Taxation-Federal Commons^™

Notable Partnership Tax Articles Of 2012, Bradley T. Borden

Bradley T. Borden

This Article reviews several partnership tax articles published by academic journals in 2012. The subjects of the articles range from broad reform proposals to taxation of reorganizations to taxation of carried interest to issues affecting partnership liabilities.

Beneficial Ownership And The Remic Classification Rules, Bradley T. Borden, David J. Reiss

Bradley T. Borden

REMICs are securitized pools of mortgages that qualify for special flow-through taxation. To qualify for flow-through tax treatment, the pool must satisfy several requirements. An intended REMIC that fails to satisfy those requirements will likely be taxed as a corporation and payments made to holders of interests in a failed REMIC will likely be nondeductible dividend payments, subjecting the REMIC to significant tax and penalties. Such tax and penalties will cause beneficial interests in the pool to lose value and frustrate investors who relied upon REMIC classification as an incentive to purchase interests. Thus, tax classification is critical to REMICs …

Wall Street Rules Applied To Remic Classification, Bradley T. Borden, David Reiss

Bradley T. Borden

Investors in mortgage-backed securities, built on the shoulders of the tax-advantaged Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (“REMIC”), may be facing extraordinary tax losses because of how bankers and lawyers structured these securities. This calamity is compounded by the fact that those professional advisors should have known that the REMICs they created were flawed from the start. If these losses are realized, those professionals will face suits for damages so large that they could put them out of business.

The original paper is available at: http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/New_York/Insight/2012/09_-_September/Wall_Street_Rules_Applied_to_REMIC_Classification/.

The Overlap Of Tax And Financial Aspects Of Real Estate Ventures, Bradley T. Borden

Bradley T. Borden

This article examines the effect partnership tax law has on financial aspects of real estate ventures. It introduces the relevance of the aggregate and entity views of tax partnerships (i.e., LLCs, LPs, and other partnerships) and demonstrates how those views can greatly affect financial projections for each of the members of a real estate venture. It also demonstrates how financial calculations can vary significantly depending upon how closely analysts track a tax partnership’s allocation method. Finally, the article serves as a primer for tax practitioners who are unfamiliar with the financial tools that are so prevalent in real estate analysis, …

From Allocations To Series Llcs: 2011'S Partnership Tax Articles, Bradley T. Borden

Bradley T. Borden

This article reviews the partnership tax articles published in student-edited journals in 2011. The articles comprise a rich output on timely topics and demonstrate that partnership tax is primed for even more scholarly attention.

Three Cheers For Passthrough Taxation, Bradley T. Borden

Bradley T. Borden

This report addresses recent suggestions by the Obama administration, lawmakers, and others that some passthrough entities should be taxed as corporations. It argues that passthrough taxation is the correct regime, from a technical standpoint, for many business arrangements. Applying an entity tax to those structures would be inappropriate. The report argues that an entity tax would violate notions of equity by treating members of passthrough entities differently from individuals. Next it demonstrates that a tax on passthrough entities would shift a greater share of the tax burden to middle-income individuals. Finally, the report encourages the administration and lawmakers to increase …

The Effect Of Like-Kind Property On The Section 704(C) Anti-Mixing Bowl Rules, Bradley T. Borden, Douglas L. Longhofer

Bradley T. Borden

Section 704(c)(2) provides an exception to the section 704(c)(1)(B) anti-mixing bowl rules. Commentators have observed that the section 704(c)(2) regulations appear to reach a result that is different from the one intended by the language of the statute. This article take a close look at the language of section 704(c)(2) and suggests that it is subject to multiple interpretations. Of those multiple interpretations, one that requires the partners to recast their original transaction to account for the basis of distributed like-kind property is the most reasonable. The results obtained using that interpretation are identical to the results in the section …

Do Serial Exchangers Get Cash, With Extra Boot, Under New Letter Ruling?, Bradley T. Borden, Kelly E. Alton, Alan S. Lederman

Bradley T. Borden

Related-party exchanges raise the issue of improper extension of the Section 1031(a)(3) 45-day identification and 180-day exchange periods. Related-party exchanges also call into question the amount of boot a related party may receive without triggering an abusive cash-out. A recent letter ruling involving two sequential related-party Section 1031 exchanges makes these issues doubly evident.

Series Llcs In Real Estate Transactions, Bradley T. Borden, Mathews Vattamala

Bradley T. Borden

Series limited liability companies are a fairly new form of business entity. Some observers worry that series limited liability companies are untested and business and property owners should wait to use them. Meanwhile, tax and business law practitioners are moving forward, recommending that their clients take advantage of the opportunities series limited liability companies present. This article reviews the growing popularity of series limited liability companies and the statutory framework of the Delaware series limited liability company statute. It suggests that any hesitancy to use series limited liability companies is unfounded and that they will continue to grow in popularity. …

The Liability-Offset Theory Of Peracchi, Bradley T. Borden, Douglas L. Longhofer

Bradley T. Borden

Peracchi v. Commissioner is a lightning rod for commentators and the bane of students of corporate income tax. In short, the decision makes no sense because it grants the maker of a note a section 1012 basis in the note, violating a fundamental principle of income taxation. Nonetheless, the decision helped preserve a fundamental aspect of corporate taxation—the tax-free formation of and contributions to controlled corporations. Because of its unorthodox application of the section1012 basis rules, the Peracchi decision is the subject of severe criticism. Unfortunately, commentators who criticize Peracchi generally fail to offer an alternative that recognizes general income …

The Allure And Illusion Of Partners' Interests In A Partnership, Bradley T. Borden

Bradley T. Borden

Favorable tax treatment and management flexibility make tax partnerships very popular. For starters, tax partnerships, unlike tax corporations, are not subject to entity-level taxes. Partnership taxable income flows through to the partners, and the partners report their shares of partnership taxable income on their individual tax returns. Partnership tax allocation rules determine the partners’ shares of partnership taxable income. Those rules rely upon the alluring concept of partners’ interests in a partnership. It seems intuitive that partners would know their interests in a partnership and be able to allocate partnership taxable income accordingly. This Article illustrates, however, that the concept …

Pip Factors: Examine With Low Expectations, Brad Borden

Bradley T. Borden

This article takes a critical look at the factors the income tax regulations use to define partners' intererests in a partnership. The article concludes that the factors do little to help determine partners' interests in the partnership.

Related Party Like-Kind Exchanges: Teruya Brothers And Beyond, Bradley T. Borden, Kelly E. Alton, Alan S. Lederman

Bradley T. Borden

The Ninth Circuit recently held that the non-tax-avoidance exception of Section 1031(f) generally will be unavailable where the taxpayer defers tax through a related-party exchange and cannot establish that the related party will incur a higher "tax price." This article examines this new addition to the body of law governing related-party exchanges and discusses planning approaches that exist after the ruling.

Considering Tax Expenditures In State Budget Deliberations, Brad Borden

Bradley T. Borden

This is the manuscript of a talk given at a public forum on tax expenditures in Topeka, Kansas. It explains how tax expenditures erode tax bases and diminish the state's ability to raise revenue, and it suggests that states should treat tax expenditures like direct expenditures in budget deliberations. Finally, the talk demonstrates how tax expenditures can be unfair. Although the comments are specific to the state of Kansas, the principles apply to all governments. A video recording of the proceedings is available at http://tinyurl.com/y85j3w8.

Allocations Made In Accordance With Partners' Interests In The Partnership, Brad Borden

Bradley T. Borden

Tax law allocates partnership tax items in accordance with the partners' interests in the partnership if the allocations do not have substantial economic effect. Tax law also uses the partners' interests in the partnership to test whether certain allocations satisfy the test for substantiality. These rules that rely upon partners' interests in a partnership are at the heart of partneship taxation. Nonteless, tax law does a poor job of defining partners' interests in a partnership. This article illustrates the problems that arise because of that inadequate definition. It also recommends a few changes that could help remedy the existing shortcomings.

Like-Kind Exchanges And Qualified Intermediaries, Brad Borden, Paul L.B. Mckenney, David Shechtman

Bradley T. Borden

The economic downturn has depressed the real estate market, a significant component of the section 1031 industry. In its wake, the industry witnessed three major qualified intermediary failures. QI failures deprive exchangers of exchange proceeds and also create potential tax and legal liabilities for exchangers. This article analyzes those potential liablities and also discusses the cause of QI failures and actions that exchangers and QIs may consider to help safeguard exchange proceeds.

Taxing Shared Economies Of Scale, Brad Borden

Bradley T. Borden

Economies of scale exist if long-run average costs decline as output rises. All else being equal, the decline in average costs should lead to greater profitability, making economies of scale attractive to businesses. Nobel laureate George Stigler recognized that economies of scale should help determine the optimum size of a firm. To obtain economies of scale and optimum firm size, parties may integrate resources or grant access to resources without integrating. Such arrangements create shared economies of scale. Tax law must consider the effects of shared economies of scale and address them. In particular, the varying degrees of scale-sharing raise …

Section 1031 Qualified Intermediaries And The New Economy, Brad Borden

Bradley T. Borden

Industry estimates indicate that, over the past several years, section 1031 qualified intermediaries have lost as much as $700 million of exchange proceeds. Exchangers and their representatives must take steps to help prevent future losses. This article reviews three recent failures and discusses measures that should help reduce the risk of qualified intermediary failure in the new exchange environment. Lawmakers should also consider measures they can take to help prevent such losses in the future.