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Taxation-Federal

2007

Institution
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Articles 1 - 30 of 44

Full-Text Articles in Law

Paying To Save: Tax Withholding And Asset Allocation Among Low- And Moderate-Income Taxpayers, Michael S. Barr, Jane Dokko Nov 2007

Paying To Save: Tax Withholding And Asset Allocation Among Low- And Moderate-Income Taxpayers, Michael S. Barr, Jane Dokko

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

We analyze the phenomenon that low- and moderate-income (LMI) tax filers exhibit a “preference for over-withholding” their taxes, a measure we derive from a unique set of questions administered in a dataset of 1,003 households, which we collected through the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. We argue that the relationship between their withholding preference and portfolio allocation across liquid and illiquid assets is consistent with models with present-biased preferences, and that individuals exhibit self-control problems when making their consumption and saving decisions. Our results support a model in which individuals use commitment devices to constrain their consumption. …


Recent Developments In Federal Income Taxation, Ira B. Shepard Nov 2007

Recent Developments In Federal Income Taxation, Ira B. Shepard

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.


Navigating Uncharted Waters: The New Charitable Entity Legislation, Robert L. Thalhimer, Michele A. W. Mckinnon Nov 2007

Navigating Uncharted Waters: The New Charitable Entity Legislation, Robert L. Thalhimer, Michele A. W. Mckinnon

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.


Another Take On The Mortgage Debt Relief Situation, Deborah A. Geier Oct 2007

Another Take On The Mortgage Debt Relief Situation, Deborah A. Geier

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Prof. Deborah A. Geier responds to Prof. Stephen Cohen's viewpoint on the mortgage debt relief debate.


The Ubit: Leveling An Uneven Playing Field Or Tilting A Level One?, Michael S. Knoll Oct 2007

The Ubit: Leveling An Uneven Playing Field Or Tilting A Level One?, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

After grateful alumni acquired the Mueller Spaghetti Company on behalf of New York University, and the courts held that the university did not have to pay tax on the pasta maker’s income, Mueller’s competitors cried foul. Congress responded to their pleas and enacted the unrelated business income tax (UBIT). The UBIT subjects an otherwise tax-exempt entity, such as a charitable institution or a religious organization, to tax on its income from a trade or business that is not substantially related to the organization’s tax-exempt purpose. The UBIT is widely viewed as leveling the playing field between taxable for-profit businesses and …


Can You Have Your Cake And Eat It Too? Achieving Capital Gain Treatment While Keeping The Property, Ronald H. Jensen Oct 2007

Can You Have Your Cake And Eat It Too? Achieving Capital Gain Treatment While Keeping The Property, Ronald H. Jensen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

I will attempt to show in this article that the cases and rulings dispensing with the need for a sale or exchange are unjustified under the statutory scheme and prevailing capital gain jurisprudence, and further that such holdings constitute bad policy. Part II will set forth a number of examples, based largely on decided cases, where it has been held or contended that recoveries in excess of basis qualify for capital gain treatment even though the taxpayer did not sell or exchange the property. These cases will illustrate the contexts in which this issue arises and will provide a basis …


All In The Family As Single Shareholder Of An S Corporation, Jeffrey H. Kahn, Douglas H. Kahn, Terrence G. Perris Aug 2007

All In The Family As Single Shareholder Of An S Corporation, Jeffrey H. Kahn, Douglas H. Kahn, Terrence G. Perris

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.


All In The Family As A Single Shareholder Of An S Corporation, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn, Terrence G. Perris Aug 2007

All In The Family As A Single Shareholder Of An S Corporation, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn, Terrence G. Perris

Articles

Subject to a few exceptions, a corporation that has elected to be taxed under subchapter S of chapter 1 of subtitle A of title 26 of the United States tax code is not taxed on its net income. Instead, the income, deductions, credits, and other tax items of an S corporation pass through to its shareholders on a pro rata basis. To qualify for subchapter S treatment, an electing corporation must satisfy the requirements that are set forth in section 1361, one of which is that the corporation can have no more than 100 shareholders. One aspect of that requirement …


Tax Magic: Did Billy Donovan Pull Income Out Of A Hat?, Jeffrey H. Kahn, Joshua P. Fershee Jul 2007

Tax Magic: Did Billy Donovan Pull Income Out Of A Hat?, Jeffrey H. Kahn, Joshua P. Fershee

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.


Congress's Transformative Republican Revolution In 2001-2006 And The Future Of One-Party Rule, Charles Tiefer Jul 2007

Congress's Transformative Republican Revolution In 2001-2006 And The Future Of One-Party Rule, Charles Tiefer

All Faculty Scholarship

In 2001 - 2006, Republican leadership in the legislature circumvented procedural norms to implement an ideological agenda that precluded the minority party from making alternative proposals and voicing criticisms. With the Republican majority in the Senate falling to 50-50 in 2000, President Bush's assumption of office, despite having lost the popular vote, set the tone for what would become an era of illegitimate procedural reform cloaked in secrecy and deniability. Through closed-door conferences and closed-rules, Republican leadership in the House and Senate turned the clock back on civil liberties, passed unfavorable and convoluted tax cuts, and used transformed health care …


Thinking About Conflicting Gravitational Pulls Litcs: The Academy And The Irs, Nancy S. Abramowitz Jun 2007

Thinking About Conflicting Gravitational Pulls Litcs: The Academy And The Irs, Nancy S. Abramowitz

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article addresses the tension between educational and public service goals in the immediate term for tax clinics receiving funding from the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (“LITC”) program under Internal Revenue Code §7526. The author expresses concern that the LITC Program Office will over emphasize the “number-of-taxpayers served” factor in program evaluation, thereby putting academic clinics at a distinct disadvantage in seeking and/or retaining program funds. By imposing these types of “productivity” measures, there is a tendency to force that particular type of activity, thereby significantly disrupting what otherwise might be a better or different educational model for the use …


Professor Janet Spragens: In Memory Of A Friend, In Celebration Of An Idea, Nancy S. Abramowitz Jun 2007

Professor Janet Spragens: In Memory Of A Friend, In Celebration Of An Idea, Nancy S. Abramowitz

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article is a tribute to the career and contributions of Professor Janet Spragens, who created the Federal Tax Clinic at the American University, Washington College of Law (WCL). During testimony before the historic Internal Revenue Service Restructuring Commission, Prof. Spragens advised the Commission to create better education of the public and greater availability of free advocacy for low-income taxpayers through federal funding of more clinics. In its landmark legislation of 1998, Congress responded to this testimony with the enactment of 26 U.S.C. §7526, which authorized a program to fund academic and pro bono clinics working to educate non-native English …


No Wealthy Parent Left Behind: An Analysis Of Tax Subsidies For Higher Education, Andrew Pike Jun 2007

No Wealthy Parent Left Behind: An Analysis Of Tax Subsidies For Higher Education, Andrew Pike

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article analyzes the status in 2007 of higher education costs in relation to U.S. taxation policy and the declining real income and ability of lower and middle income taxpayers to pay tuition and fees. Then-current tax policy lessened support for families with the greatest financial need while providing much greater levels of support to those with greater financial resources. To enhance distributional fairness, the author proposes that Congress repeal tax provisions that have this effect and consolidate the separate sources of federal financial aid grants into one program--an expanded Pell Grant program. He also advises that Congress make the …


What's Good For The Goose Is Not Good For The Gander: Sarbanes-Oxley-Style Nonprofit Reforms, Lumen N. Mulligan Jun 2007

What's Good For The Goose Is Not Good For The Gander: Sarbanes-Oxley-Style Nonprofit Reforms, Lumen N. Mulligan

Faculty Works

In this article, I contend that these Sarbanes-Oxley-inspired, state, nonprofit reforms, particularly the costly disclosure requirements, will be of little value in the effort to improve ethical nonprofit board governance. The article proceeds as follows. Part II provides a primer on the oversight of nonprofit organizations. Part III reviews the recent Sarbanes-Oxley-like nonprofit reforms introduced in seven states. Part IV contends that the disclosure-focused reforms, which form the bulwark of these acts, will not foster ethical nonprofit board governance. Part V argues that this failure stems from the inappropriate application of a stockholder-based, normative perspective in the nonprofit sector. The …


Optimal Tax Compliance And Penalties When The Law Is Uncertain, Kyle D. Logue Jun 2007

Optimal Tax Compliance And Penalties When The Law Is Uncertain, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

This article examines the optimal level of tax compliance and the optimal penalty for noncompliance in circumstances in which the substance of the tax law is uncertain - that is, when the precise application of the Internal Revenue Code to a particular situation is not clear. In such situations, a number of interesting questions arise. This article will consider two of them. First, as a normative matter, how certain should taxpayers be before they rely on a particular interpretation of a substantively uncertain tax rule? If a particular position is not clearly prohibited but neither is it clearly allowed, what …


The Aches And Pains Of Transition To A Consumption Tax: Can We Get There From Here?, Daniel S. Goldberg Apr 2007

The Aches And Pains Of Transition To A Consumption Tax: Can We Get There From Here?, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses probably the most significant obstacle to the adoption of a consumption tax: the negative effects on existing wealth that the transition from the income tax to most forms of a consumption tax would have. The Congressional Budget Office in its 1997 study posed the question, “How to Get There from Here.” The difficulty with transition and the changes in the tax law since the CBO study, however, prompt the more basic question: “Can we get there from here?” This article deals with this question by examining the effects of transition on existing wealth under a variety of …


Tax Shelters And The Code: Navigating Between Text And Internet, Steven A. Dean, Lawrence M. Solan Apr 2007

Tax Shelters And The Code: Navigating Between Text And Internet, Steven A. Dean, Lawrence M. Solan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


To Tax Or Not To Tax, That Is The Question: The State Of Section 104(A)(2) Following Murphy V. Internal Revenue Service, Stuart G. Lazar Apr 2007

To Tax Or Not To Tax, That Is The Question: The State Of Section 104(A)(2) Following Murphy V. Internal Revenue Service, Stuart G. Lazar

Other Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Fiction, Form, And Substance In Subchapter K: Taxing Partnership Mergers, Divisions, And Incorporations, Heather M. Field Jan 2007

Fiction, Form, And Substance In Subchapter K: Taxing Partnership Mergers, Divisions, And Incorporations, Heather M. Field

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Sunset Provisions In The Tax Code: A Critical Evaluation And Prescriptions For The Future, Manoj Viswanathan Jan 2007

Sunset Provisions In The Tax Code: A Critical Evaluation And Prescriptions For The Future, Manoj Viswanathan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Taxing Emotional Distress Recoveries: Does Murphy Show The Way?, Kaushal P. Mahaseth Jan 2007

Taxing Emotional Distress Recoveries: Does Murphy Show The Way?, Kaushal P. Mahaseth

LLM Theses and Essays

The taxability of recoveries of damages on account of emotional distress remains a complicated issue under the American federal income tax law. Recent developments due to a controversial decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals have further added fuel to this debate. Even if one were to argue the justifications of exempting such recoveries from income taxation, courts do not appear to be the very appropriate kind of forum. Congress can, and in fact does tax such recoveries and the constitutional basis of such power can hardly be doubted. As a result, appropriate changes in the statute only can …


A Consumption Tax Versus A Federal Income Tax In The United States, Shelly-Ann R. Tomlinson Jan 2007

A Consumption Tax Versus A Federal Income Tax In The United States, Shelly-Ann R. Tomlinson

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis makes a comparison between a consumption tax and the current Federal Income Tax in order to establish which would be fairer, simpler, more efficient and feasible for the United States. Issues such as which of the two tax systems would be easier to apply, and which would yield enough revenue for the fiscal budget are addressed. The thesis argues that a consumption tax would be more suitable for the United States and in particular makes reference to the Fair Tax plan which is a proposal to replace the current federal income tax with a national retail sales tax. …


Tax Evasion Confusion In The Ninth Circuit, Kimberly Stanley Jan 2007

Tax Evasion Confusion In The Ninth Circuit, Kimberly Stanley

Publications

It is well settled that the crime of tax evasion under IRC §7201 has three fundamental elements. The statute requires the government to prove (1) the existence of a tax deficiency, (2) willfulness in the attempted evasion of taxes, and (3) an affirmative act constituting an evasion or attempted evasion. However, two recent Ninth Circuit tax evasion cases have muddied the waters – resulting in opposite outcomes – and have tax practitioners questioning the court’s reasoning.


Dividend Policy Inside The Multinational Firm, Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2007

Dividend Policy Inside The Multinational Firm, Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

This paper examines the determinants of profit repatriation policies for US multinational firms. Dividend repatriations are surprisingly persistent and resemble dividend payments to external shareholders. Tax considerations influence dividend repatriations, but not decisively, as differentially-taxed entities feature similar policies and some firms incur avoidable tax penalties. Parent companies requiring cash to fund domestic investments, or to pay dividends to common shareholders, draw on the resources of their foreign affiliates through repatriations. Incompletely controlled affiliates are more likely than others to make regular dividend payments and to trigger avoidable tax costs through repatriations. The results indicate that traditional corporate finance concerns …


Financial Accounting And Corporate Behavior, David I. Walker Jan 2007

Financial Accounting And Corporate Behavior, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

The power of financial accounting to shape corporate behavior is underappreciated. Positive accounting theory teaches that even cosmetic changes in reported earnings can affect share value, not because market participants are unable to see through such changes to the underlying fundamentals, but because of implicit or explicit contracts that are based on reported earnings and transaction costs. However, agency theory suggests that accounting choices and corporate responses to accounting standard changes will not necessarily be those that maximize share value. For a number of reasons, including the fact that executive compensation often is tied to reported earnings, managerial preferences for …


Justice Holmes, Ralph Kramden, And The Civic Virtues Of A Tax Return Filing Requirement, Lawrence A. Zelenak Jan 2007

Justice Holmes, Ralph Kramden, And The Civic Virtues Of A Tax Return Filing Requirement, Lawrence A. Zelenak

Faculty Scholarship

A major goal of some tax reform proponents is the elimination of the return filing requirement for many or all Americans. Although the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform heard several hours of testimony concerning the possibility of a "return-free" income tax system, the Report of the Panel failed even to discuss the issue. This Article contends that the Panel was right to recommend (by implication) the retention of a return-based tax system, given the Panel's recommendations for major tax simplification. As long as the return filing obligation is not unduly burdensome which it would not be under the …


The Theory And Practice Of Tax Reform, Lawrence A. Zelenak Jan 2007

The Theory And Practice Of Tax Reform, Lawrence A. Zelenak

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing, President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, Simple, Fair, and Pro-Growth: Proposals to Fix America's Tax System (2005).By The President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. 2005. Available at: http://www.taxreformpanel.gov/final-report/


Corporate Taxation And International Competition, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2007

Corporate Taxation And International Competition, James R. Hines Jr.

Book Chapters

Many countries tax corporate income heavily despite the incentives that they face to reduce tax rates in order to attract greater investment, particularly investment from foreign sources. The volume of world foreign direct investment (FDI) has grown enormously since 1980, thereby increasing a country's ability to attract significant levels of new investment by reducing corporate taxation. The evidence indicates, however, that corporate tax collections are remarkably persistent relative to gross domestic product ( GDP), government revenues, or other indicators of underlying economic activity or government need. If this were not true- if corporate income taxation were rapidly disappearing around the …


Commentary, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2007

Commentary, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Book Chapters

David Rosenbloom has delivered an important lecture on an important topic: whether exploiting differences between the tax system of two different jurisdictions to minimize the taxes paid to either or both ("international tax arbitrage") is a problem, and if so, whether anything can be done about it in a world without a "world tax organization." As Rosenbloom states, international tax arbitrage is "the planning focus of the future," and recently has been the focus of considerable discussion and debate (for example, upon the promulgation and subsequent withdrawal under fire of Notice 98-11). Rosenbloom's lecture is one of the first attempts …


Can The Irs Silence Religious Organizations, Meghan J. Ryan Jan 2007

Can The Irs Silence Religious Organizations, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In the years following the 2004 presidential election, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Internal Revenue Service threatened revoking the tax-exempt status of the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena because during a 2004 sermon, a church rector stated that he opposed the Vietnam and Gulf wars and that Jesus would have disapproved of the Bush Administration's preemptive war doctrine. The rector did not tell his parishioners who to support in the 2004 election, however. This threat of revoking an organization's tax-exempt status is just one example of the IRS's recent and unprecedented aggressiveness in seeking out violations of …