Law Commons^™

Innovation Funding And The Valley Of Death, Lital Helman

SMU Law Review

Innovation is a public good. As with other public goods, it is expected to be underproduced if only private incentives are present. Therefore, the law strives to encourage innovation via an array of stimulus mechanisms. The law offers three main mechanisms: intellectual property (IP), cash transfers—mainly prizes and grants—and tax incentives. Vast literature analyzes and compares these innovation stimuli in search of the optimal mix to boost innovation. Yet a key problem is largely overlooked: together, the existing stimuli do not cover the lion’s share of the innovation lifecycle. At the beginning of the innovation process, companies can win grants …

Can Blockchain Revolutionize Tax Administration?, Orly Sulami Mazur

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Experts predict that the use of smart contracts and other applications of blockchain technology could revolutionize the manner in which we do business. Blockchain technology promises the elimination of middlemen, increased trust and transparency, and improved access to shared information and records. Thus, it is no surprise that companies and entrepreneurs are developing blockchain solutions for an array of markets, ranging from real estate to health care. But can this new technology revolutionize tax administration?

This Article is the first to consider blockchain technology’s role in addressing the shortcomings of our current administration system— namely, a large tax gap, high …

Taxing Social Impact Bonds, Orly Mazur

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

An exciting new way to fund social services has recently emerged. This new financing mechanism, called a social impact bond (SIB), has the potential to help us tackle some of our nation’s most challenging social problems. Broadly speaking, a SIB is a type of “pay for success” contract where private investors provide the upfront capital to finance a social program, but only recoup their investment and realize returns if the program is successful. Like any new financing instrument, SIBs create numerous regulatory challenges that have not yet been addressed. One unresolved issue is the tax implications of a SIB investment. …

Social Impact Bonds: A Tax-Favored Investment?, Orly Mazur

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Social impact bonds (SIBs) have recently generated a lot of excitement nationwide as an innovative way to finance social projects. A SIB is a financing mechanism that uses private capital to fund social services, with the government only repaying investors their capital plus a potential return on investment if improved social outcomes are achieved. As such, it brings together the private, public, and non-profit sectors in a manner that unlocks an additional source of capital to fund social service providers, promotes innovation, encourages interagency cooperation, and creates more accountability. Despite these benefits, tax law likely hinders the development of SIB-funded …

The Carried Interest Standoff: Reaffirming Executive Agency Authority, Dean Galaro, Gregory S. Crespi

SMU Law Review

This Article argues that, if reform is necessary, carried interest taxation should be amended by agency rulemaking and not by Congress. Much has already been said about carried interest, but this Article attempts to look through a new lens—legislative history. Carried interest presents a complicated question about the application of foundational partnership tax principles. It is an issue that has received popular attention only within the last decade. Since then, the face of reform has been efforts in Congress to pass an overly complex bill—Section 710. By looking back through the legislative history of carried interest, we begin to see …

Transfer Pricing Challenges In The Cloud, Orly Mazur

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Cloud computing - the provision of information technology resources in a virtual environment - has fundamentally changed how companies operate. Companies have quickly adapted by moving their businesses to the cloud, but international tax standards have failed to follow suit. As a result, taxpayers and tax administrations confront significant tax challenges in applying outdated tax principles to this new environment. One particular area that raises perplexing tax issues is the transfer pricing rules. The transfer pricing rules set forth the intercompany price a cloud service provider must charge an affiliate using its cloud services, which ultimately affects in which jurisdiction …

Taxing The Cloud, Orly Mazur

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Transacting business in the “cloud” has quickly gained popularity worldwide as the new method of providing information technology resources. Instead of purchasing or downloading software, we can now use the Internet to access software and other fundamental computing resources located on remote computer networks operated by third parties. These transactions offer companies lower operating costs, increased scalability and improved reliability, but also give rise to a host of international tax issues. Despite the rapid growth and prevalent use of cloud computing, U.S. taxation of international cloud computing transactions has yet to receive significant scholarly attention. This Article seeks to fill …