Indiana University-Indianapolis Master of Science in Taxation in 2027

A 30-credit Master of Science in Taxation taught in Indianapolis by the Kelley graduate accounting faculty, with a core built around federal income tax, research and the entity rules, and evening classes that fit a working schedule.

The Master of Science in Taxation (MST) at Indiana University-Indianapolis sits inside the Kelley School of Business graduate accounting family. The bulletin describes it as a 30 credit hour degree with two jobs: it prepares you for entry-level tax positions in public and private accounting, and it gives practicing tax professionals a way to deepen specialized knowledge.

The training is aimed at the technical skills needed to give tax and business advice in the private sector and to administer tax law in the public sector. You attend in person in Indianapolis, on a campus that enrolls 22,534 students, and the Kelley faculty mixes researchers with people who work full time in industry and bring practical lessons into the room.

Indiana University-Indianapolis reports a graduate charge of $1,155 per credit to federal data, and that's the figure to build your 30-credit budget on. Aid is available in the graduate accounting family too: the John L. Carey Scholarship, funded by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Foundation, offers a $5,000 award to liberal arts and other non-business degree holders pursuing graduate accounting study.

Because classes meet in the evening, you can keep a full-time salary while you study.

Who It Fits

• Career changers with a non-accounting degree: the bulletin states that an undergraduate major in accounting isn't a requirement, as long as you've taken Principles of Financial Accounting or its equivalent within the last five years.
• Attorneys: applicants may enter with a law degree, so a lawyer who wants tax depth can apply without retaking an undergraduate business degree.
• Working professionals in the Indianapolis area: Kelley points to its central location and evening classes as the reason you can hold a full-time job while studying.
• Practicing tax staff who want specialized knowledge: the program was written partly for tax professionals who want to sharpen what they already do.
• Early-career accountants who want entry-level tax work: the stated first goal of the degree is preparing graduates for starting roles in tax at accounting firms and companies.

The degree splits into 19.5 credit hours of MST core classes and 10.5 credit hours of electives. Federal Income Taxes (3 credits) covers income taxation and tax planning for individual taxpayers and introduces you to U.S. federal income tax law. Tax Research (1.5 credits), taken alongside it, shows you how to reach the Internal Revenue Code, regulations, administrative pronouncements and court decisions, then how to read and interpret them.

Advanced Tax: Entity Issues (3 credits) introduces the taxation of regular corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies (LLCs) and S corporations. The rest of the 19.5-hour core is Corporate Taxation II, State and Local Taxation, Taxation of Partnerships and LLCs, and Taxation of S Corporations, at 3 credits each, so you cover both the entity forms clients choose and the multistate questions that follow them.

If you've already taken an equivalent undergraduate course, you replace it with another class instead of repeating it. For the 10.5 elective hours, Kelley's graduate tax menu includes International Taxation and two courses on tax-exempt organizations, which cover how a nonprofit is formed and governed, unrelated business income tax and charitable contributions.

Courses the School Names

• Federal Income Taxes
• Tax Research
• Advanced Taxation - Entity Issues
• State & Local Taxation
• Taxation of Partnerships & LLCs
• Taxation of S Corporations

The program totals 30 credit hours: 19.5 in the core and 10.5 in electives. You can apply after finishing a bachelor's degree, during your senior year of college, or after completing a law degree, so the clock can start before you graduate. Evening classes let you spread those hours around a full-time job, and the downtown campus puts year-round internships with local companies within reach while you study.

Kelley also runs a 12-credit Graduate Certificate in Taxation that doesn't require an accounting undergraduate degree, and its hours transfer to the school's Master of Science in Accounting, which gives you a shorter graduate tax option inside the same department.

It's an in-person program in Indianapolis. Classes run in the evening, and the school describes its central location as part of why working full time while earning the degree is realistic. Being on site also puts you where recruiters go: Kelley says corporate and accounting firm recruiters visit campus to meet its students, so meeting employers becomes part of normal student life.

The graduate accounting programs at Kelley Indianapolis state that 100% of graduates receive job offers within three months of graduation. The school lists long-standing relationships with EY, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, Lilly and Cummins.

If you already hold a license, coursework counts toward continuing professional education (CPE): one 3-credit course equals 45 CPE hours for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), and the Graduate Certificate in Taxation provides 180 CPE hours for licensed tax professionals.

Where this degree can lead: Masters in Taxation Jobs.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

Kelley's own careers page says 100% of its graduate accounting students receive job offers within three months of graduation. Graduate students reviewing the Kelley School on Niche in 2020 were positive about the support.

A master's student wrote that the school is incredibly organized and that professors explain the challenges students may face with the curriculum and then provide outlets and resources, and an MBA student said the school truly helps its students in any way possible.

• Which of the electives will run in the terms I can attend, and can I fit International Taxation or the tax-exempt organization courses into my plan?
• Can my current job count for academic credit, the way Learning in a Professional Environment works for Kelley's accounting master's?
• If I start with the Graduate Certificate in Taxation, could any of its 12 hours also count toward the taxation degree?
• Which firms and companies are visiting campus this year, and how do I get on their lists?
• Does the Carey Scholarship stack with other aid for someone who holds a non-business undergraduate degree?

• Best Master's in Taxation Rank 65 of 78, master's
• On-Campus Master's in Taxation Rank 29 of 37, master's
• Public University Programs Rank 31 of 35, master's
• Master of Science in Taxation Rank 16 of 21, master's

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• Boston University

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• Loyola Marymount University

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