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Practicing What We Preach: A Call For Progressive Church Taxes, Matthew Barrett Mar 2004

Practicing What We Preach: A Call For Progressive Church Taxes, Matthew Barrett

Journal Articles

Many Catholics do not know that canon law allows their bishop to impose taxes on the parishes in his diocese for diocesan needs. Under canon law, these diocesan taxes, sometimes called diocesan assessments, parish assessments, or quotas, must be proportionate to [the parishes'] income. To a tax lawyer, the adjective proportionate describes a so-called flat tax, or a system that imposes the same tax rate on every taxpayer's taxable income. Canon law commentators, however, have consistently agreed that diocesan bishops can use a progressive tax, which in this context would impose a higher tax rate on parishes with larger incomes. …


"Tax Services" As A Trojan Horse In The Auditor Independence Provisions Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Matthew J. Barrett Jan 2004

"Tax Services" As A Trojan Horse In The Auditor Independence Provisions Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Matthew J. Barrett

Journal Articles

This article argues that the failure of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOx) to prohibit auditors for public companies from also providing tax services to audit clients or their executives and selling tax shelters to anyone remains a Trojan horse that threatens both the investing public and the auditing profession. Although SOx enacted several reforms designed to enhance auditor independence, the legislation and implementing regulations that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subsequently promulgated allow an auditor for a publicly traded company to provide tax services to the company as long as the audit committee preapproves the engagement.

As the …