IRS APPROVED PROVIDER OF CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR ENROLLED AGENTS & CPAs

Tax Law Institute
1717 N Street NW
Washington DC
(202} 800-9230

Tax Law Institute 1717 N Street NW Washington DC (202} 800-9230Tax Law Institute 1717 N Street NW Washington DC (202} 800-9230Tax Law Institute 1717 N Street NW Washington DC (202} 800-9230
Home
The Best Kept Secret...
Guide to Bar Admission
Course Schedule
Pro Bono Program
Tax Law Library
FBI-Vetting
Tax Bar Exam Tips
Apprenticeship
Volunteerism
Guests | Faculty | Staff
Courses | Fees | Protocol
Practice Areas | Mngt.

Tax Law Institute
1717 N Street NW
Washington DC
(202} 800-9230

Tax Law Institute 1717 N Street NW Washington DC (202} 800-9230Tax Law Institute 1717 N Street NW Washington DC (202} 800-9230Tax Law Institute 1717 N Street NW Washington DC (202} 800-9230
Home
The Best Kept Secret...
Guide to Bar Admission
Course Schedule
Pro Bono Program
Tax Law Library
FBI-Vetting
Tax Bar Exam Tips
Apprenticeship
Volunteerism
Guests | Faculty | Staff
Courses | Fees | Protocol
Practice Areas | Mngt.
More
  • Home
  • The Best Kept Secret...
  • Guide to Bar Admission
  • Course Schedule
  • Pro Bono Program
  • Tax Law Library
  • FBI-Vetting
  • Tax Bar Exam Tips
  • Apprenticeship
  • Volunteerism
  • Guests | Faculty | Staff
  • Courses | Fees | Protocol
  • Practice Areas | Mngt.
  • Home
  • The Best Kept Secret...
  • Guide to Bar Admission
  • Course Schedule
  • Pro Bono Program
  • Tax Law Library
  • FBI-Vetting
  • Tax Bar Exam Tips
  • Apprenticeship
  • Volunteerism
  • Guests | Faculty | Staff
  • Courses | Fees | Protocol
  • Practice Areas | Mngt.

2025 Tax Bar PrepREPERATION

Learn by doing. Join our Pro Bono Program

Meet Samir Bitar E.A. MBA | U.S. Tax Court Apprentice

  • Samir Bitar (pictured left) is an IRS enrolled agent and MBA graduate of Carnegie Mellon. He recently was admitted to the Tax Bar Preparation and Apprenticeship | Federal Tax Litigation Practice Program for the 2024-2025 Testing Cycle. The former museum director at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, he is the 2024 recipient of the Tax Law Institute's Entertainment Tax and Arts Scholarship Award.


Like you, he shares the some concerns and anxieties over the upcoming bar exam. 

Here is what you need to know

The Tax Bar Exam

 

  • The next Tax Court bar examination will be administered electronically during four hours on November 5, 2025, using the ExamSoft platform. Bar applicants must go online to fill out the application on a date certain in July 2025, TBA by the Tax Court. Tax practitioners must submit their application no later than a date certain in September 2025, TBA by the Tax Court. Please reference the 2023 press release here to learn more about the process. A minimum of one (1) year of preparation is the recommended amount of time bar applicants should allow to have even the remote chance of passing the examination. 


Tax Bar Exam Results


  • Although administered electronically, test results will not be disseminated until late April/early May 2026. If you pass, then you'll receive a congratulatory letter via U.S. Postal Service with a printed link to a pdf. application, practitioner's oath form, and a third link that will direct you to a government contractor's website to pay the bar admission fee. Otherwise, you will receive a letter that says you didn't pass, in which case, you should write to the Office of Admissions to request a copy of your exam answer sheets and scores to see what you did wrong. Doing so will help to better prepare you to retake the test. Lastly, if you are interested in the statistics surrounding how many CPAs and EAs take the bar exam and what their passing rates are then click here. 


Tax Court Bar Prep


Our 2024-2025 Tax Bar Preparation courses are as follows:


  • Federal Tax Procedure
  • Internal Revenue Code Sections
  • Tax Evidence
  • U.S. Tax Rules of Practice and Procedure
  • Legal Ethics
  • Caselaw


►Financing Available


 2025 Course Schedule


To facilitate your bar preparation calendar, please take notice of the course schedule below:


  •  IRC course will begin on Saturday, November 16, 2024 and conclude on Saturday, January 25, 2025.


  • Tax Evidence course will begin on Saturday, February 1, 2025 and conclude on Saturday, March 29, 2025.


  • U.S. Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure will begin on Saturday, May 3, 2025 and conclude on Saturday, June 14, 2025.


  • Legal Ethics will begin on Saturday, June 21, 2025 and conclude on Saturday, July 12, 2025.


  • Case Law will begin on Saturday, July 19, 2025 and conclude on Saturday, August 9, 2025.


                   Break

  • Comprehensive Pre-Exam Review begins Saturday, September 13, 2025 and concludes Saturday, November 1, 2025.


  • The 2025 U.S. Tax Court Bar Examination will be administered by ExamSoft on Wednesday, November 5, 2025.


Apprenticeships will re-convene in January 2026. USTCPs re-convene in January 2025 as well while engaged in student teaching.



CAVEAT

 If you are a first-time or repeat test-taker, don't fool yourself. You will need a minimum of one (1) year to prepare, otherwise you reduce your chances of passing the 2025 bar exam by 50%. If you decide to begin your preparation after the 2025 Tax Season then you should plan to devote no less than 5-6 hours per day studying with a structured preparation program. Here are the statistics for the  pass rates since 2000. At least half of the applicants were not taking the exam for the first time. Click here. 


See course descriptions below. 

BAR-TESTED SUBJECTS | FINANCING AVAILABLE

FEDERAL TAX PROCEDURE

INTERNAL REVENUE CODE REVIEW

INTERNAL REVENUE CODE REVIEW

Federal Tax Procedure

  • Federal Tax Procedure is taught by Federal tax scholar, Professor James H. Chapman. It is an absolute requirement for any EA, CPA or JD who will take the 2025 Tax bar examination. The book and related materials contain text discussion, relevant Code Sections, and certain cases designed to encourage United States Tax Court Practitioner-applicants to think about the Tax Procedure process. It is essential reading to prepare for the  upcoming Tax bar examination. CPAs and  EAs may find it to be an excellent review of subject matter they have not seen since they prepared for the SEE and accountancy examinations that qualified them for approval to practice before the IRS and/or meet requirements of State Accountancy Boards. 


  • It also is a great preparatory tool for the Tax Court bar exam. Author, Jack Townsend, eminent scholar, law professor and tax litigator, may continue to be an occasional guest speaker at the Tax Law Institute. Listen to his most recent discussion posted in real-time on the homepage of this website. The content of his book, Federal Tax Procedure, is believed to be the foundation of the the U.S. Tax Court bar examinations. 


  • Basic digital course materials include digital copy of free textbook, Federal Tax Procedure. 


Fee $1195


Awards 30 CE credits

 

RS7E4-T-00051-24-O 

INTERNAL REVENUE CODE REVIEW

INTERNAL REVENUE CODE REVIEW

INTERNAL REVENUE CODE REVIEW

Internal Revenue Code Sections

  •  Sign-up for our newest course that covers the IRC sections that often appear on the Tax Court bar exam. Presented by our resident scholar on Code section analytics at the Tax Law Institute, Serina Moy EA, Senior Lecturer, this course is an absolute requirement if one wants to pass the 2025 Tax bar examination. Purchase this book from Thomson Reuters. The entire Federal Tax Code, and its complete history, is at your fingertips with the Complete Internal Revenue Code This convenient, easy-to-use volume provides you with the complete legislative history and a comprehensive topic index to speed your tax research. Cautions from our editorial experts provide you with key information about special rules and effective dates needed to properly apply the Code Section. The Complete Internal Revenue Code includes all legislative changes up to its publication date, providing you with a complete history of all amendments affecting a Code Section.


  • The Complete Internal Revenue Code provides quick access to the information you need with:


  • Complete history reflecting all substantive and technical amendments back to the Codification of the 1954 Code;


  • Effective Date Cautions and Special Rules Cautions to ensure you have all the precise information at your fingertips;


  • Deep Cite Running heads and Detailed Topical Running heads to  aid your research;


  • Complete Topic Index with more than 20,500 entries to help you get to your answer quickly;


  • Basic course material include a digital copy of Title 26 of the U.S. Code and related materials.


Fee $1195  


Awards 20 CE credits

TAX EVIDENCE

INTERNAL REVENUE CODE REVIEW

TAX COURT RULES

Tax Evidence

  • Professor Michael Stuart offers the following advice: Do not waste your time focusing your attention on the entire FRE. Purchase this book from the American Bar Association and sign-up for our course on Tax Evidence. You must learn which rules among the many found in the FRE are applicable to Tax Court practice and how and when to use them. Tax Evidence is tricky so it must be presented in such a way so that the relationships between these rules are made clear. This is a course of study in which one should proceed cautiously and carefully. If you do not learn how to read a Rule then you could be taken down a rabbit hole of legal reasoning and do poorly on the exam. 


  • This course is taught by law professors and USTCPs and unsuccessful 2023 test-takers who received high scores on the Evidence section of the exam.


  • Basic course material include a free digital copy of the first edition of  A Practitioner's Guide to Tax Evidence.




Fee $995

TAX COURT RULES

TAX COURT RULES

U.S. Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure

  • You must master these Tax Court Rules and commit them to memory. You do not want to waste time looking them up. We will show you how they are logical and straight-forward and often string together. If you master these rules, you will gain a better understanding of Evidence and the Substantive Tax Law that give rise to Tax Court jurisdiction and more. 


  • Basic course materials include digital copy of U.S. Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure.


Fee $995

LEGAL ETHICS

Model Rules of Professional Conduct

  • Even though Legal Ethics is worth just 10% of the overall grade, applicants fail this section because they don't take the time to truly learn the rules and their relationship to each other. What you may assume to be true about what a lawyer (in our case, a United States Tax Court Practitioner) is allowed to do and not do is going to be most likely incorrect. These are very strict rules that came about after Watergate when the country learned that even the nation's top legal officer was in fact not above reproach. Quick tip. You must learn these rules in the order in which they are presented. Do not make the mistake of glossing ovethem individually. In the end, you could flunk the section and the exam. 


  • Basic materials include a digital copy of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct


Fee $995

CASE LAW

Memorandum Decisions of the U.S. Tax Court

  • According to Professors Chapman, Carpenter and Stuart, the Substantive Tax section is purported to be the most problematic of all the exam parts, and it is now even more difficult. It is  by far, the part most EAs and CPAs think they know because it deals mostly with Federal taxes; however, it is the one section they usually fail. One thing for sure, it is comprehensive! It covers all manner of Federal tax procedure, IRC sections, and recent caselaw.


  • And, it  has become much more theoretical, requiring the test-taker to explain his/her understanding of the legal applications of the IRC. It is worth 40% of the overall grade. Our emphasis when preparing applicants for the 2025 bar exam is to teach how to answer test questions using a a three-prong methodology derived from experiences shared by successful and unsuccessful test-takers. 


  • Whereas in the past, we relied heavily on rote review of prior exam questions and model answers, we now integrate our class discussions and teach 3 separate courses - Federal Tax Procedure + IRC Section Review + Case Law. And we utilize recently-FBI-vetted USTCPs  who passed the 2023 bar exam along with unsuccessful test-takers who missed passing by several points. From them we can learn about the challenges they faced and the mistakes they made. They share copies of their failed exams (redacted) retrieved from the Tax Court and walk-through the questions that in hindsight, they realize they answered incorrectly. 


  • We devote time to subject matter that we know applicants should know, such as the legal interpretation and application of the tax regulations as they are defined in the Code. Lastly, we take a deep-dive into precedential caselaw, and recent published opinions. We review the basic tenets of individual, corporate, partnership, gift and estate tax. 


  • We also cover Tax Court jurisdiction, the Statutory Notice of Deficiency, and the Petition for Redetermination. We remind the novice test-taker, in case they haven't heard, that there were numerous one-point questions on the 2023 exam that spoke to these topics. Lastly, we tell test-takers that it would be prudent to visit the U.S. Tax Court website regularly and read no fewer than 3-4 published opinions every week. 


  • Basic course materials include a digital copy of Title 26 of the U.S. Code, published U.S. Tax Court opinions and cases, U.S. Tax Court bar examination questions and suggested answers for Testing Cycles 2021 and 2023, and handouts pertaining to individual, partnership, corporate, gift, trust and estate tax matters, etc. 


Fee $1595

Tax Litigation Clinic | Tax Law Institute Pro Bono

Volunteer

The Tax Law Institute at Washington, DC

1717 N Street NW Washington, DC 20036

(202) 800-9230

Copyright © 2001-2025 Tax Law Institute Inc.- United States Tax Court Practitioners & Tax Litigation Counsel | Legal Educators of Federally-Authorized Tax Professionals - All Rights Reserved. The Tax Law Institute is an IRS Approved Provider of Continuing Education (CE), RS7E4, in Federal Tax Law and Tax Bar and Trial Preparation. TLI is approved to prepare federally-authorized tax professionals, who may claim the federally authorized tax practitioner privilege. Under the law, the term 'federally authorized tax practitioner' (FATP)  means an individual authorized under Federal law to practice before the Internal Revenue Service where the practice is subject to Federal regulation under 31 U.S.C. § 330. The Tax Law Institute has entered into an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service, to meet the requirements of 31 C.F.R., § 10.6(g), covering maintenance of attendance records, retention of program outlines, qualifications of instructors, and length of class hours. This agreement does not constitute an endorsement by the IRS as to the quality of the program or its contribution to the professional competence of the enrolled individual.  Send mail to - Registered Agents Inc. for the Tax Law Institute Inc. - 1717 N Street, N.W., Ste. 1, Washington, D.C. 20036. Telephone +1.202.403.0599. 

Pro Bono Student Practice

Apply to our Tax Bar Preparation and Apprenticeship Program. Learn how to build a winning Federal Tax Litigation Practice. Participate remotely in docketed cases in U.S. Tax Court as a pro bono student rep. Work with attorneys from IRS appeals and chief counsel's office. Go before judges and advocate to protect low-income taxpayer-clients at the free tax clinic we support. Learn by doing. Pass the bar. Get your approval to practice as a USCTP and gain valuable courtroom experience as a student tax litigator. 

Learn more

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

Accept