Law Commons^™

Criticism, Confusion Over California’S Proposition 19 Property Tax Amendments, Berenice Quirino

GGU Law Review Blog

Proposition 19, the California measure narrowly approved by voters last November, created a tax break for some and tax hikes for others. Proponents of the measure tout the new tax revenue stream for the state as well as benefits for some of its vulnerable residents. In contrast, those opposed argue it disproportionately benefits wealthy, white residents while hurting people of color and low-income Californians.

The measure amended the California constitution by adding new sections to Article XIII A, which relates to tax limitations. As of April 1, 2021, Proposition 19 removes certain restrictions for eligible homeowners who transfer their home’s …

How The State And Federal Tax Systems Operate To Deny Educational Opportunities To Minorities And Other Lower Income Students, Camilla E. Watson

Scholarly Works

The importance of education cannot be overstated. Education is a core principle of the American Dream, and as such, it is the ticket to a better paying job, homeownership, financial security, and a better way of life. Education is the key factor in reducing poverty and inequality and promoting sustained national economic growth. But while the U.S. Supreme Court has referred to education as "perhaps the most important function of the state and local governments," it has nevertheless stopped short of declaring education a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution. As a consequence, because education is not considered a fundamental …

Stanley Surrey, The 1981 Us Model, And The Single Tax Principle, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

2021 marks the fortieth anniversary of the 1981 US Model Tax Treaty as well as the fifth anniversary of the 2016 US Model Tax Treaty. The first author has repeatedly argued that the 1981 Model gave life to the single tax principle (‘STP’). The 2016 Model updates effectively implemented the principle that cross-border income should be taxed once – that is not more and but also not less than once. For example, the 2016 Model does not reduce withholding taxes on payments of highly mobile income that are made to related persons that enjoy low or no taxation with respect …

Paying For Gun Violence, Samuel D. Brunson

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Gun violence is an outsized problem in the United States. Between a culture that allows for relatively unconstrained firearm ownership and a constitutional provision that ensures that ownership will continue to be relatively unchecked, it has proven virtually impossible for politicians to address the problem of gun violence. And yet, gun violence costs the United States tens of billions of dollars or more annually. These tens of billions of dollars are negative externalities — costs that gun owners do not bear themselves, and thus that are imposed on the victims of violence and on taxpayers generally.

What can we do …

Stategraft, Bernadette Atuahene, Timothy Hodge

All Faculty Scholarship

Although sometimes difficult to detect, governmental power abuses can have detrimental impacts. Property tax assessments provide an effective lens to examine this phenomenon because, given the complexity of calculating property tax assessments, it is difficult for citizens to know when local government has exceeded its legitimate taxing authority and crossed into the realm of illegal extraction. Michigan is an ideal case study because it protects property owners by making assessment-related power abuses more visible through a unique state constitutional provision: property tax assessments cannot exceed 50 percent of a property’s market value. Abuses have persisted nevertheless. Between 2011 and 2015, …

Incorporating Ny Land Banks Into The Delinquent Property Tax Enforcement Processes, J. Justin Woods

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Student Publications

This article argues that New York municipalities should integrate land banks into the tax enforcement process to break the unhealthy cycle perpetuated by real estate and lien speculators. By transferring all tax liens and foreclosed properties to local land banks, municipalities can generate an important funding source that will help cover land banks' operations while simultaneously maximizing land banks' ability to reinvest lien proceeds and equity into redeveloping or demolishing properties with little or no value. If New York municipalities use their Land Bank Act powers fully, local and regional land bank efforts can become a vital tools for planning …

Tax Ferrets, Tax Consultants, Bounty Hunters, And Hired Guns: The Property Tax Netherworld Fueled By Contingency Fees And Champertous Agreements, J. Lyn Entrikin

Faculty Scholarship

Contingency fee agreements between local tax assessors and contract auditors on the one hand, and property owners and private tax consultants on the other, create perverse financial incentives that undermine the integrity of state and local tax administration. When local governments engage outside auditors to identify undervalued or escaped taxable property, the practice raises serious due process and ethical concerns. As a matter of policy, diverting a share of property tax revenue to private third parties in consideration for outsourced tax assessment services undermines public accountability and reduces net property tax revenue for local government services. And when states allow …

A Bundle Of Confusion For The Income Tax: What It Means To Own Something, Stephanie H. Mcmahon

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

ABSTRACT-Conceptions of property exist on a spectrum between the Blackstonian absolute dominion over an object to a bundle of rights and obligations that recognizes, if not encourages, the splitting of property interests among different people. The development of the bundle of rights conception of property occurred in roughly the same era as the enactment of the modem federal income tax. Nevertheless, when Congress enacted the tax in 1913, it did not consider how the nuances of property, and the possible splitting of the interests in an income-producing item, might affect application of the tax. Soon after the tax's enactment, the …

Just A Matter Of Fairness: Tax Consequences Of The Service’S Revised Community Property Treatment Of California Registered Domestic Partners (Rdps), Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Misuse Of Textualism: A Further Reply To Prof. Kahn, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Because readers have already endured four articles, two by me and two by Prof. Douglas A. Kahn, debating the meaning of section 67(e)(1), I am reluctant to respond to Prof. Kahn’s rejoinder, which appeared in the January 18 issue of Tax Notes. Nevertheless, our disagreement implicates the judicial craft of two U.S. Supreme Court members, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sonia Sotomayor. I therefore feel it important to answer Prof. Kahn’s latest contentions, recognizing my duty to be as brief as possible.

The Ubit: Leveling An Uneven Playing Field Or Tilting A Level One?, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

After grateful alumni acquired the Mueller Spaghetti Company on behalf of New York University, and the courts held that the university did not have to pay tax on the pasta maker’s income, Mueller’s competitors cried foul. Congress responded to their pleas and enacted the unrelated business income tax (UBIT). The UBIT subjects an otherwise tax-exempt entity, such as a charitable institution or a religious organization, to tax on its income from a trade or business that is not substantially related to the organization’s tax-exempt purpose. The UBIT is widely viewed as leveling the playing field between taxable for-profit businesses and …

Taking Compensation Private, Abraham Bell, Gideon Parchomovsky

All Faculty Scholarship

In light of the expansive interpretation of the ""public use"" requirement, the payment of ""just compensation"" remains the only meaningful limit on the government's eminent domain power and, correspondingly, the only safeguard of private property owners' rights against abusive takings. Yet, the current compensation regime is suboptimal. While both efficiency and fairness require paying full compensation for seizures by eminent domain, current law limits the compensation to market value. Despite the virtual consensus about the inadequacy of market compensation, courts adhere to it for a purely practical reason: there is no way to measure the true subjective value of property …

Bargaining For Takings Compensation, Abraham Bell, Gideon Parchomovsky

All Faculty Scholarship

Efficiency and fairness require paying full compensation to property owners when their property is taken by eminent domain. Yet, to date, the evidentiary challenge of proving subjective value has proved insurmountable, and current law requires condemnees to settle for fair market value. This Article proposes a self-assessment mechanism that can make full compensation at subjective value practical. Under our proposal, property owners must be given the opportunity to state the value of the property designated for condemnation. Once property owners name their price, the government can take the property only at that price. However, if the government chooses not to …

How Does The Cap Water Bank Influence Short-Term And Long-Term Water Supply Vulnerability In The Basin?, Larry R. Dozier, Bob Johnson

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Larry R. Dozier, Central Arizona Project.

Respondent on US-Mexico Issues and Other Lower Basin Matters: Bob Johnson, US Bureau of Reclamation.

6 pages (includes color illustrations).

No More Parking Lots: How The Tax Code Keeps Trees Out Of A Tree Museum And Paradise Unpaved, Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Tax Law, Second Edition, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law, Thomas A. Brown, Timothy C. Kimmel, C. Christopher Muth, Douglas P. Romaine, Mark F. Sommer, Randy L. Treece

Continuing Legal Education Materials

A reference for Kentucky lawyers on real and personal property taxation, Kentucky sales and use taxation, Kentucky individual income taxation, corporate income taxation, and procedures before the Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals.

Report Of The Senate Commission On Property Tax Equity And Revenue To The California State Senate, Senate Commission On Property Tax Equity And Revenue

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Aca 53 And Proposed Jarvis Iv Initiative, Assembly Revenue And Taxation Committee, Senate Office Of Research

California Joint Committees

No abstract provided.

Future Issues Facing Boston: The Assessing Department, Janet L. Hunkel

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

Taxpayers' opinions of municipal government often focus on the property tax. Taxpayers are stingy, and they are critical as to whether their money is purchasing competent services. For citizens to have faith that government is democratic, taxes must be equitable — everyone must pay their fair share. For government to function efficiently, tax administration must be efficient in order to support city services.

The property tax is a complex, difficult tax to administer; it is vulnerable to misuse. However, there have been recent, dramatic changes to the tax laws. Municipal government in Massachusetts now has the political and legal wherewithall …

Water Development For Coal Pipelines: The Etsi Story, Wesley M. Witten

New Sources of Water for Energy Development and Growth: Interbasin Transfers: A Short Course (Summer Conference, June 7-10)

8 pages (includes 1 map).

Implementation Of Proposition 13 Volume I: Property Tax Assessment, Assembly Revenue And Taxation Committee

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

California's New Property Tax Assessment System, Assembly Revenue And Taxation Committee

California Assembly

Legislative history, summary of provisions, and text of AB 1488 (Chapter 242 Statutes of 1979) and SB 17 (Chapter 49 - Statutes of 1979).

The Impact Of Proposition 13 (The Jarvis-Gann Property Tax Initiative) On Local Government Programs And Services, Assembly Committee On Local Government, Assembly Committee On Revenue And Taxation

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

The Minnesota Tax Title: An Argument For Its Marketability -- The 1874 Forfeiture System From A 1974 Perspective, Donald H. Gjerdingen

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

On Egalitarian Overzeal: A Polemic Against The Local School Property Tax Cases, Paul D. Carrington

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Income Tax Aspects Of Gifts And Leasebacks Of Business Property In Trust, William W. Oliver

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Rental deductions for a grantor who transfers property used in his business into a short term trust and then leases it back have been at issue in three recent cases, with the deduction being denied in two of the three cases. Some of the concepts used by the courts in these cases are of doubtful help in analyzing the problems, and there is a need for further clarification before tax consequences can be predicted with a reasonable degree of assurance. There is a possibility that the income will be taxed to the trust, even though a deduction is denied the …

Parr-Richmond Industrial Corp. V. Boyd [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

In actions to recover property taxes paid under protest, the property owner only had a qualified and contingent possessory interest in the form of a gratuitous and revocable right to possession and thus the taxes assessed were incorrect.

The Present Status Of Multiple Taxation Of Intangible Property, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Certain Classes Of Real Estate Under Depression Conditions, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Multiple Taxation By The States -- What Is Left Of It?, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.