Tax Law Commons^™

Financial Disability For All, T. Keith Fogg

Working Paper Series

The Internal Revenue Code has four discreet sections that allow late filing of claims and other documents under the circumstances described in those sections. The IRS has promulgated a procedural regulation that allows it to permit late elections under prescribed circumstances. Neither the Code sections nor the Regulation cover all of the circumstances in which taxpayers have a good excuse for missing a time frame. The current provisions have developed in an ad hoc manner. More ad hoc development of this area is possible as equitable tolling litigation seeks to open up time frames under the Code despite the efforts …

The Tax Expenditure Budget Is A Zombie Accountant, Steven Dean

Faculty Scholarship

Like a student blocking his access to the internet to help him study, governments across the globe rely on commitment devices to generate fiscal discipline. From the collapse of the Congressional Supercommittee in the United States to the near-cataclysmic failure of a mechanism designed to prevent the European Union debt crisis, the evidence suggests that faith in such commitment devices is misplaced. This Article focuses on one such device that stubbornly refuses to stay dead: the tax expenditure budget. Created to guard against abuse by publicizing the costs of tax subsidies then resurrected as a bean counter, the tax expenditure …

The Tax Expenditure Budget Is A Zombie Accountant, Steven A. Dean

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Är Det Möjligt Att Utforma Eu-Förenliga Skatteflyktsregler? En Analys Med Särskilt Fokus På Rättfärdigandegrunden Att Upprätthålla Den Väl Avvägda Fördelningen Av Beskattningsrätten, Maria Hilling

Maria Hilling

No abstract provided.

No Wealthy Parent Left Behind: An Analysis Of Tax Subsidies For Higher Education, Andrew Pike

Andrew Pike

This article analyzes the status in 2007 of higher education costs in relation to U.S. taxation policy and the declining real income and ability of lower and middle income taxpayers to pay tuition and fees. Then-current tax policy lessened support for families with the greatest financial need while providing much greater levels of support to those with greater financial resources. To enhance distributional fairness, the author proposes that Congress repeal tax provisions that have this effect and consolidate the separate sources of federal financial aid grants into one program--an expanded Pell Grant program. He also advises that Congress make the …

Real-Time Collection Of The Value-Added Tax: Some Business And Legal Implications, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Boryana Madzharova

Faculty Scholarship

Recent estimates of the level of VAT fraud in the EU are commensurate with the EU budget. With the Green paper on the future of VAT, the European Commission stressed the urgency and necessity of comprehensive VAT reforms. This paper analyses the business and legal implications of the recently proposed split-payment mechanism, which, if implemented, would move VAT’s method of collection to real-time. The discussion is positioned in the context of two increasingly visible trends in the EU – the general shift towards greater reliance on indirect taxation and the growing popularity of electronic payment instruments. The potential implementation of …

Charitable Organizations And Commercial Activity: A New Era - Will The Social Entrepreneurship Movement Force Change?, Jaclyn Cherry

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

It is no longer a new trend for charitable organizations to become involved in commercial activities. Thousands of nonprofit organizations have embraced the social entrepreneurial concept and have either created “commercial” type ventures as part of their nonprofits, have created spin-off organizations or subsidiary organizations, or have moved into the new area of hybrid organizations. Because there are no clear rules or guidelines for dealing with this issue, the third sector finds itself with rogue components and a spin-off group of hybrid organizations being loosely termed “social entrepreneurs.” Though these groups have grown in numbers in recent years, they have …

Agents Without Principals: Regulating The Duty Of Loyalty For Nonprofit Corporations Through The Intermediate Sanctions Tax Regulations, Carly B. Eisenberg, Kevin Outterson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Delaware corporate law imposes a duty of loyalty on officers and directors as a mechanism to regulate and deter self-dealing transactions. In nonprofit corporations, however, there are generally no shareholders with direct financial incentives to monitor against self-dealing. In the absence of shareholders and other principals, Congress and the IRS have articulated duty of loyalty rules for nonprofits that reach far beyond those applied to the for-profit world--most prominently the § 4958 intermediate sanctions. This article identifies the persons who owe a duty of loyalty to a nonprofit corporation, the applicable fiduciary standards for violating the duty of loyalty, and …

Not All Defined Value Clauses Are Equal, Wendy G. Gerzog

All Faculty Scholarship

Defined value clauses used to value nonmarketable family limited partnership (FLP) interests create valuation distortions and other public policy issues. This paper describes these abuses and proposes the employment of restrictions similar to those applied to pecuniary formula marital deduction clauses.

The article explains how pecuniary formula marital deduction provisions created valuation distortions by allowing for undervaluation of the marital share that were remedied by the IRS’s Rev. Proc. 64-19 and the enactment of section 2056(b)(10). The article analyzes recent case law expanding the use of defined value clauses into the FLP area and criticizes the courts for not applying …

Profile - The California Endowment’S Center For Healthy Communities, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

When the California Endowment planned new headquarters space for its own operations, its vision also included creating conference space suitable for events by other not-for-profits, opportunities for formal and informal collaboration among not-for-profits with compatible missions, and even incubator spaces for smaller organizations in need of an office presence. In this second article in his series looking at not-for-profits as urban neighbors, Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project, talks with Anne-Marie Jones, Director of the Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities, and Edward de la Torre, its Director of Facilities and Events.

Profile - Fernbank Museum Of Natural History, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Any natural history or science museum would be proud to haev the diversity of collections and programmatic resources found at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia. But few if any can law claim, as Fernbank does, to having “grown out of a forest.” Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project, talks wiht Aneli Nugteren, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Fernbank Museum, about its unique campus, mission, and facilities.

Profile - Legal Aid Center Of Southern Nevada, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Responding to an ever-increasing need for pro bono legal services, the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada recently broke ground in downtown Las Vegas on what will become its new headquarters. Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project, talks with Eexecutive Director Barbara Buckley about the project and the role that the new facility will play in advancing the Center’s mission and its services to clients.

Perspectives - Alyssa Bellew Of The Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church Of Pasadena, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

At manyplaces of worship, responsibility for oversight of the physical facilities falls to administrative staff as one more adjunct to an already busy schedule. At others, property tasks may be left to volunteers. The “on-the-job training” may often be self-taught. Professor James Hagy explores these challenges with Alyssa Bellew, Administrative Director of Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church.

Perspectives - Benjamin Webb Of The Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Benjamin Webb discusses the rewards and challenges of being responsible for facilities management and energy for the largest mixed-program cultural center in the Southeastern U.S.

Perspectives - Steve Marcussen And Jonathan Sklar Of Cushman & Wakefield, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Steve Marcussen and Jonathan Sklar of Cushman & Wakefield’s Los Angeles office share thoughts on how not-for-profit organizations can be more effective with their real estate assets and in implementing projects with outside real estate brokerage advisors.

Perspectives - Alice Korngold Of Korngold Consulting, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Alice Korngold of Korngold Consulting presents her views on optimizing the match between not-for-profit organizations and prospective board member volunteers.

Panorama - International Perspectives: Kathleen Curran, Director Of Casa Nuevo Horizonte, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

In this first of our series of international perspectives, Kathleen Curran relfects on the important role that physical space has played in her charitable mission in Bolivia supporting promising students seeking an advanced education in a setting of poverty.

How To Choose The Least Unconstitutional Option: Lessons For The President (And Others) From The Debt Ceiling Standoff, Neil H. Buchanan, Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The federal statute known as the “debt ceiling” limits total borrowing by the United States. Congress has repeatedly raised the ceiling to authorize necessary borrowing, but a political standoff in 2011 nearly made it impossible to borrow funds to meet obligations that Congress had affirmed earlier that very year. Some commentators urged President Obama to ignore the debt ceiling, while others responded that such borrowing would violate the separation of powers and therefore that the president should refuse to spend appropriated funds.

This Article analyzes the choice the president nearly faced in summer 2011, and which he or a successor …

It's Not A Tax (Statutorily), But It Is A Tax (Constitutionally), Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

How Nations Share, Allison Christians

Indiana Law Journal

Every nation has an interest in sharing the gains they help create by participating in globalization. Citizens should be very interested in discovering how well their governments fare in claiming an adequate share of this international income stream, since a government that cannot or will not exert its taxing jurisdiction internationally is potentially missing out on a very large and very productive source of revenue. Yet it is all but impossible for citizens to observe exactly how, or how well, their governments navigate this aspect of economic globalization. The vast majority of international tax law plays out in practice through …