Principles of Business Taxation (2010)

The CCH Principles of Business Taxation course approaches the study of taxation from the perspective of the student who will become a business person faced with business decisions that are inevitably affected by tax considerations. This perspective leads to a very different coverage in this textbook -- coverage that is useful for accounting, finance and general business majors. The new edition focuses on the central concepts that build our tax framework and avoids small exceptions and details to ensure that the student can confidently master the critical underpinnings of federal taxation. It abandons minutia that not only affects a very small number of taxpayers, but also tends to change often. In this way, there are no wasted motions and students gain a stronger, more solid understanding of federal tax principles. Many items that pertain specifically to businesses (for example, inventory valuation issues) usually not discussed in a traditional undergraduate tax textbook are covered in this book. Although so many of the exclusions, deductions, and credits apply equally to individual and corporate taxpayers, this book focuses on the business perspective. An advantage to this approach is that most of the students who take only one course in taxation will learn how businesses are taxed and, in turn, will have a better appreciation for how taxes affect business decisions. Another advantage to this approach is that the topics dovetail into other business, finance and accounting course work. While the focus is on concepts and how taxes affect business decisions, individual income taxation is not abandoned. After all, many core tax concepts apply to individuals as well as businesses, and the Principles of Business Taxation course is not shy in pointing out such application. The book also includes a special chapter on individuals (sole proprietorships) and one on pass-through entities that tie together the underlying threads concerned with these taxpayers throughout the text.