This book deals with the federal income tax as it bears on gratuitous transfers and with the federal wealth transfer taxes. The federal wealth transfer taxes presently consist of a partially unified estate and gift tax and a generation-skipping tax. The federal transfer tax system is separate and apart from the federal income tax. Features: Emphasis on text, statutes, and regulations, rather than cases (especially cases that involve routine application of law to facts) "Building block" organization (simple to complex estates), rather than segmented organization according to Code sections. Extensive use of questions and problems to aid students High-profile authorship in Joseph M. Dodge (a highly regarded tax specialist), Wendy C. Gerzog, and Bridget J. Crawford (both well-established in the field) The book reconstitutes the Estate and Gift tax course from the ground up in light of modern estates practice. For example, special valuation rules are treated as basic, as opposed to being just "tacked on" as other books treat them. More emphasis on valuation and use of FLPs than in other books. Valuation is introduced early on and integrated with other material Integration of related income tax materials, including income taxation of estates and trusts Relation of tax doctrine to tax planning strategies Focus on doctrine that influences the practice of estate and trust law, rather than doctrine for its own sake Reference to state law (including recent developments) as it bears on transfer tax issues, with full coverage of issues raised by community property systems

Taxation is a discipline that does not receive sufficient academic attention. It is typically viewed as a subset of law, accounting, public policy, economics, or finance. In this respect, most academic efforts in the field of taxation are shadowed by a mother discipline. There is currently an unprecedented need to approach tax pedagogy in a way that is independent of another discipline. This book caters to that real and unmet need in tax pedagogy. One of the book’s advantages is that it is not tied to a specific tax year and does not coddle the reader with volumes of time-sensitive information. In this book the tax year is never the focus, as the center stage is reserved for teaching the principles and skills necessary to independently find answers. The reader will learn to appreciate the complexity of the American tax system and will be endowed with the contextual understanding necessary to formulate educated opinions about how taxes work and, most importantly, why. Contrary to common belief, taxation in the United States has remained fairly stable for the last 100 years. This book uses the federal individual income tax as a vehicle to unveil the mechanics that make up the American tax system. This book is essential reading for students taking a first course in taxation, at the undergraduate or graduate level, as part of programs in accounting, law, public administration, or business at large.