DROI2008-3 : Income tax, in-depth elements

Study Programmes 2016-2017

DROI2008-3

Income tax, in-depth elements

Duration :

30h Th, 5h Pr

Number of credits :

Master in law, professional focus in law and management		5
Specialised master in tax law		5

Lecturer :

Nicolas Honhon, Aymeric Nollet

Language(s) of instruction :

French language

Organisation and examination :

Teaching in the first semester, examination in June

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents :

Personal Income Tax: The Personal Income Tax course consists of five 3-hour 'theory' sessions and two 3-hour 'practical' sessions. The five theory lessons are coordinated by the course leader and will include presentations from staff from the Tax Institute who are practitioners (lawyers, consultants) specialising in the areas addressed. Where necessary, they will tell students which documents they should read before their presentation or to be read later alongside their notes to prepare for the exams or to facilitate more in-depth research into the subject. These lessons will cover the subject of personal income tax by following, in principle, the structure of the Income Tax Code. The subject is divided up as follows:

the first class will be devoted to the introductory provisions of the Code and income from property (with the participation of Bernard Mariscal);
one class will be devoted to income from investments (with a presentation by Frédéric Janssen);
two classes will look at professional income (general principles, different categories of professional income, conditions for deducting business expenses, specific questions such as 'benefits in kind', etc.) (with the participation of Marie-Pierre Donéa and Frédéricq Jacquet);
the last class will look at miscellaneous income and elements for calculating tax (with a presentation by Marie-Pierre Donéa).

The practical sessions will be given by Nicolas Honhon. The first will consist of analysing practical cases (assessment notice) of a tax payer subject to personal income tax, with a view to shedding light upon the various stages of calculating tax, as well as the general rationale behind this calculation (as well as the impact of the 6th Government reform). To this end, students will receive recent circulars relating to tax calculations as well as basic data from several individual tax declarations. The second session will look at the problem of capital gains in relation to personal income tax: an analytical presentation of the range of these various capital gains (professional or otherwise) will be presented, and practical cases to identify professional capital gains will be analysed. To this end, students will be presented with several extracts from the Administrative Commentary of the Income Tax Code. (Art. 41-47 and 171) as well as examples of practical cases to be analysed. Corporation tax: The Corporation Tax course, which include five 3-hour sessions, will look at the various rules for determining taxable income (profit) for corporation tax in the Income Tax Code, with the exception of aspects of the subject covered by more specialised courses (corporate restructuring and reorganisation, relationships between connected companies, international taxation, international tax planning, etc.). The course will generally follow the structure of the annual corporate tax declaration to make the subject more dynamic and practical in nature (in line with the stages for calculating tax). The course will regularly feature case studies and examples from case law. The course will be given in the form of a lecture based on a PowerPoint presentation, which does not, of course, exclude interaction between the students and the teacher on relevant questions or occasional illustrations. Staff from the Tax Institute who specialise in corporate taxation may also give presentations in one or more sessions, depending on the subject being addressed.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit :

Prerequisite knowledge and skills :

General course on taxation and/or introductory course on corporate taxation.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :

See the section 'Learning Unit Contents'

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :

In-class lectures and recordings available on the HD Campus.

Recommended or required readings :

Having an updated copy of the Tax Law Code is obviously essential for the various classes as well as for the exam. Personal Income Tax: All students (regardless of their background or previous education) are required to read the introductory parts of the government's 'MEMENTO fiscal' and the first part on personal income tax (up to page 86) before the first class. This document (which is also available and easily accessible online) will be given to students at least two weeks before the start of classes. Other documents (presentation slides, articles, case law decisions, administrative circulars, etc.) may be distributed occasionally to students to prepare for or during the various classes by external presenters (as indicated above). Students are also requested to read the documents sent by Mr Honhon prior to the practical sessions. Corporation tax: Prior to the first class on corporation tax, students are requested to obtain a copy of the latest corporation tax declaration form, available on the SPF Finances website. The PowerPoint presentation used during each class will be available to students who should complete it with notes they have taken during class (together forming the subject of the exam). The subject dealt with in class should be enhanced by reading publications, articles, case law and administrative circulars which will be provided to students alongside the lectures and which will form the basis of a 'document file' to be used when preparing for the exam.

Assessment methods and criteria :

The personal income tax and corporation tax exams will be written and will take place separately (successively). The corporation tax exam will last one hour, while the personal income tax exam will take two hours, commencing after the end of the corporation tax exam. For the purposes of these exams, students should have a blank note pad, an up-to-date version of the Income Tax Code (which can be annotated and bookmarked with key-words and/or cross references to articles) as well as, for the corporation tax exam, the corporation tax declaration form mentioned above (WITHOUT the explanatory notice). The questionnaires given to students will test their theoretical knowledge (definitions, true/false distinctions) and practical knowledge (cases to be resolved) of information given during the oral classes as well as that provided in the written reports to which the various teachers have referred where appropriate (see the documents given to students and which should be read before or after each class). This applies both to the exam organised in the first session (which will probably take place in February or March at a date to be decided with the students and the secretariat) and to the exam in the second session (August or September).

Work placement(s) :

Organizational remarks :

Contacts :

Aymeric Nollet (lecturer) Nicolas Honhon (for the practical part of the personal income tax course).

Items online :

IPP - ISoc et Travaux pratiques
Les notes de cours sont disponibles sur le campus HD :