Taxation-Federal Income Commons^™

Putting The Reign Back In Sovereign, Allison Christians

Pepperdine Law Review

In its first term, the Obama administration enacted two pieces of legislation, each designed to protect an increasingly vulnerable income tax base, and each of which had the potential to set a new and unprecedented course for no less than the regulation of the global economy by the nation-state. The first, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), sought to end global tax evasion through tax havens. The second, a little-noticed two-page addendum to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), sought to end the contribution of American multinationals to corruption in governance by codifying the transparency ...

The Transfer Pricing Regs Need A Good Edit, Susan C. Morse

Pepperdine Law Review

The U.S. government has broad discretion to change the transfer pricing regulations as they apply to corporate multinationals, and these regulations need changing because they give too much leeway to taxpayers and will continue to serve an important function in the division of international tax jurisdiction regardless of the fate of pending reform proposals. Xilinx and Veritas illustrate that taxpayers whose transfer pricing is challenged can successfully defend themselves using arm’s length definitions in the government’s own regulations. U.S. tax administrators should write revised transfer pricing rules that afford taxpayers less contracting freedom. They should incrementally ...

Passthrough Entities: The Missing Element In Business Tax Reform, Karen C. Burke

Pepperdine Law Review

Reform of the U.S. corporate tax system is again on the agenda. Despite important differences, many current proposals share two common goals: (1) reducing the statutory corporate tax rate to improve U.S. international competitiveness and (2) broadening the corporate tax base by reducing or eliminating business expenditures to offset revenue losses. Given the significance of the passthrough sector and the relationship between individual and corporate taxes, however, such reforms need to be considered within a broader context. Part I of this article discusses the growing significance of the passthrough sector, which now accounts for roughly half of net ...

Tax Reform And The American Middle Class, Kirk J. Stark, Eric M. Zolt

Pepperdine Law Review

This essay examines how concern for the economic plight of the middle class should influence debates over federal tax reform. It begins with an overview of data on two key developments in American economic life over the past quarter century. The first is the deteriorating economic position of the middle class, a long-term trend illustrated by stagnant income growth, job polarization, and more limited economic opportunities as compared to earlier eras. The second development is the declining federal tax burden of the American middle class, including historically low average tax rates and relative tax shares, not just for the federal ...

The 535 Report: A Pathway To Fundamental Tax Reform, Dorothy A. Brown

Pepperdine Law Review

This Essay argues that current tax policies that include special tax rates, loopholes and deductions disadvantage most Americans in favor of income received by a select few – especially members of Congress. The majority of taxpayers of color as well as white taxpayers are not eligible for the loopholes and special tax breaks that currently exist in our tax laws. Tax reform that eliminates special deals as a means to lowering tax rates for all is the best way forward towards a fairer and simpler tax system. Such reform is unlikely to occur in the absence of a “focusing event” that ...

Access To Tax Injustice, Francine J. Lipman

Pepperdine Law Review

Every morning, Monday through Friday, school children across the United States raise their voices in unison and pledge allegiance to America, with liberty and justice for all. America, in turn, pledges to these children and the world that it is a nation of liberty, justice, and laws. Laws drafted by representatives intended to follow through on America’s promise of liberty and justice for all. Yet for more than 16 million of these children and 30 million adults living in poverty in 2011, America does not deliver on its promise of justice. In a recent global study, America ranked 27th ...

Through A Latte, Darkly: Starbucks' Window Into Stateless Income Tax Planning, Edward D. Kleinbard

University of Southern California Law and Economics Working Paper Series

This paper uses Starbucks Corporation, the premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee in the world, as an example of stateless income tax planning in action. “Stateless income” comprises income derived for tax purposes by a multinational group from business activities in a country other than the domicile of the group’s ultimate parent company, but which is subject to tax only in a jurisdiction that is neither the source of the factors of production through which the income was derived, nor the domicile of the group’s parent company.

The paper reviews both Starbucks’ recent U.K. tax ...

Psychiatric Defenses In Tax Fraud Cases , Thomas J. Gallagher Jr.

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Application Of The Active Business Requirement To The Tax-Free Spin-Off Of Corporate Real Estate , Richard J. Albrecht

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Tax Penalties: Changes And Recommendations, Arthur A. Graves Iii

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tax Frauds And The Government's Right Of Access To Taxpayer's Books And Records , Ronald K. Van Wert

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Administrative Savings From Synchronizing Social Welfare Programs And Tax Provisions, Jonathan Barry Forman

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

United States National Report On Tax Privacy, Joshua D. Blank

New York University Law and Economics Working Papers

This National Report was prepared for a conference titled “Tax Secrecy and Tax Transparency - The Relevance of Confidentiality in Tax Law", which took place in July 2012 in Rust, Austria and was co-hosted by the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and by Örebro University, Sweden. The Report describes the current tax privacy protections that apply to taxpayers in the United States and provides an overview of the policy considerations that have contributed to their enactment. Portions of this Report were originally published, in part, in Joshua D. Blank, In Defense ...

The Cost Of “Choice” In A Voluntary Pension System, Jonathan B. Forman

Jonathan B. Forman

Unlike our mandatory universal Social Security system, America’s private pension system is replete with choice: choices about the type of pension plan, choices about the amount and timing of contributions, choices about investments, and choices about the timing and nature of distributions. It takes time to make all these choices, and sometimes employers and workers just throw up their hands and don’t make any choices at all. This “choice overload” or “analysis paralysis” imposes significant costs on employers, workers, and government; and this article recommends a variety of ways to reduce those costs.

Puttkammer V. Commissioner Of Internal Revenue, Robert English

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Australia-Wide Survey: Legal Need In Australia, Christine Coumarelos Dr, Deborah Macourt, Julie People, Hugh M. Mcdonald, Zhigang Wei, Reiny Iriana, Stephanie Ramsey

Access to Justice

This report is one in a series of nine that provides the initial findings of a national survey of legal needs — the LAW Survey. The series consists of a report on Australia as a whole and a report on each state/territory.

The LAW Survey deals with key questions that go to the heart of understanding the legal and access to justice needs of the community, and how to address these needs. It assesses the prevalence of legal problems across the community, and the vulnerability of different demographic groups to different types of legal problems. It examines the various adverse ...

The Role Of Charity In A Federal System, Brian D. Galle

Boston College Law School Faculty Papers

This Article critiques the prevailing justification for subsidies for the charitable sector and suggests a new alternative. Existing rationales are based on an economic model that assumes a single government whose decisions are guided by a single median voter. I argue that this theory is unpersuasive when translated to federal systems, such as the United States, in which there may instead be thousands of competing local governments.

I then attempt to construct a theory of the charitable sector that takes account of interactions between charity, local government, and national government. In this revised account, charity is most important when federalism ...

Horizontal Equity Revisited, James R. Repetti, Diane M. Ring

Boston College Law School Faculty Papers

From the introduction:

No tax policy analysis stands complete without examination of equity implications. But despite its role as a traditional pillar of tax policy analysis, equity itself remains a controversial concept. What is meant by the term equity? How should it be measured? Is there more than one type of equity? What is the relationship of different types of equity to each other? For decades, scholars and policy makers have explored the possibility that equity is best understood as two distinct concepts — vertical equity and horizontal equity — both of which must be evaluated. Horizontal equity (HE) is defined to ...

Tax Planning For Marijuana Dealers, Benjamin Leff

Benjamin Leff

In recent years, many states have legalized marijuana while the federal government continues to consider all marijuana sales and use illegal. But marijuana industry insiders consider not federal criminal law but federal tax law to be the biggest impediment to the development of a legitimate marijuana industry. State-sanctioned marijuana sellers are required to pay federal income taxes pursuant to § 280E, a formerly largely symbolic provision that Congress enacted to punish drug dealers, but which now could potentially drive legitimate marijuana sellers underground.

This paper proposes a tax strategy that enables state-sanctioned marijuana sellers to avoid the impact of § 280E by ...

Fringe Benefits, Proposed Section 84, And Tax Policy , Gregory M. Fowler

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.