Law Commons^™

Only A Name? Trademark Royalties, Nexus, And Taxing That Which Enriches, Sheldon H. Laskin

Akron Tax Journal

This Article asserts that the correct constitutional nexus standard for state taxation of royalty income derived from the use of trademarks and tradenames is the well-established business situs rule for taxing intangibles. Pursuant to the business situs rule, a state may, consistent with federal constitutional requirements, levy an appropriately apportioned tax on the trademark royalty income of a business that has purposefully availed itself of the benefits and opportunities of doing business in that state. That is, intellectual property is presumed to have a taxing situs at any location where it is used to realize income. A state may therefore …

Treble Damages In National Health Service Corps Contracts, Public Policy, And Hawronsky V. Commissioner, Richard C.E. Beck

Akron Tax Journal

The main thesis of this article is that Hawronsky v. Commissioner is erroneous and the deduction should be allowed because I.R.C. § 162(f) does not apply. The taxpayer did pay a "fine or similar penalty to the government," but he did not pay it "for the violation of any law," which is a necessary element of I.R.C. § 162(f). The taxpayer merely breached his NHSC contract. This crucial issue went completely unnoticed by the court and the parties. Because I.R.C. § 162(f) does not apply, the treble damages are (except for the original tax-free scholarship itself) a deductible business expense …

Repairing Facade Easements: Is This The Gift That Launched A Thousand Deductions?, Martha Jordan

Akron Tax Journal

This article explores the impact of such a covenant on the characterization for tax purposes of expenditures to maintain the façade. In particular this article explores the following question: Given that the charitable easement holder owns a nonpossessory interest in the façade, which imposes on the charity an obligation to repair and maintain the façade and entitles it to benefit from increases in the value of the façade, is a donor's assumption of the charity's obligation to repair the façade an additional charitable contribution to the charity? If a donor gratuitously makes improvements to property owned outright by a charity, …

Rethinking The Role Of The Judicial Step Transaction Principle And A Proposal For Codification, Yoram Keinana

Akron Tax Journal

Thus, as this article will conclude, the role of the step transaction doctrine has been diminishing over the years from a primary weapon against tax shelters into an alternative test. In order to revive its role, the step transaction principle could be codified. As opposed to the controversial proposed codification of the economic substance doctrine, in my view, the codification of the step transaction principle will be more acceptable. The last part of this article sets forth a basic proposal for such codification.

This article will continue as follows. The first part discusses the fundamentals of the general principle of …

Grasping Smoke: Enforcing The Ban On Political Activity By Charities, Lloyd Histoshi Mayer

Journal Articles

The rule that charities are not allowed to intervene in political campaigns has now been in place for over fifty years. Despite uncertainty about the exact reasons for Congress' enactment of it, skepticism by some about its validity for both constitutional and public policy reasons, and continued confusion about its exact parameters, this rule has survived virtually unchanged for all of those years. Yet while overall noncompliance with the income tax laws has drawn significant scholarly attention, few scholars have focused on violations of this prohibition and the IRS' attempts to enforce it.

This Article focuses on the elusive issue …

Grasping Smoke: Enforcing The Ban On Political Activity By Charities, Lloyd Histoshi Mayer

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

The rule that charities are not allowed to intervene in political campaigns has now been in place for over fifty years. Despite uncertainty about the exact reasons for Congress' enactment of it, skepticism by some about its validity for both constitutional and public policy reasons, and continued confusion about its exact parameters, this rule has survived virtually unchanged for all of those years. Yet while overall noncompliance with the income tax laws has drawn significant scholarly attention, few scholars have focused on violations of this prohibition and the IRS' attempts to enforce it. This Article focuses on the elusive issue …