Tax Law Commons^™

The Death Of The Income Tax (Or, The Rise Of America’S Universal Wage Tax), Edward J. Mccaffery

Indiana Law Journal

The killing of the income tax has not been open and notorious: such is not the style of contemporary politics. As with other markers of progressive social policy—the promises of universal health care, Obamacare, come to mind6—the income tax is dying a death by stealth, albeit stealth played out in plain view. The plot lines of the tragedy are apparent. The individual “income” tax has been split in two. One tax, for the masses, is a simple, increasingly formless wage tax. This wage/income tax adds higher brackets onto the payroll tax, the model toward which the wage/income tax aims, to …

The Tyranny Of Money, Edward J. Mccaffery

Michigan Law Review

The more things change, the more they stay the same. A human activity almost as venerable as the accumulation and opulent display of vast riches is the condemnation of the accumulation and opulent display of vast riches. People have been busily engaged at each for several millennia now. Both continue in full flower as America races into the twenty-first century with its liberal capitalist democracy ascendant around the world, its rich richer than ever, its less-rich curiously lagging behind. Yet figuring out what, exactly, is wrong with the excessive accumulation and opulent display of wealth, on the one hand, and …

A Taxing Time For The Bishop Estate: What Is The I.R.S. Role In Charity Governance?, Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

This piece, included in the University of Hawaii Law Review's symposium issue on the Bishop Estate, explores the relationship between the new intermediate sanctions law and the IRS's power to revoke tax exemption under § 501(c)(3). Inspired by the storied setting, I indulge in a fantasy: This article pretends that the IRS revoked the Estate's exemption, and takes the form of the Tax Court declaratory judgment opinion. I reluctantly 'rule' that exemption was not appropriate, because State enforcement action against the trustees was proceeding. (However, this forum allows me to hedge my argument by producing two concurring and one dissenting …

A Taxing Time For The Bishop Estate: What Is The I.R.S. Role In Charity Governance?, Evelyn Brody

Evelyn Brody

This piece, included in the University of Hawaii Law Review's symposium issue on the Bishop Estate, explores the relationship between the new intermediate sanctions law and the IRS's power to revoke tax exemption under § 501(c)(3). Inspired by the storied setting, I indulge in a fantasy: This article pretends that the IRS revoked the Estate's exemption, and takes the form of the Tax Court declaratory judgment opinion. I reluctantly 'rule' that exemption was not appropriate, because State enforcement action against the trustees was proceeding. (However, this forum allows me to hedge my argument by producing two concurring and one dissenting …

Living Trusts In The Unauthorized Practice Of Law: A Good Thing Gone Bad, Angela M. Vallario

All Faculty Scholarship

An elderly man recently lost his wife and visits the lawyer's office for assistance in the administration of her estate. After the attorney expresses her condolences, she asks if his wife had a will. The client reaches into a brown shopping bag and retrieves a two-and-a-half inch black binder containing several trusts. The elderly gentleman and his deceased wife were told this would eliminate the expensive legal nightmare of probate. Unfortunately, like many others, this couple was victimized by a trust mill.

The Unconstitutionality Of Eliminating Estate And Gift Taxes, James G. Wilson

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The recent proposal to eliminate estate and gift taxes is not only immoral and a poor allocation of resources, but also is unconstitutional. Irrespective of their ideology, virtually all American lawyers will initially dismiss this accusation as frivolous because it conflicts with their tradition of equating conceptions of "constitutionality" with United States Supreme Court opinions. The Court has long been highly deferential to Congress in federal tax law cases. It is inconceivable that the current Court would find anything "irrational" in a facially neutral law eliminating all estate and gift taxes. Indeed, if I sat on that bench, I would …

The Tax Of Physics, The Physics Of Tax, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Sometimes ideas from science illuminate muddled legal thinking. Physics teaches that, for every particle of matter, there exists a corresponding particle of anti-matter. A particle of matter and its corresponding particle of anti-matter are identical except that they have opposite electrical charges. A proton's charge is positive, an anti-proton's negative. When matter and anti-matter meet, they produce the most powerful explosion in nature, totally annihilating each other.

With these laws of physics in mind, consider that a donor can make a gift in one of two ways: either by assuming a debt or by transferring as asset. In an instance …

Internet: Taxar Ou Não Taxar?, Ivo T. Gico

Ivo Teixeira Gico Jr.

O artigo demonstra a opinião do autor acerca de manifestações sobre tributação da internet, sustentando o potencial nocivo à democratização da informação. The article demonstrates the author's opinion about taxing the Internet and its potential harm to the democratization of information.