In The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Income Tax Law, Edward McCaffery presents an accessible introduction to the major topics in the field of federal income taxation, such as income, deductions, and recognition of gains and losses. After discussing central rules and doctrines individually, Edward McCaffery offers a very sophisticated yet clear explanation of the interplay among them, carefully describing how they work together to carry out the policy goals of the U.S. tax system.

Professor McCaffery describes, for example, how the current income tax in the United States has increasingly become a wage tax that favors those with capital rather than those whose money comes from labor. In explaining the consequences of tax policy on individuals, he also considers important possible alternatives for income taxation in the U.S.

The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Income Tax Law sets forth the 'who, ' 'what, ' 'when, ' and 'why' of income tax law and describes the essential concepts of the field in a clear and concise manner that helps students and non-experts increase their understanding of the policies behind modern tax law and the ways in which these policies affect different types of individuals.

About the Author:
Edward McCaffery is the Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and Professor of Law, Economics and Political Science at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. An internationally recognized expert in tax law, Professor McCaffery studies and teaches tax policy, tax structures, public finance theory, behavioral public finance, property law and theory, intellectual property, and law and economics.

A summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, Professor McCaffery received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a master's degree in economics from USC. He served as a clerk to Chief Justice Robert N. Wilentz of the New Jersey Supreme Court and was an attorney with Titchell, Maltman, Mark, Bass, Ohleyer & Mishell before joining the USC Law faculty in 1989. He held the Maurice Jones, Jr., Professorship in Law from 1998 to 2004 and has served as a visiting professor of law and economics at the California Institute of Technology since 1994.

Professor McCaffery has chaired the USC Institute on Federal Taxation since 1997. He founded the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics and served as its director from 2000 to 2003. He is an elected fellow of the American Law Institute (ALI) and the American College of Tax Counsel. Professor McCaffery also is counsel to the Los Angeles office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP.