Taxes and Business Strategy: B95.2305

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
• Understand how taxes influence the design and marketing of tax-management products such as tax shelters
• Understand the design of compensation programs to optimize taxes
• 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: Joshua.Frumberg@morganstanley.com.

Materials

• You can buy the book elsewhere but only the bookstore has the casepack.
• Textbook
  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
  Status: Instock
  This is an online product. You can purchase immediate access with a credit card at http://www.coursesmart.com.
  Online purchase price: $73.33
  
  
• Casepack: Cases in Tax Strategy; Professor Merle Erickson, Graduate School of Business, Chicago. ISBN 0558170455. This is not available from Pearson’s web site. You have to buy it from the campus bookstore.
  

Exams and Grading

• Case assignments and problem sets: 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. All classes are videotaped and the link is posted to Blackboard.

Schedule

The class is held every Tuesday starting Sept 20, 2011 from 6-9 PM in KMEC 3-120. There is NO class during the Thanksgiving week.