Faculty and Staff

John Janiga

About

Professor John M. Janiga is a registered CPA and a licensed attorney in Illinois. He has been a full-time professor at Loyola for 39 years, teaching primarily undergraduate and graduate tax courses for the last 36 years. During this time, he has also had a consulting practice with an emphasis on federal income and transfer taxation planning and compliance.

He is the author or co-author of more than 40 articles published in professional and academic journals such as Taxation for Accountants, Taxation for Lawyers, The Tax Adviser, Estate Planning, Trusts & Estates, Taxes, Illinois Bar Journal, Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal, Journal of Passthrough Entities, Practical Tax Strategies, Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, and Pepperdine Law Review, and two editions of a book on tax and estate planning, most recently published by Simon & Schuster.

He has received numerous awards and honors as a professional. As a student, he was inducted into Beta Alpha Psi, the national honorary society of accounting, information system, and finance students; Beta Gamma Sigma, the international business honor society; and Alpha Sigma Nu, the honor society of Jesuit colleges and universities. While in law school, he was a member of Law Review, the recipient of the Corpus Juris Secundum award (highest overall contribution to legal scholarship) all three years and graduated third in his class.

He is or has been a member of the Illinois CPA Society, Chicago Bar Association, American Bar Association, American Institute of CPAs, American Accounting Association, and the American Taxation Association, an organization in which he has been a member of numerous committees.

Degrees

• LLM in Taxation, DePaul University College of Law, 1991
• JD, Cum Laude, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, 1988
• MBA, Finance, Loyola University Chicago, 1982
• BBA, Public Accounting, Loyola University Chicago, 1979

Professional Employment

• Of counsel, Law Firm of Spagnolo & Hoeksema, LLC
• Auditor with Price Waterhouse & Co. (now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, or PwC)
• Financial analyst with a manufacturer based in suburban Chicago
• Associated with both small and large Chicago law firms, practicing in the areas of taxation, estate planning, and deferred compensation

Research Interests

• Federal Income Taxation 
• Federal Transfer Taxation

Professional & Community Affiliations

• Chicago Bar Association
• Illinois CPA Society (honorary lifetime)

Courses Taught

• Taxation of Individuals 
• Taxation of Corporations, Partnerships, Estates & Trusts
• Federal Taxation (MBA)

Awards

• Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago, 2022
• The Princeton Review’s The Best 300 Professors (Random House 2012), profiling the best undergraduate professors in the United States
• Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago, 2011
• Outstanding Educator Award for 4-Year Institutions, Illinois CPA Society, 2008
• Faculty Member of the Year Award, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago, 2005
• Accountant of the Year, Beta Alpha Psi’s Beta Iota Chapter, 1995
• Honorary Membership, Delta Sigma Pi, Professional Business Fraternity, 1995
• Alumni Faculty Fellow, Arthur Andersen & Co., 1994-95
• Faculty Member of the Year Award, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago, 1993

Selected Publications

Refereed Articles 

Janiga, J. M., Harrison, L. S. (2019). Third Party Self-Settled Creditor Protection Trusts: Strategies to Avoid Court Unravelling. Journal of Passthrough Entities, 22(4), 21-24, 54-55.

Janiga, J. M., Harrison, L. S. (2018). Third-Party Settled Creditor Protection Trusts: How Courts Can Unravel Them. Journal of Passthrough Entities, 21(2), 23-26.

Janiga, J. M., Harrison, L. S. (2017) Spendthrift Trusts: Much Ado about (Almost) Nothing, or Is It? Journal of Passthrough Entities, 20(6), 17-18, 59.​

Janiga, J. M., Harrison, L. S. (2016). Code Section 2704 Proposed Regulations:  Will Transfer Tax Valuation Discounts for Intra-Family Transfers of Closely-Held Entities Become Extinct? Journal of Passthrough Entities, 19(6), 9-18.

Janiga, J.M., Harrison, L.S. (2014). Discounts v. Step-Up Basis: Tax Rate Arbitrage Gone Bad (or Not as Good as Expected)? Journal of Passthrough Entities, 17(2), 15-20, 72-73.

Janiga, J.M., Harrison, L.S., Morris, N. (2014). Is a section 643(e)(3) Election Advisable? Practical Tax Strategies (Taxation for Accountants/Taxation for Lawyers), 93(4), 169-177.

Harrison, L., J.M. Janiga. “Holding Life Insurance in a Trust: Traps for the Unwary.” Journal of Passthrough Entities. 14 (2011). 15-16, 67-68.

Harrison, L., J.M. Janiga. “Strategies for Gifting in 2011 While Retaining Strings.” Journal of Passthrough Entities. 14 (2011).  9-10, 55-57.

Janiga, J.M., L. Harrison. "Do the Passive Activity Loss Rules Impact the Choice of a Family Limited Partnership Versus a Family Limited Liability Company for Estate Planning Discount Purposes?" Trusts & Estates. (2010).  

Harrison, L., J.M. Janiga. "Optimizing Entity Selection for Transfer Tax Discount Planning." Journal of Passthrough Entities. (2010).  

Janiga, J.M., L. Harrison. "Should the Step Transaction Doctrine Ever Apply in the Partnership Arena?: A Critical Examination of Linton, Adams, and Gross." Journal of Passthrough Entities. (2009).  

Janiga, J.M., L. Harrison. "Is a Horse Not a Horse When Entities Incur Investment Advisory Fees?" Journal of Passthrough Entities. (2007).  

Janiga, J.M., L. Harrison. "Pepperidge Farm Legacy." Trusts & Estates (2007).  

Janiga, J.M., L. Harrison. "Deducting Fees for Investment Advice." Trusts & Estates 146 (2007). 42-49.  

Janiga, J.M., L. Harrison. "The Interplay of Behavioral Economics and Portfolio Management with the Current Examination of Family Partnerships by the Courts." Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal. 40 (2005). 117-147.