Tax Law Commons^™

The Other Eighty Percent: Private Investment Funds, International Tax Avoidance, And Tax-Exempt Investors, Omri Marian

BYU Law Review

The taxation of private equity managers’ share of funds’ profits—the twenty percent “carried interest”—received much attention in academic literature and popular discourse. Much has been said and written about the fact that fund managers’ profits are taxed at preferred rates. But what about the other eighty percent of funds’ profits? This Article theorizes that the bulk of such profits are never taxed. This is a result of a combination of three factors: First, private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds (collectively, Private Investment Funds, or “PIFs”) are major actors in cross-border investment activity. This enables PIFs to take advantage of …

Defending Worldwide Taxation With A Shareholder-Based Definition Of Corporate Residence, J. Clifton Fleming Jr., Robert J. Peroni, Stephen E. Shay

BYU Law Review

This Article argues that a principled, efficient, and practical definition of corporate residence is necessary even if some form of corporate integration is adopted, and that such a definition is a key element in designing either a real worldwide or a territorial income tax system as well as a potential restraint on the inversion phenomenon. The Article proposes that the United States adopt a shareholder-based definition of corporate residence that is structured as follows: 1. A foreign corporation is a U.S. tax resident for any year if fifty percent or more of its shares, determined by vote or value, was …

Developing Countries In An Age Of Transparency And Disclosure, Diane Ring

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Foreign Tax Credit War, Bret Wells

BYU Law Review

The government has been involved in a sustained war against objectionable foreign tax credit transactions. This war has caused the U.S. foreign tax credit regime to be riddled with complexity that spawns incoherent outcomes. The complexity contained in section 901 was created due to a legitimate concern: the threats posed by objectionable transactions that artificially generate excess foreign tax credits represent real policy problems. Since at least 1975, Congress and the Treasury Department have been convinced that the cross-crediting of excess foreign tax credits arising from “objectionable transactions” required a response in addition to simply relying on section 904. Thus, …

Beps And The New International Tax Order, Allison Christians

BYU Law Review

Nations across the world are currently engaged in a coordinated international effort, ostensibly to curb excessive tax avoidance by the world’s biggest multinational companies. This Article contends, however, that the most likely impact will be to entrench a monopoly held by a small number of rich countries over the policymaking processes that created the tax avoidance problem to begin with. To examine this contention and probe possible solutions to it, the Article considers the legal and institutional components of the coordination project, by situating them historically and analyzing their multi-functionality as both norm diffusion and institutional reinforcement mechanisms. The Article …

Competitiveness, Tax Base Erosion, And The Essential Dilemma Of Corporate Tax Reform, Kimberly A. Clausing

BYU Law Review

Label contradicts reality for the U.S. international corporate tax system. The U.S. system is typically labeled as a worldwide tax system with a statutory rate of 35%, both uncommon features among our trading partners. Yet these markers of the U.S. tax system do not accurately describe reality, where multinational firms routinely face far lower effective tax rates and little, if any, tax is collected on foreign income. Understanding this discrepancy between label and reality is essential to evaluate recent policy debates surrounding corporate inversions and the competitiveness of the U.S. international tax system. Although there is an essential policy tradeoff …

Inversions, Related Party Expenditures, And Source Taxation: Changing The Paradigm For The Taxation Of Foreign And Foreign-Owned Businesses, Julie A. Roin

BYU Law Review

The disconnect between the rules for the taxation of domestic businesses and foreign and foreign-owned businesses operating in the United States both diminishes the federal treasury and distorts taxpayer and business behavior. Yet bringing the sets of rules into closer coordination is no simple task. This Article examines many of the solutions proffered in the academic literature and details the difficulties and trade-offs that each entails.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: Reducing Inequality With A Progressive State Tax Credit, Eric Kades

Louisiana Law Review

The article focuses on the income inequality entirely within the control of governments with the unfair taxation across every state in one fell swoop with the progressive state tax credit (PSTC) and federal income tax deduction for state tax payments and tax policy of constitutional law.

In States We "Trust": Self-Settled Trusts, Public Policy, And Interstate Federalism, Brendan Duffy

Northwestern University Law Review

Over the last twenty years, domestic asset protection trusts have risen in popularity as a means of estate planning and asset protection. A domestic asset protection trust is an irrevocable trust formed under state law which enables an independent trustee to allocate money to a class of

persons, which includes the settlor.

Since Alaska first enacted domestic asset protection legislation in 1997, fifteen states have followed its lead. The case law over the last twenty years addressing these trust mechanisms has, however, been surprisingly sparse. A Washington bankruptcy court decision, In re Huber, altered this drought, but caused more confusion …

Mandatory Third Party Compliance Examinations For Investment Advisers: An Sec Waterloo?, Mercer Bullard

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) appears to be on the verge of requiring investment advisers to undergo third party examinations. One justification for the rulemaking is that the Commission lacks sufficient resources to examine advisers frequently enough. Another is to create indirectly a self-regulatory organization (SRO) for investments advisers. Both may leave a rulemaking particularly vulnerable to challenge as arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act. This Article considers three novel grounds on which a rulemaking may be successfully challenged. Congress has repeatedly rejected SEC requests to provide additional funding for examinations or to create an …

Show Me The Money: The Ceo Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule And The Quest For Effective Executive Compensation Reform, Biagio Marino

Fordham Law Review

This Note discusses past attempts to combat growing levels of executive compensation, analyzes the role of both shareholders and directors in the compensation-setting process, and discusses conflicting views concerning shareholder-director power, the disclosure mechanism, and the pay-ratio metric. Finally, this Note balances these views by proposing alterations to the CEO Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule that preserve the long-standing corporate structure, while also offering shareholders an accountability mechanism to enhance the Rule’s intended results.

Taxation – Selection Of Exchange Rate For Translation Purposes -- Where Multiple Exchange Rates Exist For A Foreign Currency And The Underlying Transaction Is Financial In Nature, The Proper Rate For Translation Components Of Taxable Income Is The "Free" Market Rate (Durovic V. Commissioner Of Internal Revenue, 7th Cir. 1976), Tim J. Floyd

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

We Believe In Being Honest: Dependency Exemptions For Lds Missionaries, Annalee Hickman Moser

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

The Mapmaker’S Dilemma In Evaluating High-End Inequality, Daniel Shaviro

University of Miami Law Review

The last thirty years have witnessed rising income and wealth concentration among the top 0.1% of the population, leading to intense political debate regarding how, if at all, policymakers should respond. Often, this debate emphasizes the tools of public economics, and in particular optimal income taxation. However, while these tools can help us in evaluating the issues raised by high-end inequality, their extreme reductionism—which, in other settings, often offers significant analytic payoffs—here proves to have serious drawbacks. This Article addresses what we do and don’t learn from the optimal income tax literature regarding high-end inequality, and what other inputs might …

Realigning The Governmental/Proprietary Distinction In Municipal Law, Hugh D. Spitzer

Seattle University Law Review

Lawyers and judges who deal with municipal law are perpetually puzzled by the distinction between “governmental” and “proprietary” powers of local governments. The distinction is murky, inconsistent between jurisdictions, inconsistent within jurisdictions, and of limited use in predicting how courts will rule. Critics have launched convincing attacks on the division of municipal powers into these two categories. Most articles have focused on problems with the distinction in specific areas of municipal law. In contrast, this article provides a comprehensive analysis of the governmental/proprietary distinction in seven specific doctrinal areas: legislative grants of municipal authority, government contracts, torts, eminent domain, adverse …

Confidence Schemes: Theft Loss Deductions, Restitution, And Public Policy, Steven F. Friedell

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article focuses on some of these problems in the field of federal income tax. It suggests that when part of the IRC appears to direct a particular outcome, courts are prone to error when they override that command by imposing a penalty based on the judges’ moral condemnation of a party’s behavior. It would be better for courts to employ the statute’s intrinsic set of public policies to guide their decision making. In some instances, the results will not change because of other overlooked provisions in the statute. However, adherence to the legislature’s balance of conflicting interests will …

The Case Against Income Tax Exemption For Nonprofits, Michael Fricke

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

In order to discuss the current state of affairs in the nonprofit world, Part I of this Article addresses how nonprofits are treated under the law and the various income tax exemption defenses that have been proffered over the years. Then, Part II investigates the problems raised by organizations that take advantage of their tax exemption, but decline to use their revenue for their exempt purposes. This problem has been addressed infrequently in academic literature, but Part III reviews other proposed reforms that might affect this issue. Part IV lays out the proposed solution, and Part V examines the …

Not Too Separate Or Unequal: Marriage Penalty Relief After Obergefell, Mitchell L. Engler, Edward D. Stein

Washington Law Review

Joint tax returns have generated controversy for many years. Married couples with the same joint income pay the same tax under our current system regardless of the earnings distribution between the spouses. This approach primarily rests on the idea that married couples share resources and operate as a single economic unit. Critics typically challenge this assumption and lament how marriage might significantly change a couple’s taxes. Depending on their earnings breakdown, a couple’s taxes could be reduced (a marital bonus for uneven-earners) or increased (a marital penalty for even-earners). These possibilities exist because the joint brackets are typically larger–but not …

Not Too Separate Or Unequal: Marriage Penalty Relief After Obergefell, Mitchell L. Engler, Edward D. Stein

Washington Law Review

Joint tax returns have generated controversy for many years. Married couples with the same joint income pay the same tax under our current system regardless of the earnings distribution between the spouses. This approach primarily rests on the idea that married couples share resources and operate as a single economic unit. Critics typically challenge this assumption and lament how marriage might significantly change a couple’s taxes. Depending on their earnings breakdown, a couple’s taxes could be reduced (a marital bonus for uneven-earners) or increased (a marital penalty for even-earners). These possibilities exist because the joint brackets are typically larger–but not …

Front Matter (Letter From The Editor, Masthead, Etc.)

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Employer Shared Responsibility Provisions Under The Affordable Care Act, Xuan Hong

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Gamers Beware: Level 99 Boss...Taxes!, Fenny Lei

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Tax Journal Volume 6, No. 1 – Summer/Fall 2016

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Summaries For The Fourth Annual Irs/Sjsu Small Business Tax Institute, Padmini Yalamarthi, Fan Wang, Jie Shen, Xuan Hong, Marla Hampton Cpa, Mba, Aaron Grey

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, Shilpa Balnadu

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

When Is A Transfer Of Assets To A Controlled Corporation By Related Parties A Sale Or Contribution Of Capital?, Ophelia Ding

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Qualified Residence Interest Deduction: A Win For Unmarried Co-Owners, Christine Manolakas

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Dependent Disclaimers - Who Wields The Power?, Christina Ciaramella D'Elia Esq.

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Commentary On Dependent Disclaimers By Katheleen R. Guzman, Bich-Nga H. Nguyen

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.