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Full-Text Articles in Law
Gifts And The Income Tax—An Enduring Puzzle, Richard Schmalbeck
Gifts And The Income Tax—An Enduring Puzzle, Richard Schmalbeck
Law and Contemporary Problems
Schmalbeck explains that there are four policy options for the combined income tax treatment of a donor-donee pair, and that the best choice among the options is not self-evident. He notes that the current income tax treatment of noncharitable gifts originated with the 1913 income tax. The historical record provides no clues as to why Congress opted for that approach in 1913. As frustrating as this may be, it is an example of an important phenomenon in the development of the income tax. A number of crucial structural decisions made in the early days of the income tax, which continue …
The Fiscal Revolution And Taxation: The Rise Of Compensatory Taxation, 1929-1938, Joseph J. Thorndike
The Fiscal Revolution And Taxation: The Rise Of Compensatory Taxation, 1929-1938, Joseph J. Thorndike
Law and Contemporary Problems
Thorndike explores the Keynesian conversion of Treasury Department tax-policy experts during the 1930s. At the beginning of the Great Depression, he narrates that there was no political interest in using tax cuts to promote economic recovery. In fact, in 1932 Congress responded to the economic emergency by enacting a tax increase in the name of fiscal responsibility. By 1937, however, Treasury experts had become persuaded of the merits of countercyclical taxation. Ironically, the first legislative experiment in Keynesian taxation took the form of a tax increase--the short-lived 1937 tax on undistributed corporate profits, intended to stimulate the economy by discouraging …
American Economic Development, Managerial Corporate Capitalism, And The Institutional Foundations Of The Modern Income Tax, Ajay K. Mehrotra
American Economic Development, Managerial Corporate Capitalism, And The Institutional Foundations Of The Modern Income Tax, Ajay K. Mehrotra
Law and Contemporary Problems
Mehrotra examines the factors contributing to the introduction of the corporate income tax in 1909 and of the individual income tax in 1913. According to the conventional wisdom, these taxes were the products of politics, political institutions, and social forces; economic factors play a cameo role in the standard historical accounts. He argues that economic developments were as significant as political and social factors in the enactment and development of the taxes. The corporations created the wealth that became the targets of the corporate and individual taxes. Here, he investigates two particular economic factors. First, he explores the broad, long-term, …
Pollock, Macomber, And The Role Of The Federal Courts In The Development Of The Income Tax In The United States, Charlotte Crane
Pollock, Macomber, And The Role Of The Federal Courts In The Development Of The Income Tax In The United States, Charlotte Crane
Law and Contemporary Problems
Crane notes that the federal income tax is much more a lawyer's tax than either the income taxes of other jurisdictions or the several nonincome federal taxes. She locates the source of the legalistic nature of the tax in the Supreme Court's 1895 opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., invalidating the income tax of 1894 as a constitutionally impermissible unapportioned direct tax. She describes how the ghost of Pollock hovered over the income tax for decades after its reintroduction in 1913, inspiring Eisner v. Macomber and other judicial explorations of the constitutional meaning of income. Moreover, she …
Shaping Public Opinion And The Law: How A “Common Man” Campaign Ended A Rich Man’S Law, Marjorie E. Kornhauser
Shaping Public Opinion And The Law: How A “Common Man” Campaign Ended A Rich Man’S Law, Marjorie E. Kornhauser
Law and Contemporary Problems
Kornhauser recounts the legislation which enacted in 1934 required all income taxpayers to submit "pink slips" with their tax returns. The information required by the pink slip would then be made available for public inspection. The disclosure regime was repealed less than one year later, largely through the remarkably effective efforts of one person--Raymond Pitcairn, a wealthy lawyer. She describes a multifaceted public-relations campaign, orchestrated by Pitcairn, that would be sophisticated even by today's standards. Two aspects of Pitcairn's campaign were especially impressive. The first was his ability to enlist the zeitgeist in his efforts; the trial of Bruno Hauptmann …