Wayne State University LL.M. in Taxation in 2027

Wayne State University Law School's Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation in Detroit has day and evening classes, full-time and part-time paths, and in-state tuition of $1,347.17 per credit hour.

The Taxation major is one of four specializations in the Wayne Law LL.M., alongside corporate and finance law, labor and employment law, and U.S. law. You study in Detroit with internationally respected faculty and expert practitioners, and the school says it consistently has the lowest tuition in the state. Applicants hold a Juris Doctor (J.D.)

from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) or an equivalent degree from another country, and no standardized test is required. Tax has deep roots at the law school, which holds the Alan S. Schenk Chair in Taxation. Once you're in, you meet one-on-one with LL.M. program leadership throughout each semester to talk through career goals and course schedules.

The school names a range of paths for tax graduates: governmental tax policy and revenue collection agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state treasury departments, local, state and federal legislative staffs dealing with budget and tax issues, in-house tax counsel, law firms handling transactional and financial planning, sole practice in tax and estate planning, and consulting on tax-exempt organizations.

Wayne Law says its students and graduates are in high demand and heavily recruited by law firms, business and industry, the judiciary, governmental agencies and public interest organizations. Wayne Law's alumni network counts more than 12,000 people in every major U.S. market and in 20 countries.

Where this degree can lead: Masters in Taxation Jobs.

Who It Fits

• Lawyers who want a tax foundation: the major requires competency in federal income taxation for individual taxpayers, corporations and partnerships, and then lets you pick subfields.
• Working lawyers: day and evening courses, plus part-time enrollment of two or more years, let you keep your job while you study.
• Lawyers who want time for research: full-time study runs 15 to 18 months, often with summer work on the master's thesis, which must be an original work of research with a clear thesis.
• Students who like writing: every taxation student completes a master's thesis with a faculty adviser as the capstone.
• Applicants watching the budget: Wayne Law says it consistently has the lowest tuition in the state, and you're automatically considered for an LL.M.-specific scholarship if you finish your application by June 15.

The Taxation major starts with a basic course, Taxation, which introduces the law of federal income taxation and the taxation of individual taxpayers. Taxation of Partnerships is required and focuses on the governing statutes and regulations and the mechanics of partnership tax accounting. You'll then choose at least one corporate tax course: Taxation of Corporations, Taxation of Corporations: Mergers and Restructurings, or Business Planning.

The restructuring course, which the course bulletin titles Acquisitions and Restructuring, runs like a simulated firm tax group, with an actor playing the client, and each student works on at least two team projects with written and oral presentations. Business Planning covers choice of entity, and the organization, financing and operation of a corporation.

After those, you'll take at least 18 credits of approved electives, and no more than 6 of them can be approval-required. The elective list includes International Aspects of U.S. Taxation, which covers non-resident aliens, the foreign tax credit and tax treaties, plus State and Local Taxation, Tax-Exempt Organizations, Estate, Gift and Inheritance Taxation and a Consumption Based Tax course on sales and value added taxes.

Business school courses such as Taxes and Business Strategy can count too.

Courses the School Names

• Taxation of Partnerships
• Taxation of Corporations
• Taxation of Corporations: Mergers and Restructurings
• Business Planning
• Business Planning: A Transactional Approach

Standout Features

• Alan S. Schenk Chair in Taxation at Wayne Law
• Automatic consideration for an LL.M.-specific scholarship when applying by the priority deadline
• Day and evening courses, full-time or part-time
• National Jurist and preLaw magazine Best Value Law School recognition for the past 7 years (school statement)
• Network of 12,000+ alumni in every major U.S. market and in 20 countries
• One-on-one meetings with LL.M. program leadership each semester
• Student Tax Law Society sponsors tax events
• Wayne Law consistently has the lowest tuition in the state

If you study full time, you'll take 15 to 18 months. Part-time students take two or more years, with six years as the maximum. You'll need at least 24 credit hours of coursework, and the master's thesis adds at least 2 more credits on top of that.

You can write it on its own with your adviser or pair it with a seminar that requires a substantial paper. The school admits students in fall and winter, and it recommends beginning in the fall. Courses are offered during three terms, with the broadest offerings in the fall and winter semesters.

The fall priority deadline is June 15 and the final deadline is August 1. For winter, the priority deadline is October 15 and the final deadline is December 1. If you've already started an LL.M. at another ABA-accredited law school, special transfer provisions let you bring up to 12 credit hours.

Most students write the thesis in their last semester.

For 2026-27, resident tuition is $1,347.17 per credit hour. Non-resident tuition is $1,477.90 per credit hour. The registration fee is $402.91 per semester. The student service fee is $69.63 per credit hour. Wayne Law says it consistently has the lowest tuition in the state.

You're automatically considered for an LL.M.-specific scholarship when you apply by June 15. You'll want to plan for at least 26 credits in all, the 24 credits of coursework plus the 2-credit thesis, when you multiply out the per-credit rate.

24 credits at $1,477.90 a credit comes to $35,470 in tuition, before fees. At the in-state rate of $1,347.17, the same 24 credits come to $32,332.

You attend classes at Wayne Law in Detroit, and the curriculum includes day and evening courses. The program's flexible enough for full-time or part-time enrollment, so you can plan around a job. Externships and clinics let you work alongside lawyers in multinational corporations and law firms, government agencies and international organizations, and up to 4 credit hours of them count toward the degree.

Wayne Law's Office of Career Success works with students and alumni on their career goals. Because the thesis runs through your final semester, you also work one-on-one with a faculty adviser, and the thesis workshop at the start of the fall term gets you going.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

The recognition for Wayne Law's tax program comes from several directions. In the 2026-27 U.S. News tax rankings, as reported by TaxProf Blog, Wayne State is tied for 19th among law schools with graduate tax programs. A 2015 National Jurist ranking of tax LL.M. programs, based on U.S. corporate tax hiring authorities, listed Wayne State among its top 20.

The National Jurist and preLaw magazine have recognized Wayne Law as a Best Value Law School for the past 7 years, according to the school. The Detroit Legal News covered a 2026 lecture by Professor Alan Schenk, "On Sixty Years of Teaching Tax at Wayne Law."

• Which corporate tax course should I choose: Taxation of Corporations, Mergers and Restructurings, or Business Planning?
• How should I split the thesis between the workshop in fall and my last semester?
• Which approved electives count without the director's approval, so I stay under the 6-credit cap?
• If I start part time in winter, how do I plan evening courses across the three terms?
• What does the LL.M. scholarship consideration require beyond a June 15 application?

A public research university in Detroit, Michigan; its Law School runs the LL.M. program.

• Best Master's in Taxation Rank 45 of 78, master's
• On-Campus Master's in Taxation Rank 23 of 37, master's
• Part-Time Programs Rank 24 of 39, master's
• Best for Working Professionals Rank 28 of 46, master's
• Best for Parents Rank 28 of 46, master's
• Public University Programs Rank 22 of 35, master's
• Internship or Practicum Rank 18 of 24, master's
• LLM in Taxation Rank 20 of 22, master's

• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

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• Arizona State University

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