Taxes and Business Strategy

Overview

A large part of your corporate and indivdual income will be paid out in taxes. With the current deficits, taxes are likely to go much higher. Therefore, as an MBA you must understand how taxes affect profits and cash flows. The focus of this course is not on preparing tax returns but on understanding taxes as a manager and investor. This course is designed for MBA students who need to know the following for their jobs:

[PS: I get this question: Is this course as much work as the modeling course? No.]

• A general knowledge of tax rules
• 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.

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%

Schedule