Law Commons^™

Income Tax Accounting Consistency: Eliminate Accrual And Depreciation, And Revamp The Tax Treatment Of Borrowing, Joseph M. Dodge

Joseph M Dodge

Abstract for

INCOME TAX ACCOUNTING CONSISTENCY: ELIMINATE ACCRUAL AND DEPRECIATION, AND REVAMP THE TAX TREATMENT OF BORROWING

Joseph M. Dodge

Professor Emeritus, Florida State University College of Law

The thesis is that inconsistent tax accounting rules undermine the individual income tax, and the best available move for improving it – given the unassailability of the realization principle - is to eliminate its accrual (and quasi-accrual) features. Specifically, the agenda is to eliminate tax accrual accounting in the conventional sense, revamp the tax treatment of borrowing to (inter alia) abolish the Crane doctrine, and eliminate depreciation deductions for indivisible productive assets. …

Controversies In Tax Law: A Matter Of Perspective (Introduction), Anthony C. Infanti

Book Chapters

This volume presents a new approach to today’s tax controversies, reflecting that debates about taxation often turn on the differing worldviews of the debate participants. For instance, a central tension in the academic tax literature — which is filtering into everyday discussions of tax law — exists between “mainstream” and “critical” tax theorists. This tension results from a clash of perspectives: Is taxation primarily a matter of social science or social justice? Should tax policy debates be grounded in economics or in critical race, feminist, queer, and other outsider perspectives?

To capture and interrogate what often seems like a chasm …

A Market For Tax Compliance, Walter E. Afield Iii

Walter E Afield III

It is becoming increasingly clear that, due to political realities and budgetary constraints, the IRS is going to have to attempt to enforce the tax laws by doing more with less. Current enforcement efforts have yielded a tax gap (i.e., the difference between the amount of taxes that should be paid and the amount that are collected) of roughly $450 billion annually. Faced with this task, one of the steps that the IRS has recently taken is to try to improve the quality in services performed by paid tax preparers, a group that historically has been subject to little IRS …

The Overlap Of Tax And Financial Aspects Of Real Estate Ventures, Bradley T. Borden

Bradley T. Borden

This article examines the effect partnership tax law has on financial aspects of real estate ventures. It introduces the relevance of the aggregate and entity views of tax partnerships (i.e., LLCs, LPs, and other partnerships) and demonstrates how those views can greatly affect financial projections for each of the members of a real estate venture. It also demonstrates how financial calculations can vary significantly depending upon how closely analysts track a tax partnership’s allocation method. Finally, the article serves as a primer for tax practitioners who are unfamiliar with the financial tools that are so prevalent in real estate analysis, …

The Liability-Offset Theory Of Peracchi, Bradley T. Borden, Douglas L. Longhofer

Bradley T. Borden

Peracchi v. Commissioner is a lightning rod for commentators and the bane of students of corporate income tax. In short, the decision makes no sense because it grants the maker of a note a section 1012 basis in the note, violating a fundamental principle of income taxation. Nonetheless, the decision helped preserve a fundamental aspect of corporate taxation—the tax-free formation of and contributions to controlled corporations. Because of its unorthodox application of the section1012 basis rules, the Peracchi decision is the subject of severe criticism. Unfortunately, commentators who criticize Peracchi generally fail to offer an alternative that recognizes general income …

The Allure And Illusion Of Partners' Interests In A Partnership, Bradley T. Borden

Bradley T. Borden

Favorable tax treatment and management flexibility make tax partnerships very popular. For starters, tax partnerships, unlike tax corporations, are not subject to entity-level taxes. Partnership taxable income flows through to the partners, and the partners report their shares of partnership taxable income on their individual tax returns. Partnership tax allocation rules determine the partners’ shares of partnership taxable income. Those rules rely upon the alluring concept of partners’ interests in a partnership. It seems intuitive that partners would know their interests in a partnership and be able to allocate partnership taxable income accordingly. This Article illustrates, however, that the concept …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

The Partnership: Preserving Capital Gains On Real Estate Investments, Charles E. Mcwilliams

ExpressO

This paper considers the use of partnerships as an effective tool for preserving capital gains on real estate investments. For tax purposes, the Internal Revenue Service generally treats a limited liability company as a partnership. This form of organization is widely used for real estate investments, and by taking a few simple precautions an LLC may ensure that any gain on its investments in undeveloped real property will be treated as capital gains. Such treatment may reduce the LLC’s tax costs substantially.

The Fifth Circuit developed a framework that has proven invaluable for analyzing the activity of the LLC to …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

The Case For Repealing The Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax, Terrence R. Chorvat, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Put-Call Parity And The Law, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

A common literary theme is the conflict between appearance and reality. That conflict also frequently arises in the law, where it is usually cast as one between substance and form. Another discipline in which the conflict arises is finance, where it appears in the put-call parity theorem. That theorem states that given any three of the four following financial instruments--a riskless zero-coupon bond, a share of stock, a call option on the stock, and a put option on the stock--the fourth instrument can be replicated. Thus, the theorem implies that any financial position containing these assets can be constructed in …

Corporate Finance, Corporate Law And Finance Theory, Peter H. Huang, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Designing A Hybrid Income-Consumption Tax, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Accrual Of Gambling Debts Under Internal Revenue Code Section 451, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines whether an accrual-basis taxpayer must include a legally unenforceable claim in taxable income when it is executed or satisfied. Section I of the Note interprets the "all events test" to require measurement of the likelihood of payment of a debt at the time it is executed: If payment is sufficiently certain, the debt must be accrued. The section concludes that the casinos must include the outstanding markers as income in the year of their execution, and cannot postpone their inclusion until the debts are repaid. Section II argues that accrual-method taxpayers are entitled to use a "bad …

The Continuing Saga Of Prepaid Feed Expense: The Fat Lady Has Not Sung, James D. Wright, Nancy E. Wright

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Affinity Provisions Of The Internal Revenue Code: A Case Study In Nonsimplification, Glenn E. Coven

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Deductibility Of Expenses For Child Care And Household Services: New Section 214, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

It is increasingly common to find families composed of husband, wife and young children, where both husband and wife are gainfully employed. For some, this pattern is regarded as preferable to the older "ideal" family, where the husband was the sole breadwinner and the wife cared for the children, performed household chores and perhaps engaged in social or charitable activities. Where both spouses are gainfully employed, it is often necessary for the family to employ household help to care for the children and do the housework. These expenditures are "necessary" to the gainful employment of both spouses in the sense …

The Reconstruction Of Net Income Under § 446(B) Of The Internal Revenue Code, John J. Harrington

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.