Notes from Instructor Regarding

Term Papers.Howard GodfreyUNC Charlotte

Fall, 2007

Some Suggestions Regarding Term Papers – For Graduate Students

Key: Select a topic of interest to you.Hopefully you will gain a good

understanding of a topic of importance in your career.

Hopefully the research project will help you get a better understanding of material in this course.

Get the instructor’s approval of the topic and outline before writing the paper.

The length of a term paper should generally be between 15 and 25 pages.

Examples of Term Paper Topics• Choosing the right legal entity for

a new business.• Taxation of distributions of profits

from a business: A comparison of the partnership and the S corporation.

• Tax planning for a closely held corporation and its owner(s).

• Succession planning for a closely held corporation.

Examples of Term Paper Topics• Limits of the tax law applicable

compensation strategies: a comparison of partnerships, C corporations and S corporations.

• Using stock options as part of the compensation package of corporate executives.

• Tax rules of importance for a new business venture.

Examples of Term Paper Topics

• Tax traps for S corporations

• The Accumulated Earnings Tax and how to avoid it.

• Transfer pricing issues for corporations with multinational operations.

Examples of Term Paper Topics

• How to pass the family business operations to children who don’t like each other.

• How to transfer wealth to the next generation with a gift program.

Examples of Term Paper Topics• Planning to minimize estate tax for

the elderly owner of a family business.

• How to determine the value of a family business for estate tax purposes.

• Reasonable compensation in closely held corporations. If you have other ideas, send the instructor an email and describe your idea.

Preparation of Term Paper

1. Your paper should have a title page.

2. Your paper should begin with an outline or table of contents.

3. Your paper should have an introduction – explain why we can benefit from reading the paper.

4. The paper should have headings that help the reader follow the paper.

Preparation of Term Paper

5. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of each page, as needed.

6. Your paper should have a summary or conclusion. This may consist of guidelines for applying the tax savings ideas presented in the paper, guidelines for avoiding traps, etc.

Suggestions for Preparation of Term Paper 7. Your paper should have a bibliography of

sources consulted. This should include all books and articles that were consulted, not just those cited in the paper.

8. You should not rely heavily on a single textbook or other source – instead you should use a variety of sources including, where applicable, court cases, regulations, letter rulings, revenue rulings, etc.

9. You are not required to bind the paper in a fancy binder – unless you choose to do that.

Word Processing Hints

1. Word processing programs assist you in preparing footnotes. These programs allow you to specify that footnotes should be printed at the bottom of the page, or at the end of the paper

Word Processing Hints

(I prefer to see the footnotes at the bottom of the affected pages – that keeps me from having to look to the back of the paper several times while reading the paper.)

Word Processing Hints

2. Some fonts are simply easier to read than others. I suggest Times Roman, Century Schoolbook, or similar fonts. I prefer these types of fonts, rather than the old typewriter fonts such as courier new, etc.

Word Processing Hints

3. Use bold fonts for headings, etc. Avoid excessive use of bold print – bold is used to highlight special items, etc. Avoid excessive use of all caps.

4. Use a font size of 11 points (used in this document) or 12 points in the term paper.

Word Processing Hints

5. Use margins of at least one inch on all sides. A margin of 1 ½ inches on the left side is better for binding your paper. Print on one side of each page.

Word Processing Hints

6. To save paper, I suggest line height of 1.5 lines rather than double spacing.That will be paragraph spacing in Word of 18 pts.

Common Term Paper Mistakes1. Failure to understand the

topic. Sometimes a student will provide information that is inaccurate, because he or she has not adequately studied the topic.

Common Term Paper Mistakes2. Do not assume the reader

already knows what you are about to present. The result may be a quick coverage, without the necessary details, explanations, illustrations, etc.

Common Term Paper Mistakes3. Failure to organize the paper. The

paper should be based on an outline that is presented at the start of the paper. The paper should begin with an introduction in which the writer explains the purpose of the paper. There should be a logical flow of information in the paper.

Common Term Paper MistakesThe paper should contain headings that help the reader follow the flow of the paper. In most cases, the paper should end with a summary that may contain suggestions for minimizing tax in the area addressed in the paper, traps to be avoided, etc.

Common Term Paper Mistakes4. Failure to write a research

paper, choosing instead to provide a collection of quotes from the Code, Regs, court cases, etc.

Common Term Paper MistakesA term paper should consist primarily of explanations by the student of: (a) tax law, (b) tax planning opportunities, (c) guidance for identifying tax saving opportunities and electing or qualifying for them, (d) traps to avoid, etc. Citations to the tax law (and quoted materials) are used to support the term paper.

Common Term Paper Mistakes 5. Failure to include short cases to

illustrate the material. A case can illustrate the types of situations in which a tax saving method can be applied, etc. A case can also be used to illustrate important computations in a tax saving plan or an important tax trap to avoid. A case (or a few cases) can convert an average paper into a very good one.

Common Term Paper Mistakes 6. Use of illustrations that have

excessive details. Reader should not have to use a calculator to work through the computations of a case. You can round the numbers to even thousands, use all numbers with values less than 100, etc.

Common Term Paper Mistakes 7. Failure to proof the paper.

Paper contains misspelled words, poor sentence structure, sentences that do not make sense, repetition, lack of clear explanation, etc.

Common Term Paper Mistakes Someone has said that a writer must work hard to write something that is easy to read. When a reader is confused, it may be safe to assume that the writer failed to communicate properly. It is generally impossible to write a good paper the first time. It is the second draft, or later, that is a good paper.

Let me know if you have questions.

Good Luck.

(Recognizing that people who work hard and work smart seem to be lucky more often than others.)