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Full-Text Articles in Taxation-Federal
Misguided Relief: The Real Property Tax Addition To The Standard Deduction, Alan L. Feld
Misguided Relief: The Real Property Tax Addition To The Standard Deduction, Alan L. Feld
Faculty Scholarship
The push to use federal money for benevolent purposes occasionally produces more cost than benefit, particularly when the outlay comes in the form of taxes forgiven. The Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 added a supplement to the basic standard deduction. A nonitemizing taxpayer may claim a deduction for real property taxes paid, up to $500, $1,000 in the case of a joint return. Initially, the change applied only to 2008, but subsequent legislation extended its life through 2009, and pending legislation would make it a permanent part of the Code. Although well intentioned, the real property tax provision makes …
Fairness In Rate Cuts In The Individual Income Tax, Alan L. Feld
Fairness In Rate Cuts In The Individual Income Tax, Alan L. Feld
Faculty Scholarship
The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (the 1981 Act) made significant changes in federal income, estate, and gift taxation, touching virtually every taxpayer.1 The centerpiece of the 1981 Act consisted of rate reductions in the individual income tax.2 These reductions, said to average 23%, served a number of different but related objectives. First, those in favor of the tax cuts posited that all taxpayers would benefit from equitable, across-the-board reductions in an excessive and growing tax burden.3 Related to this objective was an anticipated reduction in the size of the federal government, because less tax money …
Artists, Art Collectors And Income Tax, Alan L. Feld
Artists, Art Collectors And Income Tax, Alan L. Feld
Faculty Scholarship
The federal income tax law treats artists and art collectors differently. Similar transactions concerning artworks produce disparate income tax results, depending on whether they involve the artist or the collector. On balance, these results seem to favor the collector over the artist. But notwithstanding the dismay of some artists and their advocates, the differences in result flow, in the main, from the differences in the source of the taxpayer's investment in the work.
The collector buys the work with after-tax income. Any gain is properly treated as an investment return and is eligible for capital gain benefits.' The collector, however, …
Deductibility Of Expenses For Child Care And Household Services: New Section 214, Alan L. Feld
Deductibility Of Expenses For Child Care And Household Services: New Section 214, Alan L. Feld
Faculty Scholarship
It is increasingly common to find families composed of husband, wife and young children, where both husband and wife are gainfully employed. For some, this pattern is regarded as preferable to the older "ideal" family, where the husband was the sole breadwinner and the wife cared for the children, performed household chores and perhaps engaged in social or charitable activities. Where both spouses are gainfully employed, it is often necessary for the family to employ household help to care for the children and do the housework. These expenditures are "necessary" to the gainful employment of both spouses in the sense …