LLM Specialisms 2011/12

Taxation

[please note: links below are to the 2010/11 course guides; they will be updated when new guides are made available during the summer vacation]

The taxation programme at the LSE offers an unusually wide range of options, providing students with a solid foundation in the fundamentals of taxation, together with the opportunity for detailed study of important and topical tax issues. The specialised programme is suitable for all with an interest in taxation, whether for private practice, for tax administration, or for an academic career. Teachers include distinguished academics and several of the most highly regarded UK tax-practitioners. The courses offer a rigorous study of tax legislation and jurisprudence combined with complementary analysis of relevant tax policy issues.

Business Taxation (H) (LL4Z1): the taxation of businesses in the UK, including key elements of corporation tax and income tax, capital gains taxation, partnership taxation, and current issues in the UK tax system affecting businesses. Good background course for LL491. Can be combined with LL4Z2.

Consumption Taxes (H) (LL4Z3): this half course of the nature of value added taxes, whether called VAT, GST or another name, comparing them with other methods of taxing consumption, including retail sales taxes and progressive expenditure taxes. The course also considers the main features and problems raised by VATs and GSTs, including the taxpayers, the amount subject to tax, international transactions, and VATs in federal jurisdictions. Examples will be drawn from the European Union and from other countries. With LL4Z4 it forms the full course LL494 (Value Added Tax).

International Tax Systems (LL455): taxation law and policy from an international and comparative viewpoint, looking at international implications of tax policy and international fiscal law, with an emphasis on double taxation agreements.
Preliminary reading: Williams, Trends in International Taxation (IBFD); Arnold & McIntyre, International Tax Primer (Kluwer); Terra and Wattel, European Tax Law (Kluwer).

Issues in Taxation (LL479)* : advanced topical issues in taxation, including issues of tax policy and the methods of analysis of tax policy, focused around a series of monthly Taxation Seminars.

[* Note: this is a compulsory course for students
wishing to obtain a specialist LLM in Taxation]

Principles of Taxation (H) (LL4Z2): analysis of how tax systems work and the principles that lie behind them. Topics covered include the reasons for taxation and the main types of tax, how income is taxed, how the tax administration operates, the interpretation of tax legislation and tax avoidance. Uses examples from the tax systems of the UK and other countries. Can be combined with LL4Z1.

Public Economics (EC426): Principles of public economics (welfare analysis; concepts of fairness, equity and efficiency; social welfare; policy design; Taxation; household and firm behaviour; optimal taxation; public goods, social insurance; analysis of social choice and government behaviour); and either: Selected topics in public economics (such as microeconometrics of taxation; inequality and poverty; international issues in taxation; compliance problems; inheritance and wealth taxation); or Macroeconomic policy analysis.

Taxation of Corporate Transactions (LL491): the taxation of businesses and business transactions in the UK and other selected countries, covering the general principles of the taxation of business income and gains, and a number of specialist topics, such as taxation of companies and reorganisations, taxation of corporate finance and foreign elements of domestic taxation.
Preliminary reading: H.J. Ault and B.J. Arnold, Comparative Income Taxation: A Structural Analysis, Introduction to Law (Kluwer Law International, 2nd ed., 2004)

Value Added Tax in the European Context (H) (LL4Z4): analysis of the European Union VAT as it operates in the United Kingdom, beginning with an introduction to key concepts of the EU VAT, and examining in more detail a range of the most important aspects of VAT, including topics such as the deductibility of input tax and the treatment of exemptions, the taxation of transactions between member states, and the taxation of financial services. With LL4Z3 it forms the full course LL494 (Value Added Tax).