presentation of concepts are next to useless. It requires far too much effort on the reader's part just to understand the author's point. Its format is hard to follow for those not familiar with it. It lacks illustrations (except the one's I've drawn in the margins to aid future owners). The index might as well not even exist given its limited scope. The author assumes the reader has a background in legal terminology, great if you do but tedious to have to look up the definition of so many words. Moreover the author's use of nontechnical words requires English degree.

One is better off reading the IRC and Treasury Regs directly (and free online).

The author's editorial comments are precious though.

Good as far as textbooks go. I wouldn't read this for pleasure, but if you need it for work or for school, the book is well written. This is part of a series that includes personal as well as corporate taxation. Many citations of cases throughout. A very good reference to get started with tax research or if you are answering a client question.

This book does not give examples of any of the concepts. Save your money and get West Federal Taxation.

Required text book - there is not much to write a review about when the book is a required material.