Law Commons^™

Nonprofit Governance: The Basics, Lawrence J. Trautman, Janet Ford

Akron Law Review

Nonprofit organizations are prevalent in today’s economy, and many are governed by individuals who have been chosen on the basis of their advocacy of or contributions to various nonprofit causes rather than on the basis of business experience or acumen. Yet effective nonprofit governance, while presenting concerns unique to nonprofits, also presents many of the same concerns as does governance of for-profit entities. This article seeks to provide a primer for nonprofit organizations that need to recruit effective governance talent. First, we discuss the nature of nonprofits, their impact on the business landscape, and their similarities to and differences from …

Imposing A Deadline On The Irs: Artificial Intelligence Tries To Beat 'Starcraft' While The Irs Tries To Regulate Virtual Currency, Paul C. Nylen

Akron Law Review

Virtual currencies demanded serious attention in 2017 due to public interest, media attention, and investor appetite. With this increased attention on virtual currencies comes significant business, legal, and tax risks. This article serves as a launching pad for those tax risks, and attempts to predict how the IRS will react. By focusing on the IRS’s treatment of virtual currency as property, as well as discussing other tax issues like Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) compliance and like-kind exchanges under Internal Revenue Code section 1031, this article highlights the difficulty the IRS will have in regulating the ever-expanding world of virtual …

Exploring The Legal Issues Of Blockchain Applications, Nathan Fulmer

Akron Law Review

A decade ago, blockchain technology made its mainstream debut with the introduction of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that has generated a lot of buzz in the financial sector. Blockchain’s elegantly simple way of securely and reliably recording data gives the technology the power to disrupt multiple industries. Cryptocurrencies and smart contracts are blockchain’s most common applications, but it can be implemented in a variety of ways.

This article examines blockchain’s core characteristics and mechanics as they apply to its common applications like cryptocurrency and smart contracts, as well as other transactional uses. The author presents some of the legal issues that …