General Information
Instructor(s)
- Financial Reporting and Analysis (c)
- Investment Banking (r)
Target Audience
This course should provide all students will useful knowledge in making informed personal and professional, investment, compensation, and transaction decisions. At the most basic level, considering taxes when making a decision helps maximize after-tax cash flows. All students aspiring to be decision-makers in the Business World should take this course. Virtually all business transactions involve a tax component and transactions can often be structured to achieve a more favourable tax treatment, while still achieving the overall objectives of the transaction. In order to understand and compare these transactions, one has to have a general understanding of the tax rules.
Format
2 weekly sessions over 6 weeks
Course Mission
This course will develop a student’s ability to identify, understand, and evaluate tax-planning opportunities and will provide an overview of the income tax system and how it impacts business and investment decisions. The material will focus on tax planning concepts and the effect of taxes on business decisions, rather than detailed tax rules and legal research. We begin by developing a conceptual framework for evaluating how tax rules affect financial decisions. We will then apply the framework to various types of financial decisions.
Topics covered in the course include:
- Savings vehicles
- Compensation planning
- International tax issues
- Financial statement analysis
- Capital structure
- Mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures
Course Scope
The objectives of the course are achieved through a combination of lectures, selected current readings, and the application of the concepts to problems and examples. After taking this course students are expected to be able to identify the key income tax issues associated with business and investment activities, have a conceptual understanding of the income tax implications of the issues identified, and analyze alternatives on an after-tax basis.
Evaluation and Grade Distribution
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Class Participation | 20% |
| Test | 20% |
| Group Assignment/Presentation | 20% |
| Final Exam | 40% |
Required Resources
- Buckwold and Kitunen, Canadian Income Taxation: Planning and Decision Making, 2020–2021 edition, McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
- Current Readings in Taxation. These readings will be posted on Quercus
Last Updated: