Law Commons^™

Bargain Basement Progressivity? Constitutional Flat Taxes, Demogrants, And Progressive Income Taxation, Samuel D. Brunson

Faculty Publications & Other Works

State and local governments raise revenue in three primary ways: property, sales, and income taxes. Property and sales taxes tend to impose a higher burden on low-income households. To ensure the fairness and progressivity of their overall revenue system, states need their in-come tax to be sufficiently progressive.

Four states face an apparently insurmountable barrier to progressive income taxation: their state constitutions mandate that any income tax must have a flat rate, applicable to all taxpayers. Without a constitutional amendment, a difficult process, they cannot adopt marginal rates that increase as income increases.

While the impediment appears insurmountable, however, it …

Coronavirus, Telecommuting, And The ‘Employer Convenience’ Rule, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

In this article, Zelinsky criticizes New York’s income tax penalty for nonresident telecommuters, particularly in the context of the coronavirus emergency.

Distortion Of Income In A Single-Factor Sales Formula World, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

In this article, Hellerstein describes the framework governing constitutional challenges to state income tax apportionment formulas in light of the widespread adoption of single-factor sales formulas and speculates as to whether a recent Michigan court decision invalidating the application of such a formula on constitutional grounds might be a harbinger of things to come.

Relinquishment Of Prior Residence For State Income Tax Purposes: Wishing To Change Residence Does Not Make It So, Jani E. Maurer

University of Miami Business Law Review

We live in an increasingly mobile and global society. Individuals move from one state to another for a variety of reasons. When the move is from a state which imposes income tax, particularly to a jurisdiction which does not, questions may arise about whether the individual remains a resident of the state from which he departed for income tax purposes. In the quest for revenue, certain states are aggressive in pursuing efforts to collect income tax from persons who claim to have changed their permanent residence.These states may assert that for income tax purposes the individual remains a resident of …

Defining Residence For Income Tax Purposes: Domicile As Gap-Filler, Citizenship As Proxy And Gap-Filler, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

The states' income tax systems are important repositories of experience which confirm the administrative benefits of citizenship-based taxation. Domicile today plays an important role in state tax systems as a gap-filler when more objective statutory residence laws fail to assign any state of residence to the taxpayer. Citizenship is an administrable proxy for domicile and serves a similar gap-filling role in the federal taxation of individuals whose income and activities straddle across national boundaries.

The states' difficulties enforcing domicile-based taxation highlight the administrative benefits of citizenship-based taxation. As long as residence is understood for tax purposes in terms of domicile, …

Taking It With Them The Dynamics Of Changing A State Income Tax Residence, Hamlin C. King

Akron Law Review

Since nonresidence is taking on "hot issue" status in Ohio, it is the purpose of this article to closely focus on two issues regarding the taxation of such nonresident income. The first issue is what constitutes a state income tax residence change. The second is to identify the income items originating from Ohio sources that may pass out to nonresidents free of the Ohio income tax. As we go along, we will take notice of how these two issues impact the taxpayers' federal income tax, as well as their Ohio and federal estate taxes.

Proposed Congressional Limitations On State Taxation Of Multinational Corporations, Kristen Gustafson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Strange Bedfellows: The Federal Constitution, Out-Of-State Nongrantor Accumulation Trusts, And The Complete Avoidance Of State Income Taxation, Jeffrey Schoenblum

Vanderbilt Law Review

With the maximum rate of federal income tax at 39.6 percent, the Medicare surtax on investment income of 3.8 percent, and some state income tax rates exceeding 9 percent, taxpayers in the highest brackets have been seeking to develop strategies to lessen the tax burden. One strategy that has been receiving increased attention is the use of a highly specialized trust known as the NING, a Nevada incomplete gift nongrantor trust, which eliminates state income taxation of investment income altogether without generating additional federal income or transfer taxes. A major obstacle standing in the way of accomplishing this objective, however, …

Apportioning State Personal Income Taxes To Eliminate The Double Taxation Of Dual Residents: Thoughts Provoked By The Proposed Minnesota Snowbird Tax, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

As a matter of both tax policy and constitutional law, it is time to apportion state personal income taxes to eliminate the double taxation of dual residents. Individuals who, for income tax purposes, are residents are two or more states should be taxed along the lines recently proposed by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton for “snowbirds”: As to income with respect to which a state has source jurisdiction, that state should tax such income. As to income which two or more states tax only on the basis of residence, such states should apportion, based on the dual resident’s relative presence in …

Dealing With Doma: Federal Non-Recognition Complicates State Income Taxation Of Same-Sex Relationships, Carlton M. Smith, Edward Stein

Articles

Various states now recognize relationships between people of the same-sex, but due to the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not. In the context of income taxes, this combination of state recognition and federal non-recognition of same-sex relationships produces a significant problem for many same-sex couples and some state taxing authorities. Most states have income tax and, typically, state income tax laws “piggyback” on federal income tax laws. Depending on the state, same-sex couples in legally-recognized relationships must file their state income tax returns as married (either “filing jointly” or “filing separately”), as domestic partners, or as parties …

Does It Hurt A State To Introduce An Income Tax?, David J. Shakow

All Faculty Scholarship

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Arthur Laffer argued that, since 1960, the introduction of state income taxes reduced the relative size of a state’s gross state product and its relative per capita personal income. This paper criticizes Laffer’s conclusions on a number of grounds. 1. He uses incorrect figures for per capita income. In fact, relative per capita income rose in a majority of states that introduced an income tax since 1960. 2. The results are not clear when a state’s data is compared to other states in its region, rather than to the United States as …

Federal Recent Developments

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Overview Of California's Income Tax Laws: The Personal Income Tax And The Bank And Corporation Tax, Assembly Revenue And Taxation Committee

California Assembly

As Enacted by AB 53 (Kiehs) and SB 572 (Garamendi) of 1987, The California Tax Fairness, Simplification and Conformity Act of 1987; and SB 85 (Alquist) of 1986, California Unitary Reform and Modified by 1988 Legislation

The Personal Income Tax As A Component Of State Tax Structure, William F. Fox

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article evaluates the pros and cons of a state individual income tax from the perspective of an economist. The Article examines the income tax as one component of a tax structure that is best suited for raising a given level of revenues. The important assumption in the analysis is that the level of state public expenditures is determined by residents' demand for public services. This assumption does not preclude the tax structure from allowing greater or lesser expenditures than are demanded during any single year; rather, the assumption is that over time tax levels provide revenues that are in …

Some Intersections Of The Negative Commerce Clause And The New Federalism, James F. Blumstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Much has been written about the change in the Supreme Court's judicial philosophy, as a new, ascendant majority has been able successfully to implement its emerging notions of judicial reticence and self-abnegation. This fundamental turnabout in judicial perspective is hardly coincidental, since it reflects the fulfillment of an oft-repeated campaign pledge of Richard Nixon, who in 1968 promised, if elected, to appoint so-called strict constructionists to the Court.' In a basic way his appointees have succeeded in modifying the activist stance that prevailed on the Court during much of the tenure of Earl Warren as Chief Justice. With notable exceptions …

The Case For Highly Graduated Rates, In State Income Taxes, Robert I. Keller

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Some Reflections On The State Taxation Of A Nonresident's Personal Income, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

With respect to the taxation of personal income, it was plain by 1940 that states were constitutionally free to tax residents on all personal income wherever earned and nonresidents on personal income earned within the state, even though these two principles, taken together, meant that an individual's income might be subject to double-taxation by different states. The Supreme Court, after toying with the idea for a decade, finally rejected the invitation to forge the due process clause into a tool for preventing multiple taxation and reverted to the ruling law of an earlier era that left the solution of such …

Jurisdiction: Federal Court, Federal Question; Taxation: State; Tribal Courts: Judicial Immunity; Indian Civil Rights Act: Federal Jurisdiction; Rights Of Way: Railroads; Jurisdiction, Federal Courts: Exhaustion Of Tribal Remedies; Equal Protection: Illegitimates; Civil Procedure: Full Faith And Credit

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal-State Income Tax Relationships--Conformity Of Kentucky's Personal Income Tax With The Federal Model, Frederick W. Whiteside Jr., Philip W. Moss

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Deductions And Credits For State Income Taxes, Walter W. Heller

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Legal Nature Of The State Income Tax, Charles R. Lockyer

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Nature Of Income Tax, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.