Taxes and Business Strategy: ACCT-GB.2305.10

This course is offered only once in the fall semester.

It is not offered in the spring semester.

Video introduction as suggested by the Stern School

Overview

This is a conceptual as well as an applied course that is highly relevant to those pursuing careers in investment banking, corporate finance, and research, or to anyone who is going to have to deal with taxes in their careers. The course is not about detailed tax rules. It is about how to think about taxes conceptually and how taxes affect management decisions and valuation. The concepts covered here apply internationally.

• Understand accounting and disclosures of taxes in financial statements. Deferred tax disclosures are particularly baffling to students. This course will provide an in-depth understanding of such disclosures.
• Understand how corporate structure affects taxes in order to understand the structuring of mergers, acquisitions, and buyouts. There are several modules and cases devoted to M&A transactions.
• Understand how to incorporate taxes into valuation and cost of capital computations
• Understand how taxes influence the design and marketing of tax-management products such as tax shelters
• Understand the design of compensation programs such as defined benefit pensions, defined contribution plans, stock options, restricted stock, stock appreciation rights, and deferred compensation to optimize taxes
• Understand taxation of alternative investment vehicles such as tax-exempt bonds, 401-K, single premium deferred annuity, Roth IRA, growth stocks vs. dividend paying stocks
• Understand how taxes influence location of businesses in multinational settings

Help and Office

• Administrative assistant: Halima Khan hkhan@stern.nyu.edu 212-998-0003, Office: KMEC 10th Floor
• Me: dgode@stern.nyu.edu, 212-998-0021, Office: KMEC 10-86.
• TA: TBD

Materials

• You can buy the book elsewhere. The book will be in the bookstore on Oct 5. You don't need it during the first week.
  Print version
  Taxes & Business Strategy, 4/E
  Myron S. Scholes; Mark A. Wolfson; Merle M. Erickson; Edward L. Maydew; Terrence J. Shevlin
  ISBN-10: 0136033156
  ISBN-13: 9780136033158
  Publisher: Prentice Hall
  Copyright: 2009
  Format: Cloth; 624 pp
  Published: 07/09/2008
  Status: Instock
  Suggested retail price: $146.67
  ONLINE VERSION AT HALF THE PRICE
  Publisher: Prentice Hall
  Copyright: 2009
  Format: Electronic Book; 624 pp
  Published: 07/23/2008
  This is an online product. You can purchase immediate access with a credit card at http://www.coursesmart.com.
  Online purchase price: $73.33
  

Exams and Grading

• Assignments: 50%
• Final exam: 50%. The final exam will not be rescheduled for any reasons except medical or family emergencies. Work commitments will not be a valid reason for rescheduling.
• The class relies on your paricipation. However, you will not be penalized for missing classes. You need NOT email me if you plan to miss a class, be late, or leave early.
• Stern policy regarding videotaping has changed this summer. Classes are no longer videotaped by default. Over the last three years, I found that videotaping encouraged absenteeism. Therefore, the classes will not be videotaped.

Schedule