Law Commons^™

Taxing Social Enterprise, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Joseph R. Ganahl

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

The fairly strict divide in the United States between for-profit and nonprofit forms presents a quandary for many entrepreneurs who want to combine doing good with doing well. On the one hand, for-profits offer great flexibility and access to capital and so attract entrepreneurs who would like to take advantage of the ability of for-profits to scale up rapidly to meet growing demand. At the same time, however, for-profit forms also limit entrepreneurs’ ability to engage in philanthropy, due to the fiduciary duties managers owe to the equity holders. On the other hand, nonprofits offer their founders the freedom to …

Mutual Funds, Fairness, And The Income Gap, Samuel D. Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

The rich, it turns out, are different from the rest of us. The wealthy, for example, can assemble a diversified portfolio of securities, or can invest through hedge and private equity funds. When the rest of us invest, we do so largely through mutual funds. Nearly half of American households own mutual funds, and mutual funds represented a significant portion of the financial assets held by U.S. households.

The tax rules governing mutual funds create an investment vehicle with significantly worse tax treatment than investments available to the wealthy. In particular, the tax rules governing mutual funds force shareholders to …

Taxing Polygamy: Married Filing Jointly (And Severally?), Samuel D. Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

The tax law treats married and unmarried taxpayers differently in several respects. Married persons, for example, can file and pay their taxes as a unified taxpayer, with rates that are different than those that apply to unmarried taxpayers. This different treatment of married persons has elicited criticism over the years. Some of the more salient criticisms include that married persons do not necessarily function as an economic unit, that joint filing discourages women from working, and that the various exclusions from the joint filing regime—including gay couples—is unfair.

This Article looks at joint filing through the lens of polygamy. Polygamy …

The "Independent" Sector: Fee-For-Service Charity And The Limits Of Autonomy, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

Although numerous scholars have attempted to explain and justify the benefits provided to charities, none has been completely successful. Their theories share, however, two required characteristics for charities. First, charities must be distinct from other types of entities in society, including governmental bodies, businesses, other types of nonprofit organizations, and informal entities such as families. Second, charities must provide some form of public benefit. Focusing on these common characteristics reveals a previously not fully appreciated role for the laws governing charities: protecting charities from influences that could potentially undermine these traits. Applying this new “autonomy perspective” to the law governing …

Reigning In Charities: Using An Intermediate Penalty To Enforce The Campaigning Prohibition, Samuel D. Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

Congress has prohibited public charities from campaigning for or against any candidate for office continuously since 1854. However, the IRS routinely fails to penalize public charities that accidentally violate or deliberately flout the prohibition. And the IRS’s reluctance is understandable: the penalty for violating the campaigning prohibition is loss of the public charity’s tax-exempt status, a death-knell for many public charities. This Article argues that the IRS’s underenforcement of the prohibition is predictable. The prohibition has provoked firestorms of debate among academics, policymakers, and directors of public charities themselves. Where the penalty for violating controversial laws is a hard shove, …

Grown-Up Income Shifting: Yesterday's Kiddie Tax Is Not Enough, Samuel D. Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

In 1986, concerned that wealthy parents were sheltering some of their income from taxes by giving some portion of their securities portfolios to their children, Congress enacted the “kiddie tax,” which taxes a child’s passive income at the child’s parents’ tax rate. By doing so, Congress intended to reduce tax-motivated income-shifting. Since its passage, however, there has been little serious consideration of whether the kiddie tax successfully prevents the targeted income-shifting.

This Article reexamines the kiddie tax and concludes that it is both over- and underbroad. The kiddie tax subjects all of a child’s passive income, not just income resulting …

The "Independent Sector": Fee-For-Service Charity And The Limits Of Autonomy, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

Although numerous scholars have attempted to explain and justify the benefits provided to charities, none has been completely successful. Their theories share, however, two required characteristics for charities. First, charities must be distinct from other types of entities in society, including governmental bodies, businesses, other types of nonprofit organizations, and informal entities such as families. Second, charities must provide some form of public benefit. Given these defining characteristics, the principal role for the laws governing charities is to protect charities from influences that could potentially undermine these traits. This Article is the first to recognize fully the importance of this …

Guidance On A Topic That Spans Practice Areas And Professions (Reviewing P. Garth Gartrell And Steven P. Lapidus, Executive Compensation For Emerging Growth Companies (2008)), Michael Hussey

Michael Hussey

No abstract provided.

Real Taxation Of Virtual Commerce, Steven Chung

Steven Chung

In virtual worlds, people participate in fantasy adventures or socialize in a visually immersive online environment. Popular examples include World of Warcraft, Second Life, Entropia Universe and Ultima Online. As more people are reportedly earning real money through their virtual world activities, governments are looking into whether virtual world transactions are subject to real taxes, even if the participant does not convert his virtual income into cash. However, the application of U.S. tax law has led to unclear and sometimes conflicting interpretations.

This paper instead looks into the virtual world's economic environment to determine whether in-world transactions should be taxable …

Time To Step Up: Modeling The African American Ethnivestor For Self Help Entrepreneurship In Urban America, Roger M. Groves

Roger M. Groves

Almost $6 billion in taxes paid by the American people have been rather ubiquitously placed in the hands of a federal subsidy program for investors in low income communities. The subsidy is in the form of a tax credit. The program is entitled the New Markets Tax Credit (“NMTC”) initiative. Under the program, the tax credit is used to lure investors to provide equity capital into low income areas, urban and/or rural (i.e. a new market for equity funding). According to my companion law review article (Florida Tax Review, Spring, 2007; The Florida Tax Review was ranked 1st among tax …

Time To Step Up: Modeling The African American Ethnivestor For Self Help Entrepreneurship In Urban America, Roger M. Groves

Roger M. Groves

Almost $6 billion in taxes paid by the American people have been rather ubiquitously placed in the hands of a federal subsidy program for investors in low income communities. The subsidy is in the form of a tax credit. The program is entitled the New Markets Tax Credit (“NMTC”) initiative. Under the program, the tax credit is used to lure investors to provide equity capital into low income areas, urban and/or rural (i.e. a new market for equity funding). According to my companion law review article (Florida Tax Review, Spring, 2007; The Florida Tax Review was ranked 1st among tax …

Editorial, Federal Tax Reform Has Gone By The Wayside, Michael Hussey

Michael Hussey

No abstract provided.

Selected Chapters, James Edward Maule

James Edward Maule

No abstract provided.

Contributor, Hauser, "Tax Case Limericks: A Casual Collection", James Edward Maule

James Edward Maule

No abstract provided.

Principles Of Partnerships & Joint Ventures, James Edward Maule, Lisa Starczewski

James Edward Maule

No abstract provided.