Law Commons^™

Controversies In Tax Law: A Matter Of Perspective (Introduction), Anthony C. Infanti

Book Chapters

This volume presents a new approach to today’s tax controversies, reflecting that debates about taxation often turn on the differing worldviews of the debate participants. For instance, a central tension in the academic tax literature — which is filtering into everyday discussions of tax law — exists between “mainstream” and “critical” tax theorists. This tension results from a clash of perspectives: Is taxation primarily a matter of social science or social justice? Should tax policy debates be grounded in economics or in critical race, feminist, queer, and other outsider perspectives?

To capture and interrogate what often seems like a chasm …

Home As A Legal Concept, Benjamin Barros

Benjamin Barros

This article, which is the first comprehensive discussion of the American legal concept of home, makes two major contributions. First, the article systematically examines how homes are treated more favorably than other types of property in a wide range of legal contexts, including criminal law and procedure, torts, privacy, landlord-tenant, debtor-creditor, family law, and income taxation. Second, the article considers the normative issue of whether this favorable treatment is justified. The article draws from material on the psychological concept of home and the cultural history of home throughout this analysis, providing insight into the interests at stake in various legal …

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

This article reviews significant developments in the law affecting Virginia taxation. Each section covers recent legislative changes, judicial decisions, and selected opinions or pronouncements from the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Virginia Attorney General over the past year. The overall purpose of this article is to provide Virginia tax and general practitioners with a concise overview of the recent developments in Virginia taxation most likely to have an impact on their practices. This article will not, however, discuss many of the numerous technical legislative changes to the State Taxation Code of Title 58.1.

The Passage Of Community Property Laws, 1939-1947: Was "More Than Money" Involved?, Jennifer E. Sturiale

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Part I of this article reviews the legal landscape that provided the backdrop against which Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Pennsylvania later adopted community property laws. It also examines the tax consequences of the two Supreme Court cases, Lucas v. Earl and Poe v. Seaborn, that resulted in the disparate tax treatment of married couples in common law and community property law states. Part II briefly reviews the subsequent passage of community property laws by Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Pennsylvania; the passage of a federal tax reduction bill that provided for equal treatment of community property law and …

Taxing Personhood: Estate Taxes And The Compelled Commodification Of Identity, Ray D. Madoff

Ray D. Madoff

In this Article, Professor Madoff explores the ways in which the blunt tools of the wealth tax, and in particular the estate tax, uses a one-size-fits-all system to impose a tax on all property interests owned at the time of one’s death. Professor Madoff illustrates the ways in which these blunt tools can produce problematic results by examining their application to the right of publicity, a newly recognized property interest. Professor Madoff suggests that the imposition of the estate tax can force the commodification of an individual’s identity, regardless of one’s desire to refrain from marketing their identity, and explores …

Curtailing The Economic Distortions Of The Mortgage Interest Deduction, William T. Mathias

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Many Americans consider the mortgage interest deduction a necessary fixture of the American tax system. In this Article, Mathias examines the economic underpinnings of the deduction and finds that it cannot be justified on purely economic grounds. He then evaluates the major policy arguments for the mortgage interest deduction and concludes that it is inefficient, inequitable, and too costly in its present form to be justified on policy grounds. Finally, the author advocates for the elimination or substantial reduction in the size and scope of the mortgage interest deduction.

Refining The Itemized Deduction For Home Property Tax Payments, J. B. Mccombs

Vanderbilt Law Review

By enacting a $1 million debt limit for deductible home mortgage interest in 1987,' Congress opened the way for a fresh inquiry into the home property tax deduction. Adoption of that debt limit reflects a major change in policy-a re-evaluation of the benefits and costs of subsidies to luxury housing.

At first glance a $1 million limit seems ridiculously high if the debt ceiling reflects a decision to stop subsidizing luxury housing. The debt ceiling, however, does not contain an inflation adjustment provision. Because such provisions are common in the Internal Revenue Code, the absence here must be by conscious …

Purchaser's Depreciation Rights In Property Subject To A Lease, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the purchase of property subject to a lease may produce several types of depreciable interests. Part I of the Note examines the requirements for depreciability and the role that depreciation plays in tax law. It concludes that even where the method set out by Congress also accommodates other goals, depreciation primarily provides a way to recover costs during a depreciable asset's income-producing life. Part II applies these principles to the task of determining whether improvements - for example, buildings on the property subject to the lease - are depreciable in the purchaser's hands. It concludes that …

Alternative Gains Tax Treatments Of Decedents' Appreciated Capital Assets, D. Allen Grumbine

Vanderbilt Law Review

The present treatment of appreciated assets under section 1014' of the Code permits a great deal of accrued appreciation to escape the income tax. While decedents pay a greater estate tax because asset appreciation swells their estates, they pay no gains tax at death on this accrued appreciation. Moreover, the recipients of the decedent's property generally take a stepped-up basis for the property equal to its fair market value at the time of death. A great deal of criticism has been leveled at this system, and numerous proposals have been made for remedying the situation: imposition of a capital gains …

Income Tax--Listing Abandoned Residence For Sale And Not For Rent Considered Sufficient To Convert To "Property Held For The Production Of Income"--Hulet P. Smith, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Since 1941, Hulet Smith and his wife had lived in a large house in Arcadia, California, where Smith had been actively engaged in a real estate loan business. In 1959, Smith decided to retire and move to Pebble Beach, a distance of about 400 miles from Arcadia. He purchased a parcel of land in Pebble Beach and built a large expensive home, with the avowed intention of making this his permanent personal residence. In 1961, after severing all business and social connections in the vicinity of their old residence, Smith and his wife moved into their new home, taking virtually …

Federal Income Tax And Dealings In Real Estate, Donald Mcdonald, John W. Fawcett, Iii

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Sale Of Mortgaged Real Estate Under The Indiana Gross Income Tax: A Judicial Lesson In Semantics

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.