Devry ACCT429 TAX week 3 RESEARCH MEMORANDUM ASSIGNMENT 1 and 2 and reserach paper

Research Projects

Objectives | Guidelines | Milestones | Grading Rubrics | Best Practices
Objectives
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Performing tax research to find correct answers to a given tax situation and composing memoranda summarizing these findings are important parts of tax practice. As outlined in Chapter 2 of your text, there are a number of authoritative primary tax law sources. The first, the Internal Revenue Code, is the law enacted by Congress. The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service publish a number of materials that interpret and provide decisions, pronouncing their interpretation and application of the Code, including treasury regulations, revenue rulings, and revenue procedures. Finally, courts are often asked to hear tax disputes between taxpayers and the United States, and these courts issue rulings that interpret and apply the tax law, creating additional tax authority in the process. These combined writings constitute primary tax law authority, and these are the authorities that tax practitioners rely upon when a client asks for their opinions regarding how a proposed or a completed transaction should be treated for tax purposes.

In this project, you will be presented with two such transactions and asked to answer one or more tax questions related to these transactions. You will be provided with selected primary authorities—such as the applicable Code sections and court opinions—that are relevant to these transactions and questions. Accordingly, you will need to read and analyze these authorities, apply their holdings to the facts you are given, and conclude how the transaction you are given should be treated for tax purposes. You will then document all of these findings and conclusions in a tax file memorandum, as explained and outlined in Chapter 2 of your text. Each of these two memoranda is worth 30 points for a combined total of 60 points.

In addition to these two transactions, you will be presented with a third research project that will introduce a particular tax concept or current issue of tax law and ask you to perform some research and analysis related to that concept or issue. To complete the project, you will be required to perform Internet research to find materials relevant to these concepts or issues, as well as complete a written analysis and explanation of these materials and findings that answers one or more questions posed by the problem. This portion of the Week 3 Project is worth 20 points.

Guidelines
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You can find all of the information for the different scenarios in Doc Sharing. The beginning of the assignment contains an extensive explanation of the project, as well as guidelines that must be followed in completing the project. You are responsible for knowing and following these guidelines. Some of the more significant guidelines include the following.

Submit a separate document for each of the three portions of the assignment.
Your submissions must be in Microsoft Word.
You must use a reasonably easy-to-read font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in at least 12-point font size. Each page must have at least a one-inch margin on all sides and be double-spaced.
Appropriate citations are required.
The tax memoranda must be in traditional tax memorandum format, as outlined in Chapter 2 of your text. The research essay should be in traditional essay format, including a cover page and citation page.
All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy.
Papers are due at the end of Week 3 of the course.
General questions about this paper may be discussed in the weekly Q & A discussion topic. If they are specific or substantive in nature, such as questions concerning the analysis of one or more of the materials provided, please e-mail such questions to your instructor.
This project is worth 80 points. You will be graded on the overall quality of your submission, including the quality of your analysis and the professionalism of your submission. Details concerning the grading criteria follow.
Milestones
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This project is worth a substantial portion of your grade, and will appropriately take a substantial amount of time to complete. You should not wait until the third week of class to begin this project. At a minimum, you should budget your time so that you are completing at least one third of the project in each of the first three weeks. Doing so will ensure that you have sufficient time to contact your instructor with any questions that you have or any problems that you encounter in completing the project.