Tax Law Commons^™

The Times They Are Not A-Changin': Reforming The Charitable Split-Interest Rules (Again), Wendy G. Gerzog

All Faculty Scholarship

The article reviews the history of the tax treatment of charitable split interest gifts, explains the inequities that Congress both cured and generated in its 1969 reforms, and proposes solutions that are consistent with the goals of the 1969 legislation. The article discusses variations in the 1969 definition of a charitable split interest, which, because of the enacted statutory language, applies in instances where there is no abuse potential. The inequity produced by that definition penalizes the donor and flouts the rationale behind the 1969 legislation. By contrast, the creation of some required statutory forms of charitable split interests in …

The Political Economy Of Taxation: A Critical Review Of A Classic, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This book review reexamines Henry Simons famous contribution to the tax policy literature, "Personal Income Taxation: The Definition of Income as Problem in Fiscal Policy" (1938). It argues that while Professor Simons was concerned with tax fairness and the redistribution of income, he adopted a definition of income that worked to undermine the interests of many of the poor individuals in society that he sought to support.

The Judicial Power Of The Purse: How Courts Fund National Defense In Times Of Crisis (An Introduction), Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This introduction to a forthcoming book (Spring 2011) briefly describes judges' hidden purse powers along with a theory for how and why judges will utilize these powers to keep the nation safe in times of foreign policy crisis. Ultimately, the book-length project investigates the empirical implications of the theory with both qualitative and quantitative data and finds substantial support for the idea that judges's use their financial powers differently in times of peace and in times of crisis

Tax Theory And "Mere Critique": A Reply To Professor Zelenak, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

In this symposium essay, I briefly explore the usefulness of critical scholarship generally and then point to the manner in which this type of analysis can (and does) advance Professor Zelenak's aim of devising technical solutions to difficult policy problems. I then turn to Zelenak's critique of my article, "Taxing Housework." I argue that far from undermining my proposal to tax imputed income, Zelenak's work highlights several reasons for considering the proposal as an alternative to the existing tax structure. Importantly, I do not claim that taxing women's household labor is a perfect solution to the social and economic problems …

The Theory And Practice Of Taxing Difference, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This is a review essay that examines Professor Edward McCaffery's important book, "Taxing Women." It argues that while McCaffery provides a detailed and nuanced analysis of the feminist and economic issues, his work is problematic in several ways. First, it is not clear that the optimal theory of taxation leads to the policy reform he proposes-it may be both underinclusive and overinclusive. Second, even if McCaffery has identified a clear economic rationale for taxing married women at a lower rate than men and single women, feminists may object to this proposed tax structure on a number of grounds. Finally, McCaffery's …

The Hidden Costs Of The Progressivity Debate, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

In this Article, I argue that.by reaching the agreement that the poor should have no tax liability, the contest over progressivity has centered improperly on the rights and responsibilities of relatively wealthy citizens. The wealthy are widely perceived to have valuable property that, if shared with society, will enable the smooth operation of the democratic state. At the same time, the wealthy are perceived to have liberty interests, which if violated, could lead to the ruin of the domestic economy

Although the debate over progressivity has lasted for more than a century, traditional tax theorists have limited their discussion to …

Taxing Housework, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This article examines the tax policy rationale for excluding non-market household labor from the tax base and argues that the conventional rationals no longer withstand scrutiny. The article goes on to argue that it is possible to include non-market household labor into the tax base, while at the same time avoiding the imposition of costs upon the (mostly) women who supply the labor. Moreover, and mort important, tax policy reform along these line would increase householder laborers' access to public retirement benefits and signal the important of the work to society generally.

Challenges And Opportunities For The Tax Professional Guiding Closely-Held Entities: 2009 & 2010 Regulatory And Judicial Developments Impacting Fourth Circuit Tax Practitioners, Rose L. Bailey

Campbell Law Review

When framing adequate tax advice to protect oneself from preparer penalties under sometimes ambiguous or unsettled tax law, or when trying to affect your best appellate argument or direct a strategic audit litigation path, there can be no doubt of the importance of considering judicial precedent developments in all of these paths. To that end, under the discretion of this Author, a selection of relevant administrative regulations and rulings as well as judicial authority rendered in 2009 through spring 2010 are contained in this Article to cover significant income taxation developments impacting certain closely-held entities. Closely-held entities are considered, for …

The People Versus Corporate Welfare: North Carolina's Forsaken Opportunity To Reverse Perversion Of The Commerce Clause And To Reinvigorate The Public Purpose Doctrine, Jeanette K. Doran

Campbell Law Review

This Article neither espouses judicial intervention in any political controversy nor offers "broad" and "sweeping" constitutional theories. Instead, this Article is calculated to recognize the efforts of taxpayers who have resorted to the very constitutional rights afforded to them as citizens and taxpayers to challenge governmental acts which are repugnant to the very foundations of our society and to encourage the judiciary to fulfill its duty to reject legislation which is contrary to the state or federal constitution. As the North Carolina Supreme Court stated in the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Maxwell case: "The principle of equal …

When Canons Go To War In Indian Country, Guess Who Wins? Barrett V. United States: Tax Canons And Canons Of Construction In The Federal Taxation Of American Indians, John Lentz

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tax Reform In The Aftermath Of The Financial Crisis, Stephen Utz

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Tax Reform In The Aftermath Of The Financial Crisis, Stephen Utz

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

All Charities Are Property-Tax Exempt, But Some Charities Are More Exempt Than Others, Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

Attention from the media notwithstanding, the nonprofit sector continues to achieve remarkable success in state supreme courts and statehouses in defending property-tax exemptions. But budget pressures remain. While the intermediate use of “payments in lieu of taxes” has not yet become a systematic compromise solution, PILOTs are attracting growing interest from local taxing jurisdictions. This Article highlights three issues— who decides the parameters of exemption, legislatures or courts; what are the specific factors and vulnerable subsectors; and how exemption is granted or withheld in practice—and concludes with several PILOT case studies. The Appendix sets forth a fifty-one-jurisdiction review of state …

Respecting Foundation And Charity Autonomy: How Public Is Private Philanthropy? (Symposium) (With J. Tyler), Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

Recent years have seen a disturbing increase in legal proposals by the public and government officials to interfere with the governance, missions, strategies, and decision-making of foundations and other charities. Underlying much of these debates is the premise – stated or merely presumed – that foundation and charity assets are “public money” and that such entities therefore are subject to various public mandates or standards about their structure, operations, and policies. The authors’ experiences and research reveal three “myths” that, singly or collectively, underlie claims that charitable assets are public money. The first myth conceives of charities as shadow governments …

Deconstructing The Rules Of Corporate Tax, Rachelle Y. Holmes

Akron Tax Journal

While academics, practitioners, and the White House have proposed any number of reform measures to deal with the problems plaguing the U.S. corporate tax regime, their solutions involve varying structural and statutory changes, which are in fact extrinsic to the form of the underlying rules themselves. In contrast, this Article argues for an innate form of change to the U.S. corporate tax rules, which would fundamentally affect the way in which tax lawmakers actually draft tax rules and regulations. In particular, it argues that a systemic focus and commitment by lawmakers to a more principles-based approach to regulation would significantly …

The Importance Of Being Interest: Why A State Cannot Impose Its Income Tax On Tribal Bonds, Scott A. Taylor

Akron Tax Journal

In order to provide the fullest consideration of these very complicated issues, I have divided my discussion into six parts. In the first part, I discuss specific state statutes to show how their application to the state income taxation of interest on tribal bonds is textually unclear. The primary purpose of this part of the discussion is to show that the analysis must start with the particular state income tax statute itself to see if it purports to tax the interest income generated by a tribal bond. In some instances, the more reasonable interpretation of the state statute may lead …

Reforming 501(C)(3): Putting The Charity Back In The Charitable Deduction, Jennifer Mccrabb Black

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This paper seeks to lay out a proposal to redefine what it takes to receive tax-deductible donations. Part H of this paper will summarize the current state of the law as it applies to the charitable contribution deduction and the qualification for tax exemption under the Internal Revenue Code. Part III discusses the Charities Act 2006, a recent British act aimed at attempting to redefine charity for England and Wales by requiring organizations to prove that they provide a public benefit before receiving the benefits of being a charity. Part IV proposes additions and changes to the Internal Revenue Code …

Taxing Structured Settlements, Brant J. Hellwig, Gregg D. Polsky

Faculty Publications

Congress has granted a tax subsidy to physically injured tort plaintiffs who enter into structured settlements. The subsidy allows these plaintiffs to exempt the investment yield imbedded within the structured settlement from federal income taxation. The apparent purpose of the subsidy is to encourage physically injured plaintiffs to invest, rather than presently consume, their litigation recoveries. Although the statutory subsidy by its terms is available only to physically injured tort plaintiffs, a growing structured settlement industry now contends that the same tax benefit of yield exemption is available to plaintiffs' lawyers and nonphysically injured tort plaintiffs under general, common-law tax …

Dissecting O'Donnabhain, Anthony C. Infanti

Anthony C. Infanti

In O'Donnabhain v. Commissioner, a sharply divided Tax Court allowed a medical expense deduction for some costs related to sex reassignment surgery. This short commentary examines the opinions in the case and concludes that the taxpayer's victory rings hollow.

Business Tax In Nigeria: The Controversy Of Multiple Taxation, Humphrey Onyeukwu

Humphrey Onyeukwu

Doing business in Nigeria is ranked 125th in the world out of 183 economics by the latest ranking of the World Bank. A major parameter for this assessment is using the incidences of regulatory controls and taxation of business activity to determine the ease of doing business in Nigeria. The controversy of multiple taxations has become one of the constraints of businesses in Nigeria due to overlaps of the various tiers of government taxing rights on business entities.

Nigeria practices fiscal federalism in which the fiscal responsibility of government is based on a three-tiered tax structure divided between the federal, …