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Articles 1 - 21 of 21
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Games They Will Play: Tax Games, Roadblocks, And Glitches Under The 2017 Tax Legislation, David Kamin, David Gamage, Ari Glogower, Rebecca Kysar, Darien Shanske, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Lily Batchelder, J. Clifton Fleming, Daniel Hemel, Mitchell Kane, David Miller, Daniel Shaviro, Manoj Viswanathan
The Games They Will Play: Tax Games, Roadblocks, And Glitches Under The 2017 Tax Legislation, David Kamin, David Gamage, Ari Glogower, Rebecca Kysar, Darien Shanske, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Lily Batchelder, J. Clifton Fleming, Daniel Hemel, Mitchell Kane, David Miller, Daniel Shaviro, Manoj Viswanathan
Articles
The 2017 tax legislation brought sweeping changes to the rules for taxing individuals and business, the deductibility of state and local taxes, and the international tax regime. The complex legislation was drafted and passed through a rushed and secretive process intended to limit public comment on one of the most consequential pieces of domestic policy enacted in recent history. This Article is an effort to supply the analysis and deliberation that should have accompanied the bill’s consideration and passage, and describes key problem areas in the new legislation. Many of the new changes fundamentally undermine the integrity of the tax …
The Business Purpose Doctrine In Corporate Divisions, Stephen Rigsby
The Business Purpose Doctrine In Corporate Divisions, Stephen Rigsby
Akron Law Review
The corporate division, however, lends itself to schemes for avoidance of tax. These schemes are attempts to convert ordinary income into income taxable at capital gains rates. An elaborate statutory mechanism has been created to prevent this conversion. In addition, the courts have created judicial doctrines which sometimes work by adding to the statutory framework and sometimes overlap. The resulting confusion of statute and judicial doctrine is the subject of this article. The investigation will focus on that part of the statute known as the device clause and its interaction with the judicial doctrines which together are known as the …
Corporate Taxation And Corporate Social Responsibility, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Corporate Taxation And Corporate Social Responsibility, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Articles
This Article will address the question of whether publicly traded U.S. corporations owe a duty to their shareholders to minimize their corporate tax burden through any legal means, or if instead, strategic behaviors like aggressive tax-motivated transactions are inconsistent with corporate social responsibility (“CSR”). I believe the latter holds true, regardless of one’s view of the corporation. Under the “artificial entity” view, such behavior undermines the constitutive relationship between the corporation and the state. Under the “real view,” such behavior runs contrary to the normal obligation of citizens to comply with the law (even absent effective enforcement). And under the …
The New Section 1202 Tax-Free Business Sale: Congress Rewards Small Businesses That Survived The Great Recession, Beckett G. Cantley
The New Section 1202 Tax-Free Business Sale: Congress Rewards Small Businesses That Survived The Great Recession, Beckett G. Cantley
Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law
On September 27, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Creating Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (“SBJA”) that contains a temporary amendment to Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) § 1202. The amendment permits original shareholders of eligible corporation stock to sell the stock without being taxed on the sale. The temporary amendment initially only applied to certain stock acquired after the enactment of the SBJA and before January 1, 2011, but the amendment was extended on December 17, 2010 for another year ending January 1, 2012. With the impending sunset of the 15% capital gains rate at the end of 2012, …
The Case For Dividend Deduction, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Amir C. Chenchinski
The Case For Dividend Deduction, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Amir C. Chenchinski
Articles
The December 2010 compromise between President Barack Obama and the Republicans extended the 15% tax rate on dividends through the end of 2012. At that point, however, the rate may revert to the Clinton administration rate-39.6%-or be raised to 20%-as proposed by the Obama Administration. Thus, the United States may either abandon corporate-shareholder integration, maintain partial integration, or perhaps even adopt the George W Bush administration's 2003 proposal to exempt dividends altogether-as advocated by some Republicans in Congress. Given this uncertainty and the likelihood of additional Congressional action, now may be a good time to revisit the integration issue. Another …
The Redemption Puzzle, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
The Redemption Puzzle, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Articles
After the adoption of partial integration in 2003, there has been only a modest rise in dividends, but a sixfold increase in redemptions. This article argues that the explanation for that lies in the different treatment of dividends and capital gains to foreign shareholders and that Congress should respond by making sections 302 and 304 inapplicable to foreign shareholders.
International Capital Taxation., Rachel Griffith, James R. Hines Jr., Peter Birch Sørensen
International Capital Taxation., Rachel Griffith, James R. Hines Jr., Peter Birch Sørensen
Book Chapters
Globalization carries profound implications for tax systems, yet most tax systems, including that of the UK, still retain many features more suited to closed economies. The purpose of this chapter is to assess how tax policy should reflect the changing international economic environment. Institutional barriers to the movement of goods, services, capital, and (to a lesser extent) labour have fallen dramatically since the Meade Report (Meade, 1978) was published. So have the costs of moving both real activity and taxable profits between tax jurisdictions. These changes mean that capital and taxable profits in particular are more mobile between jurisdictions than …
Managers, Shareholders, And The Corporate Double Tax, Michael Doran
Managers, Shareholders, And The Corporate Double Tax, Michael Doran
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The United States generally imposes two levels of federal income tax on corporate profits. The first level taxes income to the corporation; the second level taxes dividends to the shareholders. Academics and policymakers have long considered this double tax to be "unusual, unfair, and inefficient." Legislators from both political parties have proposed integration of the corporate and individual income taxes on many occasions, but the proposals consistently fail. Prior academic analyses have struggled to explain the failure of integration. This paper demonstrates how certain managers, shareholders, and collateral interests rationally favor certain integration proposals and oppose other integration proposals, while …
The Economic Impact Of Backdating Of Executive Stock Options, M. P. Narayanan, Cindi A. Schipani, H. Nejat Seyhun
The Economic Impact Of Backdating Of Executive Stock Options, M. P. Narayanan, Cindi A. Schipani, H. Nejat Seyhun
Michigan Law Review
This Article discusses the economic impact of legal, tax, disclosure, and incentive issues arising from the revelation of dating games with regard to executive option grant dates. It provides an estimate of the value loss incurred by shareholders of firms implicated in backdating and compares it to the potential gain that executives might have obtained through backdating. Using a sample of firms that have already been implicated in backdating, we find that the revelation of backdating results in an average loss to shareholders of about 7%. This translates to about $400 million per firm. By contrast, we estimate that the …
Rationalizing The Taxation Of Reorganizations And Other Corporate Acquisitions, Herwig J. Schlunk
Rationalizing The Taxation Of Reorganizations And Other Corporate Acquisitions, Herwig J. Schlunk
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This article examines the taxation of human shareholders in the case of mergers and acquisitions. Currently, the relevant law is extraordinarily complex, utterly inconsistent, and in many instances arguably unfair. There are really only two plausible ways to cure these ills. The first would involve moving to a tax system with more fulsome gain recognition, most likely in the form of mark-to-market taxation. This option is not in my opinion feasible (either technically or what is perhaps more important, politically). Accordingly, the second potential cure, moving to a tax system with less gain recognition, merits attention. In this article, I …
Prevention Of Double Deductions Of A Single Loss: Solutions In Search Of A Problem, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn
Prevention Of Double Deductions Of A Single Loss: Solutions In Search Of A Problem, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn
Articles
In the current tax system, a corporation is treated as a separate taxable entity. This tax system is sometimes referred to as an entity tax or a double tax system. Since a corporation is a separate and distinct entity from its owners, the shareholders, the default rule is that transfers between them are treated as realization events. Without a specific Internal Revenue Code (Code) provision providing otherwise, such transactions will also require the parties to recognize the realized gain or loss. Congress has enacted several nonrecognition corporate provisions when forcing the recognition of income could prevent changes to the form …
Ifa Branch Report: United States (Trends In Company / Shareholder Taxation: Single Or Double Taxation?), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Ifa Branch Report: United States (Trends In Company / Shareholder Taxation: Single Or Double Taxation?), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Other Publications
United States IFA Branch Report on Trends in Company / Shareholder Taxation: Single or Double Taxation?
Hester Prynne, Lydia Bennet, And Section 306 Stock: The Concept Of Tainting In The American Novel, The British Novel, And The Internal Revenue Code, Stephen B. Cohen, Stephen B. Cohen
Hester Prynne, Lydia Bennet, And Section 306 Stock: The Concept Of Tainting In The American Novel, The British Novel, And The Internal Revenue Code, Stephen B. Cohen, Stephen B. Cohen
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Did Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, inspire Section 306 of the Internal Revenue Code? This code provision adopts a peculiarly Hawthorne-like solution to a tax avoidance scheme known as the "preferred stock bailout." Section 306 taints the stock used in the scheme as "Section 306 stock." Special rules then govern all subsequent dispositions of the tainted stock. With its concept of a taint that can dog a stock from acquisition to disposition, Section 306 might have been designed by a novelist rather than a tax technician.
Getting Out Of Business: Tax Costs And Opportunities In Exiting A Closely Held Business, Denise D. J. Roy
Getting Out Of Business: Tax Costs And Opportunities In Exiting A Closely Held Business, Denise D. J. Roy
Faculty Scholarship
The primary purpose of this article is to encourage closely held business owners and their lawyers to consider exit costs, opportunities and strategies when making the initial choice-of-entity decision. A secondary purpose is to provide information about tax consequences and exit strategies useful to owners of businesses that are already up and running, whether in drafting a buy-sell agreement or planning for a specific transaction. Therefore, the article begins by comparing the major tax consequences of exiting the alternative entity types available to closely held businesses for tax purposes--C corporations, S corporations and partnerships. Part II of this article provides …
Section 338 And Its Foolish Consistency Rules - The Hobgoblin Of Little Minds, Douglas A. Kahn
Section 338 And Its Foolish Consistency Rules - The Hobgoblin Of Little Minds, Douglas A. Kahn
Articles
The purposes of this Article are to examine whether there is any longer a reason for concern because a target corporation can choose selected assets for nonrecognition and to what extent the 1994 regulations properly deal with potentially abusive circumventions of tax goals. Before examining the current status of the consistency requirements, the historical background that led to the adoption of Section 338 and the operation of the section is discussed. The historical background includes: the judicially created Kimbell-Diamond rule, the codification and modification of that rule by the old version of Section 334(b)(2), the operation of the old version …
Should General Utilities Be Reinstated To Provide Partial Integration Of Corporate And Personal Income—Is Half A Loaf Better Than None?, Douglas A. Kahn
Should General Utilities Be Reinstated To Provide Partial Integration Of Corporate And Personal Income—Is Half A Loaf Better Than None?, Douglas A. Kahn
Articles
The General Utilities doctrine is the name given to the now largely defunct tax rule that a corporation does not recognize a gain or a loss on making a liquidating or nonliquidating distribution of an appreciated or depreciated asset to its shareholders. The roots of the doctrine, can be traced to a regulation promulgated in 1919 that denied realization of gain or loss to a corporation when making a liquidating distribution of an asset in kind. No regulatory provision existed which specified the extent to which realization would or would not be triggered by a nonliquidating distribution such as a …
Stock Redemptions: The Standards For Qualifying As A Purchase Under Section 302(B)., Douglas A. Kahn
Stock Redemptions: The Standards For Qualifying As A Purchase Under Section 302(B)., Douglas A. Kahn
Articles
This Article discusses the requirements of section 302(b) for characterizing a stock redemption as a purchase rather than as a dividend equivalent. The focus is primarily on two issues: (1) whether the election authorized by section 302(c)(2) to waive family attribution rules should be available to an entity such as a trust or estate; and (2) the determination of the standards to be applied in resolving whether a redemption is "not essentially equivalent to a dividend" so that section 302(b)(1) is applicable.
Double Jeopardy Of Corporate Profits, The , Constantine N. Katsoris
Double Jeopardy Of Corporate Profits, The , Constantine N. Katsoris
Faculty Scholarship
The more one reads about our economy, the more one is baffled and alarmed. Permanent solutions to economic problems are elusive. Treating one financial malaise often aggravates another sector of the economy, necessitating a delicate balancing of conflicting interests. Furthermore, the problems are complicated by the constant influence of foreign forces. Nevertheless, most economists agree that any solution will require enormous funding. Unfortunately, the public has little, if any, confidence in our tax system. Indeed, some tax laws and proposals have been referred to as "obscene" and a "disgrace to the human race." Few quarrel with the aptness of such …
Eliminating The Capital Gains Preference. Part Ii: The Problem Of Corporate Taxation, Michael J. Waggoner
Eliminating The Capital Gains Preference. Part Ii: The Problem Of Corporate Taxation, Michael J. Waggoner
Publications
No abstract provided.
Mandatory Buy-Out Agreements For Stock Of Closely Held Corporations, Douglas A. Kahn
Mandatory Buy-Out Agreements For Stock Of Closely Held Corporations, Douglas A. Kahn
Articles
A buy-out of a shareholder's stock is a sale of his stock holdings in a specific corporation pursuatnt to a pre-existing contract. In recent years such arrangements have, deservedly, become an increasingly popular planning device for shareholders in closely held corporations; they make it possible to limit the class of potential shareholders, provide liquidity for the estate of a deceased shareholder, and establish a value for stock which has no active market. There are two popular categories of buy-out plans. If the prospective purchaser of a decedent's shares is the corporation that issued them, the plan is called an "entity …
Taxation-Income Tax-Dealings By Corporation In Its Own Stock, John N. Seaman
Taxation-Income Tax-Dealings By Corporation In Its Own Stock, John N. Seaman
Michigan Law Review
From 1921 to 1929, appellee corporation bought shares of its own stock, not for retirement, but to sustain the market, to increase the number of shareholders by resale in smaller blocks, and for other reasons. This stock was held as treasury stock. In 1929 it was sold by the corporation, at a profit. From 1920 to 1934 the Treasury Regulations exempted the proceeds of such a transaction from income tax, treating the purchase and sale as separate decrease and increase in the capital, and not as resulting in income. But in 1934 the regulation was changed, so as to tax …