Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Tax Law

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Series

2010

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Stealth Preemption: The Irs's Nonprofit Corporate Governance Initiative, James J. Fishman Jan 2010

Stealth Preemption: The Irs's Nonprofit Corporate Governance Initiative, James J. Fishman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Internal Revenue Service, the primary federal regulator of charities, has initiated a corporate governance initiative. The intervention by the Internal Revenue Service into an area traditionally the preserve of state nonprofit corporate law has little relationship to issues of tax compliance. This corporate governance initiative has been accomplished in the face of IRS acknowledgement that it has no statutory authority relating to these issues. Yet, the power of the Service to recognize tax exempt status and the method it has used to ensure it vision of correct corporate governance practices through a series of questions when an organization applies …


Sticky Copyrights: Discriminatory Tax Restraints On The Transfer Of Intellectual Property, Bridget J. Crawford Jan 2010

Sticky Copyrights: Discriminatory Tax Restraints On The Transfer Of Intellectual Property, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article focuses on the federal estate and gift tax treatment of copyright termination rights. The ability of a creative individual to terminate prior copyright transfers serves to protect against economic exploitation. Once a copyright's value has been established in the marketplace, the author (or the author's heirs) enjoys a "second look" at the gift, sale, license or other transfer of a copyright. But copyright termination rights--intended to enhance the economic well-being of authors and artists--undermine estate planning strategies available to owners of other types of property. There is no policy justification for such discrimination, and so this Article proposes …


Commentary: The Federalization Of Nonprofit Regulation And Its Discontents, James J. Fishman Jan 2010

Commentary: The Federalization Of Nonprofit Regulation And Its Discontents, James J. Fishman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Internal Revenue Service, at the instigation of the Senate Finance committee-the Service's primary congressional overseer-has commenced a corporate governance initiative by issuing announcements and guidelines, as well as providing educational advice as to how charities' internal affairs should be ordered. The Service also has revised the Form 990 Annual Information Return, a publicly available document, so that it contains mandatory corporate governance questions.2 Nonprofit organizations traditionally have been creatures of state law and overseen by state agencies and regulators.3 What is unique about the corporate governance initiative is the Service's admission that it lacks express statutory authority for this …