Taxation Commons^™

Property Or Currency? The Tax Dilemma Behind Bitcoin, Scott A. Wiseman

Utah Law Review

At Bitcoin’s peak in November 2013, there were 93,000 global transactions made in a single day. These users purchased everyday items such as personal services, food, and real estate. This alone suggests that Bitcoin is not primarily used as a long-term investment tool, but rather is used as a currency and a vehicle for global transactions. Congress and the IRS should regulate it accordingly. Representative Stockman’s Virtual Currency Reform Act offered an attempt to negate the IRS decision and officially classify Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as currency instead of property. A tax reclassification would alleviate typical ...

Problematic Self-Directed Retirement Plan Activities, David Randall Jenkins

David Randall Jenkins, Ph.D.

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act: The Most Revolutionary Piece Of Tax Legislation Since The Introduction Of The Income Tax, Alexander Szwakob

Honors Scholar Theses

With taxation of income being the most significant source of revenue, most national governments consider tax evasion prevention to be one of the priorities of their tax agencies. In the United States, tax evasion has been a significant concern of the Internal Revenue Service ever since the modern income tax was instituted with the passing of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913. Over the following century, Congress enacted numerous measures aimed at curbing the illegal practice, but, as often is the case, both individuals and institutions desiring to not abide by the law found new ways to outsmart the tax authorities ...

Tax Effects Of Book-Tax Conformity, Financial Reporting Incentives And Firm Size, Koon Hung Chan, Zhenpin, Kenny Lin, Feng Tang

Prof. LIN Zhen-pin, Kenny

This study employs a natural experiment to examine the tax effects of a change in the level of conformity between tax and financial reporting in China for firms with different financial reporting incentives. We find that in a full book-tax conformity system, firms with incentives to report higher book income pay significantly higher income tax (per dollar of sales) than do firms without the same incentives. Although we do not find similar evidence in a non-conformed system, we observe cross-sectional variation in taxes paid by firms of varying sizes: by exploiting non-conforming financial reporting rules to a greater extent, large ...

Knowledge Of Federal Taxation In The Millennial Age, Jordan Kulow

Honors Projects and Posters

The goal of this study is to build upon previous research, studying the knowledge of taxation in elementary children, by researching the same idea in college-aged students. To do so, students were surveyed regarding various demographics and taxation topics in terms of general knowledge, taxation concepts that are currently relevant to our target subject, and taxation topics that will be relevant to them in the future. Our results showed that students had a moderate level of general knowledge that was consistent across variables. They also showed that in terms of taxation topics that are currently relevant, being older and having ...

Cross-Country Evidence On The Preliminary Effects Of Patent Box Regimes On Patent Activity And Ownership, Sebastien J. Bradley, Estelle Dauchy, Leslie Robinson

Sebastien J Bradley

This paper evaluates the initial impacts of patent box regimes in light of their primary stated objectives: stimulating domestic innovation and retaining mobile patent income to limit base erosion. Despite their lack of nexus requirements, we find that patent box regimes yield a 3 percent increase in new patent applications for every percentage point reduction in the tax rate on patent income. We find no significant impact of these regimes on deterring outward cross-border attribution of patent ownership, or on attracting ownership of foreign inventions. Increased patenting activity hence appears focused on inventions involving co-located (domestic) patent owners and inventors.

The Common Knowledge Of Tax Abuse, Mark Gergen

Mark P. Gergen

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Tax Law On Securities Innovation In The United States: 1981-1997, Mark P. Gergen, Paula Schmitz

Mark P. Gergen

No abstract provided.

On The Use Of The Inflation Tax When Non-Distortionary Taxes Are Available, Joydeep Bhattacharya, Joseph H. Haslag

Joydeep Bhattacharya

Using a pure-exchange overlapping generatior^ model in which money -is valued because of a legal restriction, we show the following: a) a benevolent government may make some use of the inflation t^ in conjunction with a lump-sum income tax on the young, b) the inflation tax will not be used dong with- a lump-sum income tax on the old, and c) the welfare-maximizing monetary policy may-deviate from the Friedman rule (contract the money supply so as to equate the real return on money and other competing stores of value) depending on how fiscal policy is implemented...

The Potential Effect Of Offering Lump Sums In The Social Security Program, Raimond Maurer, Oliver S. Mitchell, Ralph Rogalla, Tatjana Schimetschek

Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative

New research reframes the debate about Social Security solvency and moves away from questions of who should bear the greater burden of fixing the system by offering a lump sum payment model as a way to encourage people to delay claiming their Social Security benefits. Under one of the lump sum alternatives presented in this brief, survey participants indicated a willingness to delay claiming Social Security by up to eight months, on average, compared to the status quo, and to continue working for four of them. Delayed claiming would mean additional months or years of Social Security payroll tax contributions ...

Can Education Improve Tax Compliance? Evidence From Different Forms Of Tax Education, Raymond M. K. Wong, Wai-Yee, Agnes Lo

Prof. LO Wai-yee, Agnes

We examine whether tax compliance is improved via different forms of tax education. We argue that different types of tax education have respective impacts on tax compliance. To explore this empirical issue, we conduct a survey related to tax compliance among 205 students taking either a general tax course or a technical tax course in Hong Kong. Our findings suggest that sales tax compliance among undergraduate students was significantly improved if they had been exposed to a general tax education, and income and sales tax compliance among postgraduate students were significantly improved if they had taken a technical tax course.

Simple Substantial Economic Effect Regulatory Compliance, David Randall Jenkins

David Randall Jenkins, Ph.D.

Evaluating Policy Measures To Tackle Undeclared Work: The Role Of Stakeholder Collaboration In Building Trust And Improving Policy-Making, Colin C. Williams, Anton Kojouharov

Colin C Williams

The aim of this paper is to examine and analyse the realm of policy evaluation approaches and methods as they relate to assessing measures to tackle undeclared work. The discussion is set at the backdrop of a brief review of the more prominent theoretical and conceptual considerations in the policy evaluation literature. The paper then investigates results from policy assessments and evaluations illuminated in the previous GREY working papers, as well as some selected from the Eurofound database. The analysis of a limited sample of available policy evaluations and results demonstrates that a common probable cause of policy failure with ...

Informal Social Support And Older Persons' Psychological Well-Being In Hong Kong, David Rosser Phillips, Oi Ling Siu, Anthony G. O. Yeh, Kevin H. C. Cheng

Prof. PHILLIPS David, Rosser

This paper focuses on the importance and the effectiveness of various types of informal support for older persons’ psychological well-being. It examines the effects of objective measures of informal support (such as size of social networks and frequency of contact) and subjective measures (such as satisfaction with the support received) on psychological well-being of older occupants in different household circumstances (i.e.,living alone, with spouse or relatives, in old urban areas or new towns, in private or public housing). Data were collected from face-to-face interviews with a sample of 518 older persons (224 males, 294 females) aged 60 and ...

Pass-Through Valuation, Robert M. Hull, David P. Price

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Noted scholars argue that (1) economic models of capital taxation have been inadequately adapted to owner-managed enterprises and (2) capital structure researchers have used the wrong models while also improperly measuring key variables. Thus, a model that can overcome these problems should be of interest to academics when teaching capital structure theory and practitioners when determining optimal debt levels. This paper contributes to capital structure practice by using a model that is adaptable to owner-managed enterprises like pass-throughs while also containing relevant variables that are measurable. This paper should be valuable to academics and practitioners in the following ways. First ...

Se(C)(3): A Catalyst For Social Enterprise Crowdfunding, Dana Brakman Reiser, Steven A. Dean

Indiana Law Journal

The emerging consensus among scholars rejects the notion of tax breaks for social enterprises, concluding that such prizes will attract strategic claimants, ultimately doing more harm than good. The SE(c)(3) regime proposed by this Article offers entrepreneurs and investors committed to combining financial returns and social good with a means of broadcasting that shared resolve. Combining a measured tax benefit for mission-driven activities with a heightened burden on shareholder financial gains, the revenue-neutral SE(c)(3) regime would provide investors and funding platforms with a low-cost means of screening out “greenwashed” ventures.

Designing Survey Methods To Evaluate The Undeclared Economy: A Review Of The Options, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

This Working Paper is part of the GREY project which is developing capacities and capabilities in tackling undeclared work. In this Working Paper, the various options available to researchers when designing surveys to tackle undeclared work are evaluated. These issues include the unit of analysis used, the data collection methodology, an array of questionnaire design issues (including the reference period, whether to define the phenomenon for participants, a direct versus gradual approach to sensitive issues, whether to do a supply- and/or demand-side survey; whether to examine the relationship between purchasers and sellers, how to discourage social desirability bias), sample ...

Tax Inertia: A General Framework With Specific Application To Business Tax Reform, Chris William Sanchirico

Faculty Scholarship

A surprising degree of bipartisan consensus has lately formed in the United States around two propositions of business tax reform: that something should be done about the “lockout” of US multinationals’ foreign earnings; and that the corporate income tax rate should be reduced. This paper questions whether these two propositions are really consistent. In the process of attempting to provide an answer, it develops a framework for relating and measuring various forms of “tax inertia”: tax-based disincentives to alter investments. Applying this framework, the paper concludes that the current agreement on business tax reform is substantially in disagreement with itself.

Tax Incidence Of The Pennsylvania Lottery: The Influence Of Retail Outlet Location, Thomas Andrews, Cynthia Benzing

Thomas Andrews

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of The Form Of Tax Incentives On Individuals' Savings Decisions, Julia Camp, David Hulse, Cynthia Vines

Julia M. Camp

Congress and the media have both expressed concerns about Americans’ low savings rates. We address these concerns by investigating the extent to which the form of an investment’s tax preference affects individuals’ willingness to choose a tax-preferred vehicle over a less restrictive, but non-tax-preferred, investment. Specifically, we tested the extent to which subjects chose a traditional savings plan versus an investment resembling either a traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or government matching program. We find that subjects are not as sensitive to the form of the tax preference as they are to restrictions on their ability to withdraw funds. This ...