Law Commons^™

Erwin Griswold's Tax Law – And Ours, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

It is a pleasure for me to be here today to deliver the Erwin N. Griswold Lecture. And it is an honor to follow those who have graced this lectern before me. They include important mentors to me. Several are close friends. Today, we are in a quiet interlude awaiting the next serious political debate about restructuring the nation's tax system. No fundamental tax policy concerns are at stake in the current disputes over economic stimulus or in the political huffing and puffing about postponing or accelerating the income tax rate cuts of the 2001 Act. Those arguments are concerned …

100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Fresh Start For The U.S. Tax System, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

We are now in a quiet interlude awaiting the next serious political debate over the nation's tax system. No fundamental tax policy concerns were at stake in the 2002 disputes over economic stimulus or the political huffing and puffing about postponing or accelerating the income tax rate cuts of the 2001 Act. Those arguments were concerned principally with positioning Democratic and Republican candidates for the 2002 congressional election, not tax policy.

But the coming decade, with its paint-by-numbers phase-ins and phaseouts of 2001 Act tax changes, the tax cuts waiting to spring into effect, and the sunset of the entire …

Paint-By-Numbers Tax Lawmaking, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

Although their meaning and contours have long been controversial, the general criteria for evaluating changes in tax law enjoy both stability and consensus. At least since Adam Smith, there has been virtually universal agreement that the nation's tax law should be fair, economically efficient, and simple to comply with and to administer. Tax law changes should be designed to make the law more equitable, easier to comply with, more conducive to economic growth, and less likely to interfere with private economic decisionmaking.

Precisely what these criteria imply for policymaking is controversial, however. Fairness is often said to require that people …

Reflections On The Tax Legislative Process: Prelude To Reform, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

Tax reform is one of those motherhood issues-everybody's for it. Election year 1972 generated many far-reaching tax reform proposals which, if enacted, would have a profound impact on virtually every segment of American society. Senator McGovern recommended taxing capital gains at the same rates as ordinary income, eliminating almost $7 billion granted to businesses by reducing the investment tax credit and depreciation allowances, and offering state and local governments a 50 percent interest subsidy to encourage them to issue taxable, rather than tax-exempt, bonds. In addition, he proposed eliminating the percentage depletion allowance and the deduction for intangible drilling expenses …