School of Business

    MGMT 691 Special Topic:
    Taxes and Business Strategy

    Summer 2022


    Summer Session #2
    July 5 to August 11
    Tuesdays and Thursdays
    6:00pm to 9:30pm
    Online, synchronous (ROND)

    Instructor:
    Sean Purple, MST, CPA - Managing Tax Partner at BDO


    Course overview:
    Tax is not a four-letter word. All of us operate in a business world where taxes must be navigated. A new course will be offered this summer by Sean Purple, the Managing Tax Partner of the BDO Richmond office. This course is designed based on feedback from a cross section of managers in practice about what information they wished they could learn about taxation in a graduate course.  

    Sean will leverage his extensive experience in tax consulting to draw from real-world cases and examples to provide participants in this course with an understanding of the basic taxation principles in a variety of business circumstances. Specific topics include: 
    • A brief introduction on the purpose & history of taxation
    • Understanding the basic structure of the U.S. and Global tax systems
    • Choosing the right tax entity for a business (the life cycle/implications of various entity tax classifications, such as corporations, partnership, sole proprietorship, LLC, etc.)
    • How to articulate operational results versus taxable results when dealing with the business community 
    • Understanding the basic taxable implications of a Taxable vs. Non-Taxable Merger/Acquisition
    • Interpreting financial statement impacts of taxation (GAAP, IFRS, Cash Basis, etc.) and tax law changes

    All graduate business majors are welcome!

    This course would be appropriate for any business major who is interested in navigating the business world more effectively. A background of coursework in taxation is not needed (i.e., there are no tax-course prerequisites). However, the course will also benefit Accounting Majors and others with an accounting background by focusing, not on the technical elements of taxation, but on the practical ways in which taxation knowledge can inform effective decision-making. 


    If you have questions about the course, feel free to reach out to Sean Purple: spurple@bdo.com or Dr. Alisa Brink: agbrink@vcu.edu