ACCT 781: Tax Analytics
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Course Description
This course prepares accounting students to be effective tax leaders. It focuses on emerging issues in tax analytics using case studies and applied technologies. The topics include extracting and analyzing tax data for risk analysis, tax strategy, transfer pricing, artificial intelligence, and technology automation related to the tax function. Emerging issues that impact the tax profession are also covered, such as blockchain technologies, information assets and digital currencies.
Course Learning Objectives
- Students will learn which analytics techniques are appropriate for decision making related to the tax function.
- Students will be able to abstract tax data for benchmarking and comparisons.
- Students will be able to use predictive analytics tools to drive more efficient compliance, reporting, and planning processes.
- Students will be able to effectively communicate actionable tax strategies to stakeholders.
- Students will learn how artificial intelligence and machine learning tools are being incorporated to improve tax processes.
- Students will increase their awareness of the impact of technology on tax professionals.
Text and Learning Materials
- Materials include current scholarly articles and presentation of the material to be covered.
- Technology includes software concurrently used in the tax analysis field such as tableau and Excel.
Core Course Topics
- Tax analytics for risk analysis and monitoring
- Data flow into the tax function
- Transfer pricing analytics
- Technology automation for tax function and analytics
- Blockchain and cryptocurrencies from a tax perspective
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning in different tax scenarios
- Emerging issues and evolving technologies facing the tax department
Methods of Student Evaluation
Presentations, papers and analysis of the two cases for the class.
Course Grading
Your grade will be assigned based on the number of points you earn on each assignment. Below is the grading scale.
| Grade | Total Points |
| A | 90 - 100% |
| B | 80 - 90% |
| C | 70 - 80% |
| F | Below 70 |
The breakdown of the course grade will be as follows:
- 30% Papers for the Classes
- 30% Presentations of the Topics
- 40% Presentation of the Case Studies
Course Assignments
- Presentations: Students will present in groups each week about the assigned topic of the week (see below). Groups are assigned. The presentation will be between 15-20 minutes in length and each student will have a speaking part. Each of the students will turn in a copy of the PPT they use to Blackboard to be graded as a group.
- Weekly Papers: Students will prepare individually a paper on the topic of the week, which will require significant individual work. The topics will be how Data Analytics is used in the specified field of the week and will be based on the following topics:
- Risk Management in Tax and How Data Analytics is used to mitigate Risk
- Artificial Intelligence in Tax and How Data Analytics is being used in the field of AI.
- Tax Credits and How Data Analytics is being used in the field of Tax Credits
- International Taxation and how Data Analytics is being used in International Taxation.
- Sales and Use Taxation and how Data Analytics is being used in Sales and Use Tax.
- There will be no papers for the last two weeks.
The paper will be 7-9 pages in length and conform to APA formatting, 12pt Times New Roman, double spaced. Required items are a title page and a works cited page, which do not count in the page count. Remember, work must be properly cited in order to gain full credit. For suggestions of APA formatting, use Purdue Owl.
Schedule
| Class 1 (May 18): | Introductions Syllabus Overview; Overview Risk Management in Tax |
| Class 2 (May 25): | Presentation: Risk Management in Tax; Overview Artificial Intelligence in Tax |
| Class 3 (Jun 1): | Presentation in Artificial Intelligence in Tax; Overview of Tax Credits in Tax |
| Class 4 (Jun 8): | Presentation: Tax Credits; Overview of International Tax |
| Class 5 (Jun 15): | Presentation: International Tax; Overview of Sales and Use Tax |
| Class 6 (Jun 22): | Presentation of Sales and Use Tax; Overview of Employee vs. Contractor Case |
| Class 7 (Jun 29): | Presentation of Employee vs. Contractor; Overview of Tax Law Changes Case |
| Class 8 (Jul 6): | Presentation of Change of Tax Law Case; Debrief of the Class as a Whole |
Due Dates (Times are at Midnight)
Overview Risk Management in Tax – Paper Due and Presentation: May 25
Overview of Artificial Intelligence – Paper Due and Presentation: June 1
Tax Credits and Data Analytics – Paper Due and Presentation: June 8
International Tax and Data Analytics – Paper Due and Presentation: June 15
Sales and Use Tax and Data Analytics – Paper Due and Presentation: June 22
Employee vs. Contractor Case – Presentation: June 29
Change in Tax Law Case – Presentation: July 6
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