Law Commons^™

The Nonprofit Hospital: A Call For New National Guidance Requiring Minimum Annual Charity Care To Qualify For Federal Tax Exemption, Gabriel O. Aitsebaomo

Campbell Law Review

This article begins with an examination of the origin of the federal tax exemption of the tax-exempt hospital, the current statutory frame-work for federal tax exemption, and the community benefits standard. Next, the article discusses the rationale for the exemption and the regulatory changes in the standards of exemption that paved the way for the current movement away from charity care by the tax-exempt hospital and the need for new national guidance. Thereafter, the article discusses some state initiatives aimed at making the tax-exempt hospital more accountable. Finally, the article recommends that the Internal Revenue Service (the "Service") issue a …

Agenda Setting In Supreme Court Tax Cases: Lessons From The Blackmun Papers, Nancy C. Staudt

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Tax Simplification Symposium, Stephen Black

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Ours is a voluntary tax system. That is, we rely, in large measure, upon the honesty of the citizens to report and pay the correct amount of tax. However, as another April 15 has come and gone, we realize that this reliance casts an increasingly larger and larger burden upon the citizens, even amidst some of the largest tax cuts in history. Why?

In 2000, 71 million Americans paid an estimated $14.7 billion to paid tax preparers.1 The most prevalent reason is that most Americans are afraid to have errors on their return. Despite the fact that the Internal …

Tax Simplification: So Necessary And So Elusive, Kenneth H. Ryesky

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Cries for tax simplification have long been heard from presidents, legislators, current and former government officials and the public. The judiciary has often expressed its frustrations in comprehending the tax statutes. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) itself has had occasion to hesitate and waver in its interpretation and application of the tax statutes, and indeed, several IRS officials have admitted to retaining professional assistance to prepare their personal income tax returns.

Though nearly everyone seems to advocate tax simplification, the goal remains elusive. Tax litigation continues to abound, and sometimes, where words alone do not suffice, judges augment textual …

Designing A Work-Friendly Tax System, Jonathan Barry Forman

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Taxes tend to influence individual choices between labor and leisure, and high effective marginal tax rates on earned income tend to discourage work. In particular, the empirical evidence shows that high effective marginal tax rates tend to discourage work by low- and moderate-income individuals, especially those that are trying to work their way out of the welfare system. Unfortunately, the current federal tax system often imposes its highest effective marginal tax rates on just those individuals. The purpose of this paper is to suggest some simple ways to reduce those high effective marginal tax rates. One approach would be …

Tax, Corporate Governance, And Norms, Steven A. Bank

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article examines the use of federal tax provisions to effect changes in state law corporate governance. There is a growing academic controversy over these provisions, fueled in part by their popularity among legislators as a method of addressing the recent spate of corporate scandals. As a case study on the use of tax to regulate corporate governance, this paper compares and contrasts two measures enacted during the New Deal-the enactment of the undistributed profits tax in 1936 and the overhaul of the tax-free reorganization provisions in 1934-and considers why the former was so much more controversial and less sustainable …

The U.S. Consumption Tax: Evolution, Not Revolution, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

The article expresses the view that the current Internal Revenue Code has evolved into a hybrid income tax and consumption tax. It begins by explaining the difference between an income tax and a consumption tax and provides the backgrounds of the alternative forms of consumption tax: (1) consumed income, (2) yield exemption, and (3) point-of-sale taxation. Under the consumed income tax model of consumption tax, the individual taxpayer includes all items of income, both from labor and from capital, in its tax base, and then subtracts or deducts the portion of that income that he saves or invests. The resulting …

Fishing For Rainbows, The Fsc Repeal And Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act, Stuart Smith

San Diego International Law Journal

On August 30, 2002, the final decision was released in the case of United States-Tax Treatment for "Foreign Sales Corporations". The World Trade Organization arbitration panel report authorizes the European Communities to levy $4.043 billion in annual trade sanctions against imports from the United States because of a provision in the U.S. tax code. "The FSC Repeal and Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act of 2000", the most recent of 40 years worth of half-hearted attempts by the United States to comply with world trading body regulations, is the current offender. According to the arbitration panel, the act subsidizes foreign sales by …

A National Tax Bar: An End To The Attorney-Accountant Tax Turf War, Katherine D. Black, Stephen T. Black

Law Faculty Scholarship

Although current case law is divided regarding when an accountant is practicing law, this Article will explore different approaches to this problem. Specifically, Part II of this Article explores which entities control the regulation of the legal profession. Next, Part III examines the impact of the state courts on the issue of unauthorized legal practice. Part IV touches on the related issue of privilege and the treatment of attorney-client privilege in the context of tax practice. Further, Part V considers whether tax practice should be considered the practice of law, and Part VI of this Article examines the legal profession's …

The Ingenious Kerry Tax Plan, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The tax plan proposed by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry at Wayne State University on March 26 is an ingenious set of ideas to encourage domestic job creation. Its greatest strength, however, may be its contribution to long-term economic growth, fairness, and tax law simplification. In this article I will first describe the Kerry proposal, then analyze its advantages, and finally address some counterarguments.

What Is Fiscal Responsibility? Long-Term Deficits, Generational Accounting, And Capital Budgeting, Neil H. Buchanan

Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers

This article assesses three basic approaches to assessing the future effects of the government’s fiscal policies: traditional measures of the deficit, measures associated with Generational Accounting, and measures derived from applying Capital Budgeting to the federal accounts. I conclude that Capital Budgeting is the best of the three approaches and that Generational Accounting is the least helpful. Acknowledging that there might be some value in learning what we can from a variety of approaches to analyzing fiscal policy, I nevertheless conclude that Generational Accounting is actually a misleading or--at best--empty measure of future fiscal developments. The best approach to providing …

Abandonments In Bankruptcy: Unifying Competing Tax And Bankruptcy Policies, Michelle A. Cecil

Faculty Publications

This Article attempts to resolve one such issue: the tax consequences of property abandonments by the bankruptcy trustee.

Administrability-Based Tax Simplification, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

The Boyd School of Law is a vibrant place, and our trajectory continues to move strongly in the right direction. One of the things that has been so important to us is the excellent support we have received from so many in and around Nevada. An example of that support brings us together tonight. The Wiegand Foundation has endowed a professorship at the Law School to support the study of tax law. I am fortunate to be the current holder of that professorship. This address is the first formal event memorializing the Wiegand Foundation’s support for scholarship and for Law …

Delimiting The Concept Of Income: The Taxation Of In-Kind Benefits, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The issue of which in-kind benefits should be taxed and how these benefits should be valued have concerned tax legislators, administrators, and academics since the introduction of the personal income tax system. Building her theoretical analysis on the income concept advanced by Henry Simons and relying on traditional tax policy notions of equity,neutrality, and administrative practicality, the author asserts that employees must be fully taxed on employer-provided in-kind benefits. To this effect, the article offers guidelines for distinguishing between taxable in-kind benefits and non-taxable conditions of employment. The author argues that the correct method of valuation of in-kind benefits is …

Practicing What We Preach: A Call For Progressive Church Taxes, Matthew Barrett

Journal Articles

Many Catholics do not know that canon law allows their bishop to impose taxes on the parishes in his diocese for diocesan needs. Under canon law, these diocesan taxes, sometimes called diocesan assessments, parish assessments, or quotas, must be proportionate to [the parishes'] income. To a tax lawyer, the adjective proportionate describes a so-called flat tax, or a system that imposes the same tax rate on every taxpayer's taxable income. Canon law commentators, however, have consistently agreed that diocesan bishops can use a progressive tax, which in this context would impose a higher tax rate on parishes with larger incomes. …

Practicing What We Preach: A Call For Progressive Church Taxes, Matthew J. Barrett

Matthew J. Barrett

The E.L. Wiegand Lecture: Administrability-Based Tax Simplification, Steve R. Johnson

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Supermajority Provisions, Guinn V. Legislature And A Flawed Constitutional Structure, Steve R. Johnson

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The European Commission’S Report On Company Income Taxation: What The Eu Can Learn From The Experience Of The Us States, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

The European Union Commission has proposed using consolidated base taxation and formulary apportionment to tax the EU-source income of multinational companies. This paper examines US state experience with a similar approach. Despite some positive lessons, especially the need to consolidate income of affiliated companies, lessons are mostly negative, especially regarding the choice of apportionment formula, the use of economic criteria to define the group whose income is to be consolidated, and complexity caused by lack of uniformity. US experience says nothing about using value added to apportion income—an approach that is conceptually attractive, but subject to transfer pricing problems.

Motion For Leave To File Brief And Brief Of The National Taxpayers Union, The Nevada Manufacturers Association, The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation, Americans For Limited Government, Americans For Tax Reform, The Club For Growth, Nevada Corporate Headquarters, Inc., The Nevada Motor Transport Association, The Retail Association Of Nevada, And The Reno-Sparks Chamber Of Commerce, As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Paul E. Salamanca

Law Faculty Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Review Of Foundations Of International Income Taxation, By Michael Graetz, Hugh Ault

Hugh J. Ault

No abstract provided.

Tax Code Section 527 Groups Not An End-Run Around Mccain-Feingold, Edward B. Foley, Donald B. Tobin

Faculty Scholarship

This article ... will analyze both the statutory and constitutional questions concerning whether 527organizations are ‘‘political committees’’ under FECA and thus subject to the $5,000 cap on the contributions they receive from each donor. The article will also consider whether other forms of tax-exempt organizations besides 527s—most notably so-called 501(c)(4) organizations—provide an alternative means of circumventing this $5,000 contribution limit.

Group Taxation: Ifa Singapore Branch Report, Cecil Duncan Macrae

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

What Corporate Tax Shelters Can Teach Us About The Structure Of Subchapter C, Glenn E. Coven

Faculty Publications

Coven argues that the rules extending nonrecognition treatment to the incorporation of property never have been properly integrated with the double taxation of corporations. As a result, the duplicate burden or benefit is applied retroactively. That defect, Coven believes, has been long overlooked, but now that it has been exploited by one popular version of the loss replicating corporate tax shelter, it must be addressed. The remedy applied by Congress to the tax shelter in section 358(h) is insufficient, does not operate correctly and undermines the integrity of the code, he says.

This article proposes a more comprehensive solution that …

Shape Up Or Ship Out: Accountability To Third Parties For Patent Ambiguities In Testamentary Documents, Angela M. Vallario

All Faculty Scholarship

The attorney's preparation of a testamentary document (hereinafter sometimes referred to as a will or revocable trust) should clearly and accurately reflect the client's last wishes. Although these testamentary documents should reflect the client's intent, they often fall short of accomplishing that goal. There are numerous examples of will and trust construction cases that exhaust tremendous resources in an effort to ascertain the client's wishes or intent. Many of these cases involve the construction of patent and/or latent ambiguities which should have been resolved by appropriate drafting. This article's scope is limited to patent ambiguities caused by the attorney's negligence …

Proposed Regulations On Noncompensatory Options: A Light At The End Of The Tunnel, Walter D. Schwidetzky

All Faculty Scholarship

It has become increasingly common for partnerships to issue options. There is a dearth of authority on the federal tax treatment of options to acquire interests in partnerships. In this context, there are two main categories of options, services options and noncompensatory options. Services options, unsurprisingly, are options to acquire partnership interests where the option is received in exchange for services. Noncompensatory options cover the rest of the waterfront. The simplest version of the latter would be partnership analog to normal options found outside the partnership context: the option holder pays the partnership an option premium to acquire an option …

Putting Sec Heat On Audit Firms And Corporate Tax Shelters: Responding To Tax Risk With Sunshine, Shame And Strict Liability, Linda M. Beale

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

The Tax Treatment Of International Philanthropy And Public Policy, Robert Paine

Akron Tax Journal

This paper concerns the tax treatment of charitable contributions made to foreign organizations. Specifically, it discusses the current tax structure that governs contributions made by United States taxpayers to charitable organizations located outside the U.S. and its possessions.

The New Dividend Tax Cut; Bush's Prescription For Rescuing The Economy, Beckett G. Cantley

Akron Tax Journal

The purpose of this paper is to cover the Act as passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, discussing each of the major provisions contained within the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act and examining the differing views as to whether it will succeed.

Rethinking The Jurisdiction Of Bankruptcy Courts Over Post-Confirmation Federal Tax Liabilities: Towards A New Jurisprudence Of 11 U.S.C. 505, Shu-Yi Oei

Akron Tax Journal

This paper argues that the current approach that bankruptcy courts have taken in circumscribing the reach of § 505 over liabilities that may arise after the plan has been confirmed and discharged is unsatisfactory. Instead of turning to jurisdictional and constitutional sources external to § 505, the reach of § 505(a) should be determined through imposing a bright line limitation internal to § 505 itself. It is the contention of this paper that based on the location of § 505 in the Bankruptcy Code, the overall structure of the Code, and the legislative history of the provision, the authority contained …