Law Commons^™

Will States Step Up In 2020? We Hope So, Darien Shanske, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

We offer no predictions about the next year in tax, but we will offer what we hope will happen — if not next year, then soon. To paraphrase Chief Justice John Roberts, we hope that when it comes to the taxation of multinational corporations in particular, states will act more like the “separate and independent sovereigns” that they are. often rely on volatile revenue sources. More stable tax bases, like the sales tax and the property tax bases, are riddled with design flaws, from the sales tax base not including services and intangibles to the property tax failing to provide …

A Current Update Of Epcrs Through Rev. Proc. 2019-19, 47 Tax Mgmt. Comp. Plan. J. 1 (Dec. 6, 2019), Kathryn J. Kennedy

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tax Policy For The Wider Cryptoverse, Arild B. Doerge

Student Scholarship

The rapid rise of Bitcoin and other “cryptoassets” offers many interesting technological capabilities but also comes with uncertainty and volatility in the markets for these assets. The diversity of types of cryptoassets is increasing rapidly, while public understanding and government policy have generally been slow to take account of this diversity. In regard to taxation policy related to cryptoassets, current IRS guidance merely categorizes cryptoassets as general property. The policy implications of this classification run contrary to fundamental goals of tax policy by inhibiting how people use cryptoassets, making compliance more complex and ambiguous than necessary, and taxing cryptoasset transactions …

Washington’S 'Cutting-Edge' Technology Solution To Combating Sales Tax Fraud: Real-Time Data (Now), Real-Time Remittance In The Future, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Robert Chicoine, Andrew Leahey, Sunder Gee

Faculty Scholarship

Globally, consumption tax compliance (value added tax and retail sales tax) has gone digital – digital invoices are becoming mandatory, centralized monitoring of transactions and tax payments are increasingly common, and artificial intelligence is assessing fraud risks in real-time. When tax is collected, it is increasingly being remitted in near-real-time. This is the trajectory for the modern retail sales tax (RST) imposed by most states in the US. While this may appear to be revolutionary to the average American, it is a well-worn path among global nations using the value added tax (VAT). The RST will eventually be following suit. …

Complexity Cubed: Partnerships, Interest, And The Proposed Regs, Walter D. Schwidetzky

All Faculty Scholarship

New section 163(j) strictly limits business interest expense (BIE) deductions to large (and possibly not-so-large) taxpayers. Generally, BIEs may only be deducted to the extent that they do not exceed 30 percent of adjusted taxable income plus business interest income. Section 163(j)(4) requires partnerships to calculate this limitation at the partnership level. In this report, I focus on how section 163(j) applies to partnerships. Given my focus, I leave to others a more comprehensive review of section 163(j) as a totality,1 as well as the coverage of S corporations. I will tend to give fairly short shrift to the portions …

The Digital Services Tax As A Tax On Location-Specific Rent, Wei Cui, Nigar Hashimzade

All Faculty Publications

In 2018, the European Council and the UK and Spanish governments each proposed to introduce a Digital Services Tax (DST), to be levied on the revenue of large digital platforms from advertising, online intermediation, and/or the transmission of data. We offer a rationalization of the DST as a tax on location-specific rent (LSR). That is, just as many countries already levy royalties on rent from extracting natural resources, one can think of the DST as levied on rent earned by digital platforms from particular locations. We provide stylized illustrations of how platform rent can be assigned to specific locations, even …

2019 Tax Conference Speakers

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

2019 Schedule

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

2019 Tax Conference Forms

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Data First – Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S ‘Netflix Tax’ (Part 4), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This is the fourth paper examining the recent amendments to the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST); amendments that are collectively known as the Netflix Tax. These papers assess the effectiveness of the Netflix provisions, and how they could be enhanced if New Zealand adopted the technology and vision of Fiji’s VAT Monitoring System (VMS). The Netflix provisions were effective, July 1, 2017.

This final paper considers:

(a) the treatment of domestic agents when they are used by remote service providers to facilitate sales to New Zealand customers;

(b) how New Zealand intends to respond to resident consumers who …

Reclaiming Place-Based Development Incentive, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Professor Michelle Layser's forthcoming article is an attack on the current form of place-based tax incentive programs. Layser argues that while rhetorically such programs are said to help the poor, by design they support gentrification in ways that harm the poor. The article ends with a call to reform place-based incentive programs so that the poor in selected areas actually benefit.

Tax Attorneys As Defenders Of Taxpayer Rights, Michelle Lyon Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

What is the modern role of a tax practitioner, in particular a tax attorney, in the United States? In an era in which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is underfunded, understaffed, and struggles to address its mission, tax attorneys play an important role as advocates for taxpayer rights.

Tax attorneys act as advocates who represent ordinary individual taxpayers in controversies with the IRS. These controversies include post-filing disputes, such as audits, as well as issues arising with the collection of assessed taxes. Many of these cases are resolved at the administrative level; those that cannot be resolved are litigated, most …

A Tax On The Clones: The Strange Case Of Bitcoin Cash, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Nonprofit College Crash: Enforcing Board Fiduciaries Through Increased Accountability And Transparency In The Irs Form 990 Procedure, Kaleb Paul Byars

Articles

Since 1997, the United States has experienced a steady increase in college closings. Private, nonprofit colleges are the most prevalent among these affected institutions. A 2017 study confirmed that 177 colleges failed a U.S. Education Department test for “financial responsibility.” Of these 177 colleges, well over half are private nonprofits. Further, several colleges have closed since the study was completed. It is reasonable to conclude the financial irresponsibility of these schools contributes to their closures. ...

Part I describes fiduciary duties of nonprofit board members and instances of their failure. Part II discusses inadequate nonprofit oversight and provides information regarding …

Data First – Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Electronic Marketplaces) Part 3, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Chang Che

Faculty Scholarship

This is the third paper examining the recent amendments to the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST) that are commonly known as the Netflix Tax. A fourth paper will follow.

The importance and complexity of dealing with electronic marketplaces has made an independent paper on electronic marketplaces necessary. Taken together this set of four papers assess the effectiveness of the Netflix provisions, and how they can be enhanced by adopting the technology and vision of Fiji’s VAT Monitoring System (VMS). The Netflix provisions were effective, July 1, 2017.

This paper considers rules that allocate the responsibility for collecting, reporting …

Law School News: Throw Out The Old Thinking 9-30-2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Professor Anthony J. Santoro Business Law Lecture Series Presents Becoming A Valued Business Lawyer, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michael M. Bowden

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Remembering Rwu Laws Founding Dean 9-10-2019, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Partnership-Related Relatedness: Measuring Partners' Capital Interests And Profits Interests, Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tax Talk And Reproductive Technology, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The tax system both reacts to and helps create attitudes about the value of certain behaviors and choices. This Article makes three principal claims—one empirical, one normative, and one interpretative. The Article demonstrates through data that a representative sample of fertility clinics in the United States does not make information about the tax consequences of compensated human egg transfers—commonly called egg “donation”—publicly available. In 2015, in a case of first impression, the United States Tax Court decided in Perez v. Commissioner that a compensated egg transferor must report as income any amount she receives for her eggs. Although the Tax …

Us And Capital Flight, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The recent leaks of the Panama and Paradise Papers have highlighted the difficulty of taxing the income of residents of developed and developing offshore countries. The basic problem is that such income is subject to neither withholding at source nor information reporting. In the absence of both withholding and reporting, it is easy to use tax havens to hide such income from tax authorities. Estimates of the scope of the problem vary widely, but it is certainly larger than the $200 billion in estimated losses from legal corporate tax avoidance.

This article explains the historic roots of this problem, which …

Partnership-Related Relatedness: Measuring Partners' Capital Interests And Profits Interests, Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Taxing "All Other Income" In Singapore And Malaysia, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Section 10(1)(g) of the Singapore Income Tax Act is a ‘sweeping-up’ provision which catches all income not falling under sections 10(1)(a)–(f). More than 50 years after its introduction, the application of section 10(1)(g) is still unclear despite the test laid out in IB v CIT. This article notes that the current jurisprudence is limited to cases involving gains or profits from the disposal of assets. It argues that the reliance on the Australian Myer Emporium test in IB v CIT was misplaced and that the section 10(1)(g) test should not have a sole focus on intention. Rather, it proposes a …

Toward A 21st-Century International Tax Regime, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

The OECD has been struggling to respond to countries that wish to tax large US technology companies on the basis of where their consumers live. The current OECD work program on digitalization is unlikely to produce a stable consensus or prevent countries from following the lead of France, India, Italy and the United Kingdom toward digital services taxes. The United States response should not be to target French, Indian, Italian or British companies for retaliation. Instead, the United States should consider adopting a sales-based formulary apportionment (SFA) solution that would apply to all large enterprises. Such a move is more …

Interest Deductibility And International Taxation In Canada After Beps Action 4, David G. Duff

All Faculty Publications

Among the ways in which multinational enterprises (MNEs) can shift profits from one jurisdiction to another in order to minimize taxes, one of the most simple and widely-employed involves the payment of interest to related parties and third parties. For these reasons, it is not surprising that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) identified the deduction of interest and other financial payments as a significant source of BEPS concerns, and that BEPS Action 4 was charged with developing “recommendations regarding best practices in the design of rules to prevent base …

Response To 'Reverse Al Capone-Ism' And The Tax Treatment Of Marijuana Businesses, Douglas A. Kahn, Howard J. Bromberg

Other Publications

Mr. Silverberg’s comment stresses that the proponents of the legalization of marijuana have not been able to convince Congress to legalize it, and so it is appropriate for Congress to penalize trafficking in that drug. Apparently, he sees our contention that the penalty adopted in I.R.C. § 280E is irrational and contravenes established punitive jurisprudence as a backdoor attempt to accomplish indirectly, by weakening the penalties on the marijuana businesses, what has not been able to be accomplished by those seeking its federal legalization. That was not the motive for our proposal and is not a fair reading of our …

Response To Dude, Where's My Deduction?, Douglas A. Kahn, Howard J. Bromberg

Other Publications

Mr. Pullin’s thesis is that marijuana should be excluded from § 280E when it is operated legally under state law. However, his preferred solution is that the federal government remove marijuana from Schedules I and II of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA), thereby legalizing it for federal law purposes. Either action would exclude the marijuana business from § 280E.

If Not Now, When? U.S. Tax Treaties With Latin America After Tcja, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Since the 1990s, the US tax treaty network has expanded to include most large developing countries. However, there remains a glaring exception: The US only has two tax treaties in Latin America (Mexico and Venezuela), and one pending tax treaty (Chile). The traditional explanation for why the US has no treaty with, for example, Argentina or Brazil is the US refusal since 1957 to grant tax sparing credits to developing countries. Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), this explanation was wrong, because the combination of deferral and cross-crediting meant that tax holidays in a source country …

The Superiority Of The Digital Service Tax Over Significant Digital Presence Proposals, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

Responding to calls for reallocating taxing rights over multinationals’ profits to reflect the place of user value creation, the OECD recently announced a Program of Work to implement international tax reform. I use the European Commission’s 2018 proposal to introduce the “significant digital presence” concept into income tax treaties as an example of the type of approach the OECD favors, and argue that it is inferior to recently proposed digital services taxes (DSTs). DSTs directly address the question of where profits should be allocated and taxed, while SDP proposals subordinate this vital question to superfluous treaty conventions. Global tax coordination …

Stabilizing “Pillar One”: Corporate Profit Reallocation In An Uncertain Environment, Itai Grinberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper is about how the world reestablishes international tax order.

The paper focuses on the OECD’s work on profit reallocation and asks whether this multilateral effort can be successful in stabilizing the international tax system. The analysis centers on the current leading concepts for reallocating profit among jurisdictions under what is known as “Pillar One” of the OECD work programme. To analyze whether any Pillar One concept can be turned into a stable multilateral regime, it is necessary to specify certain elements of what a proposal to reallocate profits might entail. Accordingly, this paper sets out two strawman proposals. …