Tax Law Commons^™

Using Salience And Influence To Narrow The Tax Gap, Susan Morse

Faculty Publications

This Article contains five parts. Part I describes the details and limitations of several existing tax-gap-closing approaches relevant to self-employed and small business taxpayers: third-party reporting, audit, whistleblower rewards, and gatekeeper strategies. Part II outlines the concepts of salience and influence and places them in the context of proposals to address or close the tax gap. Part III considers how salience and the influence principle of social proof could improve government messages to taxpayers about taxpaying obligations and audit risks, and to tax preparers about diligence requirements. Part IV outlines strategies based on the influence principles of reciprocity and commitment …

Doma And The Internal Revenue Code, Patricia A. Cain

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to make the argument that I think needs to be made: DOMA, as applied to the Internal Revenue Code as a whole, is unconstitutional because it lacks a rational basis.

Let me explain, up front, that my constitutional argument about § 3 has nothing to do with whether Congress has the power to enact such legislation. Congress, after all, does have the power to levy taxes and control our borders. Thus, Congress should have the power to determine which married couples can file a joint return and which non-citizen spouses can be given preferential …

Cash Businesses And Tax Evasion, Susan Morse, Stewart Karlinsky, Joseph Bankman

Faculty Publications

This Article attempts to provide a qualitative picture of tax evasion in the small business sector. It provides details from almost 275 field study interviews with cash business owners and with tax preparers and bankers who serve cash business clients. Our research suggests answers to the questions of who evades taxes, what taxes they evade, and why and how they evade taxes. This Article proceeds in three additional parts. Part II summarizes the main threads of relevant social science research on small business tax compliance. Part III describes the methodology and results of this interview study. Part IV concludes.