Thaddeus Hwong [thwong@yorku.

ca]
1
3520 Class of Winter 2013,

The learning objectives of the research project are to encourage you to think about tax
policy issues critically and learn to express ideas in a precise and concise way. Please
note that there are various course policies outlined in this email. I apologize in advance
that they seem cumbersome but they are crafted based on past experiences showing
that they are helpful in keeping students informed. The goal of the course policies is to
make sure a few students who want to game the system will not be able to take
advantage of students who comply with the assignment requirements with hard work.
Please kindly take that into consideration as there is no intent to make the assignment
onerous and there is no intent to make it sound harsh. Sincere thanks for your
understanding and cooperation. Much appreciated.

A. Structural Requirements
You are a research analyst of a think tank, and your career is on the line. Your research
director is giving you one last assignment before deciding whether to fire you. Unlike
research notes you have done in the past, your research director wants you to show
that you can conduct thorough research and explain your research in an
understandable and interesting way. Your research director wants you to write a 500-
word research note making three different arguments for 100% inclusion of capital
gains in income taxation with young people as your readers. In your note, you will
need to present what the arguments are by taking on the arguments for preferential
treatment of capital gains and why citizens should support full inclusion of capital
gains in light of tax justice. Obviously, if you write in a way that only accountants or
accounting students can understand you will be fired. To keep your job, you will write
in a way that even high-school students can find your research note interesting and
compelling.

The research project can be the most rewarding part of your learning experience in
the course. You will have a chance to take a very complicated subject and distill it to
its essence to communicate your understanding of its importance for a civil society.
You need to demonstrate that you understand the relevant issues in tax law and
policy and the source materials you work with. Therefore, you cannot simply string
together direct quotes or materials from sources. You need to process the ideas
and express the ideas in your own way.

Writing a 500-word note is a lot harder than writing a 5,000-word paper. You would
need to spend a lot of time deciding what ideas to include and how to include them.
Please write the 500 words or less in APA style. The 500 words exclude reference
citations in text and reference list at the end. Please note that the 500-word limit is
the ceiling so please do not exceed the upper limit and please do not ask whether
you can exceed the limit. You will only need to use APA-styled reference citations in
text and reference list at the end for this assignment. For APA style, see
http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/apa.

Thaddeus Hwong [thwong@yorku.ca]
2

Please treat this as a take-home exam of your capabilities in critical thinking,
information literacy and effective communication. As this is deemed as a take-home
exam, please work on it individually and please do not ask for comments on drafts
from your professors.

Please write in paragraphs. The first sentence of each paragraph is the topic
sentence that presents what you want to say in that paragraph. The rest of the
paragraph contains evidence from your research to explain and support what you
want to say. If you need a review of academic writing,
see http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/resources.html.

You are asked to make three different arguments. Please number your arguments.
Your submission will receive a failing grade if it fails to demonstrate that It contains
three different arguments.

B. Source Requirement

The research for this assignment will be a challenge for you. Please think of yourself
as an investigator and a reader, what do you want to know? To start with, you will
need to find out what the arguments for and against preferential treatment of
capital gains, right? That will be your first test. You all know how to Google, but
searching using Google and York e-Resources at York University Libraries in a
thoughtful manner is the key here.

As the word limit is 500 words, please use the most informative and reliable sources
you can find. Ideas, rather than geography, are important here so country of origin
of the source is not the issue here. You are required to use at least three relevant
and informative sources one of which must be a peer-reviewed scholarly journal
article from York e-Resources but you can use as many sources as you like. You
might ask: what is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal article? What is York e-
Resources? As you are in third year, you are expected to have learnt these. If you
havent you can search for relevant information, for example, from the York
Libraries web site.

The quality of the sources you use will help determine your grade. If you do not
meet the requirement of citing at least three relevant and informative sources, you
will receive a failing grade. If you do not cite at least one peer-reviewed scholarly
journal article, you will receive a failing grade. If you do not use in-text citations, you
will receive a failing grade. If you use content from others without proper citation,
you will be charged with plagiarism. If you are not sure what plagiarism is, please
take a look at http://www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity/students/index.htm. Please
do not cite textbooks.



Thaddeus Hwong [thwong@yorku.ca]
3

C. Submission Requirements

Deadline
The deadline is 11:59 pm April 8.
Just imagine: this is your first job after graduation, your client needs a document to
close a billion-dollar transaction and has told your boss that even an one-minute
late submission will derail the deal, but somehow you submit the document one-
minute late; what do you think will happen to your budding career? Therefore, no
extension will be given, and no late submission will be graded (i.e. you will get a 0
and this is a firm policy to be fair to all). No shifting of weighting or rescheduling is
allowed. I will use the time stamp on my computer rather than the time you send
your research project as the standard.
If you make your submission a few minutes before the deadline, you will run the risk
of being late as it takes time for the email to get from you to where it should go. As
there is no need to increase your stress level, please submit a few days earlier to
avoid computer-related glitches. Sending your assignment to the wrong email
address as specified below is not an excuse for late submission. Claiming that you
think you have sent the assignment but the assignment is not sent or it is lost in
cyberspace is not an excuse for late submission as you are asked to try to submit a
week earlier than the actual deadline to avoid any risk of computing malfunction.
Claiming that you get sick or your family members get sick right before the deadline
is not a reasonable ground for accommodation as you have plenty of time to tackle
the research project.
As Body of Text in Email
Please cut and paste your write-up as the text in the body of an email (note: thats
why you are asked to use APA style). Please do not send any attachment with your
email. If you submit an attachment, you will lose 5 percentage points of your
research project marks out of 20. For example, you earn 15 of 20 for your research
project, but you submit your research project as an attachment, your marks will be
10.
Email Subject Line
If your 3520 section is X, your last name is Genius, your first name is Tax and
your student ID is 999999999, your email subject heading should be:
3520-X-Genius-Tax-999999999
Please note those are hyphens between the words in the subject heading.


Thaddeus Hwong [thwong@yorku.ca]
4
Some students in the past really copied Tax Genius and used it as their names. That
shows nothing but mindless sloppy work. If you submit your research project email
without the proper email subject line, you will lose 5 percentage points of your
research project marks out of 20. For example, you earn 15 of 20 for your research
project, but you submit your research project as an attachment, and you use an
email subject line in a format different from whats required, your marks will be 5.
Submission Email Address
Please email your write-up to taxlaw@yorku.ca. You will receive an auto-response
email, which might show up in your spam folder. Please check your spam folder
before asking why there is no auto-response. Please email your assignment only
once. Your second submission will not receive an auto-response.
If you submit your research project email to any address other than
taxlaw@yorku.ca, you will lose 5 percentage points of your research project marks
out of 20. For example, you earn 15 of 20 for your research project, but you submit
your research project as an attachment, you use an email subject line in a format
different from whats required, and you email your submission to taxlaw@yorku,ca
(with a comma instead of a period so your delivery will fail), your marks will be 0.
D. General Grading Principles
Do What You Are Expected to Do
Just imagine your boss asks you to write a memo on your clients business activities
in the U.S. but you think your clients entertainment pursuits are more exciting so
you decide to write that memo instead, what you do think will happen to your
career?

If you do not answer the required research question directly, you will receive 0
marks. If you dont meet all the requirements according to instructions in this
document, you will receive a failing grade.

Demonstrate You Have Learnt What You Are Asked to Learn

If you simply cobble some words together as your submission without
demonstrating that you understand the materials you cite, you have done what you
are asked to do or if you do not write at a competent level expected for a third-year
university student, you will receive a failing grade.

If you fulfill all requirements of the assignment in this email including timely
submission and you do not make any mistakes in providing incorrect information in
citations and tax law and policy ideas, you will likely receive a minimum of 65 of 100.


Thaddeus Hwong [thwong@yorku.ca]
5
Other grading principles include whether you use the appropriate sources in
developing your arguments effectively and whether you present your arguments in
clear, organized and convincing ways.

Please read the instructions in this document very carefully. Only questions asking for
answers that are not included in course content including the instructions above will be
answered. Supplementary information may or may not be emailed to you on the
research project. Newer versions of this instructional email may or may not be sent to
you so you will need to check your yorku.ca email account daily as stated clearly in the
course outline. If you still have unanswered questions after working very hard to try to
find answers for them, please email Professor Thaddeus Hwong at thwong@yorku.ca.

Your hard work is very much appreciated. You are expected to earn what you get and
get what you earn. Please do not negotiate for marks that you havent earned as it will
be unfair to your classmates.

Many thanks for your attention. Enjoy thinking critically about tax law and policy.