Student Comments
This page contains comments about the course from past students. It is meant to provide you with a perspective on how you might use the material from this class after you leave Kellogg. Since this I have editorial control over this page, I have eliminated all the negative comments. If you would like to email the students below (Kellogg alumni email or Linkedin), please feel free to do so.
- Physicist - Albert Einstein (He never actually took a tax course.)
- Fixed Income RESEARCH, Sales, and Trading: Doug Runte, Class of 1998.
- Consulting - Korea: Hyokon Zhiang, Class of 1999.
- Finance Department of Non-Financial: Rob O'Keefe, Class of 1999.
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax."
It is not intuitively obvious that a course with the word "tax" in its name could be among the most interesting, intellectually stimulating and useful at Kellogg. But this, in my opinion, is exactly the case with Mitchell Petersen's course "Financial Strategy and Tax Planning". The course is definitely not a memorization exercise in the nuances of tax law. You will not learn how Section 6 Paragraph 3A(i) adjusts the depreciation of long-lived assets in the case of certain material corporate transactions. The course is, instead, a study of how taxes broadly affect financial decision-making, including optimal capital structure and investment decisions.
I have found that the focus of the course, which emphasizes analytical approaches to tax-related financial issues, has proven very useful in my current position as a research analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. I have been involved in numerous corporate transactions, many of which were effected in some way by taxation-related issues. Transactions that I have been involved with include aircraft finance, railroad equipment finance, stock buybacks and corporate debt. The transactions did not require me to be intimately familiar with the tax code (there are tax lawyers and accountants for that), but they did require me to understand the broader implications of these taxation issues and what questions need to be asked. It is this analytical process that I felt was honed in Prof. Petersen's course.
Prof. Petersen brings an extraordinary level of energy, enthusiasm and knowledge to the course, just as he does with Finance II. This is by no means an easy course. It will require you to work hard, although there is definitely a lesser volume of material than Financial Decisions. To fully benefit from the course, you will need to be prepared for each class. Prof. Petersen is very successful in drawing students into discussions, but this is not a pressure-filled "cold calling" class. Participation is expected and encouraged, but will not be imposed if you obviously don't want to join in. There is another reason to take this course - the students who I think are naturally drawn to it. The level of discussion I found in the course was excellent, with students asking probing questions and contributing real-world examples.
This course was one of the best I have taken at Kellogg. I encourage you to sign-up. If you have any doubts, please e-mail me at douglas.runte@msdw.com and I will do my best to answer your questions.
This was my Finance 3. I strongly recommend this class to all students who are interested in finance and general management, plus anyone who still has questions on Finance 2 or Financial Decision (which I did). As an international alum, I especially urge international students to take this class. What you will learn is not the U.S. tax law, but how you make a business decision that involves a tax issue. From simple calculations such as conducting an after-tax business valuation with more precision (than someone who hasn't taken this course) to complex problems such as figuring out the tax implication of a derivative, you will be able to solve these problems with a few simple principles.
I believe this class will be particularly useful for people going into investment banking, investment management, trading, commercial banking, business development and treasury in corporations. However, management consultants are likely to face tax issues as well. A potential client of ours, a Korean telecommunication equipment vendor, was asked by a Chinese mobile carrier to provide financing for expensive equipments (so called "vendor financing"). Thank god I took the class - this is about designing a lease contract! What about leases and taxes? Take the class - honor code!
Here is another real-world example. My current client is a manufacturer who sells products to emerging markets including Russia, India, and China. Typically the governments apply different tariffs for the imported products depending how finished they are (from a component to a fully finished product). So they have to make decision whether to produce locally or produce at home and export. If they decided to set up production in the target country, they have to decide upon an organizational form and how to transfer funds back and forth. The key word of all these issues is of course "tax."
Don't be scared-off by the course title. I suggested to Professor Petersen that he try to eliminate the word "tax", but he didn't think he could pull it off. Title notwithstanding, I found Petersen's course to be surprisingly interesting, and, more recently, I've found the material to be pretty useful as well.
Petersen's course isn't about memorizing exclusions, deductions and depreciation schedules. It's about identifying when tax considerations might be important and understanding how to structure a decision-making process that appropriately contemplates taxes. Petersen's energetic lecture style and a couple of interesting, involved case discussions help to bring the material to life (hard to believe, I know). The classes and the cases focus on the big picture - figuring out what the real business decision is and making it, not just spitting-out the effective tax rate.
I work in corporate treasury for a large multinational industrial company. I work with equity investments, taxable and municipal bond issuances and redemptions, complex derivative structures, and sale-leaseback deals. Almost every day I listen to investment bankers pitch new (and old) products that supposedly create value for my firm. Almost every one of them has a significant tax angle. Now, I don't have to be able to recite the section of the tax code that relates to a particular product or deal - we have lawyers and accountants for that. I do, however, have to understand and be able to intelligently discuss the tax considerations related to each deal and how they do or do not impact my recommendations. And, the bankers and consultants I deal with have to be able to intelligently discuss the tax considerations as well. If they can't, we call someone who can.
So, if you're considering a career in corporate finance, corporate finance consulting or investment banking, you should consider taking Petersen's course. The material is going to be important. Taxes are real-world - and your education in finance really isn't complete until you've learned how to apply it in the real world.
- Investment Banking -- Mergers and Acquisitions: Gian Ricco, Senior Vice President at Stout Risius Ross (Class 2015)
- Finance Department of Non-Financial: Rob O'Keefe, Class of 1999.
I can honestly say that your tax class was the most relevant class I took while at KSM, I remember it well and my binder of notes is the only material from my MBA that sits on my shelf at work as I find myself referring to it multiple times per year.” Don't be scared-off by the course title. I suggested to Professor Petersen that he try to eliminate the word "tax", but he didn't think he could pull it off. Title notwithstanding, I found Petersen's course to be surprisingly interesting, and, more recently, I've found the material to be pretty useful as well.
Don't be scared-off by the course title. I suggested to Professor Petersen that he try to eliminate the word "tax", but he didn't think he could pull it off. Title notwithstanding, I found Petersen's course to be surprisingly interesting, and, more recently, I've found the material to be pretty useful as well.