Fundamentals of Federal Income Taxation

by Stephen Lind, Daniel Lathrope, Heather Field

This widely-adopted casebook provides detailed information on federal income taxation, with specific assignments to the Internal Revenue Code, selected cases, and regulations and rulings from the Internal Revenue Service. The revised and updated Twentieth Edition marks the 50th anniversary of the casebook’s first publication, and in this edition Professor Heather M. Field (University of California, Hastings) joins the casebook as an author. This new edition retains the book’s long standing format and much of its prior materials, but it is updated to reflect recent events including legislative, judicial, and regulatory developments.

The new edition contains expanded materials on tax policy, including discussions of (1) the fundamentals of tax policy, (2) a comparison of the definition of income under the Internal Revenue Code and under Haig-Simons, (3) the realization requirement for gains and losses, (4) the argument for and against the stepped-up basis in Section 1014, (5) a critique of tax expenditures, and (6) the preferential treatment of capital gains.

Other significant changes in the casebook include new or revised coverage, sometimes with problems, (1) judicial review of Treasury regulations, (2) taxation of virtual currencies, (3) the exclusion for discharge of student loans, (4) the Section 274 limitation on the deductibility of entertainment and meal expenditures, (5) the Section 280A limitation on the deductibility of expenses in connection with the business use of a home, (6) the Section 280E limitation on the deductibility of expenditures in connection with sales of illegal drugs, (7) the concepts of adjusted gross income and miscellaneous itemized deductions, (8) the tax benefit doctrine, (9) net operating losses, (10) Special Opportunity Zones, and (11) the definition of “real property” under Section 1031.

1113 pages, Hardcover

Published August 2, 2022