Law Commons^™

Accessible Reliable Tax Advice, Emily Cauble

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Unsophisticated taxpayers who lack financial resources are disadvantaged by a shortage of adequate tax advice. The IRS does not have the resources to answer all questions asked, and the IRS’s informal advice comes with no guarantee as to its accuracy and offers the taxpayer no protection when it is mistaken. Furthermore, non-IRS sources of advice have not sufficiently filled the void left by a lack of satisfactory IRS guidance. These biases against unsophisticated taxpayers have been noted by existing literature. This Article contributes to existing literature by proposing several novel reform measures to assist unsophisticated taxpayers.

First, with respect to …

Risky Ventures: The Impact Of Irs Health Care Joint Venture Policy, Roger P. Meyers

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

IRS oversight of joint ventures between exempt and for-profit organizations has undergone substantial change over the past thirty years. This change has important consequences for the health care industry, where joint ventures have grown increasingly common. In the face of unclear guidance and aggressive enforcement of exemption-policing tools such as the private benefit doctrine and the control test, a hospital risks revocation of its tax-exempt status, or liability for unrelated business income tax, when it engages in a joint venture directly. It may be able to eliminate this risk by operating the same joint venture through a for-profit subsidiary; however, …

Curtailing The Economic Distortions Of The Mortgage Interest Deduction, William T. Mathias

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Many Americans consider the mortgage interest deduction a necessary fixture of the American tax system. In this Article, Mathias examines the economic underpinnings of the deduction and finds that it cannot be justified on purely economic grounds. He then evaluates the major policy arguments for the mortgage interest deduction and concludes that it is inefficient, inequitable, and too costly in its present form to be justified on policy grounds. Finally, the author advocates for the elimination or substantial reduction in the size and scope of the mortgage interest deduction.