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Full-Text Articles in Law

Purchaser's Depreciation Rights In Property Subject To A Lease, Michigan Law Review Dec 1983

Purchaser's Depreciation Rights In Property Subject To A Lease, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the purchase of property subject to a lease may produce several types of depreciable interests. Part I of the Note examines the requirements for depreciability and the role that depreciation plays in tax law. It concludes that even where the method set out by Congress also accommodates other goals, depreciation primarily provides a way to recover costs during a depreciable asset's income-producing life. Part II applies these principles to the task of determining whether improvements - for example, buildings on the property subject to the lease - are depreciable in the purchaser's hands. It concludes that …


Dissenting Opinions By Supreme Court Justices In Federal Income Tax Controversies, Walter J. Blum Dec 1983

Dissenting Opinions By Supreme Court Justices In Federal Income Tax Controversies, Walter J. Blum

Michigan Law Review

What is to be learned from this review of the various analyses offered in dissenting tax opinions over the past five terms of the Supreme Court? When the Court has decisively interpreted narrow or technical language in the statute, dissenters all too often indulge in lengthy analyses that can only serve to create further confusion. Only when the Court focuses on a judicially made rule or an issue with constitutional implications is a broader dissent appropriate. If dissenters generally adhered to the guidelines set forth at the outset of this Article the tax world would, I believe, be at least …


The Supreme Court's Misconstruction Of A Procedural Statute--A Critique Of The Court's Decision In Badaracco, Douglas A. Kahn Dec 1983

The Supreme Court's Misconstruction Of A Procedural Statute--A Critique Of The Court's Decision In Badaracco, Douglas A. Kahn

Michigan Law Review

Before addressing the lessons to be derived from Badaracco, it is necessary to make good on the author's claim that it can be demonstrated to the satisfaction of a reasonably skeptical reader that the Court's decision was patently wrong and resulted from a poor technique of statutory construction. This is a heavy burden, especially since the decision was reached by an overwhelming majority of the Court and since two courts of appeals and at least one student law review note reached the same result. The reader must judge whether the author succeeds in satisfying it. This Article will first …


A Case Study In Tax Reform: The Principal Residence, Edwin C. Harris Oct 1983

A Case Study In Tax Reform: The Principal Residence, Edwin C. Harris

Dalhousie Law Journal

For most Canadians, "tax reform", in the abstract, is almost a motherhood issue: of course we're in favor of it, particularly if we are referring to that most obtrusive and resented of taxes, the income tax. In fact, as of the end of 1983, we shall have lived twelve years under an income tax r6gime that the federal government was pleased to call "tax reform". Why, then, should there be at least as much clamor for changes to the income tax now as there was in the early 1960s, when the federal government of the day felt impelled to appoint …


Death Of A Partner: Pre And Post-Mortem Planning, Jerome Hesch Jan 1983

Death Of A Partner: Pre And Post-Mortem Planning, Jerome Hesch

Akron Tax Journal

There are several alternative techniques which can be employed to alleviate the income tax problems associated with the death of a partner. The sophisticated tax advisor will understand, however, that some of the suggested techniques may not be practical for all situations. The purpose of this article is to describe these planning techniques and to guide the tax advisor as to which technique is appropriate for his client.


Fairness In Rate Cuts In The Individual Income Tax, Alan L. Feld Jan 1983

Fairness In Rate Cuts In The Individual Income Tax, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (the 1981 Act) made significant changes in federal income, estate, and gift taxation, touching virtually every taxpayer.1 The centerpiece of the 1981 Act consisted of rate reductions in the individual income tax.2 These reductions, said to average 23%, served a number of different but related objectives. First, those in favor of the tax cuts posited that all taxpayers would benefit from equitable, across-the-board reductions in an excessive and growing tax burden.3 Related to this objective was an anticipated reduction in the size of the federal government, because less tax money …


The Deep Structure Of Capital Gains, William D. Popkin Jan 1983

The Deep Structure Of Capital Gains, William D. Popkin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The capital gains preference has been viewed as a means by which taxpayers are spared being taxed fully in a single year for income earned over a number of previous years. This Article argues that the tax preference for capital gains was intended to provide economic incentives by encouraging transferability, risk, and investment, not to achieve equity by a crude form of income averaging. This Article critically evaluates judicial doctrine in light of these economic policies and concludes that courts have not effectively bridged the gap between policy and the statutory language and structure. The author explains how the tax …