Taxation-Federal Commons^™

What Is Insurance? An Analysis Of The Tax Deductibility Of Captive Insurance Premiums, John D. Patten

Honors Capstones

What is insurance for the purposes of a tax deduction? The Internal Revenue Code does not define insurance. Without this definition, taxpayers using alternative insurance products to manage their risks must look to case law to determine whether their arrangements count as tax deductible insurance or non-deductible self-insurance. This paper dives into the four prongs of insurance: insurance risk, risk shifting, risk distributing, and commonly accepted notions of insurance. This paper looks to cases that have dealt with the deduction of captive insurance premiums to provide better insight into the practical application of this test. After discussing the evolution of …

Written Testimony Of Philip Hackney For The Hearing On Laws And Enforcement Governing The Political Activities Of Tax-Exempt Entities (U.S. Senate Finance Committee Subcommittee On Taxation And Irs Oversight, May 4, 2022), Philip Hackney

Testimony

Are tax laws and IRS enforcement up to the task of overseeing the tax issues associated with the political activities of tax-exempt organizations? Though the tax laws governing the tax-exempt realm are wanting, our overall legal structure is not bad. It is justifiable at least. Where we fall down as a nation in this space is in the enforcement. We do not allocate enough resources to this arena, and we do not institutionally offer the support necessary to enforce these laws. These failures do not favor one party over the other but favor those interests in the country with the …

Opportunity Zones: A Program In Search Of A Purpose, Ofer Eldar, Chelsea Garber

Faculty Scholarship

In 2017, Congress created the Opportunity Zone (“OZ”) program to stimulate economic growth in low-income communities. The program was characterized by its unprecedented scale relative to previous place-based development efforts and was described as “perhaps the most ambitious economic development tool to come out of Congress in a generation.” However, the program was quickly criticized on numerous grounds, and its design flaws are so severe that several legislators have called for its reform or repeal.

This Essay argues that the root of the OZ program’s problems is a strong mismatch between its stated purpose and its actual terms. We discuss …