Federal Tax Research

Dr. Roby Sawyers, Ph.D., CPA, CMA, is a professor in the Department of Accounting at North Carolina State University. He earned his undergraduate accounting degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his masters from the University of South Florida, and his Ph.D. from Arizona State University. Dr. Sawyers has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate tax courses at both NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill and has served as a visiting professor in the International Management Program at the Catholic University in Lille, France, and the Vienna School of Economics and Business (Wirtschaftsuniversitat Wien). He has taught continuing education courses for the AICPA, NCACPA, BDO Seidman, McGladrey and Pullen, Dixon, Hughes Goodman, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition to co-authoring FEDERAL TAX RESEARCH, Dr. Sawyers is a frequent contributor for leading academic, policy, and professional tax journals. Dr. Sawyers has been an active member of the AICPA's Tax Division, has served on the Tax Executive Committee, chaired the Trust, Estate and Gift Tax Technical Resource Panel, and chaired the AICPA's task force on estate tax reform. He has also been active in tax policy issues in North Carolina, serving as the Chief of Staff for the North Carolina General Assembly's State and Local Fiscal Modernization Study Commission and as an advisor to the General Assembly's Joint Select Committee on Economic Development Incentives and North Carolina's Economic Development Board. Steven Gill is an assistant professor in the School of Accountancy. He received a BS in accounting from the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) an MS in taxation from Northeastern University (Boston, MA), and a Ph.D. in accounting (University of Massachusetts 2007). Prior to entering academia, Professor Gill worked twelve years in the field of accounting including roles in public accounting, internal audit, corporate accounting, and, ultimately, vice president of finance. Professor Gill's research interests include a concentration in taxation including mutual funds and college savings ("529") plans and wider interests in corporate internal control structure and weaknesses, management overconfidence, and earnings quality. Professor Gill has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and his teaching interests include taxation and financial accounting. William A. Raabe, Ph.D., CPA, was the Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of Taxation. He taught at Ohio State, Arizona State, the Capital University (OH) Law School, and the Universities of Wisconsin--Milwaukee and Whitewater. Dr. Raabe also writes the PricewaterhouseCoopers Tax Case Studies. He has written extensively about book-tax differences in financial reporting. Dr. Raabe has been a visiting tax faculty member for a number of public accounting firms, bar associations, and CPA societies. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the Accounting Educator of the Year award from the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs. He has been the faculty adviser for student teams in the Deloitte Tax Case Competition (national finalists at three different schools) and the PricewaterhouseCoopers Extreme Tax policy competition (national finalist). For more information about Dr. Raabe, visit BillRaabeTax.com and BillRaabeTax on YouTube and Twitter. On March 8, 2015, we unexpectedly lost our dear friend and co-author Gene Whittenburg. As the original author of INCOME TAX FUNDAMENTALS, Gene was critical in designing the forms-based approach that the book has used successfully for more than two decades. It is simply not possible to quantify the degree of our loss. Gene started his life in small-town Texas; entered the Navy; served his country in Vietnam, earned Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. degrees; and served as a distinguished faculty member at San Diego State University for almost 40 years. The outpouring of sorrow and gratitude from countless former students and colleagues are a wonderful tribute to Gene's love and devotion to teaching. We intend to continue to honor Gene by upholding his standard of publishing excellence for many years to come. Debra L. Sanders, Ph.D., CPA, is a professor in the Washington State University Department of Accounting. She has received numerous awards for outstanding teaching, research, and service. Dr. Sanders, a graduate of Arizona State University, has published in both academic and professional journals. Her work has appeared in the academic journals BEHAVORIAL RESEARCH IN ACCOUNTING, NATIONAL TAX JOURNAL, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN TAXATION ASSOCIATION, ADVANCES IN TAXATION, and THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING. Professional journals that have published her articles include TAXATION FOR ACCOUNTANTS, TAXATION FOR LAWYERS, THE REVIEW OF INDIVIDUALS, TAXES, THE TAX ADVISER, and JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL PLANNING.