This forum is for people to share their experiences with the best books and resources for students in the top Tax LLM programs, e.g., in USNews ranking order:
NYU
GULC
Florida
Northwestern
Miami
Boston University
Loyola-LA
Univ of Washington
San Diego
Houston
Villanova
Denver

Studying in a Tax LLM course is different than for a JD course--not really any casebooks. Often Tax LLM professors use printed materials and don't have required books, which makes it difficult to get the big picture.

So, based on my experience at GULC's Tax LLM and talking with other Tax LLM students, here are some books that we have found invaluable. They are not casebooks; they explain the law really well by getting right to the point and are really well organized. They assume that, at the graduate level, you can go read a case on your own if you want. They don't meander through justices' opinions and dissents, or make you read a case and then 20 pages later tell you it was overturned, to make you figure out the law--they get right to the point.

They are written specifically for Tax LLM students! Here are some of the books. Amazon has really good prices on Used & New books. They also have Kindle versions of most of these books.Click the links:

Taxation of Individual Income (published: 2012)

Corporate Taxation (2012) (pub: 2012)

Partnership Taxation (2012)

Federal Taxation of Property Transactions (Graduate Tax Series) (2012)

Federal Tax Accounting, 2nd Edition (2011)

Employee Benefits Law: Qualification and ERISA Requirements (2012) (2012)

United States International Taxation (2011)

Taxation and Business Planning for Real Estate Transactions (2011)

Regulation of Tax Practice (2010)

Please post other helpful resources you all have found for Tax LLM programs.

Yes, the topics generally are the same--except for the specialized topics such as ERISA (employee benefits) and Gift & Tax Law (estate planning), which are different parts of the code. But, as you pointed out, the LLM goes much more into depth than the JD classes.

For example, in the JD Tax I course, the professor may or may not have mentioned the Passive Activity Loss Rules and may or may not have mentioned Original Issue Discount (OID). In the LLM Taxation of Property Transactions course, you would need to know those rules and concepts in depth and actually recognize and calculate the OID.

The big difference between these LLM books and JD course books is that JD books are casebooks--they meander around the topic and give you an overview of how a certain part of the code is interpreted or came to be. These LLM books don't waste your time. They explain the concept first and go into depth on exceptions and provide more detail so that you can keep up with the professor. Many LLM professors don't use books. So these books are a great supplement to keep the topics organized.

I think they're good for a basic understanding of a topic, but I think they are more beneficial for JD courses, not LLM courses. I bought a couple of E&Es, for example, for Corporate Tax and Partnership Tax and they were just too basic; they did not go into enough depth. IMHO

I think what makes this area so complex is that reading the tax code does not really give you the answers. So, yes, the Regs are necessary to answer what the Code itself does not. And these books are necessary for putting all of the Code and Regs into English--giving a big picture and tying it all together.

This forum is for people to share their experiences with the best books and resources for students in the top Tax LLM programs, e.g., in USNews ranking order:
NYU
GULC
Florida
Northwestern
Miami
Boston University
Loyola-LA
Univ of Washington
San Diego
Houston
Villanova
Denver

Studying in a Tax LLM course is different than for a JD course--not really any casebooks. Often Tax LLM professors use printed materials and don't have required books, which makes it difficult to get the big picture.

So, based on my experience at GULC's Tax LLM and talking with other Tax LLM students, here are some books that we have found invaluable. They are not casebooks; they explain the law really well by getting right to the point and are really well organized. They assume that, at the graduate level, you can go read a case on your own if you want. They don't meander through justices' opinions and dissents, or make you read a case and then 20 pages later tell you it was overturned, to make you figure out the law--they get right to the point.

They are written specifically for Tax LLM students! Here are some of the books. Amazon has really good prices on Used & New books. They also have Kindle versions of most of these books.Click the links:

Taxation of Individual Income (published: 2012)

Corporate Taxation (2012) (pub: 2012)

Partnership Taxation (2012)

Federal Taxation of Property Transactions (Graduate Tax Series) (2012)

Federal Tax Accounting, 2nd Edition (2011)

Employee Benefits Law: Qualification and ERISA Requirements (2012) (2012)

United States International Taxation (2011)

Taxation and Business Planning for Real Estate Transactions (2011)

Regulation of Tax Practice (2010)

Please post other helpful resources you all have found for Tax LLM programs.

Can I ask between GULC and northwestern tax, is it defintely go for GULC? I m an international student. Appreciated!

Yes! GULC is better from what I heard.

Thanks for the great info! Any more suggestions on study aids for international taxation?