Tax Lawyer Education

Tax education from law schools
In law schools, "tax law" is a sub-discipline and area of specialist study. Tax law specialists are often employed in consultative roles, and may also be involved in litigation. Many U.S. law schools require about 30 semester credit hours of required courses and approximately 60 hours or more of electives. Law students pick and choose available courses on which to focus before graduation with the J.D. degree in the United States. This freedom allows law students to take many tax courses such as federal taxation, estate and gift tax, and estates and successions before completing the Juris Doctor and taking the bar exam in a particular U.S. state.

There are many fine LLM or Masters in Laws Graduate programs currently being offered in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Netherlands etc. Many of these programs offer the opportunity to focus on domestic and international taxation. In the United States most LLM programs require that the candidate be a graduate of an American Bar Association-accredited law school while a mere graduate law degree is a sufficient eligibility criterion in other countries for admission to LLM in Taxation law programmes.

Tax education from business school programs
There are hundreds of accredited business schools in the USA. Many are accredited by the AACSB or ACBSP or recognized by AAFM. These undergraduate or graduate programs may allow the student to major or graduate with a tax related degree such as a Masters in Taxation. Also, the undergraduate focus on accounting would allow a student to go the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) track. After a student completes the individual state or jurisdictional requirements for accounting, the applicant may sit for the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination.