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Getting Back To The "Grassroots" Of Tax Administration: Because "We The People" Long For A Gathering Of American Eagles To Restore Trust In The Internal Revenue Service With A Rebuild Irs Initiative, Frank Wolpe

Akron Law Review

Like America, our Internal Revenue Service is a work in progress. Yet, for best results, it’s better to avoid thinking too much about what it is or is not! Instead, let’s think more about what the IRS ought to be! This Article thusly offers a realistic path forward with new choices for a local presence, which once again makes it taxpayer/customer-centric. For more effective tax administration, it also offers a return to something that inexcusably went missing in 1998: senior-executive “on-site oversight” of field operations.

If today’s Internal Revenue Service can be fairly described as an exploding volcano …

The Quagmire Of Mortgage Short Sale Transactions Under Current Homeownership Tax Policy In A Time Of Crisis, Tracie R. Porter

Akron Law Review

The 2007 financial crisis continues to loom over homeowners who own underwater properties. What owning underwater property means for homeowners is that the home’s current market value is less than the mortgage balance, making it impossible to sell or refinance the home without the lender’s approval. The quagmire of financial indebtedness created by current tax laws and policy related to Mortgage Short Sale Transactions, or MSSTs, for homeowners creates an onerous tax liability on taxpayers selling underwater properties. The government and lenders, through various programs implemented to help distressed homeowners with underwater properties, created a belief among homeowners that MSSTs …

Northwestern, O'Bannon And The Future: Cultivating A New Era For Taxing Qualified Scholarships, Kathryn Kisska-Schulze, Adam Epstein

Akron Law Review

On March 26, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Northwestern University’s scholarship football players were employees of the institution and could unionize and bargain collectively. From a federal income tax perspective, the significance of the NLRB decision—at that time—was that it could redefine the principle that select student-athletes are no longer unpaid amateurs receiving qualified scholarships, but instead are employees of their institutions, earning scholarship funds in exchange for services rendered as college athletes. Accordingly, a crucial question arising from the NLRB holding was whether the Internal Revenue Service could logically continue to treat qualified scholarships received …

Trading With Related Foreign Entitites: Current American Tax Perspective, Mortimer Caplin

Akron Law Review

This article attempts to summarize existing United States tax law and government policy on arm's-length dealing, with the hope that it will illuminate the current perspective in this important and complex area

Application Of Computer-Assisted Analysis Techniques To Taxation, Richard J. Kovach

Akron Law Review

Thus, it may be useful at this early point in the development of computer-assisted legal analysis to speculate on the full potential for computer applications to taxation in light of the analytic complexities commonly encountered in tax work.

Individual, Couple Or Family? The Unit Of Taxation For Transfer Tax Purposes: A Shifting Focus, Anne-Marie Rhodes

Akron Law Review

This paper examines the shifting focus of the transfer tax system from the perspectives of the articulated primary purpose for the taxes and the appropriate unit of taxation given that purpose. The historical progression shows that as a sense of purpose became less clear, the unit of taxation similarly became less focused.

Of Taxes And Duties: Taxing The System With Public Employees' Tax Obligations, Kenneth H. Ryesky

Akron Law Review

Governmental agencies, including and especially those involved in the taxation function, have compelling reasons to insist that individuals in their employ comply with the laws of the land, including the personal tax requirements. As tax law complexity increases, so does the general propensity for noncompliance. The governmental agencies are thus confronted with increasing volumes of disciplinary issues relating to employee tax obligations. This article will explore how the various types of governmental agencies deal with enforcing compliance by their employees with personal taxation obligations, and will discuss how fallout from thetax law arena affects the efficiency of government as compliance …

Carroll V. Commissioner: Narrow Judicial Interpretations Of Internal Revenue Code' § 7502 May Cause Increased Burden On Taxpayers, Nicole D. Stanger

Akron Law Review

In Carroll v. Commissioner, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the minority viewpoint that the statute repeals the common law presumption of delivery in all cases other than those where the taxpayer used registered or certified mail. Thus, taxpayers who do not send tax documents using registered or certified mail must bear the risk of nondelivery. Critics of this decision contend that the court misinterpreted the I.R.C. As a result of the court's narrow interpretation, taxpayers may suffer substantial tax losses and penalties even when a document is lost through no fault of their own. …