YouTube – The Surly Subgroup

By now, you may have seen one or more videos on the Break Into Tax YouTube channel (www.BreakIntoTax.com) that I started earlier this year with Allison Christians (McGill). We’ve created overview videos on tax policy, tax procedure, an array of income tax topics, legal writing, and more. We’ve done “Tax Papers Unlocked” micro-workshops on current tax scholarship. We’ve also released some #WhyTakeTax videos for students featuring a lot of tax profs, plus some tax humor videos. All Break Into Tax videos are intended to be entertaining, and most also are designed to be informative!

After about 30 videos, we wrapped up what we term “season 1.” It’s now time for season 2! We released a new intro video today, which you can find here. As mentioned there, I’ll be running this season. I’ve got some fun videos coming up, including more on income tax, more tax humor, a “crossover episode,” and something for folks interested in academia. Subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications if you don’t want to miss these as they come out!

If you’re a professor, I hope you’ll assign some of the Break Into Tax videos in lieu of a reading, for review, or as an optional resource! If you’re a student, I hope you find the explanations and illustrations helpful. Join us as you break into tax!

By: Leandra Lederman & Allison Christians

We’ve started a new YouTube series we wanted to share with our readers! It’s called “Break Into Tax” (BiT) and can be found at tinyurl.com/BreakIntoTax.

The idea behind BiT is that we’ll discuss and break down tax-related concepts, broadly defined. This includes issues that may be of interest to law students and others newer to tax or to particular issues. The topics we plan to cover include substantive tax law concepts, tax policy concerns, the study of taxation, and the pursuit of tax as a career. We also welcome suggestions for topics in the comments on our videos!

We come at the issues from the perspective of tax law professors in the U.S. and Canada with cross-border interests. The BiT series is not at all designed to be of interest only to people from these two countries. We expect to focus on concepts that are foundational enough or general enough to be of broad interest.

Our introduction video, located here, is a good place to start. It shares more about us and the BiT channel. Our first playlist covers Tax Policy Colloquia: what are they, how to ask a good question in a tax workshop, and tips for students writing reaction papers.

Please join us as we break into tax!