Arizona State University Master of Taxation and Data Analytics in 2027

At Arizona State University (ASU), the Master of Taxation (MTax) in Taxation and Data Analytics fits 30 credits into one academic year on the Tempe campus, and it teaches tax law and data analytics side by side.

You spend nine months in a full-time, daytime cohort at the W. P. Carey School of Business, taking classes in person with the same group of classmates. The degree is built for people who already know they want tax work. Five of the ten courses are technical tax courses, and the course list reaches into corporate, partnership, international, state and wealth transfer tax.

What sets it apart is the analytics thread. Arizona State says that while some business schools let you add a tax emphasis to an accounting master's, few offer a dedicated taxation master's, and fewer still build in data analytics. Your instructors include research faculty and former Big Four tax partners, so classroom theory comes with practice-side stories.

The W. P. Carey School of Business is accredited by AACSB, and its School of Accountancy has held that accreditation since 1987. For licensure, the MTax is designed to fulfill the coursework needed to sit for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam in Arizona, and a partnership with Becker CPA Review gives you discounted access to exam prep materials.

On the career side, the school reports that the Master of Taxation and Data Analytics Class of 2025 had 100% employed six months after graduation. Hiring firms include Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton, Henry & Horne, KPMG and PwC. Graduates pursue roles in public accounting, corporate tax departments, government agencies, consulting firms and financial technology.

More than 650 organizations recruit through the W. P. Carey Career Services Center, and you join a network of more than 140,000 alumni.

Where this degree can lead: Masters in Taxation Jobs.

Who It Fits

• Accounting graduates who want one focused year: the program runs nine months, starts in August and finishes within a single academic year.
• Future CPA candidates in Arizona: the daytime classes are designed to cover the course requirements for the Arizona CPA exam, and eligible students can prepare for and pass the exam while still enrolled.
• Students who like numbers and software: the curriculum includes statistics and coding for accounting analytics, so you can pair tax knowledge with data skills.
• Undergraduates planning ahead: an accelerated path lets you earn a bachelor's and a master's in as little as five years.
• Career changers without an accounting background: ASU offers prerequisite options, in person or online, that lead into the master's.

The plan of study has a 3-credit required core, 24 elective credits and a 3-credit culminating experience. The core course is Taxation of Corporations and Shareholders (ACC 571), which covers how corporations are formed, run, reorganized and liquidated, and what that means for the people who own them. The culminating experience is International Taxation (ACC 589), a required capstone course.

It covers how the United States taxes people and businesses operating abroad, plus foreign persons, tax treaties, foreign tax credits and transfer pricing, with an eye on planning for cross-border businesses. Between those two you choose electives. Taxation of Pass-Through Entities (ACC 573) takes you through partnerships, from formation to termination.

State and Local Taxation (ACC 587) deals with multistate tax issues and the constitutional limits around them. On the analytics side, Statistics and Coding for Accounting Analytics (ACC 520) and Accounting Analytics Concepts and Tools (ACC 521) teach you to analyze data sets and present the results for financial decisions. You can also add a supervised internship (ACC 584).

The school says you learn through case-based courses and team assignments, in small classes with personalized instruction.

Courses the School Names

• Taxation of Corporations and Shareholders (ACC 571)
• International Taxation (ACC 589)
• Taxation of Pass-Through Entities (ACC 573)
• Tax Research, Professional Responsibilities & Property Transactions (ACC 577)
• State and Local Taxation (ACC 587)
• Family Financial, Tax and Wealth Transfer Planning (ACC 575)
• Accounting Analytics I and II

Standout Features

• Built-in data and analytics emphasis; few schools offer a dedicated tax master's with it
• Taught by research faculty and former Big Four tax partners

You finish in nine months. The MTax is a full-time, lockstep program, so you move through it with your cohort, with classes held during the day. It starts once a year, in August, and the whole 30 credits fit inside one academic year.

If you're still an undergraduate, ASU also offers a combined path that gets you a bachelor's and a master's in as little as five years. If you don't have accounting coursework, you can handle prerequisites first through a Pathway Program of undergraduate classes, offered in person or online, or a one-semester bootcamp that fulfills them.

Arizona State University reports a graduate charge of $1,472 per credit to federal data. The school also publishes an estimate for the full program, tuition and fees together: $34,000 for Arizona residents, $60,250 for nonresidents and $64,000 for international students.

Federal College Scorecard data put median earnings for ASU's taxation master's graduates at $97,343, so you can weigh the one-year price against what graduates go on to earn. Test scores aren't required for admission, and W. P. Carey waives the application fee for U.S. military members and for Teach for America, Peace Corps and AmeriCorps members.

It's an on-campus program. You attend classes in person at the Tempe campus, during the day, with a fixed cohort that takes the same schedule. One student profiled by the school described the cohort as a small, tight-knit group, and the school says class sizes are small, with mentorship opportunities from alumni.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

A commenter on a Reddit forum for ASU in 2026 called the MTax a good program that leads to good jobs, and said it's more tax-focused than the university's general accounting master's. A graduate quoted by the school praised the career coaching and frequent workshops and events.

A student profiled by the school's news site in 2025 said they were grateful to learn from accomplished people from the tax industry. In its 2023 list of schools for a master's highly focused on taxation in Arizona, College Factual placed ASU first.

The school also states that the Public Accounting Report ranks the program highly.

• Which electives will be offered in the year I enroll, and how do I fit the analytics courses around the tax electives?
• How does the lockstep schedule line up with the course requirements for the CPA exam in the state where I plan to be licensed?
• How early can I meet with a career coach, and when do Big Four recruiting events start?
• Which of my prior courses count toward the accounting prerequisites, and would the Pathway Program or bootcamp apply to me?
• Can I add a supervised internship, and how does it fit into a nine-month schedule?

• Best Master's in Taxation Rank 47 of 78, master's
• On-Campus Master's in Taxation Rank 24 of 37, master's
• Public University Programs Rank 23 of 35, master's
• AACSB Accredited Programs Rank 11 of 16, master's
• Taxation and Data Analytics Rank 4 of 8, master's

• New York University

  Taxation (Executive)

  New York $3,638 per credit Score 51.1

• Loyola Marymount University

  Online Master of Laws (Tax LLM)

  California $2,400 per credit Score 51.5

• Wayne State University

  LL.M. in Taxation

  Michigan $1,477.90 per credit Score 51.9

• University of San Francisco

  Master of Legal Studies in Taxation (MLST)

  California $1,905 per credit Score 50.5