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A Lifetime Income Tax, Herwig J. Schlunk
A Lifetime Income Tax, Herwig J. Schlunk
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Under current tax law, there can be considerable period-by-period divergence between a taxpayer's after-tax income and her desired or actual consumption. This divergence will cause the taxpayer to borrow. One can view such borrowing either as being incurred to fund consumption, or as being incurred to fund the taxpayer's income tax payments. If one takes the latter view, one can ask whether a good income tax law should force a taxpayer to borrow to pay her taxes. I answer the question in the negative, and propose a lifetime income tax that would eliminate the need for typical taxpayers to borrow …
I Come Not To Praise The Corporate Income Tax, But To Save It, Herwig J. Schlunk
I Come Not To Praise The Corporate Income Tax, But To Save It, Herwig J. Schlunk
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This Article began with a search for a theoretical underpinning that could explain the structure of the current corporate income tax regime, and found such underpinning lacking. It proposed an alternative underpinning for a "corporate" income tax based on the theory of the firm. The basic idea is that every firm generates incremental economic returns that would not be achieved but for its organizational structure as a firm. Thus, a sovereign could rationally choose to confiscate a portion of such returns, since it has made such returns possible (by enacting legislation that recognizes firms, etc.). (Whether or not a sovereign …