Professor of Taxation

A Professor of Taxation occupies one of the more technically demanding faculty positions in either a law school or a business school. The subject matter — the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations, Tax Court doctrine, international tax treaties, and state conformity rules — changes constantly and requires the instructor to simultaneously be a credible scholar and a current practitioner-adjacent expert.

The teaching load varies sharply by institution type. Research universities typically expect two courses per semester for tenure-track faculty, while teaching-focused institutions may expect three or four. Core courses include federal income tax, corporate tax, and partnership taxation. Upper-level offerings might include international tax, tax policy seminar, estate and gift tax, or a transactions-focused capstone where students work through real deal structures.

The research dimension separates the professorship from what a senior practitioner does. Professors are expected to identify original questions — gaps in the law, unresolved policy tensions, empirical puzzles in tax compliance data — and pursue them systematically enough to produce work that survives peer review. In law schools, that means placing articles in flagship law reviews and specialty tax journals. In accounting programs, it means designing empirical studies, often using Compustat or IRS Statistics of Income data, and targeting journals like the Journal of Accounting and Economics or the Journal of the American Taxation Association.

Service obligations include committee work, advising students, participating in hiring decisions, and engaging with the broader tax community through bar association sections, Treasury comment letters, or congressional testimony. Tax professors with strong practitioner networks often serve as expert witnesses or policy consultants — activity that most research institutions view as enhancing the faculty member's professional standing rather than detracting from it.

The job's pace follows the academic calendar but is not relaxed. Teaching preparation intensifies when the tax code changes — and under current legislative dynamics, that is frequent. Research deadlines for conferences, grant applications, and journal submissions run on their own schedule independent of the semester. The reward is genuine intellectual ownership: the ability to teach and write about a technically difficult subject that has real consequences for individuals, corporations, and governments.

Terminal Degree Requirements:

• JD (required for law school tenure-track); LLM in Taxation from NYU, Georgetown, Florida, or equivalent (strongly preferred; near-required for research positions)
• SJD or equivalent research doctorate for the most research-intensive law school positions
• PhD in Accounting with tax specialization for business school and accounting department roles
• PhD in Economics or Public Policy for tax policy-focused positions at policy schools

Preferred Credentials and Experience:

• Prior practice experience at BigFour public accounting, major law firm tax practice, Treasury Office of Tax Policy, or IRS Chief Counsel
• Judicial clerkship (Tax Court, federal circuit, or district court) for law school candidates
• VAP (Visiting Assistant Professor) or post-doctoral fellowship position to build publication record before the formal market
• LLM thesis or working papers in circulation before going on the job market

Research and Publication Baseline:

• For law faculty: at least one to two published or forthcoming articles at the time of hire; placement tier matters at research schools
• For accounting faculty: one to two peer-reviewed publications or a strong pipeline of working papers
• Demonstrated conference presentation record (NTA Annual Conference, AAA tax section, ABA Tax Section academic programs)

Technical Knowledge Expected:

• Deep fluency with IRC Subchapters C, K, and S; international provisions under Subchapter N including GILTI, FDII, and BEAT
• Familiarity with ASC 740 for accounting-side candidates
• State and local tax fundamentals for courses touching multistate planning
• Working knowledge of tax research platforms: Bloomberg Tax, Checkpoint, and increasingly AI-augmented research tools

Soft Skills and Dispositions:

• Comfort translating dense statutory text into teachable frameworks
• Capacity to sustain independent long-form research between teaching obligations
• Willingness to engage the practitioner community through writing, commentary, and professional service

The academic job market for tax faculty is narrow but consistently active. Every law school with a tax curriculum and every accounting program needs at least one or two dedicated tax specialists, and retirements in a field where senior faculty often teach into their late 60s create periodic openings that are genuinely hard to fill with candidates who have the right combination of technical depth and scholarly output.

Demand is concentrated in a few areas. Law schools continue to hire tax faculty, though the overall law school market has contracted since its 2010 peak. Business school accounting programs with tax specializations have been more stable, particularly at institutions with strong CPA pipeline programs where tax courses are heavily enrolled. Programs with graduate tax (LLM or MTax) programs hire more frequently than those without.

Several trends are creating new demand at the margins. The TCJA of 2017 and subsequent legislative activity generated substantial unsettled interpretive questions — exactly the kind of material that produces scholarship and justifies curricular investment. International tax has grown dramatically in teaching importance following GILTI, FDII, and pillar-two global minimum tax developments, and faculty who can credibly teach this area are in short supply relative to demand.

Tax technology is creating a new curricular need. Programs that previously relied on practitioners to run optional workshops on tax software are now integrating technology literacy into core requirements. Professors who can design and teach technology-integrated tax courses have a genuine hiring advantage.

Compensation at the top of the market — particularly endowed chairs at research universities — is strong. Named professorships at major law schools can carry total compensation well above $200K including research support and summer stipends. At regional institutions, salaries are lower but the teaching environment is often more collegial and the service burden is lighter.

For practitioners considering the academic path: the transition window is real but narrow. The most competitive candidates enter the job market with an LLM or PhD completed, a publication or two in circulation, and two or three years of high-quality practice or government experience. Waiting until the late career to pursue a faculty role makes the transition harder — not impossible, but much more dependent on clinical rather than tenure-track placements.

Dear Search Committee,

I am writing to apply for the tenure-track position in tax law at [Law School]. I am currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at [Institution], where I teach Federal Income Tax and Corporate Tax, and I expect to complete my SJD at [University] this spring. My research focuses on the intersection of consolidated return regulations and the step-transaction doctrine, with a particular emphasis on how Treasury's regulatory authority has been interpreted post-Chevron.

My primary article, "Basis Confusion and the Consolidated Group," is forthcoming in the [Journal Name] and examines how current intercompany transaction regulations produce inconsistent basis outcomes in triangular reorganizations. A second piece, under review at the [Journal Name], extends the analysis to partnership-corporation hybrid structures commonly used in private equity acquisitions.

Before entering academia, I spent four years in the tax practice at [Firm], where I worked on mergers and acquisitions, REIT qualification, and cross-border restructurings for clients in the financial services sector. That practice background shapes how I teach: I give students statutory text problems drawn from transactions where the answer is genuinely uncertain, because that is what the practice looks like.

I have reviewed your program's LLM curriculum and believe my international tax background would complement existing faculty strengths, particularly in developing a new seminar on pillar-two implementation — an area where your students need more structured coverage given current practitioner demand.

I would welcome the opportunity to present my research to your faculty. Please find my articles, teaching evaluations, and references enclosed.

[Your Name]