Using journal entries to teach partnership tax: An illustrative case

Abstract

► Educational case for a graduate partnership taxation course. ► Uses journal entries to analyze partnership taxation transactions. ► Case emphasizes the relationship between tax/book reporting in partnership tax. ► Student feedback that journal entries make learning partnership tax easier. The use of journal entries to teach partnership taxation concepts provides students with a visual tool that liberates them from the memorization of formulas that has long been a staple in partnership tax education. Employing journal entries as our pedagogy, we present a case designed to be a comprehensive project for a stand-alone graduate partnership taxation course. We also provide guidance for how individual components within the case can be assigned, which could be particularly useful to instructors of business entity tax courses. Our case provides a resource that will assist instructors in teaching and students in understanding (1) the book accounting requirements, and (2) the interrelationship between the tax and book reporting requirements. Graduate tax students who completed this case in its entirety agree that the case meets its stated learning objectives, and that journal entries are an effective tool for analyzing partnership tax transactions and make learning partnership taxation easier.