5360ADA.RESEARCHASSIGNMENTSU.6Wk1.20211.doc

California State University, San Bernardino
Department of Accounting and Finance
ACCT 5360, Corporations&Partnerships, Summer6Wk1 2021
Course and Instructor Information

Instructor:

John R. Dorocak, LL.M. (Tax), C.P.A.
Office location:

JB 435, unavailable at the time of this draft
Telephone:

909-537-5750
Email:

[email protected]
Office hours:
Initially Scheduled for 3:00 – 4:50 pm MW, by Zoom
Zoom link in Course Menu on left side of blackboard course (and by appointment)

(if possible, please phone during office hours)
Class Days/Time:
Online Asynchronous (3 units)
Classroom:

online
RESEARCH PROJECT

Due
See Syllabus
Assignment

Your assignment is to provide a written answer to the Tax Research Problem assigned from Chapters of the South-Western Text. FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS IN ONLINE CLASSES, PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO SUBMIT, IF POSSIBLE, EITHER A SINGLE PDF OR A SINGLE WORD DOCUMENT OF THE ENTIRE PROJECT. THANK YOU.
Forms
Your answer should be no more than 2-3 pages (approximately 250 words per page) typed in a word processing program. The answer should be structured in memorandum form as follows. (There are similar examples in Chapter 2)

TO:
File of (taxpayer name). (Your audience is other CPAs in your firm as peer review.)

FROM:
(your name)

RE:
(state issue)

DUE:
(due date)

CONCLUSION:
(short statement)

REASONING:
(body – facts, state rule of law, reasoning (apply law to taxpayer’s facts)) (conclusion repeated)

Attach 1-2 pages from CCH (plus the “History”) and 1-2 pages from Westlaw (plus the “History”) to show that you were able to locate appropriate authority.

Suggested Research Sources and Citation Format

CCH Standard Federal Income Tax Reporter and Westlaw are available on-line on campus through the Pfau library or from elsewhere. (These sources should be sufficient.) The San Bernardino Law Library (885-3020) and the Riverside Law Library, 3989 Lemon (275-6390), are open to the public. Please call for hours.
If the law libraries are used, the sources most likely to be useful are BNA’s Tax Management Portfolios (Income Tax) and possibly RIA. Citations should be in the format the text uses in its footnotes as, for example, in Chapter 2. The text’s citations would be acceptable in practice and are loosely based on the most appropriate book on the form for legal citations, A Uniform System of Citation. For the format in that book, see also websites such as http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/ or http://www.scu.edu/lawreview/bluebook.htm and see http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publishing/tax_lawyer/ttlstyle.authcheckdam.pdf
In a memorandum, citations usually appear in the text preceding or following statements which the citations support, either as a part of the sentence or as a separate citation sentence, if the citation follows a statement. Citations are in footnotes in a research piece such as a law review article or in a textbook. Please do not surround citations with [brackets] as in the textbooks’ examples.

Grading
Your grade will be based on:

(a)
Content – correct tax reasoning and result, reached using appropriate authority (The closer any facts in the authority, which you locate, are to the facts in the Tax Research Problem, the more appropriate that authority.)
(b)
Style – easy to read, professional business usage (as in the various sample memoranda mentioned)
(c)
Grammar – correct basic English usage: spelling, punctuation, avoiding run-on sentences, etc.
Usually, the instructor assigns a letter grade for each category, (a), (b), and (c) above, and then averages the letter grades (using the highest percentage for a grade as set forth in the Syllabus, and with F grades possibly assigned 0 in a category). That averaged percentage is then multiplied by the points available. The research project points are indicated elsewhere in the Points Memo. 5 additional points are available for submitting evidence of consulting with JHBC Professional Writing Center.

Presentation

Generally, at least 2-3 student volunteers (one primary presenter, one backup presenter, one IRS person) per problem will be recruited, for a role playing simulation regarding the assigned research, in live face-to-face classes and in synchronous online classes. The memorandum should be written with the solution which the student believes to be correct. The volunteers may have a different position on the solution in the role play.