Villanova University Master of Taxation in 2027

Villanova's Master of Taxation puts accountants and business professionals in the same live classes as lawyers, one eight-week course at a time, over two years of part-time study that you can complete entirely online. Specialty certificates in estate planning, employee benefits, state and local tax or international tax let you go deep in one area along the way.

Villanova's Charles Widger School of Law runs the Graduate Tax Program, and the Master of Taxation (MT) is its degree for people with a bachelor's. The program was founded in 1980 for part-time adult learners who work, and every course is still designed with them in mind.

You'll study in integrated classes with business professionals, accountants and attorneys, so you hear how both sides of a tax matter think about it. The school says more than 45 faculty teach across the Graduate Tax Program, including full-time tax scholars and practitioners from Big Four accounting firms, law firms and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Villanova is a private Catholic university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, and you can complete the whole MT online.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

The MT draws on the school's long record in tax education, running since 1980, and on the practitioners in its classrooms. Among the advisory board members are a Deloitte Tax managing partner, a KPMG partner and the chief tax officer of CBRE Group.

Specialty certificates in Employee Benefits, State and Local Taxation, Estate Planning and International Taxation add focused credentials, and certificate students who practice in Pennsylvania can earn continuing education credit as attorneys and accountants. School-quoted MT graduates from 2022 work as a Tax Manager at Deloitte and a Tax Senior at CLA.

College Factual says Villanova master's recipients in taxation earn 9,216 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

Where this degree can lead: Masters in Taxation Jobs.

Who It Fits

• Working accountants: the school designed every course for part-time adult learners, and the eight-week format lets you focus on one course at a time.
• Tax pros who already have experience: admissions look for a bachelor's degree, and the school prefers five to seven years of tax work for applicants from accounting and finance, along with licensure such as the Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
• Specialists in one corner of tax: you can build an estate planning, employee benefits, state and local tax or international tax certificate on the way to the degree.
• Public interest employees: the Caritas Scholarship takes 50% off tuition for students working in public interest roles.
• People who want to learn beside lawyers: classes mix accountants, business professionals and attorneys, and a graduate on Reddit in 2023 said that mix was a plus.

You'll take six required three-credit courses and six two-credit electives. The core starts with Survey of Tax, which introduces policy, individual, employment, corporate, estate and gift, state and local, employee benefits and international tax so you see the whole field before you narrow down. Tax I and Tax II build the individual income tax system, from gross income and basis to timing and depreciation.

Taxation of Corporations and Shareholders handles formations and distributions, Partnership Taxation covers how partnerships and partners are taxed, and Professional Practice and Tax Procedure gives you a working grasp of procedure. There's also a zero-credit seminar, Tax Research and Legal Reasoning, in your first semester. Electives let you choose from more than 25 options.

You might pick Tax Litigation Training, a simulation of a United States Tax Court trial patterned on training for new Office of Chief Counsel lawyers, or Accounting for Income Taxes under Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 740. Others include Transfer Pricing, Executive Compensation and Charitable Gift Planning, and you can mix them or follow one specialty to a certificate.

Courses the School Names

• Tax Litigation Training (LTX 3124)
• Accounting for Income Taxes/ASC 740 (LTX 2150)
• Transfer Pricing (LTX 4051)
• Executive Compensation (LTX 4045)
• Charitable Gift Planning (LTX 4021)

Standout Features

• More than 45 faculty including practitioners from Big Four firms, law firms and the IRS
• Specialty certificates available alongside or apart from the degree

The degree takes two years, studying part time. Courses follow an eight-week format, so you'll take one course at a time, and the school says that rhythm still gets you to the finish line in two years. Villanova has three starts a year, and the application deadlines are April 1 for summer, July 31 for fall and November 30 for spring.

If you only want a specialty, the school says you can finish as a certificate student in one academic year, and in most instances you can move into the full degree without submitting another application. That gives you a way to try the program before you commit to all 30 credits.

Villanova charges $1,675 per credit hour for tuition in the 2025-2026 academic year, plus a $157 General Fee each semester. At 30 credits, tuition comes to $50,250. The school offers several ways to lower that. New students can apply for scholarships of up to $10,000, subject to funding, and select students receive $100 off each credit hour.

Students in public interest roles receive 50% off tuition through the Caritas Scholarship. The 24-credit Master of Laws (LLM) in Taxation for lawyers costs less in total, if you hold a Juris Doctor (JD) and want that route instead.

30 credits at $1,675 a credit comes to $50,250 in tuition, before fees.

You can take the MT fully online. Within each course you'll work through asynchronous peer discussions, polling and quizzes, and then faculty lead you and a small group of peers through a live, in-depth analysis of the weekly topic. Those online classes are synchronous and live each week, and every live discussion is recorded and available afterward, which helps when work or family collides with class night.

Online and on-campus students are both assigned a staff adviser, and the school describes integrated online and on-campus courses that let you float between modalities. Networking events, panels, symposia and webinar panels on specialized topics give you ways to meet other students, and Big Four partners and government officials visit as guest speakers.

A graduate who posted on Reddit in 2023 said they did 100% online with Villanova, liked working alongside a lot of legal professionals, and called it law heavy but said they learned a ton.

A Big Four tax professional in Philadelphia, posting on Reddit in 2016, said most of the CPAs in their tax practice earned their master's at Villanova, and that the online option is still well respected because colleagues were taking that route.

A prospective student on Reddit in 2024 said Villanova is where people in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey area go, and noted the online option for those who can't come to campus.

On the school's site, a 2022 graduate now at Deloitte praises the professors and says the interactive courses pushed her career forward, and another 2022 graduate who studied online says faculty were accommodating outside of class and took time to explain concepts from the virtual sessions.

• Which start date lines up best with my work calendar, and how do the April 1, July 31 and November 30 deadlines apply to me?
• Which electives fit the certificate I'm considering, and can I start with the certificate and move to the full degree?
• How do I apply for the scholarship of up to $10,000 or the $100 per credit hour award?
• How do the recorded live sessions work if I miss class night?
• Which Big Four, law firm or government speakers are scheduled this year?

A private Catholic university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Its Charles Widger School of Law runs the Graduate Tax Program.

• Best Master's in Taxation Rank 14 of 78, master's
• Online Master's in Taxation Rank 5 of 41, master's
• Best 100% Online Programs Rank 4 of 40, master's
• Accelerated Programs Rank 26 of 33, master's
• Part-Time Programs Rank 9 of 39, master's
• Best for Working Professionals Rank 9 of 46, master's
• Best for Parents Rank 9 of 46, master's
• Private University Programs Rank 5 of 43, master's
• Master of Taxation Rank 3 of 8, master's
• International Taxation Rank 3 of 12, master's

• Master of Laws in Taxation

  LL.M., Master's

  Fully Online $1,675 per credit Score 69.2

• University of Baltimore

  Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation

  Maryland $1,125 per credit Score 64.1

• Georgetown University

  Taxation

  District of Columbia Score 64.2

• 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