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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Federal Taxation I: Individuals, Employees, and Sole Proprietors

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera

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Overview

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This redesigned course is the first course in a four-course U.S. Federal Tax Specialization and reflects legislation from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in 2025. It covers and focuses on the U.S. federal tax system as it relates to individuals, employees, and sole proprietors. Key concepts covered include gross income and items that are statutorily included or excluded in it, personal and business expenses that qualify as tax deductions, and the differing tax treatments for employees versus self-employed taxpayers. Unlike many other introductory courses in tax and as part of this course’s comprehensive wrap-up, learners will be provided with practical and tangible experience reporting both income and expenses on the main individual tax return used in the US Form 1040.

Syllabus

  • Course Orientation and Module 1: An Introduction to Taxation
    • This module introduces the course and U.S. taxes, including the federal income tax structure from income to tax liability. It also reviews the constitutional basis, historical development, and primary sources of U.S. tax law.
  • Module 2: Computing the Tax
    • This module focuses on gross income and Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) within the U.S. federal income tax system. It explains how deductions affect AGI and concludes with dependency rules, tax calculation, and filing requirements.
  • Module 3: Gross Income
    • This module examines gross income with a focus on statutory inclusions. It explains how specific rules determine whether certain receipts, such as unemployment compensation or Social Security benefits, are included in income and when they must be reported.
  • Module 4: Exclusions
    • This module focuses on statutory exclusions from gross income under IRC §61. It explains key reasons for exclusions, including non-profit transfers, economic restoration, and social policy goals.
  • Module 5: Deductions and Losses: In General
    • This module introduces tax deductions and explains how for-AGI deductions reduce income to calculate Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). It covers income-related and selected personal for-AGI deductions, such as business expenses and retirement contributions, and concludes with the tax treatment of hobbies.
  • Module 6: Business Deductions
    • This module examines fact-specific rules governing expense deductibility, including differences between employees and self-employed taxpayers. It also highlights key limits and business deductions, such as nondeductible expenses, net operating losses, and the qualified business income deduction.
  • Module 7: Itemized Deductions and Retirement Plans
    • This module covers from-AGI deductions, including itemized deductions and other personal deductions subject to AGI limits. It concludes with income deferral and exclusion concepts, especially those related to retirement savings and earnings.
  • Module 8: Comprehensive Example
    • In this module, you will review the Comprehensive Example video and apply those concepts to a tax return problem.

Taught by

Petro Lisowsky, PhD, CPA

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Reviews

4.7 rating, based on 3 Class Central reviews

4.8 rating at Coursera based on 715 ratings

Start your review of Federal Taxation I: Individuals, Employees, and Sole Proprietors

  • Anonymous
    (Course audit.) This explains the legal structure enabling taxation to become law and how it is "generally" applied to all persons. This is not a course explaining the next tax code's inclusions and exclusions pertaining to filing one's federal tax return. Some good information, but could have gone into more detail with how the judicial system functions for taxpayers given their choice of three legal avenues to complain/appeal a tax debt.
  • Profile image for Sonal P Patel
    Sonal P Patel @sonal
    52
    This class is an excellent resource for individual taxpayers in the USA. It provides a comprehensive overview of the tax code and helps taxpayers understand how to prepare their tax returns. While many of us are accustomed to using tax software, thi…
  • MOBIN AKHTAR
    1
    Nice , the course content is so good. Covered all the areas and the material
    Most important thing is it's free you don't have to pay anything
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