Tax News - Spring 2003

School of Taxation Newsletter
Spring 2003
By Dean Mary Canning

---

In the Fall Newsletter, Barbara Karlin announced the leadership changes taking place at GGU. Barbara has assumed the important role as the University Vice President of Academic Affairs - great things are coming out that office and she's keeping us all quite busy! I have taken over the role as Dean and am delighted to be working with Frank Ramaizel who has assumed the role of Associate Dean. Frank, with boundless energy and drive, already the Director of our International Tax Certificate and our Northwest Tax Program, spends his time commuting between his Seattle home base and the San Francisco campus. His duties as Associate Dean include directing the full time tax program and internships. A brilliant tax scholar, recently returned from his second Senior Scholar Fulbright in Kazakhstan, and a charismatic entertaining speaker, Frank is devoted to the individual student. It is not an uncommon sight to see him taking students to lunch, counseling a student on career choices or their research memo, nor is it uncommon to hear uproarious laughter emanating from his classroom. Who says learning tax isn't fun? If you haven't had a chance to meet Frank, stop by the School of Tax offices at room 539 - he's there most weeks Tuesday- Thursday.

With the exception of our accelerated course offerings (see below), the week of January 13th begins the start of Spring trimester. Students may register for classes beginning November 25th. Be sure to visit our new student resource site GGU4YOU at the university web site www.ggu.edu. At GGU4YOU, students may obtain courses descriptions and schedules, register for courses, order books, make payments, view their grades, and more. School of Tax faculty are anxious to assist with registration needs. Current and returning San Francisco and Cyber students, please call (415) 442-7880 to speak with an advisor or to set up an appointment. Seattle students may contact Julie Morgan at (206) 622-9996 and Southern California students may contact Gloria Lara at (213) 623-6000.

I often hear from our MS Tax students that they would like to take courses in the Spring trimester but due to the demands of Tax Season, find it difficult to keep up with their course work in late March and early April. Our past attempts to address this issue by offering a course during the Spring trimester on an accelerated basis (10 week or 5 week format) have proven to be so popular with our student base that we are offering three courses at our San Francisco campus beginning January 2003 in 3 different accelerated formats:

Because of its popularity last January, TA 319 Federal Tax Procedures will be offered again on 5 consecutive full-day Saturday sessions beginning January 11th and ending on February 8th. Kirk Paxson, an attorney with the IRS Office of Chief Counsel and our part-time director of the Southern California program will be returning this year by popular demand to teach this course for us. The combination of his technical knowledge, contagious enthusiasm and keen sense of humor makes this class enormously popular! This class filled up quickly last Spring - so, interested students, be sure to register early!

We are delighted that Bill Thomen, a GGU alumnus and senior manager of international tax services with Deloitte & Touche LLP, will be teaching TA 321 Principles of International Taxation on an accelerated 10-week basis. The course will meet Tuesday nights beginning January 7th.

To ensure that our tax professionals are armed with the information and skills they will need concerning the taxation of trusts and estates by the start of tax season, TA 344 Federal Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates will be offered by Associate Professor Jim Henderson, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:30 am - 1pm for five weeks beginning January 6th. Henderson notes that after finishing this course a student "will have an understanding of the taxation of trusts and estate for their creators, beneficiaries and fiduciaries".

This year's School of Tax 9-month Day Tax Program is currently boasting 30 students! These students begin an intensive program of study beginning August each year. By mid-February most will have completed 8 courses and be eligible to complete their degree in a tax season internship. This busy season 2003 will mark the 6th year of our highly successful internship program. Our students are already interviewing and some already have full-time positions! Employers interested in hiring for the tax season may still call or email our director of internships, Frank Ramaizel at (415) 442-7883 or framaizel@ggu.edu.

Approximately 20 tax departments of accounting firms, corporations, and government (IRS and FTB) from the Bay Area and surrounding counties such as Sonoma, met with approximately 50 tax students on September 20th at our annual Tax Career Fair. Always a lively event, this is a marvelous opportunity for both employers and students to share career information and opportunities and to submit resumes. If you would like to be included in the mailing list for our career event next September please email our program coordinator, Esther Tanudjaja at etanudja@ggu.edu.

One of the most touching and satisfying jobs I perform every year is as a member of the Tax Scholarship Award Committee. As you know, GGU is a private university whose tuition compares quite favorably with other private universities but is without benefit of the state subsidies that some of our competitors have. Many of our students make enormous sacrifices to finance the cost of tuition and books in order to obtain their MS Taxation. School of Tax Scholarships are awarded each October to students based upon academic merit and financial need. Each year the Scholarship Committee review applications and letters. We are all impressed and humbled by the stories of hard work, sacrifice and dedication! I wish all our generous donors could hear the sheer joy, gratitude, relief and tears when the winners are informed of their awards! Please join me in thanking this year's School of Tax Scholarship donors:

• Linda Montgomery CPA (School of Tax Advisory Board Member)
• Belan Wagner, Instructor and Partner in the Sacramento law firm Wagner, Kirkman, Blaine & Youmans
• Mark Friedlander, Partner San Rafael accounting firm Friedlander, Cherwon & Capper LLP
• SF Chapter Tax Executives Institute
• School of Tax Faculty Scholarship Fund
• Robert Shaw Memorial Scholarship Fund (Seattle Campus)

The following scholarship winners received awards of approximately $1500 to be applied towards tuition costs:

• Charles Chongo
• Jose Luis Espinoza II
• Yoon Kim
• Marcus Lawless
• Edith Salas
• Aron Stark
• Brent Manley (Seattle Campus)

In addition, many of you have made individual contributions to the School and we wish to thank you all for your support!

If you haven't already read them, be sure to look for Professor Joe Walsh's articles published in the February and August 2002 editions of Practical Tax Strategies. The February article is entitled Tax Court Reversal on Partnership Income Allocation and the August article is entitled IRS Guidance Encourages Voluntary Accounting Method Changes. Very informative and timely, you won't want to miss them!

---

The faculty and staff in the School of Taxation wish you a safe and healthy holiday season and New Year!