Law Commons^™

In States We "Trust": Self-Settled Trusts, Public Policy, And Interstate Federalism, Brendan Duffy

Northwestern University Law Review

Over the last twenty years, domestic asset protection trusts have risen in popularity as a means of estate planning and asset protection. A domestic asset protection trust is an irrevocable trust formed under state law which enables an independent trustee to allocate money to a class of

persons, which includes the settlor.

Since Alaska first enacted domestic asset protection legislation in 1997, fifteen states have followed its lead. The case law over the last twenty years addressing these trust mechanisms has, however, been surprisingly sparse. A Washington bankruptcy court decision, In re Huber, altered this drought, but caused more confusion …

Tax Transparency: A Tale Of Two Countries, Tracy A. Kaye

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Interested Law Professors As Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioner, Edward A. Zelinsky

Amicus Briefs

Amici curiae are 14 professors of law who have devoted much of their teaching and research to the area of state taxes and the role of state tax policy in our federal system. The names and affiliations (for identification purposes only) of amici are included in an addendum to this brief. The amici are concerned with the effect of this Court’s dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence on the development of fair and efficient state tax systems. No decision of this Court has had more effect on state sales and use tax systems than Quill Corporation v. North Dakota. We believe …

The "Estate Planning" Interviewer, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

Professor Shaffer's article The "Estate Planning" Interviewer is the Introduction: Part II, in J.K. Lasser's Estate Tax Techniques on pages INT-25 to INT-51

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Citizens Abroad And Social Cohesion At Home: Refocusing A Cross-Border Tax Policy Debate, Michael S. Kirsch

Michael Kirsch

Over the past decade, a number of scholars have addressed the United States’ continuing use of citizenship as a jurisdictional basis upon which to tax the foreign-source income of individuals in the modern international setting. Some writers, including myself, have defended this citizenship-based taxation (“CBT”), while others have rejected it and proposed some form of residence-based taxation (“RBT”) for citizens.This Article considers the competing normative arguments raised in this context, and attempts to distill the strengths and weaknesses of each. In so doing, it attempts to highlight the most important factors upon which the debate hinges, and illustrates the importance …

Labor Law Obstacles To The Collective Negotiation And Implementation Of Employee Stock Ownership Plans: A Response To Henry Hansmann And Other "Survivalists", Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Jeffrey M. Hirsch

No abstract provided.

Borenstein V. Commissioner (U.S. Tax Court Brief), T. Keith Fogg

W. Edward "Ted" Afield

No abstract provided.

Northwestern, O'Bannon And The Future: Cultivating A New Era For Taxing Qualified Scholarships, Kathryn Kisska-Schulze, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

Getting Back To The "Grassroots" Of Tax Administration: Because "We The People" Long For A Gathering Of American Eagles To Restore Trust In The Internal Revenue Service With A Rebuild Irs Initiative, Frank Wolpe

Akron Law Review

Like America, our Internal Revenue Service is a work in progress. Yet, for best results, it’s better to avoid thinking too much about what it is or is not! Instead, let’s think more about what the IRS ought to be! This Article thusly offers a realistic path forward with new choices for a local presence, which once again makes it taxpayer/customer-centric. For more effective tax administration, it also offers a return to something that inexcusably went missing in 1998: senior-executive “on-site oversight” of field operations.

If today’s Internal Revenue Service can be fairly described as an exploding volcano …

The Quagmire Of Mortgage Short Sale Transactions Under Current Homeownership Tax Policy In A Time Of Crisis, Tracie R. Porter

Akron Law Review

The 2007 financial crisis continues to loom over homeowners who own underwater properties. What owning underwater property means for homeowners is that the home’s current market value is less than the mortgage balance, making it impossible to sell or refinance the home without the lender’s approval. The quagmire of financial indebtedness created by current tax laws and policy related to Mortgage Short Sale Transactions, or MSSTs, for homeowners creates an onerous tax liability on taxpayers selling underwater properties. The government and lenders, through various programs implemented to help distressed homeowners with underwater properties, created a belief among homeowners that MSSTs …

Northwestern, O'Bannon And The Future: Cultivating A New Era For Taxing Qualified Scholarships, Kathryn Kisska-Schulze, Adam Epstein

Akron Law Review

On March 26, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Northwestern University’s scholarship football players were employees of the institution and could unionize and bargain collectively. From a federal income tax perspective, the significance of the NLRB decision—at that time—was that it could redefine the principle that select student-athletes are no longer unpaid amateurs receiving qualified scholarships, but instead are employees of their institutions, earning scholarship funds in exchange for services rendered as college athletes. Accordingly, a crucial question arising from the NLRB holding was whether the Internal Revenue Service could logically continue to treat qualified scholarships received …

The Socio-Economics Of The Federal Estate Tax: Why Do So Many People Hate (Or Love) This Centenarian?, Richard Gershon

Akron Law Review

The federal estate tax has faced many detractors during its almost 100 years of existence. While the tax affects only a very small percentage of estates, many have called for its repeal. This Essay discusses the socio-economic reasons why the estate tax should be maintained. The tax is an important source of revenue, and it helps to rectify the growing issue of wealth and income inequality in the United States.

Options For An Indigenous Economic Water Fund (Iewf), First Peoples' Water Engagement Council

Indigenous Water Justice Symposium (June 6)

Presenter: Phil Duncan, Gomeroi Nation, New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council

15 pages

Contains footnotes

"OPTIONS PAPER for the First Peoples' Water Engagement Council (FPWEC)"

"DATED 20 APRIL 2012"

Abstract: This paper highlights the options for a path forward to establish an Indigenous Economic Water Fund (IEWF) through acquisition of water entitlements¹ by indigenous people in systems where the consumptive pool is fully allocated. The water allocation that comes from indigenous holdings in the consumptive pool is an important mechanism for enabling Indigenous communities to achieve economic development and as such is a legitimate strategy for ‘Closing the Gap’. …

The Pro Bono Collaborative: Celebrating 10 Years Of Pro Bono Partnerships, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Pro Bono Collaborative Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Curious Beginnings Of The Capital Gains Tax Preference, Ajay K. Mehrotra, Julia C. Ott

Fordham Law Review

Despite the importance of the capital gains tax preference, and the controversy it often evokes, there has been relatively little serious scholarly attention paid to the historical development of this highly significant tax provision. This Article seeks to move beyond the normative and presentist concerns for or against the tax preference to recount the empirical beginnings and early twentieth-century development of this important tax law. In exploring the curious beginnings of the capital gains tax preference, this brief Article has several aims. First, its main goal is to show that the preference is not a timeless or transhistorical concept, but …

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

Fordham Law Review

This Article first explains how the prevailing discourse frames federal tax support for the middle class as either consumption or redistribution, both of which appear to be essentially unproductive and potentially destructive. Second, this Article examines the expansion of state and local tax support for elite private capital. In contrast to tax support favoring the middle class, this upper-class support is accepted widely as necessary for productive economic development. Operating below the radar of prominent tax debates, this state and local tax policy reveals more starkly and perversely how prevailing views of tax rationalize inequality and austerity. This Article concludes …

The Decline In Tax Adviser Professionalism In American Society, John S. Dzienkowski, Robert J. Peroni

Fordham Law Review

In Part I, this Article briefly examines the debate over the proper role of the tax professional in representing clients. Part II discusses whether tax professionals owe special duties to the tax system. Part III analyzes how the tax professionals’ involvement in several waves of tax shelter abuses is in sharp contrast to the high-minded rhetoric of the tax ethics debate. This part also discusses changes in the legal and accounting professions that have contributed to the current state of taxpayer representation. This Article advocates for the position that tax professionals owe a duty to the tax system and such …

Registered Savings Plans And The Making Of Middle-Class Canada: Toward A Performative Theory Of Tax Policy, Lisa Philipps

Fordham Law Review

Campaigning politicians and elected governments across Canada’s political spectrum strive to position themselves as defenders of the middle class. This is to be expected given the large proportion of the Canadian population that self-identifies as middle class. Since the term lacks precision, it is a claim that can accommodate a wide range of policy proposals. Tax policy serves as a prime vehicle for making this appeal to middle-class voters. Undoubtedly, any tax reform proposal can be examined critically to evaluate its likely distributional impacts and how well these map onto specific definitions of the middle class. This Article attempts, however, …

Foreword: We Are What We Tax, Mary Louise Fellows, Grace Heinecke, Linda Sugin

Fordham Law Review

On November 12 and 13, 2015, the Fordham Law Review hosted a symposium entitled We Are What We Tax. We invited scholars with a wide array of expertise inside and outside of the tax arena to consider how tax laws have shaped public and private institutions, cultural norms and hierarchies, and societal values.

Perpetuating Inequality By Taxing Wealth, Goldburn P. Maynard Jr.

Fordham Law Review

This Article attempts to correct this shortcoming in the progressive argument by returning narrative to its central place in the estate tax debate. Drawing on psychological insights, I hope to underscore the difficulty of the effort to preserve progressive taxation and combat wealth inequality.

Job Creationism, Victor Fleischer

Fordham Law Review

Does a low tax rate on entrepreneurial income create jobs? Tax scholars view this question as empirical in nature. But for many policymakers, voters, and even some academics, the relationship between taxes and entrepreneurship is a matter of faith. If there is a question, it is one of ideological commitment, not evidence and reason. Consider the ease with which politicians claim that tax cuts for entrepreneurs and investors create jobs and fuel economic growth. This claim would appear to be a falsifiable claim subject to empirical observation and testing. But evidence in support of the claim is, in fact, hard …

How Individual Income Tax Policy Affects Entrepreneurship, David Clingingsmith, Scott Shane

Fordham Law Review

This Article reviews the empirical literature on the effects of individual income tax policy on entrepreneurship. We find no evidence of consensus, even on relatively narrow questions such as whether individual income tax rates deter or encourage entrepreneurial entry. We believe the absence of consensus reflects both the complexity of mechanisms connecting tax policy to entrepreneurial decision making and the infeasibility of employing the most reliable empirical methods, such as experiments, in this domain.

The Currency Of Taxation, Tsilly Dagan

Fordham Law Review

In its canonical rendition, income taxation aspires to achieve the sometimes-conflicting goals of maximizing social welfare and promoting distributive justice. We do not usually think about tax law as participating in the formation of our identities, shaping the ways in which we perceive ourselves, or influencing how we interact with others. I argue, however, that income tax is a powerful social instrument that plays an important role in the construction of our identities and interactions with one another. Income tax law, I claim, simultaneously reflects and shapes our identities, self-perceptions, and social interactions in various contexts, including within our families …

The Semantics Of Sin Tax: Politics, Morality, And Fiscal Imposition, Bruce G. Carruthers

Fordham Law Review

In this Article, I consider how negative social meanings can be projected through public revenue systems and propose to examine the link between taxation and representation in a new light.7 First, I discuss how social meanings are attached to money and then explain how, through the use of earmarking, this works in the case of tax revenues. I next briefly review the history of sin taxes at both the state and federal levels. Finally, I use computational linguistic methods to suggest that the fiscal significance of sin taxes, and their cultural significance, are loosely coupled.

The Social Boundaries Of Corporate Taxation, Sloan G. Speck

Fordham Law Review

This Article argues that, while important, efficiency considerations should not function as the sole arbiter of the boundary between corporate and conduit tax treatment. First, classical corporate taxation is, in many ways, deeply embedded within a larger network of legal and social meanings. Classical corporate taxation operates in concert with, rather than separately from, these legal and social meanings. For this reason, the rules governing entities’ tax classification should take these interrelationships into account, if not as a primary norm, then as a secondary consideration when empirical or other uncertainties preclude a clear choice based on efficiency. The social boundaries …

Rhetoric And Reality In The Tax Law Of Charity, Linda Sugin

Fordham Law Review

This Article contrasts the rhetoric of public benefit connected to charity in the law with the reality of private control of charitable organizations. It argues that the tension between the rhetoric and reality have produced norms of entitlement that undermine taxation. It offers an approach to the role of charity under the law by defining the obligations of government in a just society, qualifying the economic framework dominant in the literature concerning charities, and identifying what private charity can achieve that governments cannot. This Article concludes by endorsing the charitable deduction in the tax law on terms consistent with this …

Liberalism, Philanthropy, And Praxis: Realigning The Philanthropy Of The Republic And The Social Teaching Of The Church, Rob Atkinson

Fordham Law Review

This Article seeks a common ground for theists of the Abrahamist religious faiths and agnostics in the Socratic philosophical tradition on the role that the liberal state should play in advancing the two coordinate aims of traditional philanthropy: helping society’s least well off and advancing the highest forms of human excellence. It focuses particularly on Abrahamists who are orthodox Catholics and Socratics who are left-liberals, distinguishing their broad views on the liberal state’s proper philanthropic role from the far narrower views of libertarians and other right-liberals. It concludes that adherents of Catholic Social Teaching and advocates of secular left-liberalism can …

Book Review Of Making The Modern American Fiscal State: Law, Politics And The Rise Of Progressive Taxation By Ajay K. Mehrotra, Steven A. Bank

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

A Good Old Habit, Or Just An Old One? Preferential Tax Treatment For Reorganizations, Yariv Brauner

Yariv Brauner

This article proposes to repeal the preferential tax treatment of certain merger and acquisition transactions known as "reorganizations," and tax them like all other sales or exchanges. In the last 80 years this preference has been a cornerstone of our tax system. It is also one of the most stable rules in the tax code. Nevertheless, its normative justification is weak, and has never been rigorously debated in the legal literature. This article rejects the stated rationale for this rules - that such transactions trigger insufficient realization and therefore it is both unfair and impractical to currently tax them. It …