Law Commons^™

Reflections On The Cross-Border Tax Challenges Of The Digital Economy, Walter Hellerstein

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In this article, Hellerstein discusses common problems confronting national and subnational jurisdictions in addressing the cross-border tax challenges of the digital economy. This article is based on the author's November 21 inaugural lecture as a visiting professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

There's A Problem With Buybacks, But It's Not What Senators Think, Daniel J. Hemel, Gregg D. Polsky

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In a deeply divided Washington, one of the few issues on which leading lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appear to agree is that corporations should be discouraged from buying back their stock from shareholders. This short article argues that, while this anti-buyback sentiment is misguided, there nevertheless are good tax policy arguments for reforming the tax treatment of buybacks. The article recommends adoption of a 1969 proposal made by Professor Marvin Chirelstein that would recharacterize (for tax purposes) buybacks as a pro rata cash dividend, followed by sales of shares from the shareholders who participate in the buyback …

Taxes Falling Disproportionately On Nonresidents: Reflections On Saban, Walter Hellerstein

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In this article, Hellerstein discusses the constitutionality of taxes that fall disproportionately on nonresidents.

Should States Embrace Gilti?: A Cost-Benefit Approach, Walter Hellerstein

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Congress inserted several provisions into the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, arguably intended to address corporate arrangements when federal taxable income on which the states rely is disconnected from profitability, perhaps most significantly a tax on global intangible low-taxed income. In this installment of Board Briefs, I asked State Tax Notes board members to weigh in on whether states should embrace GILTI.

Digital Taxation Lessons From Wayfair And The U.S. States’ Responses, Walter Hellerstein, Jeffrey Owens, Christina Dimitropoulou

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This article provides a detailed and structured synthesis of the discussion that took place in the context of the "fireside chat" event held by the WU Global Tax Policy Center at the Institute of Austrian and International Tax Law on December 17, 2018, at which Hellerstein was the guest speaker. The event was one of the initiatives of the Digital Economy Tax Network, a multi-stakeholder forum, which organized a workshop on the VAT/goods and services tax and the digital economy December 17-18, 2018, in Vienna. In this article, the authors examine the lessons that the U.S. Supreme Court's Wayfair decision …

Explaining Choice-Of-Entity Decisions By Silicon Valley Start-Ups, Gregg Polsky

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Perhaps the most fundamental role of a business tax advisor is to recommend the optimal entity choice for nascent business enterprises. Nevertheless, even in 2018, the choice-of-entity analysis remains highly muddled. Most tax practitioners across the United States consistently recommend flow-through entities, such as LLCs and S corporations, to their clients. In contrast, a discrete group of highly sophisticated tax professionals, those who advise start-ups in Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of start-up activity, prefer C corporations.

Prior commentary has described and tried to explain this paradox without finding an adequate explanation. These commentators have noted a host of superficially …

The Transformation Of The State Corporate Income Tax Into A Market-Based Levy, Walter Hellerstein

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This article traces the developments which have transformed the state corporate income tax into a market-based levy and provides an overview of the current “state of play” regarding the apportionment of income for state corporate income tax purposes.

How Not To Read International Harvester: A Response, Walter Hellerstein

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In this article, Hellerstein examines a recent article by Alysse McLoughlin and Kathleen Quinn and seeks to clear up the confusion surrounding International Harvester.

Platforms: The Sequel, Walter Hellerstein, John A. Swain, Jonathan E. Maddison

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In this article, the authors discuss recent developments on sales and use tax reporting and collection obligations imposed on platforms that facilitate taxable sales of tangible personal property or services.