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Studies & Degrees in Tax

Taxation is the study of how governments raise revenue and how people and companies work out, report and pay what they owe. The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) in the United Kingdom describes tax as a mixture of law, accountancy and administration. A tax student therefore reads legislation, works through accounts and calculations, and learns the procedures of the tax authority.

Programmes usually cover the main taxes one by one: personal income tax, corporate tax, value added tax (VAT) or sales taxes, inheritance and wealth taxes, and local taxes. They add international taxation, tax procedure (assessment, collection, inspection, review and penalties) and enough accounting to read a company's books.

Qualifications and levels

Tax is rarely a first degree in its own right. Most students meet it inside a degree in accounting, business, economics or law, and specialise afterwards.

  • Vocational diplomas. Some countries train tax technicians directly. Airlangga University in Indonesia, for example, offers a vocational diploma in taxation (D3 Perpajakan).
  • Bachelor's degrees. Tax appears as courses or a concentration in accounting and business degrees. In Spain, official bachelor's degrees (grados) have 240 ECTS credits.
  • Master's degrees for lawyers. In the United States, law graduates can take an LL.M. in Taxation. At Temple University in Philadelphia it requires 24 credits, including corporate taxation and partnership taxation, and must be completed within four years of first enrolment. Applicants need a basic income tax course from law school or comparable work experience.
  • Master's degrees in Spain. Official master's degrees have 60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits. Many tax programmes are instead a Máster de Formación Permanente, a university's own lifelong-learning qualification of 60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits that universities must keep expressly apart from official degrees. One example is the Máster de Formación Permanente en Tributación of the Universidad de Alicante, taught in collaboration with the Instituto de Estudios Fiscales of the Spanish Ministry of Finance: 60 ECTS credits with 540 hours of classroom teaching, from 21 September 2026 to 11 June 2027, at a listed price of €4,650. It is aimed at graduates in business administration, law, economics, labour relations and public administration.
  • Professional qualifications. In the United Kingdom, most students complete the seven modular exams of the Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) qualification in two to three years. In the United States, an enrolled agent earns the right to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by passing a three-part IRS test, all parts within three years, and must then complete 72 hours of continuing education every three years. Tax accountants often qualify as Certified Public Accountants (CPA); all US states require CPA candidates to complete 150 semester hours of college coursework.

Where to study it

SpainExchange lists 18 active schools for tax. Ten are in the United States and five in Spain; Indonesia, Germany and Slovenia have one each.

The US schools include Temple University, New York University, Hofstra University, Bentley University, Duke University, Troy University, Wayne State University and National University, as well as Bucks County Community College. In Spain the list includes the Escuela de Negocios of the Universidad de Alicante, ESADE in Barcelona, the Universidad del País Vasco (campuses in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) and the distance-learning school EducaciOnline. Elsewhere it includes the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, the University of Maribor and Airlangga University in Surabaya.

Tax rules are national, so a programme teaches the system of the country where it is based, normally in that country's language. Choose the country whose tax system you expect to work with, and check the language of instruction of each programme.

Careers

Tax graduates work as tax advisers in accounting and law firms, in the tax departments of companies and banks, and for the public tax administration. The CIOT notes that movement between tax consultancy, commerce, industry, the legal profession and the tax authority is common. The Alicante master's states two aims: tax advice, and preparation for the competitive entrance exams of the state, regional and local tax administrations in Spain.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes figures for two related occupations. Tax examiners, collectors and revenue agents, who review tax returns, conduct audits and collect overdue tax for governments, held about 60,100 jobs in 2025, 46 percent of them in the federal government. Their employment is projected to decline 1 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 4,400 openings a year from replacement needs. Employment of accountants and auditors, the much larger group that includes tax accountants, is projected to grow 5 percent over the same period.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a law degree to work in tax?

No. Tax examiners and revenue agents in the United States typically need a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field, and the Alicante tax master's admits graduates in business, economics and law alike. An LL.M. in Taxation, however, is a degree for law graduates.

How long does a master's in taxation take?

It depends on the country. The Alicante master's has 60 ECTS credits and runs for one academic year. Temple University's LL.M. in Taxation requires 24 credits and can be spread over up to four years.

Is a Máster de Formación Permanente an official degree in Spain?

No. It is a university's own lifelong-learning qualification, and Spanish rules require universities to distinguish it expressly from official university degrees. Ask the university what recognition the qualification has for your purpose.

Can I use a tax qualification in another country?

Only partly. The methods transfer, but tax law and professional titles such as CTA, CPA or enrolled agent belong to one country. International tax is the area where cross-border knowledge counts most.