Law Commons^™

Something's Gotta Give: Origin-Based E-Commerce Sales Tax, Juliana Frenkel

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

How to tax interstate online purchases is a frequently debated and contentious topic in the business and tax arena. There are numerous parties affected when a transaction occurs and each affected party would like a taxation policy that benefits its own economic interests, without regard for others. Neither the legislative nor the judicial branch has successfully resolved this e-commerce taxation issue. With the growing need for tax revenue, it is prudent for Congress to finally resolve this circuit split and agree on a unifying Online Sales Tax Law. As opposed to the vast majority of proposals pending in Congress, this ...

26 Usc Section 280e: Will The Dragon Now Be Slayed?, Bill Greenberg, Rebecca Greenberg

Journal of Law and Policy

26 USC § 280E of the Internal Revenue Code (“§ 280E”) prohibits the deduction of ordinary business expenses for businesses deemed by the federal government to be drug traffickers as defined by the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). The tax enactment is specifically designed to serve as a disincentive to socalled drug traffickers who might otherwise deduct “ordinary and necessary business expenses” from their taxes. However, this harms legitimate cannabis businesses by promoting unintended consequences, such as under-reported income. For three decades, there has been a patent incongruity between § 280E’s congressional purpose and the expansion of state-legalized cannabis businesses in the United ...

Framing Middle-Class Insecurity: Tax And The Ideology Of Unequal Economic Growth, Martha T. Mccluskey

Martha T. McCluskey

Prevailing tax discourse rationalizes growing economic inequality. Using the example of state and local economic development “subsidy wars,” this article explores how conventional tax ideas present unequal sacrifice and risk as a public responsibility, driven by economic fact rather than unjust politics. Over the last several decades, one contributing cause of inequality has been the escalating tax and spending incentives offered by local governments to attract private business investment. This competition operates to favor wealthy corporations over small businesses, without producing broad or lasting economic gains to communities, and it erodes resources for public education, infrastructure, social services, health care ...

Property Tax: A Primer And A Modest Proposal For Maine, Clifford H. Goodall, Seth A. Goodall

Maine Law Review

Property taxation has been viewed for years as the perfect “dragon to be slain” and by most “as both bad and doomed.” In spite of being one of the most commonly questioned and scrutinized issues by voters and politicians, property taxation survives as the primary revenue source for local governments. Maine's experience is an example of this continuing debate. The 2005 reform attempt by the Legislature known as LD 1 is the most recent example. Municipal over-dependence on the property tax, rising property values, unfunded state mandates, loss of federal revenues, and increased spending has significantly increased the percentage ...

Brief Of Amici Curiae Tax Law Professors And Economists In Support Of Petitioner In South Dakota V. Wayfair, Richard Pomp, Daniel Jacob Hemel, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Joseph Bankman, Jordan Barry, Lily L. Batchelder, John R. Brooks, Samuel D. Brunson, J. Clifton Fleming Jr, David Gamage, Ari Glogower, Jacob Goldin, Andrew J. Haile, David J. Herzig, Hayes R. Holderness, Calvin H. Johnson, Richard L. Kaplan, Michael S. Knoll, Zachary Liscow, Yair Listokin, Ruth Mason, Goldburn Maynard, Orly Mazur, Susan C. Morse, James R. Repetti, Julie A. Roin, Daniel Schaffa, Erin Adele Scharff, Daniel N. Shaviro, Jay A. Soled, Sloan Speck, Kirk J. Stark, John A. Swain, Adam Thimmesch, Manoj Viswanathan, Edward A. Zelinsky, Eric M. Zolt

J. Clifton Fleming, Jr.

Tax Policy Reform: Issues To Be Addressed To The Benefit Of All Missourians, Joel Walters

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Tax policy impacts the everday decisions made by individuals, families, and businesses. Better tax policy can generate economic activity and lower the tax burden on individual taxpayers. Missouri Department of Revenue Director, Joel Walters, believes the current Missouri tax system can be changed in ways that would make it more simple, efficient, and fair. With this article, Director Walters seeks to engage Missourians in a dialogue about the strengths and weaknesses of the current tax policy environment in Missouri. The article comprhensively examines Missouri's tax system by discussing a wide variety of topics including corporate income tax, alternatives such ...

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

This article reviews significant recent developments in the laws

affecting Virginia state and local taxation. Each section covers

legislative activity, judicial decisions, and selected opinions or

pronouncements from the Virginia Tax Department (the "Tax

Department") and the Virginia Attorney General over the past

year.

Taxation And Doing Business In Indian Country, Erik M. Jensen

Maine Law Review

Economic development on the lands of the American Indian nations has been spotty at best. Almost everyone knows the great success stories with Indian gaming, which has been furthered by federal legislation, but those economic benefits have not been felt uniformly. Some tribes have prospered because of this peculiarly favored form of enterprise; others have not and, in many cases, probably cannot. Substantial economic development in Indian country will not occur without significant infusions of outside capital, but investment by non-Indian and nongovernmental sources is risky, or is perceived to be so, which leads to the same practical result. This ...

The Technology Requirements Of The First Electronic Monitoring Agreement In Us For Zappers, Phantomware, And Other Sales Suppression Devices, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Robert Chicoine

Faculty Scholarship

On August 30, 2017, a plea was entered in the case of case of State of Washington v. Wong, Wash. Super. Ct., No. 16-1-00179-0, and as a result the first electronic monitoring agreement of sales transactions in the US (the “Monitoring Agreement”) was legislatively imposed on a retail business.

The Monitoring Agreement was negotiated between the State of Washington Department of Revenue (the “WA DOR”) and the taxpayer over a period of several months and is comprised of two parts: the basic agreement, which covered the obligations and rights of the parties, and an appendix, which defines the scope of ...

An Uncommon Carrier: The Fcc's Unintended Effects On Constitutional Use Taxation, Maricarmen Perez-Vargas

Washington Law Review

The constitutional use taxation framework, which regulates the circumstances under which states can require out-of-state sellers to collect and remit use taxes on products sold for use within the state, has not been examined by Congress or the Supreme Court since the 1990s, and then only to reaffirm a rule that had been in place since the 1960s. Since the 1960s, the Supreme Court has held that states can only collect use taxes from sellers that have a physical presence within the state and whose connections to the state are beyond connections via common carriers. The Court interpreted this rule ...

The Gap Created By E-Commerce: How States Can Preserve Their Sales And Use Tax Revenue In The Digital Age, Jessica Nicole Cory

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Real Property Tax Exemption - Current Trends In The State Of New York, Charles J. Tobin, New York State Catholic Conference Albany, New York

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Real Property Tax Exemption - Current Trends At The State Level, James A. Serritella, Reuben & Proctor Chicago, Illinois

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Tax Lives Of Uber Drivers: Evidence From Online Forums, Diane M. Ring, Shu-Yi Oei

Shu-Yi Oei

In this Article, we investigate the tax issues and challenges facing Uber and Lyft drivers by studying their online interactions in three internet discussion forums: Reddit.com, Uberpeople.net, and Intuit TurboTax AnswerXchange. Using descriptive statistics and content analysis, we examine (1) the substantive tax concerns facing forum participants, (2) how taxes affect their driving and profitability decisions, and (3) the degree of user sophistication, accuracy of legal advising, and other cultural features of the forums. We find that while forum participants displayed generally accurate understandings of tax filing and income inclusion obligations, their approaches to expenses and deductions were ...

The First Real-Time Blockchain Vat - Gcc Solves Mtic Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Following years of study the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) appears ready to adopt the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and put in place a tax system that will stabilize revenue. A value added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax (CIT) are considered. A VAT Framework Agreement, that functions like the VAT Directive in the EU, has been agreed.

Although new, the GCC VAT is very worthy of attention. From a tax policy perspective, it is making notable improvements to EU VAT design. The GCC VAT is (potentially) the world’s first real-time, blockchain-secured, multi-jurisdictional VAT. This is a ...

A Progressive Federal Tax Credit For State Tax Payments, Eric Kades

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

First Amendment Decisions From The October 2006 Term, Erwin Chemerinsky, Marci A. Hamilton

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.

Front Matter (Letter From The Editor, Masthead, Etc.)

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Tax Journal Volume 6, No. 2 – Spring 2017

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Proposition 64 Legalizes Marijuana In California But The War On Drugs Continues, Jessica Wong

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Taxing Marijuana: Earmarking Tax Revenue From Legalized Marijuana, Armikka R. Bryant

Georgia State University Law Review

This Article provides an overview of the legal, political, and societal landscapes in states that have legalized marijuana and imposed taxes on its sale. The article begins by summarizing the War on Drugs’ origins, its fiscal expenditures, and the social policies that ultimately led to its failure.

Part I briefly details the history of marijuana regulation starting from the early twentieth century up to the Obama administration’s decision to permit recreational marijuana laws to stand in Washington state and Colorado. Part II dives deeper into the social costs of the War on Drugs and outlines the hardships faced by ...

Embracing Airbnb: How Cities Can Champion Private Property Rights Without Compromising The Health And Welfare Of The Community, Emily M. Speier

Pepperdine Law Review

Peer-to-peer services offer participants considerable advantages whether they are a provider of such services or a user of them. The Airbnb phenomenon is an example of how technological advancement has transformed the rental industry and has signaled a societal acceptance of a sharing economy. However, the question now is to what extent cities should regulate this influx of short-term rentals while still preserving the property rights of homeowners. Much of the answer to this question depends on each city’s individual interpretation of specific areas of the law. Some legal issues raised by regulation and explored by this article include ...

The Gordian Knot: How The United States, The European Union, And Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development Took Action Against Corporate Tax Avoidance, Katlyn Twomey

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

In 2016, the United States had the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Perhaps, the high tax rate could be why American corporations are holding an estimated $2.5 trillion abroad (Cox 2016). According to a study by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. firms pay a measly 3% in tax to foreign governments on those profits, rather than the 35% U.S. corporate tax rate. How are these corporations able to legally avoid paying taxes on a large percentage of their profits? Many use various loopholes in the laws to shift profits into other countries or U ...

The Timing Of Tax Transparency, Joshua D. Blank

Faculty Scholarship

Fairness in the administration of the tax law is a subject of intense debate in the United States. As myriad headlines reveal, the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") has been accused of failing to enforce the tax law equitably in its review of tax-exempt status applications by political organizations, international tax structures of multinational corporations, and estate tax returns of millionaires, among other areas. Many have argued that greater "tax transparency" would better empower the public to hold the IRS accountable and the IRS to defend itself against accusations of malfeasance. Mandatory public disclosure of taxpayers' tax return information is often ...

Current Tax Problems And Implications: Experience In Indiana And Virginia, William J. O'Connor

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Inconsistency With The Internal Consistency Test, Mackenzie Catherine Schott

Louisiana Law Review

The article examines the constitutionality of a Maryland tax law focusing on the U.S. Supreme Court case Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne, and mentions history of state taxation under the dormant Commerce Clause; and use of internal consistency test by the Supreme Courts in Wynne.

The Not So “Fair” Marketplace Fairness Act And The Due Process And Commerce Clause Concerns It Raises, Michelle Chionchio

William & Mary Business Law Review

States have reacted to the rise of Internet commerce as any governmental body would, with a “hungry eye” for increased tax revenue. Despite the Supreme Court’s holding in Quill, and constitutional limitations on state tax jurisdiction, states have developed their own nexus statutes that run afoul of the Court’s bright-line physical presence rule. What is more, “brick and mortar” establishments interested in “leveling the playing field” with their high-tech competition wholeheartedly support the states in their endeavor. In proposing the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), a bill intended to restore state sovereignty regarding sales and use tax laws, Congress ...

Tax Cannibalization And Fiscal Federalism In The United States, David Gamage, Darien Shanske

Northwestern University Law Review

We began this project pondering a riddle. Most state governments have adopted what we—and many others—view as clearly suboptimal tax policies, especially in regard to the taxation of corporate income and capital gains. Yet, with the notable exception of those who oppose progressivity and the taxation of capital, state-level tax policymakers have had remarkably little appetite for reform. This Article provides one major explanation for this riddle by identifying and demonstrating a phenomenon that we label as “tax cannibalization.” We argue that flawed state-level tax policies derive in part from perverse incentives inadvertently created by the federal government.

Finding The Pearl In The Oyster: Supercharging Ipos Through Tax Receivable Agreements, Christopher B. Grady

Northwestern University Law Review

A new, “supercharged” form of IPO has slowly developed over the last twenty years. This new form of IPO takes advantage of several seemingly unrelated provisions of the tax code to multiply pre-IPO owners’ proceeds from a public offering without reducing the amount public investors are willing to pay for the stock. Supercharged IPOs use a tax receivable agreement to transfer tax assets created by the IPO back to the pre-IPO ownership, “monetizing” the tax assets. As these structures have become more efficient, commentators have expressed concerns that these agreements deceive shareholders who either ignore or do not understand the ...

Consumer Response To Increases In The State Cigarette Tax, Patrick Nolan

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

In this paper I look at consumer responsiveness to the cigarette tax. Cigarette taxes are motivated by wanting to raise money for the state and wanting to deter smoking in the state’s population. Obviously reducing smoking in the population would reduce the externalities caused by smoking. We know the health effects are completely detrimental to the consumer, and detrimental to those around them. In addition to this we know that tobacco is an addictive substance, meaning than is inherently extremely inelastic.

To find on how consumers respond to tax increases I conducted a difference in difference analysis of tax ...