Law Commons^™

Tax Treatment Of Damages Awarded For Age Discrimination, Gerald A. Madek

Akron Tax Journal

Since the inception of anti-discrimination laws, the degree to which victims should be compensated has been a subject of debate. Legislators have always been acutely aware of competing pressures in this area. Civil rights advocates have persistently lobbied for generous compensatory awards for emotional distress, while businesses have lobbied just as persistently against these awards which threaten their ability to do business profitably. The result of these competing pressures has been a set of anti-discrimination statutes offering inconsistent remedies.

Property Valuation For Transfer Taxes: Art, Science, Or Arbitrary Decision?, Stephen C. Gara, Craig J. Langstraat

Akron Tax Journal

According to the regulations, the value referred to in the IRC is defined as "fair market value." Fair market value is itself defined as the "price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy nor sell, and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts."9 The so-called hypothetical "willing buyer/seller" standard is prevalent throughout the case law dealing with this issue."0 Given the importance of this standard, additional discussion is warranted.

The standard requires an analysis of both sides of the transaction. It is not appropriate to …

Interest Deduction For Individuals: Review And Update, Edward Schnee

Akron Tax Journal

This article will review the current cases and rulings involving business, investment and qualified residence interest. It will point out areas of uncertainty as well as planning opportunities and pitfalls.

Tax Rationality And The Independence Of Irrelevant Alternatives, James P. Spica

Akron Tax Journal

Patricia White recently asked a simple question: What is the value of systemic coherence, or rationality, in tax legislation. This is asked along the way of an errand that does not require its answer, but White supposes, in passing, that the value queried is relative: no doubt systemic coherence is desirable, but it may conflict with other values predicable of a tax system, values it cannot invariably trump. This entails, on the one hand, that normative claims for rationality in this sphere regularly imply assignments of weights, and, on the other hand, that systemic coherence ought to be irresistible whenever …

Exempt Organizations: A Study Of Their Nature And The Applicability Of The Unrelated Business Income Tax, John M. Strefeler, Leslie T. Miller

Akron Tax Journal

With the hope of clarifying a difficult issue, this paper examines the traditional categories of exempt organizations (EOs), rationales for their exempt status, tests for gaining and maintaining their exempt status, standard tests used to impose unrelated business income tax (UBIT), and ways in which the traditional tests and standards are changing. Furthermore, this paper predicts areas of future change, discusses ways in which EOs can immediately strengthen their exempt status to avoid unnecessary UBIT, and suggests principled arguments which can be used to halt additional unwarranted incursions by tax "reformers" and "simplifiers."

The Return To Corporate Tax Evasion In The Presence Of An Income Tax On Shareholders, Graeme S. Cooper

Akron Tax Journal

The paper will proceed in the following stages: Section II will describe a theoretical model of the incentive structure surrounding corporate tax evasion and the implications that the model suggests for the behavior of corporate managers. Section III will analyze how the personal income tax might change the returns to evasion and how this effect could be expected to influence the behaviour of the corporation's managers. Section IV will describe the principal interaction mechanisms between the corporate tax and personal income tax employed in practice. Section V will analyze the effects of each of the interaction mechanisms described. Section VI …