A Course in Income Tax for Non-Accounting Majors?

Abstract The recent move by the treasury department in furnishing high schools with materials designed to provide students with a rudimentary knowledge of the vagaries of Form 1040 seems a wise if belated recognition of the fact that the ability to determine his annual income tax has become the duty of almost every U. S. citizen. Despite most television comedians to the contrary, the ability to make a self determination of personal income tax due is a task which the avenge literate citizen can perform in an evening's sitting with the aid of an instruction booklet. It is true that an evaluation of some of the major provisions of income tax laws is covered in courses in public finance, and the effect of certain income tax provisions is treated in varying degree in other business administration courses. In developing a course in income taxation to fit the needs of potential business administrators there will be the inevitable temptation to title the course "Tax Management" and to describe it in terms of a study of tax minimization through planning business activities.