Law Commons^™

Back To The 1930s? The Shaky Case For Exempting Dividends, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article is based in part on the author’s U.S. Branch Report for Subject I of the 2003 Annual Congress of the International Fiscal Association, to be held next year in Sydney, Australia (forthcoming in Cahiers de droit fiscal international, 2003). He would like to thank Emil Sunley for his helpful comments on that earlier version, and Steve Bank, Michael Barr, David Bradford, Michael Graetz, and David Hasen for comments on this version. Special thanks are due to Yoram Keinan for his meticulous work on the EU regimes (see Appendix). All errors are the author’s. In this report, Prof. Avi-Yonah …

Revised Innocent Spouse Rules Offer Greater Tax Relief, Linda M. Johnson, A. Bruce Clements

Faculty and Research Publications

When a married couple files a joint tax return, both spouses become jointly and severally liable for the income taxes due, including any additional taxes, interest, and penalties determined at a later date. In the event of an underpayment of income tax, the IRS can proceed against either spouse to collect the entire tax deficiency. This places a spouse in a precarious position in situations where the other spouse deliberately omits income or overstates deductions on a jointly filed income tax return, even if the spouse is totally unaware of the other's transgressions. Relief from joint and several liability is …

Buy-Sell Agreements And Nontax Issues In Planning For Business Succession, Farhad Aghdami

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Exit Strategies For Owners Of Privately Held Businesses, R. Marshall Merriman Jr., Arthur E. Cirulnick, Paul H. Wilner

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Choosing A Business Entity For The 21st Century, Samuel P. Starr, Thomas P. Rohman, L. Michael Gracik Jr.

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Uses Of Life Insurance For The Closely-Held Business, Mary Anne Mancini

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Employee Benefits Issues In Purchase And Sale Of Privately Held Business, Andrea L. O'Brien

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Deconstructing The General Plan Of Rehabilitation, John W. Lee

Faculty Publications

The general plan of rehabilitation doctrine provides that expenses incurred as part of a plan of general rehabilitation must be capitalized even though the same expenses incurred separately would be deductible as ordinary and necessary repairs. The emerging general standard after INDOPCO for current deduction of an expenditure with future benefits, the case with most repair/ improvement expenditures, is a balancing test: Whether the taxpayer ’s administrative and record keeping costs associated with capitalization outweigh the potential distortion of income from a current deduction of the future benefit expenditures. “Rough justice” rules for current deduction of future benefits expenditures, reflecting …

Employer Tax Liability For Employees' Tips: Fior D'Italia, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Given Nevada's heavy concentration of businesses in which employees are tipped, lawyers here may be more than usually interested in a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court. On June 17, 2002, the Court decided United States v. Fior D'ltalia, Inc. By 6 to 3, the Court held that the IRS may use an “aggregate estimation” method to determine employers’ liability for Social Security (FICA) taxes imposed on their employees’ tip income. The decision is an important development in a controversy of long duration, but it is not the end of that controversy. This article …

Campaign Finance Disclosure And Section 527 Of The Code: A Look At The District Court's Opinion In National Federation Of Republican Assemblies, Donald B. Tobin

Faculty Scholarship

This report examines the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in National Federation of Republican Assemblies v. United States, which dealt with section 527 political organizations.

Why Craft Isn't Scary, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

In April 2002, the Supreme Court of the United States decided United States v. Craft. The Court held that the federal tax lien attaches to a tax-debtor spouse’s interest in property held in tenancy by the entirety even when the other spouse does not owe tax and state law provides that entireties property and interests cannot be reached by separate creditors of only one spouse.

Craft was correctly decided. The older, contrary view that Craft displaced was fundamentally at odds with federal tax collection analysis as laid out by the Court. In addition, the old view invited tax abuse and …

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

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transaction Costs Relating To Acquisition Or Enhancement Of Intangible Property: A Populist, Political, But Practical Perspective, John W. Lee

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Proposal To Reform The Like Kind And Involuntary Conversion Rules In Light Of Fundamental Tax Policies: A Simpler, More Rational, And More Unified Approach, Fred B. Brown

All Faculty Scholarship

Almost from the beginning of the federal income tax, the law has contained two nonrecognition provisions that have undergone relatively little change: the like kind rule and the involuntary conversion rule. Commentators have questioned the policy grounds for the like kind rule in general, and for some of its particular features, such as the exchange requirement. Congress and its staffers have also noted the complexity caused by certain aspects of the rule and have enacted or proposed remedial changes in this regard. The involuntary conversion rule also contributes to the complexity of the tax system given the fact-intensive analysis that …

Pay Equity: A Fundamental Human Right, Margot Young

All Faculty Publications

This paper undertakes the limited task of determining what interpretive consequences, if any, might flow from the removal of federal pay equity provisions from their current location in the Canadian Human Rights Act and placement of such provisions in their own stand-alone legislation. Part of the interpretive stance courts currently bring to their consideration of the federal pay equity provisions reflects the placement of these provisions within federal human rights legislation. Courts have held that human rights legislation has a special nature or quasi-constitutional status. This status results from the fundamental character of the values the legislation expresses and the …

The Once And Future Property Tax: A Dialogue With My Younger Self, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

As I look back on my youth (expansively defined as the first 40 years of my life), everywhere I went, the local real property tax was perceived as both bad and doomed. If I could speak with the brash young law student/graduate student/alderman I once was, he would undoubtedly tell me, with great confidence, that by the beginning of the next century (which then seemed very far away) the property tax would no longer play a role in the system of local public finance.

Alas, he was wrong.

This essay explains why the young man I once was, confident of …

After Craft: Implementation Issues, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Scientists often observe that answering one question about the world or universe causes many new questions to arise. Chess players understand that to win material in the opening or middle game is empty without playing the end game properly. Military commanders and their civilian superiors know that winning a battle is not an end in itself. They must then address what do with their victory, how to turn it to useful result. Having to confront these second-generation or follow-up problems clearly beats the alternatives (remaining ignorant or losing the game or battle), but initial success ushers in not immediate repose …

Ability To Pay, Stephen Utz

Faculty Articles and Papers

There is broad agreement that a fair tax should be imposed in accordance with taxpayers' ability to pay. A utility-based interpretation of this standard, used in most tax policy discussions today, does not adequately reflect the its historical development and cannot escape long standing and devastating criticisms from within welfare economics and on other general grounds. This article traces the history of ability to pay, with special reference to the standard's emergence along with the British and German income tax laws, and in the theoretical literature that followed the adoption of income tax laws there and elsewhere. The article concludes …

Choice Of Entity For A Venture Capital Start-Up: The Myth Of Incorporation, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Income Tax Planning For Long-Term Care, David M. English

Faculty Publications

Planning for long-term involves more than the preparation of powers of attorney and counseling on possible asset transfers to qualify for Medicaid reimbursement. Steps should also be taken to make certain that the person receiving care continues to file an income tax return and does so at a minimum possible income tax cost. Practitioners should be familiar with the procedure for filing a return on behalf of an incapacitated individual. The medical expense deduction, while of little importance for most taxpayers, is critical for many elderly, particularly for those receiving long-term care. Long-term care insurance and life insurance may be …

Enron, Accounting, And Lawyers, Matthew Barrett

Journal Articles

Enron's collapse painfully illustrates the importance of financial accounting to all lawyers. Accounting is often referred to as "the language of business." Virtually every lawyer represents businesses, their owners, or clients with adverse legal interests, such as creditors and customers. Especially after Enron, lawyers cannot competently represent clients if they do not grasp certain basic principles about accounting. This article lists the top ten accounting lessons that any lawyer could learn from the scandal. These lessons include the components of a complete set of financial statements, the choices inherent in generally accepted accounting principles, the distortions possible in pro forma …

Aljs In State-Local Tax Cases: To Whom Is Deference Due?, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

This installment of the column reports on an interesting recent Nevada sales tax case, State Dep’t of Taxation v. Masco Builder Cabinet Group. The case involved two issues: (1) whether the Department of Taxation gave appropriate deference to the findings and conclusions of the administrative law judge who had originally heard the case, and (2) whether the principle of equitable tolling applied to extend the statute of limitations period for the taxpayer’s refund claims. The taxpayer, represented by attorney Brett Whipple, prevailed in the Nevada Supreme Court on both issues.

The first part below develops the facts of Masco …

Tax Shelters And The Tax Minimization Norm: How Does The Patenting Of Tax Advice Transform The (Global) Playing Field, Linda M. Beale

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Current Problems Of International Taxation Of Electronic Commerce, Nuran G. Kerimov

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis discusses the main problems that face tax authorities of many countries in the process of taxation of electronic commerce. It analyzes examples of problems posed by the growth of e-commerce in the context international direct and indirect taxation. Current international policy issues are the subject of discussion of the thesis. The thesis also analyzes some of the proposals regarding taxation of electronic commerce.

Should Ambiguous Revenue Laws Be Interpreted In Favor Of Taxpayers?, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

There was a time when courts construed, or said that they construed, ambiguous federal tax statutes in favor of taxpayers. That time is long past. Or is it? This article examines whether, because of a recent Supreme Court case, the pro-taxpayer constructional preference may be resuscitated, and whether it should be.

The Interaction Of Tax And Non-Tax Treaties, Robert A. Green

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This background note consists of two parts. Part one provides an overview of the extent to which tax matters are currently covered in non-tax treaties. This discussion focuses on the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement and the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA) (which cover direct tax measures only to a limited extent) and the European Community (EC) treaty (which covers direct tax measures more broadly). Part two outlines the issues raised when tax matters are covered in non-tax treaties.

Asset Acquisitions: A Colloquy, Samuel C. Thompson Jr.

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Personal Deductions – An "Ideal" Or Just Another "Deal"?, Jeffrey H. Kahn

Scholarly Publications

The allowance of many personal deductions, such as the deduction for medical expenses or charitable contributions, has been criticized on the contention that such deductions are not appropriate elements of an income tax system, but rather are merely devices by which Congress has expended federal funds to further some nontax program or other goal. The tax revenues that are not collected because of these provisions have been characterized as “subsidies” or as camouflaged direct expenditures of the government. This view has attained such prominence that Congress requires the federal government to publish annually a “budget” that lists those tax provisions …

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly In Post-Drye Tax Lien Analysis, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Incentive Stock Options And The Alternative Minimum Tax: The Worst Of Times, Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

Congress enacted the Alternative Minimum Tax ("AMT") to stop high-income individuals from escaping their tax liabilities through tax code loopholes. In recent years, increasing numbers of moderate-income taxpayers have been subject to astronomical AMT liabilities. The problem has been especially acute for technology sector employees who exercised stock options while the market was high, sold their stock after its value fell, and found themselves owing AMT they could not afford to pay. In this Essay, Professor Lipman explains the Internal Revenue Code's complicated treatment of Incentive Stock Options ("ISOs"). She argues that the AMT adjustment for ISOs should not be …