Ira S. Weiss
Clinical Professor of Accounting and Entrepreneurship
Biography
Ira Weiss specializes in tax strategy, financial accounting, and venture capital. He teaches advanced MBA courses in tax strategy, accounting, entrepreneurship and venture capital.
Weiss currently teaches Taxes and Business Strategy, and Accounting for Entrepreneurs - from Start-up to IPO. In the tax class, Weiss feels it is important for students in his tax class to walk away knowing how to structure business decisions in the most tax-efficient manner, taking into account all other costs. He cites one significant use for the tools he teaches in class: learning how to structure merger and acquisition transactions. Students also learn many useful tax planning techniques for their personal financial decisions, such as whether they can deduct the cost of MBA tuition off their taxes. While teaching taxes and business strategy, he often is able to include some of the structures from real private equity deals to demonstrate the power of effective tax planning.
In 2017, Ira developed a new accounting course, Accounting for Entrepreneurs, from Start-up to IPO. Chicago Booth now offers 7 sections of this course a year.
Weiss has held positions at the accounting/consulting firms of Ernst & Young and Coopers & Lybrand, and serves on the boards of various start-up companies.
He earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Illinois in 1992. He received an MBA in 1999 and a PhD in 2001, from the Chicago Booth. He holds a CPA from the state of Illinois.
Outside of the classroom, he enjoys college basketball, mountain biking, Chicago and Illinois politics, and helped launch a nonprofit to address the Illinois pension challenges.
Selected Publications
With Marcus Butler and Arthur Kraft, "The Effect of Reporting Frequency on the Timeliness of Earnings: The Cases of Voluntary and Mandatory Interim Reports," Journal of Accounting and Economics (2007).
With Feng Chen, and Lin Zheng, "The Predictive Role of Analyst Coverage Intensity: Evidence from Cross-Listing in the U.S.," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics (2007).
With Daniel Collins and Edward Maydew, "Changes in the Value-Relevance of Earnings and Book Values over the Past Forty Years," Journal of Accounting and Economics (1997).
Working Papers
REVISION: Tax Planning by Mutual Funds: Evidence from Changes in the Capital Gains Tax Rate
Date Posted:Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:22:27 -0500
We investigate whether mutual funds engage in tax planning by testing how they respond to changes in the capital gains tax rates. While previous evidence suggests that individual investors time capital gains realizations, mutual fund managers may not tax plan like individuals because fund managers have incentives to consider the tax liability of both current and potential investors. Our analysis spans over forty-four years, and six major tax changes, allowing us to examine the effect of both ...
REVISION: Tax Planning by Mutual Funds: Evidence from Changes in the Capital Gains Tax Rate
Date Posted:Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:14:24 -0500
We investigate whether open-end and closed-end mutual funds engage in tax planning by testing how they respond to changes in the capital gains tax rates. While previous evidence suggests that individual investors time capital gains realizations (Auerbach, 1988), mutual fund managers may not tax plan like individuals because fund managers have incentives to consider the tax liability of both current and potential investors. Our question is, conditional on balancing the interests of these two ...
REVISION: Tax Planning by Mutual Funds: Evidence from Changes in the Capital Gains Tax Rate
Date Posted:Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:55:00 -0600
We investigate whether open-end and closed-end mutual funds engage in tax planning by testing how they respond to changes in the capital gains tax rates. While previous evidence suggests that individual investors time capital gains realizations (Auerbach, 1988), we might not expect mutual fund managers to tax plan like individuals because fund managers have incentives to consider the tax liability of both current and potential investors. Our question is, conditional on balancing the ...
New: The Predictive Role of Analyst Coverage Intensity: Evidence from Cross-Listing in the U.S.
Date Posted:Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:45:01 -0500
This paper investigates financial analysts' predictive power of future performance and earnings quality, based on their selective coverage of firms that have recently cross-listed into the U.S. This setting is useful for examining these questions because, following cross-listing, firms often experience an increase in analyst coverage and an improvement in their information environment. We find that analyst coverage is positively related to analysts' expectation about firms' future performance ...
The Predictive Role of Analyst Coverage Intensity: Evidence from Cross-Listing in the U.S.
Date Posted:Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
This paper investigates financial analysts' predictive power of future performance and earnings quality, based on their selective coverage of firms that have recently cross-listed into the U.S. This setting is useful for examining these questions because, following cross-listing, firms often experience an increase in analyst coverage and an improvement in their information environment. We find that analyst coverage is positively related to analysts' expectation about firms' future performance and negatively related to analysts' concern over firms' earnings quality. Furthermore, country-level legal origin and disclosure index are two significant determinants of analyst coverage of cross-listed firms. In addition, the intensity of analyst coverage can predict future abnormal stock price performance. Our latter finding augments those in Das, Guo, and Zhang (2006), who investigate the predictive role of analyst coverage following IPOs. The benefit of our setting is that, unlike the post-IPO period, cross-listing firms do not appear to experience mis-pricing that might confound the results. Overall, our study further documents the substantial informational benefits to cross-listing, but suggests that these informational benefits may not be complete, since financial analysts appear to have predictive power and selectively provide coverage for firms with favorable future prospects.
REVISION: The Predictive Role of Analyst Coverage Intensity: Evidence from Cross-Listing in the U.S.
Date Posted:Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:53:19 -0500
This paper investigates financial analysts' predictive power of future performance and earnings quality, based on their selective coverage of firms that have recently cross-listed into the U.S. This setting is useful for examining these questions because, following cross-listing, firms often experience an increase in analyst coverage and an improvement in their information environment. We find that analyst coverage is positively related to analysts' expectation about firms' future performance ...
The Effect of Reporting Frequency on the Timeliness of Earnings: The Cases of Voluntary and Mandatory Interim Reports
Date Posted:Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500
We examine whether financial reporting frequency affects the speed with which accounting information is reflected in security prices. For a sample of 28,824 reporting-frequency observations from 1950 to 1973, we find little evidence of differences in timeliness between firms reporting quarterly and those reporting semiannually, even after controlling for self-selection. However, firms that voluntarily increased reporting frequency from semiannual to quarterly experienced increased timeliness, while firms whose increase was mandated by the SEC did not. We conclude that there is little evidence to support the claim that regulation forcing firms to report more frequently improves earnings timeliness.
REVISION: Tax Planning by Mutual Funds: Evidence from Changes in the Capital Gains Tax Rate
Date Posted:Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:38:29 -0500
We investigate whether mutual funds engage in tax planning by testing how they respond to changes in the capital gains tax rates. While previous evidence suggests that individual investors time capital gains realizations (Auerbach, 1988), we might not expect open-end mutual funds to tax plan like individuals because fund managers have incentives to consider the tax liability of both current and potential investors. Our question is, conditional on balancing the interests of these two groups ...
Tax Planning by Mutual Funds
Date Posted:Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:38:34 -0500
In this paper we investigate whether mutual fund managers engage in tax planning by testing whether they time securities sales in their funds in response to changes in capital gains tax rates. Although previous evidence suggests that individuals investors engage in this shifting behavior (Auerbach [1988]), open-end mutual funds cannot necessarily be expected to tax plan like individuals because fund managers have incentives to consider the tax liability of both current investors and potential ...
REVISION: The Effect of Reporting Frequency on the Timeliness of Earnings: The Cases of Voluntary and Mandator
Date Posted:Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:07:50 -0600
We examine whether financial reporting frequency affects the speed with which accounting information is reflected in security prices. For a sample of 28,824 reporting-frequency observations from 1950 to 1973, we find little evidence of differences in timeliness between firms reporting quarterly and those reporting semiannually, even after controlling for self-selection. However, firms that voluntarily increased reporting frequency from semiannual to quarterly experienced increased timeliness, ...
REVISION: The Predictive Role of Analyst Coverage Intensity: Evidence from Cross-Listing in the U.S.
Date Posted:Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:59:17 -0500
This paper investigates financial analysts' predictive power of future performance and earnings quality, based on their selective coverage of firms that have recently cross-listed into the U.S. This setting is useful for examining these questions because, following cross-listing, firms often experience an increase in analyst coverage and an improvement in their information environment. We find that analyst coverage is positively related to analysts' expectation about firms' future performance ...
REVISION: The Predictive Role of Analyst Coverage Intensity: Evidence from Cross-Listing in the U.S.
Date Posted:Sun, 08 Oct 2006 06:09:32 -0500
This paper investigates financial analysts' predictive power of future performance as well as their judgments about earnings quality, based on their selective coverage of firms that have recently cross-listed into the U.S. This setting is useful for examining these questions because, following cross-listing, firms are expected to experience an increase in analyst coverage and an improvement in their information environment. We find that analyst coverage is positively related to analysts' ...
The Predictive Role of Analyst Coverage Intensity: Evidence from Cross-Listing in the U.S.
Date Posted:Sun, 08 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500
This paper investigates financial analysts' predictive power of future performance and earnings quality, based on their selective coverage of firms that have recently cross-listed into the U.S. This setting is useful for examining these questions because, following cross-listing, firms often experience an increase in analyst coverage and an improvement in their information environment. We find that analyst coverage is positively related to analysts' expectation about firms' future performance and negatively related to analysts' concern over firms' earnings quality. Furthermore, country-level legal origin and disclosure index are two significant determinants of analyst coverage of cross-listed firms. In addition, the intensity of analyst coverage can predict future abnormal stock price performance. Our latter finding augments those in Das, Guo, and Zhang (2006), who investigate the predictive role of analyst coverage following IPOs. The benefit of our setting is that, unlike the post-IPO period, cross-listing firms do not appear to experience mis-pricing that might confound the results. Overall, our study further documents the substantial informational benefits to cross-listing, but suggests that these informational benefits may not be complete, since financial analysts appear to have predictive power and selectively provide coverage for firms with favorable future prospects.
The Effect of Reporting Frequency on the Timeliness of Earnings: The Cases of Voluntary and Mandatory Interim Reports
Date Posted:Thu, 18 Jul 2002 00:00:00 -0500
We examine whether financial reporting frequency affects the speed with which accounting information is reflected in security prices. For a sample of 28,824 reporting-frequency observations from 1950 to 1973, we find little evidence of differences in timeliness between firms reporting quarterly and those reporting semiannually, even after controlling for self-selection. However, firms that voluntarily increased reporting frequency from semiannual to quarterly experienced increased timeliness, while firms whose increase was mandated by the SEC did not. We conclude that there is little evidence to support the claim that regulation forcing firms to report more frequently improves earnings timeliness.
Changes in the Value-Relevance of Earnings and Book Values over the Past Forty Years
Date Posted:Thu, 27 Apr 2000 06:49:02 -0500
This paper investigates systematic changes in the value-relevance of earnings and book values over time. We report three primary findings. First, contrary to claims in the professional literature, the combined value-relevance of earnings and book values has not declined over the past forty years and, in fact, appears to have increased slightly. Second, while the incremental value-relevance of "bottom line" earnings has declined, it has been replaced by increasing value-relevance of book values.
Tax Planning by Mutual Funds: Evidence from Changes in the Capital Gains Tax Rate
Date Posted:Tue, 25 Aug 1998 00:00:00 -0500
We investigate whether mutual funds engage in tax planning by testing how they respond to changes in the capital gains tax rates. While previous evidence suggests that individual investors time capital gains realizations, mutual fund managers may not tax plan like individuals because fund managers have incentives to consider the tax liability of both current and potential investors. Our analysis spans over forty-four years, and six major tax changes, allowing us to examine the effect of both tax rate increases and decreases. Overall, we find evidence consistent with tax planning by managers of both open-end and closed-end mutual funds.
Tax Planning by Mutual Funds
Date Posted:Tue, 25 Aug 1998 00:00:00 -0500
In this paper we investigate whether mutual fund managers engage in tax planning by testing whether they time securities sales in their funds in response to changes in capital gains tax rates. Although previous evidence suggests that individuals investors engage in this shifting behavior (Auerbach [1988]), open-end mutual funds cannot necessarily be expected to tax plan like individuals because fund managers have incentives to consider the tax liability of both current investors and potential investors. Our question is, conditional on balancing the interests of the interests of these two groups of investors, do mutual funds time their capital gains realizations to decrease taxes.
As a comparison to open-end funds, we include a sample of closed-end funds. Managers of open-end funds have strong incentives to worry about potential investors, while managers of closed-end funds do not. Our results suggest that closed-end stock funds -- similar to individuals -- shift capital gains realizations from periods of high capital gains tax rates to periods of lower rates. Open-end stock funds do not exhibit this pattern. Further evidence suggests that open-end funds shift differently than closed-end funds because open-end funds are minimizing the tax liability of potential investors over current investors.
Changes in the Value-Relevance of Earnings and Book Values Over the Past Forty Years
Date Posted:Mon, 04 Nov 1996 00:00:00 -0600
This paper investigates systematic changes in the value-relevance of earnings and book values over time. We report three primary findings. First, contrary to claims in the professional literature, the combined value-relevance of earnings and book values has not declined over the past forty years and, in fact, appears to have increased slightly. Second, while the incremental value-relevance of "bottom line" earnings has declined, it has been replaced by increasing value-relevance of book values. Finally, much of the shift in value-relevance from earnings to book values can be explained by the increasing frequency and magnitude of one-time items, the increasing frequency of negative earnings, and changes in average firm size across time.