Law Commons^™

When Helpers Hurt: Protecting Taxpayers From Preparers, Michelle Lyon Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

In this article, Drumbl explores return preparer regulation as a policy matter and questions what would be gained by applying Circular 230 to return preparers.

A Framework For An Informed Study Of The Realistic Role Of Tax In A Development Agenda, Yariv Brauner

Yariv Brauner

This article builds on the insights of this development research to develop a new agenda for tax incentives (and equivalent tax measures), the research of their merits when used by developing countries, and their optimal design. The stated goal of these incentives is to attract foreign direct investment, and ultimately enhance economic growth and promote development. Almost all countries use such tax incentives, and business interests strongly support and even demand their use, yet, economic research in general, and the international economic organizations in particular, have been skeptical about their effectiveness." Tax incentives are not only ubiquitous, but also very …

Integration In An Integrating World, Yariv Brauner

Yariv Brauner

During the second half of the last century, many countries gradually replaced their so-called classical corporate tax regimes, under which corporate earnings were taxed twice -- once in the hands of the corporation, and again when distributed to corporate shareholders as dividends -- with an integrated regime (imputation), which taxed such earnings only once. The driving force behind this trend was the expectation of significant efficiency gains. This clear and gradual trend has been abruptly reversed with the turn of the century. The phenomenon we call globalization, and in particular the proliferation of cross-border business and investment, has materially contributed …

Value In The Eye Of The Beholder: The Valuation Of Intangibles For Transfer Pricing Purposes, Yariv Brauner

Yariv Brauner

This article assesses the desirability of our current, arms' length based, transfer pricing regime by analyzing its theoretical and practical effectiveness in application to transfers of intangibles. A detailed analysis of the practice of valuation of intangibles, which is the key component in the application of this regime, exposes its weaknesses that result in undesirable market incentives. These incentives create a strong bias in favor of large multinational enterprises, yet, even if one favored such bias, it is achieved using an uncontrollable, costly and wasteful legal mechanism. The article particularly criticizes the regime's disregard of the unique characteristics of intangibles …

International Trade And Tax Agreements May Be Coordinated, But Not Reconciled, Yariv Brauner

Yariv Brauner

A recent WTO case held the U.S.' export tax subsidies illegal. Despite strong political resistance, which fed a long and costly legislative process, the U.S. recently repealed these subsidies. This case and the U.S. reaction revealed that although the U.S. is the single super economic power, it is not as dominant a player as some portray it. The case also shed light on the tension between the present international trade and tax regimes and the difficulty of applying WTO law to income tax measures. This tension did not escalate earlier mainly because countries tended not to use their income tax …

Reinvigorating The Reit's Neutrality And Capital Formation Purposes Through A Modernized Tax Integration Model, Simon Johnson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Efforts at reform have not spared the REIT arrangement, but have focused on objectives unrelated to its model of tax integration, despite its significant flaws. Owing to the interaction of several provisions, the model largely precludes capitalization through retained earnings. This increases the cost of REIT capital and limits its capacity to realize the neutrality and private real estate capital formation objectives Congress pursued in creating the arrangement. Accordingly, it is important to consider how to durably improve the REIT tax integration model. Ultimately, the article concludes that the shareholder allocation model, a complete integration model conceptually similar to the …

The Oecd’S Flawed And Dated Approach To Computer Servers Creating Permanent Establishments, Monica Gianni

UF Law Faculty Publications

As the digital economy changes the way that we do business, tax laws have been challenged to adapt appropriately to this nontraditional business method. International tax rules were developed in a different technological era. To accommodate electronic commerce, existing tax rules either have to be applied to electronic-commerce transactions, or new rules have to be developed. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has taken the lead in studying and recommending appropriate international taxation rules for electronic commerce.

This Article focuses on the original central tax issue that the OECD considered—jurisdiction to tax income from electronic commerce based on …

Should Organizations Promoting Dangerous Sports Enjoy Maximum Tax Benefits?, William A. Drennan

San Diego Law Review

Perhaps one in every 1000 BASE jumps results in death, and the fatality and injury rates for BASE jumping may be forty-three times higher than for standard skydiving. Some other new sports are extremely dangerous. In addition, some medical researchers are finding that repeated jolts to the head in traditional contact sports correlate to midlife Alzheimer’s disease, suicide, depression, inability to work or function without a caregiver, and early death from the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). “[N]early a quarter of a million new patients turn up each year with long-term deficits resulting from . . . so-called mild …

Five-Star Exclusion: Modern Silicon Valley Companies Are Pushing The Limits Of Section 119 By Providing Tax-Free Meals To Employees , Austin L. Lomax

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Drilling And Deductions: Making The Section 170(H) Conservation Easement Work In The Shale Boom Era, Michael T. Fulks

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Income Or Liability: How Casinos' Classification Of Outstanding Chips Determine Taxability, John Bulloch

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Catalogs, Gideon Parchomovsky, Alex Stein

All Faculty Scholarship

It is a virtual axiom in the world of law that legal norms come in two prototypes: rules and standards. The accepted lore suggests that rules should be formulated to regulate recurrent and frequent behaviors, whose contours can be defined with sufficient precision. Standards, by contrast, should be employed to address complex, variegated, behaviors that require the weighing of multiple variables. Rules rely on an ex ante perspective and are therefore considered the domain of the legislator; standards embody a preference for ex post, ad-hoc, analysis and are therefore considered the domain of courts. The rules/standards dichotomy has become a …

Taxation And Incentives In The Business Enterprise, David Gamage, Shruti Rana

Faculty Scholarship

This book chapter discusses the tax perspective on business enterprise law with a comparative focus on the U.S. and Japan.

Citizens United And Social Welfare Organizations: The Tangled Relationships Among Guidance, Compliance, And Enforcement, Frances R. Hill

Articles

No abstract provided.

Pfics Gone Wild!, Monica Gianni

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article discusses the U.S. tax rules for passive foreign investment companies, or PFICs. The historical development leading up to the enactment of the PFIC rules in 1986 is examined. Unexpected tax consequences resulting from the PFIC rules are analyzed in detail. Recommendations to modify the rules so that they do have such onerous consequences follow, concluding that the PFIC rules cannot be sufficiently fixed and should be repealed.