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Full-Text Articles in Law
When Soft Law Meets Hard Politics: Taming The Wild West Of Nonprofit Political Involvement, Lloyd Histoshi Mayer
When Soft Law Meets Hard Politics: Taming The Wild West Of Nonprofit Political Involvement, Lloyd Histoshi Mayer
Journal Articles
Beginning in the 1990s and continuing to today, many of the legal and psychological barriers to nonprofits becoming involved in electoral politics have fallen. At the same time, political divisions have sharpened, causing candidates, political parties, and their supporters to scramble ever more aggressively for any possible edge in winner-take-all political contests. In the face of these developments, many nonprofits have violated the remaining legal rules applicable to their political activity with little fear of negative consequences, especially given vague rules and a paucity of enforcement resources. Such violations include underreporting of political activity in government filings, fly-by-night organizations that …
'The Better Part Of Valour Is Discretion': Should The Irs Change Or Surrender Its Oversight Of Tax-Exempt Organizations?, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer
'The Better Part Of Valour Is Discretion': Should The Irs Change Or Surrender Its Oversight Of Tax-Exempt Organizations?, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer
Journal Articles
Recent events have highlighted the difficulties the Internal Revenue Service faces when attempting to ensure that purportedly tax-exempt organizations in fact qualify for that status. The problems in this area go much deeper than a group of IRS employees subjecting certain organizations to greater scrutiny based on their political leanings, however. For decades members of the public, the media, the academy, and Congress have criticized the limited ability of the IRS to ensure that organizations claiming exemption from federal income tax in fact deserve that categorization. Yet examples of IRS failings in this area continue to arise with depressing frequency. …
Tax Avoidance, Alan Gunn
Tax Avoidance, Alan Gunn
Journal Articles
Professor Gunn explores the merits of “tax avoidance” approaches in dealing with cases involving unpaid taxes. He describes definitions of the term and also illustrates some alternatives to the tax avoidance approach. Looking at how tax avoidance is dealt with in laws and in judicial decisions Gunn notes that lawmakers should not attempt to formulate authoritative rules on preventing it. This is because taxpayers have a well-known desire to reduce their taxes, and will find ways to get around laws. Authoritative and too well defined rules ignore what taxpayers might do in response to them. Professor Gunn concludes by arguing …