Debt and Taxes

A lecture by Prof. Noël B. Cunningham '74

Professor Noël B. Cunningham '74 is the Faculty Director of the Graduate Tax Program at NYU School of Law, and his lecture will explore the effect of borrowing on tax characteristics such as basis. Prof. Cunningham is the co-author, with his wife, Laura Cunningham, of The Story of Tufts: The "Logic" of Taxing Non-Recourse Loan Transactions in Business Tax Stories (Steven A Bank & Kirk J. Stark eds., Foundation 2005). Professor Cunningham's scholarship has been concentrated in the areas of tax policy and the taxation of partnerships. Much of his writing in tax policy has been with Professor Deborah Schenk, another member of the NYU Law School faculty. Together they have written on a variety of controversial topics including imputed income, concept of ownership in taxation, and the capital gains preference. For the last several years, Cunningham's other area of scholarly interest has been partnership taxation, an area that has the reputation of being one of the most demanding in the tax law. Because students find the study of partnership taxation difficult, both on a technical and conceptual level, Cunningham and his wife, Professor Laura Cunningham of the Cardozo School of Law, have recently revised their book titled The Logic of Subchapter K: A Conceptual Guide to the Taxation of Partnerships, which introduces the uninitiated to this intriguing area of the law. In addition to his teaching at the Law School, Cunningham has taught at the Harvard Law School, the Hasting College of Law and the University of Virginia. He also served on the staff of the U.S. Treasury's Office of Tax Legislative Counsel from 1980-82.

Listen to Prof. Cunningham's Lecture:

1. Part I:Download the MP3
2. Part II: Download the MP3