Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Law
Debt-Financed Consumption And A Hybrid Income-Consumption Tax, Lawrence A. Zelenak
Debt-Financed Consumption And A Hybrid Income-Consumption Tax, Lawrence A. Zelenak
Faculty Scholarship
The debate between proponents of income taxation and proponents of consumption taxation has focused almost exclusively on the differing treatment of savings under the two tax bases. This is odd, given that income and consumption tax bases also differ in their treatment of debt-financed consumption. This Essay addresses the largely-ignored question of the taxation of debt-financed consumption. It contends that a strong case can be made in favor of a hybrid income-consumption tax base under which taxation is triggered by the earlier of consumption or income, so that both debt-financed consumption and saved income are included in the tax base. …
Of Punitive Damages, Tax Deductions, And Tax-Aware Juries: A Response To Polsky And Markel, Lawrence A. Zelenak
Of Punitive Damages, Tax Deductions, And Tax-Aware Juries: A Response To Polsky And Markel, Lawrence A. Zelenak
Faculty Scholarship
In “Taxing Punitive Damages,” Gregg D. Polsky and Dan Markel argue that defendants paying punitive damages are under-punished relative to juries’ intentions, because tax-unaware juries do not take into account the fact that the deductibility of punitive damages significantly reduces defendants’ after-tax costs. They note that the Obama administration has proposed addressing the under-punishment problem by amending the Internal Revenue Code to disallow deductions for punitive damages (and for settlements paid on account of punitive damage claims). They conclude, however, that the proposal would be ineffective because defendants could avoid its impact by disguising nondeductible punitive damage settlements as deductible …
Complex Tax Legislation In The Turbotax Era, Lawrence A. Zelenak
Complex Tax Legislation In The Turbotax Era, Lawrence A. Zelenak
Faculty Scholarship
When tax returns were prepared with pencil and paper—in an era now gone forever—Congress did not impose income tax provisions of great computational complexity on large numbers of taxpayers, in the belief that it was unreasonable to require average taxpayers (or their paid preparers) to struggle with computationally complex provisions. As return preparation software gradually replaced the pencil in recent decades, the complexity constraint weakened and eventually disappeared. Congress has responded by imposing unprecedented computational complexity on large numbers of taxpayers—primarily through the expanded scope of the alternative minimum tax and the proliferation of phase outs of credits, deductions, and …