University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Online Master of Business Taxation in 2027

This is a 30-credit Master of Business Taxation (MBT) taught 100% online by the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota, with a built-in pause each spring for people who work through tax season. You can finish in four semesters full time or spread it across a few years while you keep your job.

The Carlson School built this program for working tax professionals, and you can see it in the details. Courses run 8 or 16 weeks. Classes are asynchronous and split into weekly modules, and nothing's scheduled between March 1 and April 15. You start in September or January.

A group of Twin Cities tax professionals from accounting firms, companies and government agencies formed an advisory board in 2012, and the school says the board reviews the curriculum so it meets the needs of the tax community and keeps up with changes in global taxation.

You learn from full-time faculty who bring more than 66 years of combined real-world tax experience and 55 years of combined teaching experience. You apply with a bachelor's degree, and the school asks for no GRE or Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score and sets no minimum grade point average.

You earn a Master of Business Taxation from the Carlson School. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) grants 15 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) for each semester credit earned, and every MBT course fulfills accounting course requirements for the CPA exam.

The school notes that the graduate credits can help candidates meet the 150-hour CPA requirement in Minnesota and most other states. On the employer side, the school reports that 22 of the top 25 public companies in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region and 24 of the top 25 Minnesota CPA firms employ MBT graduates.

Alumni work in the Big Four accounting firms and at firms such as Baker Tilly, Wipfli and Grant Thornton. The school also reports that 18 students and graduates work for the IRS, that 12 alumni have become tax and accounting professors, and that the MBT alumni network passes 1,300 people.

Where this degree can lead: Masters in Taxation Jobs.

Who It Fits

• Working tax professionals: the pause from March 1 to April 15 lets you keep up with busy season at your firm or company and still stay enrolled.
• Accountants heading toward the CPA exam: every MBT course counts toward the accounting course requirements for the exam, and the coursework addresses the Regulation (REG) section.
• Career changers with a bachelor's degree: there's no GRE, GMAT or grade point average cutoff, so your application rests on your degree and your experience.
• Part-time students who want to pick their own order: classes can be taken in any order, so you can fit them around your day job.
• Tax staff who want a lighter first step: a 12-credit graduate certificate in taxation can be applied to the degree later if you decide to continue.

You'll take 30 credits, and eight of them are electives you choose around your own interests. The required core starts with Tax Research, a four-credit course where you research and write several tax memoranda plus a protest letter. Tax Accounting Methods I and II cover when income and expense are recognized, accounting periods, installment sales and inventory.

Corporate Tax covers transfers of property to a controlled corporation, distributions, redemptions and liquidations, and Corporate Tax II moves into acquisitions, reorganizations and the effect of ownership changes on net operating losses. Partnership Tax follows a partnership from formation through dissolution, and Tax Technology & Analytics Fundamentals looks at how firms and businesses are investing in people, process, data and technology.

State & Local Taxation teaches nexus, apportionment and residency, International Tax I covers foreign subsidiaries and the foreign tax credit, and Tax Policy explains the economic and budget reasoning behind the Internal Revenue Code.

Electives include Property Transactions, which covers gains and losses, cost recovery and the passive loss rules, plus Transfer Pricing, Wealth Transfer (Estates & Gifts), Consolidated Tax Returns, Income Taxation of Fiduciaries, S (Small Business) Corporations, Compensation & Benefits, and Negotiation Techniques in Taxation, which covers representing a client's position before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including appeal options.

Two electives cover income tax accounting under Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 740: ASC 740 Computations & Analysis and Advanced ASC 740.

Courses the School Names

• Tax Research, Communication, and Practice
• Tax Technology & Analytics Fundamentals
• Business, Government, and Economic Tax Policy
• Transfer Pricing
• Wealth Transfer (Estates & Gifts)

Standout Features

• A 12-credit taxation graduate certificate can be applied to the degree
• All MBT courses fulfill accounting course requirements for the CPA exam
• Break from classes during tax season (March 1 to April 15) so working tax professionals keep up with their jobs
• Curriculum reviewed by an MBT Advisory Board of Twin Cities tax professionals from accounting firms, companies and government agencies
• NASBA grants 15 hours of continuing professional education for each semester credit earned

The degree is 30 credits. Choose the full-time option and you'll finish in four semesters. The school describes the range as one to three years, and says the degree can be done in as little as nine months or stretched to five years. Part-time students average three years.

Courses run 8 or 16 weeks, and there are two start terms, fall in September and spring in January. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with three priority rounds for each start term. If you'd like to test the material first, a 12-credit taxation graduate certificate can be applied to the degree.

The typical cohort has about 4 to 6 years of professional work experience.

Tuition for 2026-27 is $1,695 per credit, the same for every student whatever their residency. Across 30 credits that's $50,850. The Carlson fee is $323 per term if you take 8 credits or fewer. It's $726 per term for 9 or more.

Books and course materials run about $200 per class. The application fee is $75. The school also offers scholarships for both full-time and part-time students. Employees of corporate partner organizations are automatically eligible for a 15% tuition discount, and degree-seeking students who are U.S. military members or veterans can receive a 15% military discount.

30 credits at $1,695 a credit comes to $50,850 in tuition, before fees.

The program is delivered 100% online. Courses are asynchronous, divided into weekly modules, and designed with online learning experts, so you set your own hours within each week's deadlines. Courses run either 8 or 16 weeks, and the calendar stops from early March until mid-April so working tax professionals can get through filing season.

For support, online students get academic advising, career coaching and virtual technology services, plus access to a University of Minnesota alumni network of more than 445,000 people. Career services include career fairs, resume reviews and mock interviews.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

Outside lists have singled out the program for value. Online Accounting Degree Programs selected the Carlson MBT as first for value among 39 other schools in 2016, as reported on the school's news page. The school also reports that Value Colleges placed it second in its Best Value Online Master's in Taxation Degrees list for 2022.

• Which 8-week and 16-week courses can I pair in my first fall or spring term without overloading during busy season?
• How many credits of the 12-credit graduate certificate would carry over if I start there?
• Does my state board count these courses toward the CPA exam accounting requirements the way Minnesota does?
• Does my employer qualify as a corporate partner for the 15% tuition discount?

• Best Master's in Taxation Rank 38 of 78, master's
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