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Taxation Without Explanation: The Federal Gift Tax, Jeffrey S. Kinsler
Taxation Without Explanation: The Federal Gift Tax, Jeffrey S. Kinsler
Law Faculty Scholarship
The Federal Gift Tax is designed to implement two competing policies: to tax gifts so as to prevent taxpayers from depleting their estates (and thus evading the estate tax) with tax-free lifetime transfers; but to tax gifts at a rate lower than testamentary transfers so as to encourage taxpayers to circulate wealth during life, thereby stimulating economic growth and income tax revenue. The gift tax has always been carefully crafted to balance these competing interests. That is, until now. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 ("EGTRRA") completely perverted these two policies.' EGTRRA was sold to the …
Circuit-Specific Application Of The Internal Revenue Code: An Unconstitutional Tax, Jeffrey S. Kinsler
Circuit-Specific Application Of The Internal Revenue Code: An Unconstitutional Tax, Jeffrey S. Kinsler
Law Faculty Scholarship
For all practical purposes, the Constitution prescribes only one limit on the federal government's power to tax: the Uniformity Clause, which requires that indirect taxes, such as income and excise taxes, be "uniform throughout the United States ... " It is exceedingly rare for a federal tax law to violate the Uniformity Clause. The Internal Revenue Code does not fix different taxes for different states, as Congress has carefully crafted the tax laws to avoid geographical distinctions. Unfortunately, the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") has not always been so careful. In recent years, the IRS has adopted a practice of applying …