Instructor’s Manual – McGraw-Hill’s Taxation, by Spilker et al.
INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL for McGraw-Hill’s Essentials of Federal
Taxation 2024 Edition, 15th Edition By Brian Spilker
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
1-1
, Instructor’s Manual – McGraw-Hill’s Taxation, by Spilker et al.
Chapter 1
An Introduction to Tax
INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
Learning Objectives
1-1. Demonstrate how taxes influence basic business, investment, personal, and political decisions.
1-2. Discuss what constitutes a tax and the general objectives of taxation.
1-3. Describe the different tax rate structures and calculate a tax.
1-4. Identify the various federal, state, and local taxes.
1-5. Apply appropriate criteria to evaluate alternate tax systems.
Teaching Suggestions
This chapter provides an overview of why taxes are important, what a tax is, how to calculate a tax,
various tax rates and tax rate structures, different types of federal, state, and local taxes, and how to
evaluate a tax system. One intent of the chapter is to get students thinking about the pervasive influence
of taxes and thus why it is important for a business or accounting student to understand taxes. Discussing
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
1-2
, Instructor’s Manual – McGraw-Hill’s Taxation, by Spilker et al.
how taxes affect decisions that they will face (buying a house, investing for retirement, etc.) is an
effective way to pique students’ interest.
This chapter also provides an opportunity to motivate students by discussing the political importance of
taxes and the debate over alternative tax systems. Throughout most of the chapter, you can tie the material
discussed back to the debate over alternative tax systems. This is easily done in the section on evaluating
alternative tax systems and alternative tax rate structures but may also be done for other parts of the text.
For example, when discussing how to calculate a tax, you can point out that once the tax base is
computed, it is very easy to calculate virtually any tax. The difficulty is in determining the tax base. The
implication of this understanding is that the tax rate structure (e.g., progressive versus proportional) has
little effect on tax complexity.
In teaching this chapter, the time that you spend in class will vary based on how much discussion that you
want to incorporate regarding evaluating tax systems and implicit taxes. Most of the concepts in this
chapter are relatively straightforward, and thus, the chapter provides students with an introduction to tax
without overwhelming them on the first day or so of class. This is particularly important if your students
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
1-3
, Instructor’s Manual – McGraw-Hill’s Taxation, by Spilker et al.
have some trepidation regarding their first tax course.
Implicit tax is typically a difficult concept for students to understand. The text provides a good overview
of implicit tax. If you plan to cover implicit tax in some detail, you might alert students that this is a
difficult concept and that they should be careful to get familiar with this discussion in the text prior to
class.
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
1-4
INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL for McGraw-Hill’s Essentials of Federal
Taxation 2024 Edition, 15th Edition By Brian Spilker
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
1-1
, Instructor’s Manual – McGraw-Hill’s Taxation, by Spilker et al.
Chapter 1
An Introduction to Tax
INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
Learning Objectives
1-1. Demonstrate how taxes influence basic business, investment, personal, and political decisions.
1-2. Discuss what constitutes a tax and the general objectives of taxation.
1-3. Describe the different tax rate structures and calculate a tax.
1-4. Identify the various federal, state, and local taxes.
1-5. Apply appropriate criteria to evaluate alternate tax systems.
Teaching Suggestions
This chapter provides an overview of why taxes are important, what a tax is, how to calculate a tax,
various tax rates and tax rate structures, different types of federal, state, and local taxes, and how to
evaluate a tax system. One intent of the chapter is to get students thinking about the pervasive influence
of taxes and thus why it is important for a business or accounting student to understand taxes. Discussing
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
1-2
, Instructor’s Manual – McGraw-Hill’s Taxation, by Spilker et al.
how taxes affect decisions that they will face (buying a house, investing for retirement, etc.) is an
effective way to pique students’ interest.
This chapter also provides an opportunity to motivate students by discussing the political importance of
taxes and the debate over alternative tax systems. Throughout most of the chapter, you can tie the material
discussed back to the debate over alternative tax systems. This is easily done in the section on evaluating
alternative tax systems and alternative tax rate structures but may also be done for other parts of the text.
For example, when discussing how to calculate a tax, you can point out that once the tax base is
computed, it is very easy to calculate virtually any tax. The difficulty is in determining the tax base. The
implication of this understanding is that the tax rate structure (e.g., progressive versus proportional) has
little effect on tax complexity.
In teaching this chapter, the time that you spend in class will vary based on how much discussion that you
want to incorporate regarding evaluating tax systems and implicit taxes. Most of the concepts in this
chapter are relatively straightforward, and thus, the chapter provides students with an introduction to tax
without overwhelming them on the first day or so of class. This is particularly important if your students
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
1-3
, Instructor’s Manual – McGraw-Hill’s Taxation, by Spilker et al.
have some trepidation regarding their first tax course.
Implicit tax is typically a difficult concept for students to understand. The text provides a good overview
of implicit tax. If you plan to cover implicit tax in some detail, you might alert students that this is a
difficult concept and that they should be careful to get familiar with this discussion in the text prior to
class.
© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
1-4
