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Book Review. Reviving Fiscal Citizenship, Ajay K. Mehrotra Jan 2015

Book Review. Reviving Fiscal Citizenship, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In recent years, numerous lawmakers, policy analysts, and scholars have been decrying the many defects of the present U.S. income tax system. Few have attempted to defend our return-based mass income tax. This essay reviews Learning to Love Form 1040, Lawrence Zelenak’s stirring and persuasive defense of a simplified version of our present federal income tax system. In contrast to the conventional economic critiques, Zelenak explores the underappreciated social, cultural, and political benefits of a return-based, mass income tax. Chief among these, he argues, is the existing regime’s potential to raise the tax consciousness of the average citizen and to …


The Case For Taxing (All Of) Labor Income, Consumption, Capital Income, And Wealth, David Gamage Jan 2015

The Case For Taxing (All Of) Labor Income, Consumption, Capital Income, And Wealth, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Perhaps the most fundamental questions in tax legal scholarship concern debates about what should be the ideal tax base or tax bases. In particular, scholars have vigorously disagreed about (1) whether the United States should follow other developed countries in supplementing its income tax with a value-added consumption tax, and (2) whether governments should seek to tax capital income and wealth or should instead seek to redesign or replace income taxes with progressive consumption taxes.

The prior economics-oriented theoretical literature on these questions has largely focused on analyzing labor supply and savings behaviors. Yet the existing empirical literature does not …


Prompt On The King V. Burwell Case, David Gamage Jan 2015

Prompt On The King V. Burwell Case, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Once again, the U.S. Supreme Court will be deciding the fate of Obamacare — in the case of King v. Burwell. Also, once again, the future of American healthcare reform will turn on how the Supreme Court reviews a provision of Obamacare that was enacted through the tax code.

So far, the debates over King v. Burwell have largely focused on Constitutional law, Administrative law, and other non-tax-law considerations. Might there be unique tax law perspectives that could be brought in to better illuminate these debates? Does it matter that the provision being reviewed (I.R.C. Sec. 36B) was enacted through …


King V. Burwell: What Does It Portend For Chevron's Domain?, Leandra Lederman, Joseph C. Dugan Jan 2015

King V. Burwell: What Does It Portend For Chevron's Domain?, Leandra Lederman, Joseph C. Dugan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In King v. Burwell, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Fourth Circuit’s decision, upholding regulations that extend the Premium Tax Credit (the Credit) to qualifying taxpayers who purchase health insurance on the Internet-based “Marketplace” operated by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), despite statutory language extending the subsidy to individuals who purchase through “an Exchange established by the State.” This was the second time in just three years that the Roberts Court engaged in what one critic called “linguistic acrobatics” that rescued President Obama’s signature healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—or, as Justice Scalia …