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Full-Text Articles in Law

Congress Promotes Perpetual Trusts: Why?, Lawrence W. Waggoner Sep 2014

Congress Promotes Perpetual Trusts: Why?, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Law & Economics Working Papers

This posting updates the article titled Congress Promotes Perpetual Trusts: Why?. The article was originally posted on SSRN in September 2013. The updated version incorporates a discussion of two new developments—the unveiling of the long-awaited House Ways and Means Committee’s proposal for comprehensive tax reform and the issuance of the president’s proposed budget for 2015. Both of these new developments are disappointing because neither proposes curtailing or effectively curtailing perpetual trusts. By unwittingly granting a tax exemption for perpetual trusts, Congress undermined state perpetuity law and promoted private trusts that can last and remain tax exempt for many centuries and …


State Fiscal Policies And Transitory Income Fluctuations, James R. Hines Jr. Sep 2010

State Fiscal Policies And Transitory Income Fluctuations, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

State and local expenditure and tax revenue respond less to the business cycle than do federal spending and revenue, thereby reducing the countercyclicality of total government expenditure and revenue. This paper considers forces responsible for the cyclical pattern of state expenditure and revenue. Annual fluctuations in state personal income are associated with small changes in state spending and significant changes in tax receipts; receipt of federal grants is associated with greater state spending. Tax collections, and to a lesser degree expenditure, of larger states are more closely associated with annual income fluctuations than are the tax collections and expenditure of …


Introduction To Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing The European Court Of Justice And The Us Supreme Court's Tax Jurisprudence, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2007

Introduction To Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing The European Court Of Justice And The Us Supreme Court's Tax Jurisprudence, James R. Hines Jr.

Other Publications

This volume brings together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to consider federalist tax jurisprudence as practiced in Europe and the United States. These essays display a broad range of shared concerns, which is not to say that the scholars agree on all points of substantive policy and interpretation. What can be said is that there is general agreement that the exercise of comparing the tax jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice and the US Supreme Court is likely to be informative and beneficial to all concerned.


Preface To Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing The European Court Of Justice And The Us Supreme Court's Tax Jurisprudence, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2007

Preface To Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing The European Court Of Justice And The Us Supreme Court's Tax Jurisprudence, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Other Publications

In October 2005, a group of distinguished tax experts from both the European Union and the United States convened at the University of Michigan Law School for a conference on 'Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing the US Supreme Court and European Court of Justice Tax Jurisprudence.' The conference was sponsored by the Law School, the European Union Center, and Harvard Law School's Fund for Tax and Fiscal Research. Attendees from Europe included Michel Au jean, the principal tax official at the EU Commission, Servaas van Thiel, chief tax advisor to the EU Council, Michael Lang (Vienna) and Kees van Raad (Leiden), …


Passport To Toledo: Cuno, The World Trade Organization, And The European Court Of Justice, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Dec 2005

Passport To Toledo: Cuno, The World Trade Organization, And The European Court Of Justice, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The purpose of this article is to try to place the debate about Cuno v. DaimlerChrysler in a broader perspective by connecting it with the overall discussion of harmful tax competition. It discusses two hypothetical scenarios under which the city of Toledo, Ohio, is (a) a separate country and (b) a member state of the European Union. If the first hypothetical were true, the tax incentives offered by Toledo would violate the rules of the World Trade Organization; if the second hypothetical were true, the tax incentives would also violate the Treaty of Rome, as interpreted by the European Court …


The Pitfalls Of International Integration: A Comment On The Bush Proposal And Its Aftermath, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Mar 2004

The Pitfalls Of International Integration: A Comment On The Bush Proposal And Its Aftermath, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

In January 2003, the Bus Administration proposed a new system for taxing corporate dividends, under which domestic shareholders in U.S. corporations would not be taxed on dividends they received, provided the corporation distributed these dividends out of after-tax earnings (the “Bush Proposal”). The Bush Proposal was introduced in Congress in February 27,2003. Ultimately, however, Congress balked at enacting full-fledged dividend exemption. Instead, in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (“JGTRRA”) as enacted on May 28, 2003, a lower rate of 15% was adopted for dividends paid by domestic and certain foreign corporations, and the capital gains …


Corporations, Society And The State: A Defense Of The Corporate Tax, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Mar 2004

Corporations, Society And The State: A Defense Of The Corporate Tax, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

This article attempts to provide the first comprehensive rationale for defending the current corporate income tax. It argues that the usual reasons given for the tax (primarily as an indirect way of taxing shareholders, or alternatively as a form of benefit tax) are inadequate. It then explains what the original rationale to adopt this tax was in 1909, namely to regulate managerial power, and that this rationale stems from the real view of the corporation, which was the dominant view throughout the many transformations underwent by the corporate form from Roman times to the present. Turning to normative argument, the …


The 2003 Revised Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 2004

The 2003 Revised Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Editors' Synopsis: This Article describes the significant sections of the 2003 Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act (the "2003 Uniform Act'). The Article explains the purpose and operation of the 2003 Uniform Act's various sections and notes some of the differences between the 2003 Uniform Act and its prior version.


The Funding Of Children's Educational Costs, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1985

The Funding Of Children's Educational Costs, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

A plan for reduction of educational costs should take federal transfer taxes into account. The method chosen for reducing income tax liability usually will involve making gifts. To the extent that it is convenient to do so, the transfer tax consequences of making such gifts should be minimized. This article will examine the estate and gift tax consequences of the income tax reduction arrangements described herein and will consider means of structuring the transactions so as to minimize those consequences.


Review Of Michigan And Federal Estate And Tax Planning, By P. Chirco And S. Ward, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1967

Review Of Michigan And Federal Estate And Tax Planning, By P. Chirco And S. Ward, Douglas A. Kahn

Reviews

Any evaluation of a book of this nature must be made in light of its purpose and its intended audience. The authors recognize that estate and tax planning is too broad a subject to be treated comprehensively in a single volume, and, consequently, they quite properly made no effort in that direction. Rather, their apparent purpose was to furnish the non-specialist with an annotated form book containing textual discussions of tax and estate planning problems, with particular emphasis on local Michigan law.


Federal Estate Tax Burden Borne By A Dissenting Widow, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1966

Federal Estate Tax Burden Borne By A Dissenting Widow, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Renunciation of her deceased husband's will entitles a widow to a specified percentage of the husband's net estate (or a dower interest) in lieu of any benefits she would otherwise have received under the will. The size of the dissenting widow's share differs among the several states, but the normal range is from one third to one half of her husband's net estate. In some jurisdictions the widow's share is determined, in whole or in part, according to the portion to which she would be entitled if her husband had died intestate, but in these jurisdictions the widow's share generally …


Special Assessments Upon Cemeteries, Ralph W. Aigler Jan 1916

Special Assessments Upon Cemeteries, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

Though the power to tax cemeteries would seem to be entirely clear, very commonly land devoted to such purpose is declared by constitution or statute to be exempt. See COOLY, TAXATION, (3rd ed.) 354. So also in the case of special assessments such land, in the absence of a clear exemption, is liable thereto. Bloomington Cemetery Assoc. v. People, 139 IIl. 16, 28 N. E. 1076; Mullins v. Cemetery Assoc., 239 Mo. 681, 144 S. W. 109; Buffalo City Cemetery v. Buffalo, 46 N. Y. 503; Lima v. Lima Cemetery Assoc., 42 Oh. St. 128, 51 Am. Rep. 809. It …


Some Legal Aspects Of Special Assessments, Frank L. Sage Jan 1904

Some Legal Aspects Of Special Assessments, Frank L. Sage

Articles

Taxes have been defined as "the enforced proportional contributions from persons and property levied by the state by virtue of its sovereignty for the support of the government and all public needs." The essential elements that we will notice particularly are two; first, that the contributions are proportional, that is, levied upon all in the same class according to some impartial standard, and second, that taxes can be levied for public purposes only.


Remedies Of Illegal Taxation, Thomas M. Cooley Dec 1880

Remedies Of Illegal Taxation, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

Taxation is to a nation what the circulation of the blood is to he individual; absolutely essential to life. In ordinary times it is the chief burden which government imposes upon the people, and is likely, therefore, to be the greatest source of discontent. This renders it of the utmost importance that taxation should as nearly as possible be just, and also that it should appear to those who pay it to be just. Absolute justice, however, is unattainable.


Principles That Should Govern In The Framing Of Tax Laws, Thomas M. Cooley Dec 1877

Principles That Should Govern In The Framing Of Tax Laws, Thomas M. Cooley

Other Publications

"The foregoing paper was prepared for, and read before, the American Social Science Association, at its meeting in Cincinnati on April 22, 1878. It is not, as will be seen, a discussion of legal questions, but of questions in political economy. Still, at this time, when attention is very generally being directed to the principles of taxation, it will be found not wanting in practice interest to the legal profession." Professor Cooley takes on the problem of suitable and just taxation, a problem "forever demanding solution, but never solved." How do we set equitable rates based on personal valuation for …


Principles That Should Govern In The Framing Of Tax Laws, Thomas M. Cooley Dec 1877

Principles That Should Govern In The Framing Of Tax Laws, Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

The problem of suitable and justtaxation is one which is forever demanding solution, butnever solved. Adam Smith gave to the world certain rules which should governin taxation, the first of which was that "The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government as nearly as possible in proportion to their respective abilities - that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state." While most writers on political economy have been disposed to accept this as a sound and just rule, some have objected to it that it …