Georgetown University LL.M. in Taxation in 2027

Georgetown's Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation puts you across the street from the U.S. Tax Court, in the city where federal tax law is written and enforced, with more than 50 tax classes to build your own plan from. You can take the 24-credit law degree full time or part time, in Washington or through Georgetown's remote route for working lawyers.

Georgetown Law's Graduate Tax Program is built for people who already hold a law degree and want to specialize. The program says it's open to students with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) earned in the United States and to students whose first law degree came from abroad.

Students are free to design their program around their own academic and career objectives, and they get individual academic advising. The faculty is large, with more than 100 professors counting full-time and adjunct teachers, and the adjuncts include officials at the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Justice Department, along with judges of the U.S. Tax Court.

Georgetown says students are taught by people who are creating tax policy and enforcing and interpreting U.S. tax laws. The Tax Court sits across the street from the Law Center, and many of its judges hold this degree.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

To apply, you need a J.D. from an American Bar Association-approved law school or a first law degree from an approved law school abroad. It's a law degree, and Georgetown's optional certificates of specialization in Employee Benefits Law, Estate Planning and International Taxation sit on top of it.

International Taxation takes at least 10 international tax credits. Georgetown says a Tax Court clerkship is one of the most useful credentials a new tax lawyer can acquire, and numerous students have secured one. The Taxation Interview Program has run since 2001 and lets private and public employers interview graduate tax students in one day.

Where this degree can lead: Masters in Taxation Jobs.

Who It Fits

• U.S. lawyers heading to big firms: Georgetown co-hosts the Taxation Interview Program with New York University, and for the past decade at least 90 percent of U.S.-trained graduates have secured employment by graduation.
• Lawyers who want government experience: externships have placed students at the IRS, the Department of Treasury, the U.S. Tax Court, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.
• Foreign-trained lawyers: the degree is open to a first law degree earned abroad, and you can plan your courses so the LL.M. also covers coursework for the New York bar exam.
• Working attorneys who can't relocate: the same classes and the same diploma are available online, part time.

Only one course is required, Federal Income Taxation, an introductory course with an emphasis on how individual taxpayers are taxed. Everything else is your choice, though twenty of your 24 credits must be tax specialization credits. The faculty strongly advise at least one course in each of six areas: corporate, partnership, international, tax accounting, tax procedure and a research paper. The catalog is wide.

In corporate tax you can take Consolidated Returns, which Georgetown recommends if you plan to practice corporate tax law, or Taxation of Mergers and Acquisitions. In international tax there's Transfer Pricing, EU Tax Law and Global Indirect Tax: The VAT, a two-credit course taught entirely by indirect tax professionals from KPMG's Washington office.

Skill courses include Tax Court Advocacy Workshop, which uses individual income tax disputes to teach litigation skills, and Criminal Tax Law and Procedure. Taxation of Digital Assets, a two-credit course, covers the federal income taxation of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized arrangements. For your research paper you can take Tax Research and Writing or write a supervised independent paper.

The optional practice-oriented track adds an externship or fieldwork practicum, and Georgetown lists more than 50 externship opportunities in Washington.

Courses the School Names

• More than 50 graduate-level tax courses
• Corporate, partnership and international tax
• Advanced offerings across specialized areas

Standout Features

• At least 90 percent of U.S.-trained graduates employed by graduation each year since 2014
• Externships at the IRS, Treasury, U.S. Tax Court, Senate Finance Committee, House Ways and Means Committee and Big Four national offices
• Joint J.D./LL.M. in Taxation: J.D. students add 12 credit hours
• More than 100 full-time and adjunct tax faculty, including Treasury, IRS, Justice Department and U.S. Tax Court officials
• Named tax scholarships and fellowships from partial to full tuition (Graduate Tax Scholars, COST, Akin Gump, KPMG, Leonard B. Terr)
• On-campus and online students take the same classes and receive the same LL.M. in Taxation diploma
• Online students may take part in the Taxation Interview Program recruiting event co-hosted with NYU
• Taxation Interview Program co-hosted with NYU since 2001; U.S. Tax Court across the street, many of its judges are Georgetown tax LL.M. graduates

Full-time students normally finish in two semesters, which is one academic year. Part-time students generally take three years, and extensions are possible case by case. The degree is 24 credits for U.S.-trained students and for every online student, while foreign-trained students on campus need 20.

Before you begin, you need a basic federal income tax course or Georgetown's free Foundations of Federal Income Taxation course, which is about 12 hours of video instruction and a final exam. If you're still a J.D. student at Georgetown, the joint J.D./LL.M. in Taxation takes 12 additional credit hours.

With careful planning, a foreign-trained student can complete both the LL.M. and the New York bar coursework in two semesters of 13 credits each.

Georgetown funds tax students through named awards, including Graduate Tax Scholars, the Council On State Taxation Graduate Fellowship in State and Local Taxation, the Akin Gump Robert Rothman Tax Scholarship, the KPMG Tax Scholarship and the Leonard B. Terr Memorial Scholarship. Those awards range from partial to full tuition, so ask the Graduate Tax Program which ones you can apply for.

Three things keep your credit count, and so your bill, in check. Your 24 credits are the whole degree for U.S.-trained and online students, certificate credits count inside those 24 instead of adding to them, and the Foundations of Federal Income Taxation course is free.

You pick how you attend. Georgetown says students may pursue the LL.M. in Taxation on campus or online, full time or part time. Online students take the same classes and receive the same diploma as students who complete the on-campus program.

The online route is designed for employed professionals who want part-time study and can't relocate to Washington. Online students get the same services as students on campus, can attend streamed or recorded Georgetown Law events, and are eligible for the Taxation Interview Program.

A full-time professional development staff works only with graduate tax students, with counseling, resume reviews and mock interviews.

An alumnus on a business-professionals forum in 2024 called the catalog of 50-plus courses robust, and a current student that year praised the technical depth and the few requirements, which let you shape the degree around your goals. A former student said firms treat Georgetown's tax LL.M. as a plus and rated the network and externships.

A recent graduate on a legal careers forum in 2026 said many in the class landed large-firm jobs through the interview program, many in executive compensation. Another commenter that year described a lawyer who earned the top grade in an international tax class and was then hired by the law firm partner who taught it.

A 2025 commenter put Georgetown among the top two tax LL.M. programs, and a 2026 post noted that the part-time online option means you don't need to relocate. U.S. News & World Report lists Georgetown second in its 2026-27 tax law ranking.

• Which of the six suggested areas will you cover first, and which faculty member advises your course plan?
• Does the practice-oriented track with an externship fit your target employer, such as the IRS, Treasury or a firm?
• Would an optional certificate in estate planning, employee benefits or international taxation fit your career, and how many credits does it need?
• If you plan to study online, how will you take part in the Taxation Interview Program and other recruiting events?

• Best Master's in Taxation Rank 12 of 78, master's
• On-Campus Master's in Taxation Rank 8 of 37, master's
• Part-Time Programs Rank 8 of 39, master's
• Best for Working Professionals Rank 8 of 46, master's
• Best for Parents Rank 8 of 46, master's
• Private University Programs Rank 4 of 43, master's
• Internship or Practicum Rank 5 of 24, master's
• International Taxation Rank 2 of 12, master's

• Master of Studies in Law in Taxation

  M.S.L., Master's

  Fully Online Score 57.3

• University of Baltimore

  Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation

  Maryland $1,125 per credit Score 64.1

• Villanova University

  Master of Taxation

  Pennsylvania $1,675 per credit Score 63.6

• Taft University System

  Master of Science in Taxation (MST)

  Colorado $600 per credit Score 62.7

• University of San Diego

  LL.M. in Taxation (Online)

  California $1,200 per credit Score 62.2