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Full-Text Articles in Law
Only Congress Can Create Deductions, Deborah A. Geier
Only Congress Can Create Deductions, Deborah A. Geier
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
A series of recent and controversial cases has raised the issue of how plaintiffs must treat attorneys' fees and costs that are paid out of otherwise includable settlement or litigation awards. Everyone seems to agree that under tax policy and theory plaintiffs should not be saddled with this burden. Many have expressed the desire that Congress amend the Code to correct the problem. The more difficult question, which the author addresses, is whether courts can act to protect these plaintiffs in the absence of Congressional action.
Some Meandering Thoughts On Plaintiffs And Their Attorneys' Fees And Costs, Deborah A. Geier
Some Meandering Thoughts On Plaintiffs And Their Attorneys' Fees And Costs, Deborah A. Geier
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
This article examines statutory interpretation in general and the common-law doctrines at issue in particular (the assignment-of-income doctrine as well as the doctrine first identified in the seminal case of Old Colony Trust). While the author believes that these plaintiffs ought--as a matter of policy and income tax theory--to escape taxation on the amounts paid to their attorneys, she belives that the issue is truly a " deduction" issue, not a "gross income" issue. The article concludes, however, that the ill-fitting application of "gross income" doctrine in this context leads to indefensible distinctions that sound superficially plausible under the rubric …