Concepts of Income and Business Taxation

Full course description

This course provides a basic introduction to income taxation.

In the first part of the course, we focus on foundational issues related to the legal nature and design of personal income tax systems. Through a comparative methodology, we reflect on different approaches to the taxation of personal income (from employment, entrepreneurship and investment) and other key elements in the architecture of personal income tax systems (e.g., tax rates, tax credits, and the determination of the taxpaying unit).

In the second half of the course, we address fundamental issues related to the taxation of legal entities. In particular, we focus on the rationale for corporate income taxation, company financing and issues related to the determination of the corporate income tax base.

This course will not focus on the tax system of any state(s) in particular, instead taking principle-based comparative law approach.

The course dedicates special focus to terminological aspects. We establish foundational knowledge of tax-specific lexicon (e.g., tax base, tax rates, tax credits, etc.) and other key terms in the area of taxation (employment, business, dividends, interest, capital gains, etc.).