Law Commons^™

A Resource Guide To Tax Law Careers, Robert H. Hu

Robert Hu

This Guide is designed to assist law students and attorneys in the pursuit of careers in tax law. It is also intended for librarians and career counselors to readily find tax law career information so that they can assist their clients effectively. It includes resources in both print (for example, books and articles) and electronic formats (for example, Web sites). Each item included has a brief annotation so that the user can quickly decide the relevancy and value of that item.

Partial Termination Of Single-Employer Tax Qualified Plans: Clarity Or Misappropriated Judicial Decision-Making?, Samantha Prince, Jo Ann Petroziello

Samantha J. Prince

For over three decades, the Internal Revenue Code [hereinafter I.R.C. or Code 1 has contained provisions that require that all benefits in a single-employer tax qualified plan become fully vested when the plan is partially terminated. However, the Internal Revenue Service [hereinafter IRS or Service] has failed to articulate a standard for determining when a partial termination has occurred. Instead, the courts and the Service have utilized a “facts and circumstances” test which does not set clear guidelines. In light of the application of inconsistent approaches by the courts, recent decisions answering partial plan termination questions have served only to …

Who Is Injured When Racially Discriminatory Private Schools Are Tax-Exempt?, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

The Bob Jones Case - Over To Congress, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

Tax Exemptions For Racially Discriminatory Private Schools: A Legislative Proposal, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

In Revenue Ruling 71-447, the Internal Revenue Service expressly denied tax exemptions to racially discriminatory private schools. The Reagan administration recently challenged the existence of a defined policy prohibiting tax exemptions to these schools as well as the propriety of the IRS's involvement in regulating social policy. President Reagan has called upon Congress to settle the issue by enacting affirmative legislation. Congress, however, has maintained that long-established federal policy supports Revenue Ruling 71-447 and has refused to enact affirmative legislation. In this Article, Mr. Devins examines the conflict between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government and argues that …

Standing And Adverseness In Challenges Of Tax Exemptions For Discriminatory Public Schools, Thomas Mccoy, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

The Unique Benefits Of Treating Personal Goodwill As Property In Corporate Acquisitions, Darian M. Ibrahim

Darian M. Ibrahim

Corporate acquisition talks may not get far if buyer and seller disagree over transaction structure, which can have significant after-tax effects. But the parties may have overlooked an item that, due to its potential tax treatment, could be the key to facilitating the acquisition. That item is the selling shareholder's "personal goodwill."

Personal goodwill exists when the shareholder's reputation, expertise, or contacts gives the corporation its intrinsic value. It is most likely to be found in closely held businesses, especially those that are technical, specialized, orprofessional in nature or have few customers and suppliers. If personal goodwill is treated as …

Keeping Up With Tax Law And The Affordable Care Act, Frederick W. Dingledy

Frederick W. Dingledy

No abstract provided.

Why Pension Funding Matters, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

No abstract provided.

The Economic Ambiguity (And Possible Irrelevance) Of Tax Transition Rules, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

No abstract provided.

Settlements And Waivers Affecting Pension Benefits Under Erisa, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

Waivers affecting pension benefits may be entered into as part of a controversy (for example, a settlement agreement) or in isolation (for example, a disclaimer). Under current law, however, it is unclear how these waivers fit within the protections of ERISA, particularly the antialienation rule. Courts have generally honored settlement agreements so long as they are procedurally fair to participants. However, the antialienation rule looms in the background. The IRS and Treasury, in contrast, have focused on waivers outside the settlement context, prohibiting participants from making them but allowing beneficiaries to do so if the waiver satisfies gift-tax rules for …

Taxing Systemic Risk, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

A tax on the harmful elements of finance—a tax on systemic risk—would raise revenue and also lower the likelihood of future crisis. Financial institutions, which pay the tax, would try to minimize its cost by lowering their systemic risk. In theory, a tax on systemic risk is perfect policy. In practice, however, this perfect policy is unattainable. Tax laws need clear definitions to be administrable. Our current understanding of systemic risk is too abstract and too metaphorical to serve as a target for taxation.

Despite the absence of a clear definition of systemic risk, academics and policy makers continue to …

Taxing Losers, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

The U.S. tax system, like most in the world, benefits capital gains in two ways. Investors can defer paying tax until they "realize" any gain (typically by sale) rather than when the gain simply occurs via rising prices. Additionally, individual investors pay a lower, preferred rate on their long-term capital gains as compared to their other ordinary income (such as compensation or business profits).

However, investors face a burden with respect to their capital losses. Rather than allowing for unlimited capital loss deductions, the Code largely forces investors to match their capital losses against their capital gains. Limits on capital …

The Post-Tarp Movement To Regulate Banker Pay, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

No abstract provided.

Outlawing Pension-Funding Shortfalls, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

Before ERISA, employees faced a large risk that their employers would default or renege on pension obligations. By creating a federal guarantor of pensions (the PBGC), ERISA has greatly reduced this risk. All else being equal, low-risk pensions are worth more to employees but cost more to provide. Congress has never had a coherent policy on who should pay for these extra costs. Moreover, legal scholars have failed to create a theoretical framework for dealing with these costs, focusing instead on the supposed "moral hazard" that the PBGC guaranty creates. This Article inserts itself into the scholarly vacuum, asserting that …

Quantifying The Tax Advantage Of Deferred Compensation, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

No abstract provided.

Extending The Taxation-Of-Risk Model To Timing Options And Marked-To-Market Taxes, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

No abstract provided.

Naked And Covered In Monte Carlo: A Reappraisal Of Option Taxation, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

The market for equity options and related derivatives is staggering, covering trillions of dollars worth of assets. As a result, the taxation of these instruments is inherently important. Moreover, the importance is made even more acute by the use of options in creating more complex transactions and in avoiding taxes. Consider an equity call option, which entitles, but does not obligate, its holder to buy stock at a set price at a set time in the future. Option theory gives us a way to break the option down into more fundamental units. For example, an equity call option over 10,000 …

The Natural Property Rights Straitjacket: The Takings Clause, Taxation, And Excessive Rigidity, Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

Natural property rights theories have become the primary lens through which conservative jurists and scholars view the Constitution’s main property rights provision, the Takings Clause. One of their most striking arguments is that progressive income taxation — applying higher tax rates to higher incomes — is an unconstitutional taking of wealthy taxpayers’ property. This has become part and parcel of well-established battle lines between conservative property rights advocates and their liberal counterparts. What has gone unnoticed is that the very same argument deployed against progressive taxation also deems regressive taxation — applying lower tax rates to higher incomes — an …

Windfalls, Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

No abstract provided.

Of Piketty And Perpetuities: Dynastic Wealth In The Twenty-First Century (And Beyond), Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

For the first time since independence, in a nation founded in large part on the rejection of a fixed nobility determined by birth and perpetuated by inheritance, America is paving the way for the creation of dynastic family wealth. Abolition of the Rule Against Perpetuities in over half the states along with sharp reductions in, and likely elimination of, the federal estate tax mean that there soon will be no obstacles to creating large pools of dynastic wealth insuring lavish incomes to heirs for generations without end. The timing of these legal changes could hardly be worse. Marshaling innovative economic …

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: Reducing Inequality With A Progressive State Tax Credit, Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

No abstract provided.

A Progressive Federal Tax Credit For State Tax Payments, Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

No abstract provided.

Drawing The Line Between Taxes And Takings: The Continuous Burdens Principle, And Its Broader Application, Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

No abstract provided.

Tax Policy Analysis Of Bob Jones University V. U.S, Charles O. Galvin, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

Bob Jones University V. U.S.: A Political Analysis, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of The Supreme Court And Constitutional Democracy, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

Pfizer Loses Jurisdictional Argument In Overpayment Case, Andrew Velarde

Robert Probasco

Tax Competition And Tax Cooperation: A Survey And Reassessment, Hugh J. Ault

Hugh J. Ault

No abstract provided.

Taxed Out: Illegal Property Tax Assessments And The Epidemic Of Tax Foreclosures In Detroit, Bernadette Atuahene, Christopher Berry

Bernadette Atuahene

Detroit is experiencing historic levels of property tax foreclosure. More than 100,000 properties, or one in four throughout the city, have been foreclosed upon for nonpayment of property taxes since 2011. Simultaneously, there is strong evidence that the City is over assessing homeowners in violation of the Michigan Constitution, calling into question the record number of property tax foreclosures. This Article is the first attempt to measure the impact of unconstitutional tax assessments on property tax foreclosures. Controlling for purchase price, location, and time-of-sale, we show that residential properties with higher assessment ratios sold in Detroit since 2009 were more …