State and Local Taxation

This course will familiarize students with both the constitutional and practical challenges of state taxation at the corporate level, focusing primarily on the state income and sales taxes. The question of whether a state can impose a tax, and to what extent, could be one of the biggest challenges emerging from the shift to a global and digital economy. This explains why businesses, states, Congress, and courts have struggled with the application of state tax law in the modern economy; and why the legal field of State and Local Taxation (SALT) has experienced tremendous growth in the last 30 years. Through this course students will develop an understanding of the history of state and local taxation and how that history has led to the challenges businesses face today. As part of our exploration of state taxation, students will be given problems based on real-world issues and designed to highlight how the law impacts today’s business environment from a practical perspective.