Law Commons^™

Tax Reporting As Regulation Of Digital Financial Markets, Young Ran (Christine) Kim

Washington and Lee Law Review

FTX’s recent collapse highlights the overall instability that blockchain assets and digital financial markets face. While the use of blockchain technology and crypto assets is widely prevalent, the associated market is still largely unregulated, and the future of digital asset regulation is also unclear. The lack of clarity and regulation has led to public distrust and has called for more dedicated regulation of digital assets. Among those regulatory efforts, tax policy plays an important role. This Essay introduces comprehensive regulatory frameworks for blockchain-based assets that have been introduced globally and domestically, and it shows that tax reporting is the key …

Fake News And The Tax Law, Kathleen Delaney Thomas, Erin Scharff

Washington and Lee Law Review

The public misunderstands many aspects of the tax system. For example, people frequently misunderstand how marginal tax rates work, misperceive their own average tax rates, and believe they benefit from tax deductions for which they are ineligible. Such confusion is understandable given the complexity of our tax laws. Unfortunately, research suggests these misconceptions shape voter preferences about tax policy which, in turn, impact the policies themselves.

That people are easily confused by taxes is nothing new. With the rise of social media platforms, however, the speed at which misinformation campaigns can now move to shape public opinion is far faster. …

The Surprising Significance Of De Minimis Tax Rules, Leigh Osofsky, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Washington and Lee Law Review

De minimis tax rules—rules that eliminate tax burdens for low-income taxpayers or low-dollar transactions—abound in the tax law. Despite the prevalence of such rules, legal scholarship has treated them as—well—de minimis, or as mere rounding errors that do not merit sustained attention. This perspective is understandable. If de minimis rules address insignificant taxpayers or tax liabilities, aren’t the rules themselves likely to be insignificant?

Recent tax law developments have revealed that this conception of de minimis tax rules is deeply misguided. Major allocations of tax law liability, as well as accompanying questions about the fairness, efficiency, and administrability of the …

Something For Nothing: Universal Basic Income And The Value Of Work Beyond Incentives, Jonathan D. Grossberg

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Proponents and opponents of a universal basic income all acknowledge that the most significant political challenge to its adoption in the United States is that a universal basic income would not have a work requirement attached. Often, this is characterized as a problem involving incentives—the availability of a universal basic income would cause many people to stop working (or significantly curtail the number of hours that they work) and simply live off the universal basic income. This Article makes three contributions to the literature related to a universal basic income: First, it provides a typology for understanding the many reasons …

Eitc For All: A Universal Basic Income Compromise Proposal, Benjamin M. Leff

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Much has been written about a concept called universal basic income (UBI). With a UBI, the government gives every person a certain amount of money each year, or even each month. The UBI has broad appeal with thinkers on both the right and the left, but the appeal is partially because different thinkers have different visions of what the current state of affairs is with respect to government welfare policies and different theories about why these existing policies are inadequate or damaging. Reforming existing programs, rather than making a radical break with the past, could satisfy at least some of …

Foreword, Michelle Lyon Drumbl

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Michelle L. Drumbl, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Tax Clinic at W&L Law, introduces this issue of the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, which includes material presented at and inspired by the Journal's 2018 symposium, Always with Us? Poverty, Taxes, and Social Policy.

A Typology Of Place-Based Investment Tax Incentives, Michelle D. Layser

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This Article makes several contributions to tax, poverty, and empirical legal literature. First, it defines the category of place-based investment tax incentives and identifies key elements of variation across the category. Despite their prevalence at all levels of government, place-based investment tax incentives remain undertheorized and largely undefined in the literature. The typology presented here reflects an analysis of three federal tax incentives (the New Markets Tax Credit, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, and the new Opportunity Zones law) and a detailed survey of tax incentives included in state enterprise zone laws. By defining this category of tax laws and …

Converging Welfare States: Symposium Keynote, Susannah Camic Tahk

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Susannah Camic Tahk, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, speaks to the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice 2018 symposium, Always with Us? Poverty, Taxes, and Social Policy. She addresses the following questions: To what extent do the particular advantages of the tax antipoverty programs persist as the tax antipoverty programs take center stage? Can tax programs, once distinguished from their direct-spending counterparts on the grounds of relative popularity and legal and administrative ease of access maintain those hallmarks as the tax-based welfare state grows …

The Practice And Tax Consequences Of Nonqualified Deferred Compensation, David I. Walker

Washington and Lee Law Review

Although nonqualified deferred compensation plans lack explicit tax preferences afforded to qualified plans, it is well understood that nonqualified deferred compensation results in a joint tax advantage when employers earn a higher after-tax return on deferred sums than employees could achieve on their own. But the joint tax advantage depends critically on how plans are operated; chiefly how plan sponsors use or invest deferred compensation dollars. This is the first Article to systematically investigate nonqualified deferred compensation practices. It shows that joint tax minimization historically has taken a backseat to accounting priorities and participant diversification concerns. In recent years, the …

Reinterpreting The Limited Partner Exclusion To Maximize Labor Income In The Self-Employment Tax Base , Laura E. Erdman

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Physical Consequences Of Emotional Distress: The Need For A New Test To Determine What Amounts Are Excluded From Gross Income Under § 104(A)(2), C. Anthony Wolfe Iv

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fatca: Toward A Multilateral Automatic Information Reporting Regime, Joanna Heiberg

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

United States V. Textron: The Right Answer To A Billion-Dollar Question, Ned Hillenbrand

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unintended Tax Advantages Of Gay Marriage, Theodore P. Seto

Washington and Lee Law Review

The Internal Revenue Code (the Code) contains numerous special rules applicable to the income taxation of persons related by marriage, birth, adoption, or ownership. This Article suggests a new approach to their analysis. Many basic tax rules assume that taxpayers are self-interested and unaffiliated. Where this assumption is incorrect, the Code makes adjustments to its otherwise applicable rules. Most of the resulting related-party antiavoidance rules apply only in the context of specified formal relationships-marriage, parent/child, or owner/business. The Article tests this thesis by comparing the income tax treatment of heterosexual married couples with that of gay couples in committed long-term …

Controlling Executive Compensation Through The Tax Code, Gregg D. Polsky

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Saving The Family Farm Through Federal Tax Policy: Easier Said Than Done Alex, Alex E. Snyder

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Return To Sharecropping: Lawyers And Clients As Tenants And Landlords In The Tax Treatment Of Contingency Fees, Dean T. Howell

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Part Of Rpos Don't You Understand? An Update And Survey Of Standards For Tax Return Positions, J. Timothy Philipps, Michael W. Mumbach, Morgan W. Alley

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Taxation Of Prepaid College Tuition Plans, J. Timothy Philipps

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

But Reverend, Why Does Your Baptismal Font Have A Diving Board? Equitable Treatment For Vows Of Poverty Under The Federal Income Tax , J. Timothy Philipps

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abusive Tax Shelters After The Tax Reform Act Of 1984

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Greater Efficiency Or Higher Consumer Rates? Fcc Preemption Of State Depreciation Methods For Telephone Companies In Virginia State Corporation Commission V. Fcc

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blowing Hot And Cold At The Same Time: Section 1034 Rollover And Rental Deductions On Rental And Sale Of Principal Residence

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Medically Necessitated Meal And Lodging Costs: Should They Be Deductible Under Internal Revenue Code Section 213?, J. Timothy Philipps, Kenneth B. Tillou

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments Affecting The Income And Gift Tax Consequences Of Interest-Free Loans

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tax-Exempt Status Of Amateur Sports Organizations

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Taxation Of Nondomiciliary Corporations

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clarifying The Characteristics Of Brother-Sister Controlled Groups Of Corporations: United States V. Vogel Fertilizer Co.

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Small Issue Industrial Development Bonds: The Growing Abuse

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tax Breaks For Law Students

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.