The model tax curriculum - tax education for the 21st century.

• Author: Oppenheimer, Jack S.

Tax practice today is too complex to be based solely on knowing the Internal Revenue Code. And while most college tax curricula have not changed with the times (memorizing the rules in the basics of individual income taxation seems to be the norm in Tax 101), the practice of tax in public accounting, private industry and government has. Students must not only be technically proficient in tax law, they must have the ability to communicate their knowledge effectively, use the vast array of ever-improving technology advances, and integrate all of this with the other business expertise they acquire.

As a result of the AICPA's commitment to stay at the cutting edge of the profession, the Executive Committee of the AICPA Tax Division created the Model Tax Curriculum Task Force to address these issues and come up with a suggested alternative to the traditional tax curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To ensure that the entire spectrum of tax-educated professionals was well-represented, the Task Force was initially drawn from public practice (including representatives from the Big Six, regional firms, and large and small firms), private industry and academia (including a business school dean).

The Task Force determined that the best way to approach the project was to break it into individual components, based on the traditional model of two undergraduate tax programs, graduate tax programs at both Type I (typically, full-time students) and Type II (typically, part-time students with full-time jobs) programs, and tax courses taught in a regular MBA program and as part of a Masters in Accountancy program.

After numerous meetings and analysis of the available data, it became obvious that the most radical changes were needed at the undergraduate level. The Task Force believed most graduate-level programs did a good job of preparing their students, since the programs were individually crafted to meet the needs of the schools' constituency. Thus, for example, at a school where many of the graduates were hired into firms that handled oil and gas syndications, graduate-level courses typically include courses on both partnerships and taxation of natural resources. Discussion of these programs generally focused on which graduate-level courses should be mandatory and which should be elective.

Once the initial focus of the project turned toward the first undergraduate course, the Task Force had to decide on material content, depth of coverage...