Law Commons^™

Brief Of The Petitioners-Taxpayers Edward A. And Doris Zelinsky, Edward A. Zelinsky

Amicus Briefs

As a matter of state law, New York’s own regulations and case law do not permit taxation of Professor Zelinsky’s income earned at home in Connecticut for the COVID-19 period starting on March 15, 2020. Even if New York law permitted the taxation of Professor Zelinsky’s Cardozo salary during this COVID-19 period, as a matter of federal constitutional law, the Due Process and dormant Commerce Clauses do not permit New York’s taxation of this salary earned in Connecticut. In addition, Zelinsky v. Tax Appeals Tribunal, 1 N.Y. 3d 85 (2003), cert. denied, 541 U.S. 1009 (2004), does not apply to …

The Commerciality Of Non-Profit Hospitals Requires Them To Be Taxed: Bringing The Debate To A Conclusion, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

It is now time to conclude our prolonged debate about the tax-exempt status of nonprofit hospitals. The contemporary nonprofit hospital is a commercial enterprise, materially indistinguishable for tax purposes from its profit-making, taxed competitor. The federal income tax and the states’ income, sales and property taxes should treat all hospitals alike, regardless of whether such hospitals are nonprofit or for-profit enterprises. In the interests of equity and efficiency, these similar institutions should be taxed similarly.

As a political matter, nonprofit hospitals will continue to defend their tax-exempt status. Like any other lucrative, vested interest, nonprofit hospitals will continue to fight …

Brief Of Amici Curiae Tax Law Professors, Young Ran (Christine) Kim

Amicus Briefs

Professors Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, David Gamage, Orly Mazur, Young Ran (Christine) Kim, and Darien Shanske (collectively, “Tax Law Professors”) write this amici curiae brief in support of the Appellant in COMPTROLLER OF MARYLAND v. COMCAST — the Maryland Digital Advertising Case.

Many digital transactions currently evade sales taxation in Maryland, even though the closest non-digital analogues are subject to tax. Specifically, digital advertising platforms like Respondents obtain vast quantities of individualized data from and on Marylanders in currently untaxed transactions. The scope and value of these transactions is vast and growing, as they allow advertising platforms the lucrative opportunity to …

State Digital Services Taxes: A Good And Permissible Idea (Despite What You Might Have Heard), Young Ran (Christine) Kim, Darien Shanske

Articles

Tax systems have been struggling to adapt to the digitalization of the economy. At the center of the struggles is taxing digital platforms, such as Google or Facebook. These immensely profitable firms have a business model that gives away “free” services, such as searching the web. The service is not really free; it is paid for by having the users watch ads and tender data. Traditional tax systems are not designed to tax such barter transactions, leaving a gap in taxation.

One response, pioneered in Europe, has been the creation of a wholly new tax to target digital platforms: the …

The New Qui Tam: A Model For The Enforcement Of Group Rights In A Hostile Era, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman

Articles

The present Administration has made clear it has no interest in enforcing statutes designed to protect workers, consumers, voters, and others. And, as we have chronicled in prior work, the ability of private litigants to enforce these laws has been undercut by developments in the case law concerning class actions—particularly class-banning arbitration clauses. As these critical enforcement methods recede, will alternative methods of prosecuting claims arise? How might they work? Are they politically and fiscally sustainable? We focus here on a promising approach just now coming into view: qui tam legislation authorizing private citizens to bring representative claims on behalf …

Comparing Wayfair And Wynne: Lessons For The Future Of The Dormant Commerce Clause, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

A comparison of South Dakota v. Wayfair with Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne indicates that the prospect of the Supreme Court jettisoning the dormant Commerce Clause altogether is unlikely. However, the justices who would abandon the dormant Commerce Clause can exercise decisive influence in particular cases as they did in Wayfair. The current Court’s dormant Commerce Clause skeptics – Justices Thomas and Gorsuch –provided the crucial fourth and fifth votes in Wayfair to overturn Quill.

It will continue to be rare for the Court to reverse its own dormant Commerce Clause decisions. Far from opening …

The Political Process Argument For Overruling Quill, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

Should the U.S. Supreme Court overrule Quill Corporation v. North Dakota? In Quill, the Court held that, under the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the states cannot impose the obligation to collect sales taxes on out-of-state vendors which lack physical presence in the taxing state. As internet commerce has grown, Quill’s physical presence test has severely hampered the states’ ability to enforce their sales taxes.

Much of the Supreme Court’s case law suggests that, under the banner of stare decisis, the Court should not overturn Quill. This case law indicates that it is Congress’s …

Defining Residence For Income Tax Purposes: Domicile As Gap-Filler, Citizenship As Proxy And Gap-Filler, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

The states' income tax systems are important repositories of experience which confirm the administrative benefits of citizenship-based taxation. Domicile today plays an important role in state tax systems as a gap-filler when more objective statutory residence laws fail to assign any state of residence to the taxpayer. Citizenship is an administrable proxy for domicile and serves a similar gap-filling role in the federal taxation of individuals whose income and activities straddle across national boundaries.

The states' difficulties enforcing domicile-based taxation highlight the administrative benefits of citizenship-based taxation. As long as residence is understood for tax purposes in terms of domicile, …

Brief Of Interested Law Professors As Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioner, Edward A. Zelinsky

Amicus Briefs

Amici curiae are 14 professors of law who have devoted much of their teaching and research to the area of state taxes and the role of state tax policy in our federal system. The names and affiliations (for identification purposes only) of amici are included in an addendum to this brief. The amici are concerned with the effect of this Court’s dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence on the development of fair and efficient state tax systems. No decision of this Court has had more effect on state sales and use tax systems than Quill Corporation v. North Dakota. We believe …

Hillenmeyer, "Convenience Of The Employer," And The Taxation Of Nonresidents' Incomes, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

In Hillenmeyer v. Cleveland Board of Review, Ohio’s Supreme Court unanimously declared that Cleveland’s municipal income tax violated the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution by taxing a nonresident athlete under the “games-played” method rather than the “duty-days” method. According to the Ohio court, the games-played approach overtaxed Mr. Hillenmeyer by allocating to Cleveland Mr. Hillenmeyer’s compensation from the Chicago Bears using the percentage of the Bears’ games played in Cleveland. By this approach, Cleveland taxed Mr. Hillenmeyer extraterritorially, reaching income he earned from services he performed for the Bears outside of Cleveland’s borders. Due Process, the Ohio …

Putting State Courts In The Constitutional Driver's Seat: State Taxpayer Standing After Cuno And Winn, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

This article explores the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno and Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn. In Cuno and Winn, the Court held that state taxpayers lacked standing in the federal courts. Because the states have more liberal taxpayer standing rules than do the federal courts, Cuno and Winn will not terminate taxpayers’ constitutional challenges to state taxes and expenditures, but will instead channel such challenges from the federal courts (where taxpayers do not have standing) to the state courts (where they do). Moreover, municipal taxpayer standing in the federal courts, which …

Citizenship And Worldwide Taxation: Citizenship As An Administrable Proxy For Domicile, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

The United States' worldwide taxation of its citizens is less different from international, residence-based norms than is widely believed and is sensible as a matter of tax policy. An individual's citizenship is an administrable, if sometimes overly broad, proxy for his domicile, his permanent home. Both citizenship and domicile measure an individual's permanent allegiance rather than his immediate physical presence. Because citizenship and domicile resemble each other, and because other nations often define residence for tax purposes as domicile, the U.S. system of citizenship-based taxation typically reaches the same results as the residence-based systems of these other nations, but reaches …

Rethinking Tax Nexus And Apportionment: Voice, Exit, And The Dormant Commerce Clause, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

The dormant Commerce Clause concept of tax nexus is best understood as a rough, but serviceable, proxy for the taxpayer's standing in the political process. This perspective leads me to defend Quill Corporation v. North Dakota and the much maligned physical presence test for tax nexus. As a matter of legislative policy, the critics of this test may be correct. However, as a matter of constitutional law, the courts should adhere to an expanded physical presence standard as Congress crafts for the long term broader nexus rules based on economic presence. Taxation is an inherently and irreducibly political matter. An …

Tax Incentives For Economic Development: Personal (And Pessimistic) Reflections, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Incoherence Of Dormant Commerce Clause Nondiscrimination: A Rejoinder To Professor Denning, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

A sound intuition animates Professor Denning's defense of the doctrinal status quo under the dormant commerce clause: the courts should not lightly abandon well-established constitutional canons. I nevertheless remain unconvinced by Professor Denning's effort to justify the long-standing interpretation of the dormant commerce clause as forbidding taxes which discriminate against interstate commerce. Whatever the historical justification for this constitutional precept, its past utility, or its visceral appeal, dormant commerce clause nondiscrimination is today doctrinally incoherent in tax contexts. The problem is not one of borderlines and close cases. Rather, at its core, the notion of dormant commerce clause tax nondiscrimination …

The Future Of The Dormant Commerce Clause: Abolishing The Prohibition On Discriminatory Taxation, Edward A. Zelinsky, Brannon P. Denning

Articles

Professor Edward A. Zelinsky, of the Cardozo School of Law, argues that "[i] t is time to abolish the dormant Commence Clause prohibition on discriminatory taxation." This is so, he writes, because "the prohibition is today doctrinally incoherent and politically unnecessary." The incoherence, Zelinsky maintains, stems from the disparate treatment by the United States Supreme Court of economically identical activities: "discriminatory taxation favoring local industries," which the doctrine prohibits, and "direct expenditures subsidizing those same industries," which it permits. It is unnecessary, Zelinsky argues, because Congress is able, and better suited, to police any state abuses. In short, "[l]ike a …