Today is the due date for written submissions in the 9th Annual Law Student Tax Challenge sponsored by the ABA Section of Taxation Young Lawyers Forum:

An alternative to traditional moot court competitions, the Law Student Tax Challenge asks two-person teams of students to solve a cutting-edge and complex business problem that might arise in everyday tax practice. This year’s problem asks J.D. and LL.M. students to consider challenging scenarios involving timely issues in individual and business entity tax. Calling on the knowledge learned in their respective tax courses, J.D. and LL.M. students will be asked to apply their classroom knowledge to a fun, challenging set of ‘real world’ facts.

Teams competing in the Law Student Tax Challenge will be evaluated on two criteria: a memorandum to a senior partner and a letter to the client explaining the result. Based on this written work product, six teams from the J.D. Division and four teams from the LL.M. Division will receive a free trip (including airfare and accommodations for two nights) for the Section's 2010 Midyear Meeting, January 21-23 at the Grand Hyatt, San Antonio, TX, where they will defend their submissions before a panel of some of the country's top tax lawyers.

Semi-finalists and finalists will be notified on Dec. 21, 2009.  For the results, problems, winning answers, judges, and entrants for the prior competitions (2001-2008), see here. For TaxProf Blog coverage of prior winners, see 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005.