Fundamentals of Income Tax Theory and Practice—2009 by Dieter Kiefer

  • Description
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Author
  • Supplements
Publication Date: Mar 2009
License: Creative Commons
ISBN 10: 0-9820430-1-5
ISBN 13: 978-0-9820430-1-1

This book is for an undergraduate income tax course where objectives include learning tax concepts and how to prepare income tax returns.

Fundamentals of Income Tax Theory and Practice is developed to provide students with both the conceptual and practical information needed for a sound understanding of individual income tax at a reasonable cost. The text uses the latest information available from the Internal Revenue Service and combines it with background, conceptual information, and pedagogy to provide students with a resource that will enable them to learn to handle their own income tax, help others prepare theirs, and provide a solid foundation for those who wish to continue their study of individual, partnership, corporation, estate and trust taxes.

The text is designed around the IRS’s Publication 17: Your Federal Income Tax for the Federal tax chapters. Fundamentals of Income Tax Theory and Practice will provide context, explain concepts, and provide more examples. It supplements the material in Publication 17 when more needs to be said. Finally, the text will reinforce learning through the completion of end of chapter questions, short problems and tax return preparation problems. At the end of each chapter is a section on Tax Planning Topics followed by questions and short problems plus (in most chapters) one or two tax return preparation problems. Appendix B includes a comprehensive tax return problem.

We are excited to partner with TaxACT® to offer you and your students the ability to solve selected exercises in Dieter Kiefer’s textbook. So look for this tagline and link in the book - Do Your Federal Taxes Free - Prepare, print, and e-file free - TaxACT® here, and your students can download and use the taxACT software for free to solve these problems.

Dieter Kiefer runs a volunteer service on his campus where students who use his book and take his class assist people in preparing their federal and state income taxes. It is this “on the job” usage of the text material that ensures the book’s contents are exactly the depth and breadth that a student needs to have a solid understanding of the U.S. income tax system.

  • About the Author
  • Preface
  • Chapter 1: History and Administration of Federal Income Tax
    • Section 1: Why the Federal Income Tax is Important
    • Section 2: How Tax Laws Originate, Are Administered and Adjudicated
    • Section 3: IRS Role in Tax Administration
    • Section 4: IRS Audits
    • Section 5: Interest, Penalties, and Statue of Limitations
    • Section 6: Burden of Proof Requirements
    • Section 7: Taxpayer Bill of Rights
    • Section 8: Federal Tax Preparer Requirements
    • Section 9: Tax Planning Opportunities
  • Chapter 2: The Federal Income Tax Return
    • Section 1: Who Is Required to File and Where
    • Section 2: Tax Software and Electronic Filing
    • Section 3: Filing Status
    • Section 4: Tax Formula for Individuals
    • Section 5: Types of Federal Income Tax Returns
    • Section 6: Personal and Dependent Exemptions
    • Section 7: Income Tax Withholding
    • Section 8: Estimated Taxes
    • Section 9: Tax Planning Opportunities
    • Section 10: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 3: Income: Personal Wages and Investments
    • Section 1: Income: Inclusions and Exclusions
    • Section 2: Wages, Salaries, and Other Earnings
    • Section 3: Tip Income
    • Section 4: Taxable Interest Income
    • Section 5: Dividends and Other Corporate Distributions
    • Section 6: Retirement Plans, Pensions, and Annuities
    • Section 7: Social Security and Railroad Retirement Benefits
    • Section 8: Other Income
    • Section 9: Tax Planning Opportunities
    • Section 10: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 4: Adjustments to Income
    • Section 1: Qualified Plans and Individual Retirement Accounts
    • Section 2: Other Retirement Plans: Keogh, 401(k), SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs
    • Section 3: Education Adjustments and Other Educational Incentives
    • Section 4: Adjustments for Self-Employed Medical Insurance and Tax
    • Section 5: Adjustment for Moving Expenses
    • Section 6: Adjustment for Health Savings Account
    • Section 7: Other Adjustments Including Alimony and Domestic Production
    • Section 8: Tax Planning Opportunities
    • Section 9: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 5: Standard and Itemized Deductions
    • Section 1: Standard Deduction
    • Section 2: Medical and Dental Expenses
    • Section 3: Taxes
    • Section 4: Interest Expenses
    • Section 5: Contributions
    • Section 6: Casualty and Theft Losses
    • Section 7: Employee Business Expenses
    • Section 8: Work-Related Education Expenses
    • Section 9: Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions
    • Section 10: Limitation on Itemized Deductions
    • Section 11: Tax Planning Opportunities
    • Section 12: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 6: Special Tax Issues and Tax Credits
    • Section 1: Tax on Income in Community Property States
    • Section 2: Alternative Minimum Tax
    • Section 3: Tax on Income of Minor Children
    • Section 4: Child and Dependent Care Credit
    • Section 5: Credit for the Elderly or Disabled
    • Section 6: Child Tax Credit
    • Section 7: Education Credits
    • Section 8: Earned Income Credit
    • Section 9: Other Credits
    • Section 10: Tax Planning Opportunities
    • Section 11: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 7: Income: Self-Employment, Rental, Partnership, and Other
    • Section 1: Accounting Methods and Periods
    • Section 2: Depreciation and Amortization Expense
    • Section 3: Self-Employment Income and Expenses
    • Section 4: Rental Income and Expenses
    • Section 5: Partnership, Royalty, and S Corp Income
    • Section 6: Farm Income
    • Section 7: Passive Loss Limitations
    • Section 8: Self-Employment Tax
    • Section 9: Tax Planning Opportunities
    • Section 10: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 8: Property Dispositions
    • Section 1: Basis of Property
    • Section 2: Property Holding Periods
    • Section 3: How to Treat Sale
    • Section 4: Exchange of Like-Kind Property
    • Section 5: Involuntary Conversions
    • Section 6: Business Casualty and Theft Losses
    • Section 7: Reporting Installment Sales
    • Section 8: Selling a Personal Residence
    • Section 9: Tax Planning Opportunities
    • Section 10: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 9: Partnership Taxation
    • Section 1: Attributes of a Partnership
    • Section 2: Tax Issues in Partnership Formation
    • Section 3: Reporting Ordinary Income and Separately-Stated Income Elements
    • Section 4: Computing Partnership Interest
    • Section 5: Partnership Distributions
    • Section 6: Partnership Disposals
    • Section 7: Other Partnership Tax Issues
    • Section 8: Tax Planning Topics
    • Section 9: Tax Return Problem
  • Chapter 10: Corporate Income Tax
    • Section 1: Tax Issues in Corporate Formation
    • Section 2: Corporate Tax Filing Requirements
    • Section 3: Special Tax Deductions and Limitations on Corporations
    • Section 4: Tax Rules Regarding Dividends and Other Corporate Distributions
    • Section 5: Calculating Corporate Tax
    • Section 6: Schedule M-1
    • Section 7: Special Corporate Taxes
    • Section 8: Subchapter S Corporations
    • Section 9: Tax Planning Topics
    • Section 10: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 11: California Income Tax Administration and Resident Returns
    • Section 1: Administration of California Income Tax
    • Section 2: Reporting and Taxable Entities
    • Section 3: Who Must File and Where
    • Section 4: The California Individual Tax Formula
    • Section 5: Filing Status and Computing Tax
    • Section 6: Personal and Dependency Exemptions
    • Section 7: Computing California AGI
    • Section 8: California Treatment of Capital Gains and Retirement
    • Section 9: Itemized Deductions Adjustments and Limitations
    • Section 10: California Tax Credits and Other Taxes
    • Section 11: California Withholding and Estimated Payments
    • Section 12: Tax Planning Topics
    • Section 13: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 12: California Part-Year and Nonresident Tax and Other California Topics
    • Section 1: California Residency
    • Section 2: California Source Income
    • Section 3: Nonresident and Part-Year Resident Tax Calculation
    • Section 4: Military Personnel and California Tax
    • Section 5: California Alternative Minimum Tax
    • Section 6: California Use Tax
    • Section 7: Qualified Tuition Program
    • Section 8: California Tax Preparer Rules
    • Section 9: Tax Planning Topics
    • Section 10: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 13: California Partnership and Corporation Tax
    • Section 1: Summary of Business Entity Income Taxation
    • Section 2: How California Taxes Corporations
    • Section 3: Computing Corporate California Taxable Income
    • Section 4: Other Tax Issues for California Corporations
    • Section 5: California Taxation of S Corporations
    • Section 6: California Taxation of Partnerships and Limited Liability Corporations
    • Section 7: Tax Planning Topics
    • Section 8: Tax Return Problems
  • Chapter 14: Federal Tax Reference
    • Section 1: Depreciation Tables
    • Section 2: Federal Tax Rate Schedules
  • Chapter 15: Comprehensive Tax Return Problem
  • Chapter 16: Glossary
  • Chapter 17: Federal Tax Forms
  • Chapter 18: California Tax Reference
    • Section 1: California Tax Rate Schedules
    • Section 2: Summary of Major Differences between California and Federal Laws
  • Chapter 19: California Tax Forms
Dieter Kiefer
Dieter Kiefer

Dieter M. Kiefer is a Professor of Accounting at American River College in Sacramento, California. His background before becoming a professor has prepared him perfectly to write this book.

Prior to his appointment in 2001 at American River College, Mr. Kiefer was an Assistant Director for Financial Management with the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO), an agency of the U.S. Congress. He had varied responsibilities while working in GAO’s Washington, D.C., New York, Kansas City and Denver offices including responsibility on the financial audits of the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Kiefer served on the University of Kansas and University of Iowa Accounting Advisory Committees and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Careers Committee. Mr. Kiefer earned an MBA with an emphasis in finance from the University of Denver, and a Bachelor of Science with an accounting major, and an Associate of Arts in math and science from Metropolitan State College—Denver. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (Colorado), a Certified Financial Planner and a Certified Governmental Financial Manager. He is also a master teacher, consistently recognized by his students as one of the best.

  • Instructor Manual

    The Instructor Manual will help guide you through the main concepts of each chapter such as learning objectives, key terms and takeaways. Many also include explanations and answers to chapter exercises.

  • Solutions Manual

    For exercises that need a little more explanation, our Solutions Manual will take you step by step through solving the problem and offer explanations on the answer.

  • PowerPoint Lecture Notes

    A PowerPoint presentation highlighting key learning objectives and the main concepts for each chapter are available for you to use in your classroom. You can either cut and paste sections or use the presentation as a whole.

  • Test Item File

    Need assistance in supplementing your quizzes and tests? Our test item files (in Word format) contain many true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blanks, and short essay questions.

  • Testbank for Import to Learning Management System

    We have taken our test item file and created files to import into the following Learning Management Systems*: Blackboard, Angel, Moodle, WebCT. We also support a Respondus Neutral file that you can use to easily import our questions in any LMS supported by Respondus.

    * Please note that only certain versions of each LMS are supported. Click on Supplements for detailed information.