Advice from the Successful Test-Takers & A TAX BAR APPLICANT
Tax Litigation Counsel Jeffrey Thompson Shares His Thoughts
The Tax Court Bar Exam is incredibly difficult, and many people underestimate it.
Many people taking this exam have already passed difficult exams, including the SEE (Special Enrollment Exam for EAs) and the CPA exam.
The various sections of those exams have average pass rates of 50-70% (comparable to the average pass rate of State Bar exams); however, the Tax Court Exam has an average pass rate closer to 10%.
Passing this exam requires a knowledge of taxation (often in areas that you don’t specialize in), understanding legal concepts (from ABA ethics and the rules of evidence to Tax Court practice and procedure), good time management and test-taking skills, and a little bit of luck.
Remember that this test is offered only once every two years. Passing grades do not carry over, so even if you passed 3 out of 4 sessions in one year, you’d have to pass all four in the next administration to be admitted into the bar. Even for seasoned professionals, this test can be incredibly overwhelming.
But despite the difficulty, people can pass the exam. So remember: with proper preparation, it's possible. Here are some tips that will guide your study:
1. Review previous exams. The Tax Court website posts the past three years of exams on their website. Familiarize yourself with how the questions are asked, so you can be prepared to answer them.
2. Understand that this is a timed exam. Questions have uneven point allocation, so you must always be aware of how much time you’re taking to answer questions. Time is not your friend on this exam, and spending too much time on a low-point question is a guaranteed way to fail.
3. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare. This is not an exam that you can cram for and even long-time tax professionals struggle with the substantive tax portions of the exam. You need time to absorb the material and adjust your study plan.
4. Be disciplined in the months leading up to the exam. Some sacrifice is necessary to pass this exam and so it’s important to ensure that distractions (professional and personal) are minimized and/or planned for.
5. Get involved in the Tax Court. By starting early, you can plan to attend calendar calls (either in person or virtually) and read court opinions. These activities will help reinforce your learning and understanding.
6. Be patient with yourself. This is likely the most difficult exam that you will ever prepare for in your life and you’ll be tackling new topics constantly as part of your review process. It’s an incredibly frustrating process but make note of the progress you’re making along the way to remind yourself that you are improving.
7. Get support. Few people can say that they passed this test without any assistance. Good guidance will help you know what to study and ensure you don’t waste time on areas that are unlikely to be tested.
Prepared by Jeffrey Thompson, USTCP, E.A., MBA, M.A., Pro Bono Tax Litigation Counsel of the Tax Litigation Clinic at the Tax Law Institute and Acting Clinic Director of the Hawai'i Federal Tax Clinic on O'ahu.
Reprinted with the permission of Jeffrey Thompson, USTCP, E.A., MBA, M.A.
Jeff Thompson passed the Tax Bar Exam on his first attempt in 2023. Here is his advice for you.
"You cannot ignore the sheet music and begin to play by your own tune ..."
- To follow is an internal memorandum prepared by Professor James Chapman and circulated among the Teaching Faculty at the Tax Law Institute. It is reprinted here and modified for tax bar applicants who will sit for the 2027 Tax Bar Exam. Hopefully, this writing will help some refocus their thinking about how they are preparing for the test. Especially, how one prepares for the most problematic sections of the test that deal with Substantive Tax Law. Professor Louis B. Carpenter III, who passed the exam in 2016, asked that we again offer the substance of Professor Chapman's original writing as insight for the hopeful.
The ABCs of Writing Good Answers
- A suggested approach to answer questions about Substantive Tax Law on the 2027 Tax Bar Examination is to keep in mind that you are preparing to take an actual bar exam.
- To follow are Professor Chapman's words:
"Over the years, Professor Stuart and I have come to the conclusion that as the applicants prepare for the Tax Bar Examination, they have one key misunderstanding of the purpose of the exam. It seems that they approach the examination as though three of the four parts are oriented towards the legal profession, but that the fourth part, the taxation portion, is oriented towards tax preparation. I have been unsuccessful in the past in communicating to them that the Tax Bar Examination, all four parts, is oriented toward the legal profession. Everyone who has come through the program has been an enrolled agent, a CPA, or both. Because they come to the program with an extensive background in tax preparation, and possibly audit representation, they think they understand what it takes to pass the examination and therefore focus all their effort on the other three parts. I hope the 2026-2027 Tax Bar Prep will help them understand that they need to answer the tax portion of the exam from a legal perspective, not simply a tax-preparation perspective.
Each examination cycle, 1 to 3 questions come directly from opinions issued by the Tax Court. In 2021, 2023, and 2025, exactly such questions appeared. If the student has not read the cases the questions draw on, they will be totally unprepared to answer them. Since the timeframe between examinations is two years, questions are typically drawn from Tax Court opinions issued between July 1 of the year prior to the exam year and 30 September of the exam year. For the upcoming examination cycle, this would be July 1, 2025, through September 30, 2027. Of the opinions, test applicants should be most concerned with “first impression” cases. Between now and the end of September 2027, there may be quite a few.
Be sure to read those published opinions...there are going to be a few questions on the examination about them...otherwise you're going to miss some points. It is my personal opinion that there are several reasons why the applicant should be encouraged to read, study, and understand Tax Court Opinions, aside from the fact that one or more test questions will be drawn from this material. As the only legal training that the majority of the applicants have comes from the lectures and material presented to them by TLI, the more they are exposed to the legal reasoning of the Tax Court judges, the greater the probability that their thinking and reasoning process will be influenced by what they are reading, studying, and attempting to master. For this reason, I also believe encouraging applicants to read the Memorandum opinions is beneficial; however, some disagree with me. Encouraging applicants to read and understand the legal reasoning behind the decisions should help shape their reasoning and thinking process as they transition from thinking like a tax preparer to thinking like a tax litigator (aka USTCP).
Finally, make sure you do understand the legal implications of the IRC code sections because the Substantive Tax Law questions of the 2027 Tax Bar Examination are going to be mostly about the tax laws and will test your ability to explain them succinctly.
The person grading the tax portion of the examination doesn’t want the applicant to prove that they know how to prepare taxes, but rather they are looking for the applicant to tell them that they understand the legal ramifications of a position taken on the tax return, and how they are prepared to defend that position from a legal and regulatory standpoint.
I intend to help the student understand the physical demands of the examination. Answering questions electronically for four hours presents a physical challenge that many people are not up to because remote programs don't always work as intended. The 2023 test-takers found themselves not only challenged but frustrated by quirky computer programming that, in many respects, just didn't work. However, I understand that the 2025 test-takers did not experience the same sort of problems."
Prepared by James H. Chapman, E.A, MPA, M.A, Associate Professor of Federal Tax Practice and Research at the Tax Law Institute and Chair of the Board of Directors at the Hawaii Federal Tax Clinic
Reprinted courtesy of James H. Chapman, E.A., MPA M.A., Associate Professor of Federal Tax Practice and Research at the Tax Law Institute and Chair o.f the Board of Directors at the Hawaii Federal Tax Clinic
Lorry Sorgman took the Tax Bar Examination five times before she passed and was admitted to practice
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