Law Commons^™

Head In The Clouds, Head In The Sand: Federal Failure To Update Guidance On Computer Transaction In An International Context, Logan S. Weaver

Washington Law Review

The United States has two different rationales for taxing income of non-U.S. persons and entities. First, the income may be “sourced” to the United States, as defined in the Internal Revenue Code. Alternatively, the income may be effectively connected to a trade or business within the United States that provides income to the non-U.S. person or entity. The sourcing rules for income of non-U.S. persons and entities depend heavily on the nature of the underlying transaction and the geographical location where certain key elements of the transaction take place. So long as the non-U.S. person or entity avoids activities that …

Taxation, Craig G. Bell, Michael H. Brady

University of Richmond Law Review

This article reviews significant recent developments in the laws affecting Virginia state and local taxation. Its sections cover legislative activity, judicial decisions, and selected opinions or pronouncements from the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Attorney General of Virginia over the past year.

Tax Reform On Homeownership, Margaret Ryznar

University of Miami Law Review

The 2017 tax reform, by curtailing the deductions for mortgage interest and state and local taxes, frustrates the American public policy of encouraging homeownership. Yet, there are many reasons that public policy has encouraged homeownership for decades. Most importantly, homeownership is an important savings tool for Americans—and tax reform should be mindful of it.

Legislative Foundation Of The United States' New International Tax System, Joshua D. Harms

Seattle University Law Review

This Note begins with commentary on the United States’ former worldwide system of taxation. This system taxed multinational corporations’ offshore profits at the applicable domestic income tax rate less credits for taxes paid to foreign governments. This tax regime provided for the deferral of income tax due on the profits of multinational corporations’ overseas operations until the time of repatriation. This Note considers the issues inherent in this system and analyzes the repatriation tax holiday under the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. This holiday has been unanimously criticized by both sides of the political aisle and led to large …

De Novo: Reviewing Tax Court Redressability Incongruities In Innocent Spouse Relief Sections 66© And 6015(F), Jason Harn

Seattle University Law Review

Part One of this Note details the historical background of joint and several liability in federal income taxation. Part Two introduces, compares, and contrasts the two statutory provisions Congress has enacted to relieve “innocent spouses” from joint and several liability. Part Three discusses the incongruent standards of review applied by the Tax Court to these—§§ 66 and 6015—two substantially similar relief provisions. Finally, Part Four suggests remedies to alleviate this incongruity.

How Shell Entities And Lack Of Ownership Transparency Facilitate Tax Evasion And Modern Policy Responses To These Problems

Marquette Law Review

The purpose of this article is to review the use and application of shell entities, as they facilitate tax evasion, impede investigations, and harm society. This article details the types and characteristics of shell entities, reviews actual cases to exhibit how shells are abused, outlines reasons shells disguise beneficial ownership, and analyzes steps taken by countries and organizations to thwart the abuse of shell entities. Many types of shell entities are used by tax evaders and are often layered in an intricate network which conceals the identity of beneficial owners. Nominees and bearer shares are used in tandem with shell …

Per Se Economic Substance, Jesse P. Houchens

BYU Law Review

The economic substance doctrine is used by the IRS and courts to distinguish legal tax avoidance from tax evasion. More specifically, executive and judicial bodies use this doctrine to revoke statutorily compliant tax benefits that arise from transactions that lack, beyond such tax benefits, both a subjective business purpose and an objective economic effect. The most common tool for measuring the objective economic effect of a transaction is the pre-tax profit test. However, disagreement among courts and scholars applying this test has led to taxpayer uncertainty and accusations of reverse-engineered opinions. In this Comment, I reevaluate and propose an alternative, …

The Contemporary Tax Journal Volume 7, No. 2 – Summer 2018

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter (Letter From The Editor, Masthead, Etc.)

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Summaries For The 33rd Annual Tei-Sjsu High Tech Tax Institute, Silin Chen, June Hostetter, Sahdia Saiara, Jessica Wong, Cherry Zheng

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of The Head Of Household Filing Status, Chau Le

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Tax Journal's Interview With Mr. Eric Ryan, Sara (Yaqin) Sun

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Failed Charity: Taking State Tax Benefits Into Account For Purposes Of The Charitable Deduction, Roger Colinvaux

Buffalo Law Review

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) substantially limited the ability of individuals to deduct state and local taxes (SALT) on their federal income tax returns. Some states are advancing schemes to allow taxpayers a state tax credit for contributions to a charity controlled by the state. The issue is whether state tax benefits are deductible as a charitable contribution for purposes of the federal income tax. Under a general rule of prior law—the full deduction rule—state tax benefits were ignored for purposes of the charitable deduction. If the full deduction rule is applied to the state workaround schemes, then …

Federal Income Taxation, Robert A. Beard, Gregory S. Lucas

Mercer Law Review

In 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and courts within its jurisdiction decided a number of important federal taxation cases. Among these are a case that raises novel constitutional arguments under the Equal Protection Clause, a case that lodges a constitutional challenge to the United States Tax Court, and a case that addresses a matter of first impression in the circuit about the deductibility of amounts paid in the context of a divorce proceeding. These three cases are discussed herein.

Higher Education Savings And Planning: Tax And Nontax Considerations, F. Philip Manns Jr., Timothy M. Todd

Texas A&M Law Review

Funding higher education is among the critical financial decisions made by individuals and families. There are myriad options. Yet, the conventional wisdom—namely using Section 529 Plans—may not be the optimal vehicle to effectuate this goal. Therefore, this Article discusses various strategies to plan, save, and pay for higher education. It compares various savings methods including gifts, UTMA accounts, Section 529 Plans, trusts, and other vehicles. The analysis explores both tax and non-tax considerations, including the effect of different strategies on financial aid, transaction costs, investor control, income taxes, gift and estate taxes, flexibility, and creditor protection. This Article concludes that …

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 …

Private Benefits In Public Offerings: Tax Receivable Agreements In Ipos, Gladriel Shobe

Vanderbilt Law Review

Historically, an initial public offering ("IPO") was a process whereby a company sold all of its underlying assets to the public. A new tax innovation, the "tax receivable agreement" ("TRA'), creates private tax benefits in public offerings by allowing pre-IPO owners to effectively keep valuable tax assets for themselves while selling the rest of the company to the public. Prior to 2005, TRAs were almost never used in IPOs. Today they have become commonplace, changing the landscape of the IPO market in ways that are likely to become even more pronounced in the future. This Article traces the history of …

How Special Is The Special Timing Rule? Analyzing The Timing Of Fica Taxation In Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans, Alan J. Ponce

Georgia State University Law Review

Many employers offer nonqualified deferred compensation plans as a benefit to select employees, and those plans allow the employees to prepare for retirement in a tax-efficient manner. For employers,designing and administering such plans in compliance with federal law represents a paramount concern in order to achieve the tax advantages such plans entail. However, for these employers, there remains an inherent ambiguity in the tax code regarding how and when employers should withhold Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes—that is, Social Security and Medicare taxes—on deferred compensation in nonqualified retirement plans.

Tax regulations provide two distinct methods for withholding FICA taxes …

Tax Compliance In A Decentralizing Economy, Manoj Viswanathan

Georgia State University Law Review

Tax compliance in the United States has long relied on information from centralized intermediaries—the financial institutions,employers, and brokers that help ensure income is reported and taxes are paid. Yet while the IRS remains tied to these centralized entities,consumers and businesses are not. New technologies, such as sharing economy platforms (companies such as Airbnb, Uber, and Instacart)and the blockchain (the platform on which various cryptocurrencies are based) are providing new, decentralized options for exchanging goods and services.

Without legislative and agency intervention, these technologies pose a critical threat to the reporting system underlying domestic and international tax compliance. Until now, legal …

Potential Penalties And Ethical Problems In Filing An Amended Return: The Case Of The Repentant Sports/Entertainment Figure's Legal Expenses Deduction, John R. Dorocak

Maine Law Review

A prominent sports/entertainment figure walks into your office (all preparers should be so lucky). He is in a repentant mood--not because he escaped conviction for the murder of his former wife and her friend, but because he deducted his legal expenses in defending against the criminal prosecution and the civil wrongful death suit. This Article discusses the obligation of the taxpayer, even one as nefarious as the athlete posited, and the practitioner to file an amended return. As one pair of commentators has stated, “How should the amendment be made, and what are the possible consequences of amending a return? …

Summaries For The 2017 Irs-Sjsu Small Business Tax Institute, Ruchi Chopra Cpa, Mba, Ophelia Ding, Surbhi Doshi, Nilesh Lad Cpa, Sara Yaqin Sun

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Who Truly Benefits From The Mortgage Interest Deduction?, Stephen Wildt Mba

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

R&D Credit Against Payroll Tax Liabilities - The Payroll Tax Credit, Sarah Yaqin Sun

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Tax Journal Volume 7, No. 1 - Winter 2018

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Tax Journal's Interview With Mr. Jim Fuller, Ophelia Ding

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of H.R.2551 - 115th Congress (2017-2018) - Student Loan Debt Relief Act, Soon-Young Apple, Debanjana Banerjee, Nilesh Lad, Anna Li

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Why Section 179(B)(3)(A)'S Business Income Limitation Does Not Apply To Partnerships And S Corporations, David Randall Jenkins Ph.D.

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Latent Semantic Analysis: A Big Data Opportunity For Tax Research, Paul D. Hutchison Ph.D., C. Elizabeth Plummer Ph.D., Cpa, Benjamin George Ph.D.

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of H.R.2802 - 115th Congress (2017-2018) First-Time Homebuyer Savings Account Act Of 2017, Shimiao Gong, Xiaotong Stella Li, Ling Wei, Pingrong Xue

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of S.1352 - 115th Congress (2017-2018) Apprenticeship And Jobs Training Act Of 2017, Veena Hemachandran, Katrina Jodrey, George (Peixuan) Liu, Leigh Ann Moore

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.