Tax Law Commons^™

Preserving Fairness In Tax Administration In The Mayo Era, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

One of the dominant themes in contemporary federal taxation is bringing tax administration within the fold of general administrative law. In 2011, the United States Supreme Court unambiguously embraced this movement in the landmark case Mayo Foundation for Medical Education & Research v. United States, in which the Court held that challenges to the validity of Treasury regulations generally are governed by the Chevron standard to the same extent as are regulations issued by other administrative agencies.

There was an immediate and strong hostile reaction to Mayo in tax circles. Many fear that Mayo dramatically tips the balance in favor …

The Normative Underpinnings Of Taxation, Sagit Leviner

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Putting State Courts In The Constitutional Driver's Seat: State Taxpayer Standing After Cuno And Winn, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

This article explores the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno and Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn. In Cuno and Winn, the Court held that state taxpayers lacked standing in the federal courts. Because the states have more liberal taxpayer standing rules than do the federal courts, Cuno and Winn will not terminate taxpayers’ constitutional challenges to state taxes and expenditures, but will instead channel such challenges from the federal courts (where taxpayers do not have standing) to the state courts (where they do). Moreover, municipal taxpayer standing in the federal courts, which …

Anonymous Withholding Agreements And The Future Of International Cooperation In Taxing Foreign Financial Accounts : Testimony Before The Finance Committee Of The German Bundestag, September 24, 2012 (Statement By Associate Professor Itai Grinberg, Geo. U. L. Center), Itai Grinberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Chairwoman Reinemund and members of the Finance Committee, this testimony will make three key points:

• Automatic information exchange is superior to anonymous withholding for the purpose of combating tax evasion involving the use of foreign financial accounts.

• German ratification of the Swiss-German anonymous tax withholding agreement would stifle the emergence of a multilateral automatic information exchange system. As a result, Germany would be less able to address its own concerns with tax evasion through foreign accounts over the medium term. By ratifying this agreement, Germany would also slow the development of a multilateral system that would allow many …

Putting Nevada In Perspective: State And Local Government Budgets In Recession And Recovery, Tracy M. Gordon

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Nevada, the state most affected by the Great Recession of 2008, faced one of the nation's worst state budget shortfalls in 2011. This presentation examines state budget drivers, including constitutional requirements, tax and spending limitations, federal statutes, demographics, and the resulting policy choices to evaluate how state-level decisions affect local jurisdictions that continue to cope with lower property values, foreclosures, and high unemployment. It will also discuss longer term challenges including rising health care costs and retiree pensions as well as issues surrounding implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Transparencia Y Anticorrupción, Primera Llamada De Peña, Norma E. Pimentel

Norma E Pimentel

No abstract provided.

The 'No Surplusage' Canon In State-Local Tax Litigation, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Previous installments of this column have examined numerous canons or conventions of statutory interpretation in their application to state and local tax controversies. This installment considers another canon: the precept that courts should prefer interpretations that render no part of a statute superfluous. A recent treatise phrased the principle thus:

If possible, every word and every provision [of an enactment] is to be given effect. . . . None should be ignored. None should needlessly be given an interpretation that causes it to duplicate another provision or to have no consequence.

The first part below describes the canon generally. The …

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/.

When Should Asset Appreciation Be Taxed?: The Case For A Disposition Standard Of Realization., Jeffrey L. Kwall

Jeffrey L. Kwall

No abstract provided.

Akteure Des Internationalen Steuerrechts Und Ihre Handlungsformen, Hugh Ault

Hugh J. Ault

No abstract provided.

Grown-Up Income Shifting: Yesterday's Kiddie Tax Is Not Enough., Samuel Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

No abstract provided.

Elective Taxation Of Risk-Based Financial Instruments: A Proposal., Samuel D. Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

No abstract provided.

Reigning In Charities: Using An Intermediate Penalty To Enforce The Campaigning Prohibition., Samuel Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

No abstract provided.

Taxing Investment Fund Managers Using A Simplified Mark-To-Market Approach., Samuel Brunson

Samuel D. Brunson

No abstract provided.

Elaine Hightower Gagliardi On Treasury Transforms The Portability Election: Making The Dsue Amount A Reliable Planning Tool, Elaine H. Gagliardi

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

With the issuance of temporary regulations, Treasury pulls back the cloak of uncertainty and reveals a portability election that proves to be relatively dependable and a useful planning tool. The temporary portability regulations,1 issued June 15, 2012, remove the “now you see it, now you don’t”2 quality of the deceased spousal unused exclusion (“DSUE”) amount as enacted by Congress. With a sleight of hand, Treasury rewrites the plain wording of the statute to eliminate uncertainty. The temporary regulations provide a clear path for avoiding loss of the DSUE amount on remarriage. The regulations allow donors to make gifts without fear …

Front Matter

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Estate Planning Issues With Intra-Family Loans And Notes, Stephen R. Akers, Philip J. Hayes

ACTEC Law Journal

Intra-family loans are quite prevalent, and can present significant estate planning opportunities. Loans among family members may seem simple, but they involve numerous complexities. The article addresses many of the complexities including estate, gift and income tax consequences of loans to both the lenders and borrowers in a wide variety of situations -- from simple cash loans to sophisticated sale transactions.

Sex Post Facto: Advising Clients Regarding Posthumous Conception, Benjamin C. Carpenter

ACTEC Law Journal

Apart from tax considerations, trust and estate law is often viewed by outsiders as a somewhat dusty area of the law. However, few examples better illustrate the intersection of law and technology than posthumous conception and estate law. While judges, legislators, and commentators have tackled some of the issues created by posthumous conception, few estate planning lawyers discuss the issue with their clients. Such hesitance has been understandable, given the moral sensitivities involved with posthumous conception and the relatively small likelihood that it will affect any one particular client. However, that likelihood is becoming greater with each passing year, and, …

Anatomy Of An Anomaly: How The Qdot Credit Provisions Defy Logic And The Principles Of The Marital And Charitable Deductions, Edward A. Mccoyd, Jon Perrelle

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Can State Law Remedies Revive Statutes Stricken By Erisa's Preemption Provision?, Justin A. Kesselman

ACTEC Law Journal

Since the United State Supreme Court's holding in Egelhoff that ERISA preempts state law revocation-on-divorce statutes, courts and legal scholars have attempted to fashion a way to apply the policies of these statutes to effect the presumed intent of an employee not to provide retirement plan benefits to a former spouse. This paper analyzes those efforts and contrasts the statutory remedy suggested in the Uniform Probate Code with the common law remedy of imposing a constructive trust on the recipient of those benefits. In this author's view, the constructive trust is the sounder approach, because it preserves the presumption embedded …