A leading scholar in the field of tax law, Joseph Bankman is the author of two widely used casebooks on the subject. His writings on tax policy cover topics such as progressivity, consumption tax, and the role of tax in the structure of Silicon Valley start-ups. He has gained wide attention for his work on how government might control the use of tax shelters and has testified before Congress and other legislative bodies on tax compliance problems posed by the cash economy. He has written and spoken extensively on how we might use technology to simplify filing. He also worked with the State of California to co-author a bill creating ReadyReturn—a completed tax return prepared by the state. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1989, Professor Bankman was a professor at the University of Southern California Law Center and a tax practitioner with the Los Angeles firm of Tuttle & Taylor.