Accounting Law Commons^™

Donor Advised Funds: Charitable Spending Vehicles For 21st Century Philanthropy, Roger Colinvaux

Scholarly Articles

The donor advised fund (DAF) is changing longstanding giving norms in United States philanthropy. DAF contributions now account for around 8.4% of giving by individuals in the U.S. Over half of those contributions go to national DAF sponsors that have relationships with large commercial investment firms like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab. This Article seeks to advance the understanding of the donor advised fund and to address two of the main policy questions: whether to require a mandatory distribution of funds by DAFs and their sponsoring organizations and how to respond to the increased use of DAFs for noncash charitable contributions. …

The Target Method For Partnership Special Allocations And Why It Should Be Safe-Harbored, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

The Treasury Regulations’ concept of “substantial economic effect” is the holy grail of partnership special allocations. Special allocations that have substantial economic effect will come within a safe harbor in the regulations and have assurance that the allocations that are provided in the partnership agreement will be respected. In order for the allocations to come within the substantial economic effect safe harbor, the partnership must (1) maintain capital accounts in accordance with the Treasury Regulations’ standard; (2) provide for liquidation in accordance with capital accounts in all events; and (3) either (a) provide for a deficit restoration obligation (DRO) on …

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act: The Solution Or The Problem?, Sophie S. Chou

CMC Senior Theses

Tax evasion has been happening for decades, but after the highly publicized cases with two foreign banks, LGT and UBS, the United States (US) is cracking down on tax evaders. The latest addition to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s repertoire of enforcement tools is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, otherwise known as FATCA. The Act was enacted to incentivize tax information release by foreign financial institutions (FFIs) who would otherwise face a 30% withholding tax on any US source income. The question was whether or not the design of the Act and its implementation successfully met this goal.

This …

Possible Bias In Asset Valuations: An Application Of The Fraud Risk Triangle To Divorce Cases, Jennifer Tomasetti

Honors Projects in Accounting

No abstract provided.

Contingent Purchase Price, Contingent Liabilities And Indemnities In Taxable Acquisitions (Slides), William M. Richardson, Robert H. Wellen

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Contingent Consideration, Contingent Liabilities And Indemnities In Acquisitions (Outline), Robert H. Wellen

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Zappers & Employment Tax Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Beyond the grey area of worker misclassifications and general employment tax irregularities there are darker employment relationships where workers are intentionally paid in cash “off-the-books” or “under-the-table.” Grey employment relationships present civil enforcement issues that may become criminal; darker-relationships are criminal from the beginning. Zappers are found on the dark side.

Zappers are fraud-technologies that automatically (and remotely) skim cash from electronic cash registers (ECRs) or back room point of sales (POS) systems. Globally, tax auditors are finding that Zappers frequently provide the cash that is used to compensate “under-the-table” workers. In fact, a Zapper appears to be at the …

Refund Fraud? Real-Time Solution!, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

When seven million dependents vanished from the tax rolls in 1986 the IRS recovered three billion dollars in revenue. A simple enforcement measure was applied. Taxpayers were required to list the social security number (SSN) for any dependent they claimed on their tax return. Costing next to nothing to implement, the benefits of this enforcement action continue to this day.

A similar enforcement measure could be employed against refund fraud. Even though the solution is not as simple as that adopted in 1986, it is similar. The effort is worth making. The revenue loss is much larger. As before, the …

Transfer Pricing: Data Dumps And Comparability — Studies From The U.S., U.K., Canada, And Australia, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Andrew B. Shact

Faculty Scholarship

Comparability is the heart of transfer pricing. The OECD, U.K., Canadian, Australian, and U.S. transfer pricing rules all echo one another on how critically important the comparability analysis is. Performing this analysis and proving comparability, however, is a demanding exercise.

What makes proving comparability so difficult is that the analysis is two sided. Both controlled and uncontrolled transactions must be thoroughly analyzed. Just as much effort needs to be applied to determine the functions, contract terms, risks and the economic conditions for the unrelated party comparables as is spent on analyzing the related parties (taxpayers).

But there is more to …

Responsible Profitability - Not On My Balance Sheet, 61 Cath. U. L. Rev. 651 (2012), Arthur Acevedo

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Many free-market capitalists believe in the syllogism that if a free market results in progress, and if progress is good, then by definition a free market must be good. Two hundred years of economic development support this proposition. The capitalist model, which is premised on free-market ideology, is credited with producing many of the riches enjoyed by society as a whole. Indeed, the pursuit of economic freedom ranks among the primary motivations for the founding of the United States. The corporation has enabled that pursuit and can be credited with greatly contributing to the advancement of free-market capitalism.

Proponents of …

Responsible Profitability? Not On My Balance Sheet!, Arthur Acevedo

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unjustified Subsidy: Sovereign Wealth Funds The Foreign Sovereign Tax Exemption, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The taxation of Sovereign Wealth Funds in the United States is outmoded and due for reconsideration. Offering a tax exemption to the billion dollar investment funds owned by foreign governments is both unfair and ineffective. Founded in the principles of sovereign immunity, the foreign sovereign tax exemption, codified in I.R.C. § 892, fails to satisfy the Congressional goals that motivated its creation. This Article explains the current taxation of foreign sovereigns and, by extension, Sovereign Wealth Funds. It then illustrates that the current exemption is simultaneously too broad, providing a tax exemption for activities that are clearly nongovernmental activities, and …

Personal Foul…Roughing The Taxpayer: The Irs’ Triple Penalty On Hardship Distributions, Michael Flynn, Craig C. Minko

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Everyone knows of someone, a family member, a co-worker, a neighbor or just an acquaintance, who has been adversely affected by the downturn in the economy. For many, this means dipping into retirement accounts to help out others, to fund college tuition, to pay for unexpected medical bills or just to make ends meet. Then the surprise hits. The retirement account funds, filled with money that each participant paid in for reasons just like these, are not readily available. To the extent that they are available, the funds come at a steep price even though the participant is in desperate …

Medical Deduction Allowed For In-Home Personal Use, Danny A. Pannese

WCBT Faculty Publications

The Tax Court held that payments made to an elderly woman's providers of personal care that she required due to her diminished capacity qualified as long-term-care services and were therefore deductible under IRC § 213(d)(1)(C). Lillian Baral was diagnosed with dementia by her physician in 2004. The court agreed with Baral's estate that the amounts paid to the caregivers for their services were deductible as qualified long-term-care services. Baral was chronically ill, and the care was medically necessary to protect her from threats to her health and safety, as determined by her physician. The court also held the amounts paid …

Will Cutting The Payroll Tax Increase Jobs In The U.S.? Empirical Evidence From The Eu Vat, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Red Ink Rising, the Peterson–Pew Commission on Budget Reform’s report presents the country with a fiscal/employment dilemma – Congress must act immediately to stem the federal debt, but it must move carefully lest it harm employment in the fragile economy. In short, we must act fast and slow – we must decrease the debt and increase employment. This is a difficult task.

The Peterson-Pew dilemma (notably its jobs-creation aspect) was taken to heart by both of the reform commissions that issued reports soon thereafter (National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, The Moment of Truth and The Debt Reduction Task …

Irs's Recent Uncertain Tax Positions Initiative: A Tangle Of Accounting, Tax And Privilege Issues, 9 Depaul Bus. & Comm. L.J. 401 (2011), Kathryn J. Kennedy

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Given the extremely limited source of resources available to the IRS in recent years, it's not surprising that it is exploring all sorts of avenues to increase its efficiency, particularly relying on corporate taxpayers to self report questionable tax positions. Under the banner of "corporate governance" and "transparency," the Service issued a series of proposals in 2010 requiring disclosure of uncertain tax positions ("UTPs") by corporate taxpayers. The Service essentially piggybacked on the recently imposed 2006 audit requirements that reserves be posted for contingent tax liabilities (i.e., tax positions that could later not be sustained, and therefore had to be …

Pennsylvania's Sales And Use Tax: Has Nearly $1 Billion Been 'Zapped' Away In Fraud?, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

The Sales and Use Tax is an essential part of Pennsylvania’s revenue profile. Not only is it the State’s second largest revenue source, it has historically played a critical role in reducing the volatility of Pennsylvania’s overall tax collections. The sales tax is also critical to the city of Philadelphia, and Allegheny County. During the current economic downturn both the revenue and structural attributes of this levy should be pushing it to the front of the tax policy line.

The two topics that should rest atop Pennsylvania’s tax policy agenda should be: (1) joining the Streamlined Sales Tax initiative and …

Vat Fraud - Technological Solutions, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Every VAT/GST allows missing trader fraud. The fraud is simple, and can be simply prevented (with technology). The fraud arises when a business makes a purchase without paying VAT, collects VAT on an onward sale, and then “disappears” without remitting the tax. Missing trader fraud is common in high-value/low-volume goods sold across borders – computer chips and cell phones are the classic examples. But the fraud easily migrates when pursued. It operates well with goods as wide ranging as xenon bulbs, automobiles, and earth moving equipment.

The recent appearance of MTIC fraud in tradable CO2 permits and VoIP is a …

Transfer Pricing In Business Restructurings – Reasoning From Implausible Assumptions Issue Note 2 – (Oecd, Discussion Draft), Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Andrew Shact

Faculty Scholarship

The OECD’s Center for Tax Policy and Administration roundtable on business restructurings in January 2005 led to a Joint Working Group project later that year on permanent establishments and business restructurings. One of the results was the Discussion Draft on Transfer Pricing Aspects of Business Restructurings that was available for public comment between September 19, 2008 and February 19, 2009.

This paper concerns Issue Note No. 2 in the Discussion Draft – Arm’s Length Compensation for the Restructuring Itself.

Issue Note No. 2 is deeply flawed. It relies on an unproved correlation between structure and performance (profit/loss potential). The Discussion …

The Italian Job — Voice Over Internet Protocol Mtic Fraud In Italy, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On February 8, 2010 a speculative paper on the likelihood that fraudsters proficient in missing trader intra-community (MTIC) fraud might move into voice over internet protocol (VoIP) was submitted to the Boston University School of Law Working Paper Series.

Prior to that paper there was very little (if any) public discussion of VoIP MTIC. There were no assessments, no arrests, and not a hint of litigation. Fifteen days later, and before final publication the financial press exploded with coverage of a massive VoIP MTIC fraud (the Operazione “phuncards-broker” investigation). The Wall Street Journal reported: An [Italian] judge…ordered the arrest of …

Voip Mtic — Vat Fraud In Voice Over Internet Protocol, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In the beginning, the VAT fraud known as missing trader intra-community (MTIC) fraud appeared to be a UK problem concentrated in the cell phone and computer chip markets. MTIC has mutated (to other commodities) and migrated (to other Member States). This paper describes how this fraud operates in the VoIP market, and how in this mutation it is no longer confined to the EU, but can infiltrate any VAT/GST anywhere.

Canada, Botswana, Japan, Iceland and Jamaica (to mention a few jurisdictions) have consumption taxes that are just as vulnerable as is the EU VAT to VoIP missing trader fraud. It …

Zappers - Retail Vat Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Zappers skim cash sales at retail. Zappers are add-on programs used by merchants with electronic cash registers (ECRs) or point-of-sale (POS) systems. Zappers are smart and selective. They do not skim all sales, and they never skim credit card transactions.

Although they are present in every jurisdiction, Zappers appear to be most widely used in developed economies that combine high levels of cash sales with high rates of consumption tax. Sweden, for example, has a cash-intensive economy, one of the world’s highest VAT rates (25%), and also reports that 70% of the ECRs in the country are either “… constructed …

Court Of Federal Claims Upholds Additional Sui Credit, Danny A. Pannese

WCBT Faculty Publications

The article discusses the decision in a tax court case that plaintiffs in consolidated tax refund cases were entitled to an additional state unemployment insurance (SUI) credit against their Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) tax liabilities for years 1991-1996. The dispute in the tax court case of E.P. Talent Services LP was addressed in a year 2004 Court of Federal Claims decision. It was ruled that the SUI credit is capped at over five percent of the taxpayer's total FUTA wage base.

Quebec's Sales Recording Module (Srm): Fighting The Zapper, Phantomware, And Tax Fraud With Technology, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Proposal For An Elective Tax Benefits Transfer System, Ronald W. Blasi

Faculty Publications By Year

This article proposes an elective tax benefit transfer system to be available to lessors of property they use in their trade or business. It describes why the current linkage of tax benefits to property ownership is economically inefficient, causing it to have several significant disadvantages to the parties and to the economy, as a whole. The article discusses how the current system reduces a firm’s cash flow and reported earnings, diminishes the intended effect of tax incentive legislation, distorts competition and decision making, and inhibits investment in efficient business assets. It is submitted that the proposed system corrects all of …

Tax Fraud In The Sales Tax: Zappers — What Are They? How Can Puerto Rico Block Them?, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

The Sales and Use Tax is an essential part of Puerto Rico’s revenue profile. Effective only recently (November 15, 2006) the Impuesto a las Ventas y Uso (IVU) was expected to raise between $2.3 and $1.05 billion annually, and has already become the Commonwealth’s fourth largest revenue source. Actual revenue results for 2007-2008 came in at $1.1 billion, which admittedly is closer to the low end than the high end of what is possible, but now that the tax is in place the next pressing question is how can its performance be improved?

This paper generally proposes that Puerto Rico …

Massachusetts Zappers - Collecting The Sales Tax That Has Already Been Paid, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

No other New England state is as vulnerable to Zappers as is the State of Massachusetts. Zappers and related software programming, Phantom-ware, facilitate an old tax fraud – skimming cash receipts. In this instance skimming is performed with modern electronic cash registers (ECRs).

Zappers are a global revenue problem, but to the best of this author’s knowledge they have not been uncovered in Massachusetts. A global perspective says: it is highly unlikely that Zappers are not in the Commonwealth – we just need to find them. In fact, using a Quebec template, tax losses from Zappers and related frauds in …

Vat Derogations In Germany, Austria, Denmark, And Estonia: Use And Enjoyment Rules, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

When the Czech Republic elected (effective January 1, 2009) to derogate from the standard rules for determining the place of supply for intangible services, pursuant to Article 58 of the Recast VAT Directive (RVD), it was following the lead of ten other Member States. This paper considers four of those other jurisdictions - Germany, Austria, Estonia, and Denmark - and compares their derogations with that of the Czech Republic.

In each instance a use and enjoyment standard determines the place of supply for certain intangible services. The affected transactions are (potentially) wide ranging. In each instance non-EU countries are on …

Changes To The Czech Republic's Vat Act: The Use And Enjoyment Rules, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On January 1, 2009 a minor change in the Czech Republic VAT became effective. A use and enjoyment standard was added to modify the sourcing of certain service transactions. Traditional proxy-based rules, derived from Articles 43 and 56(1) of the Recast VAT Directive (RVD), are set aside by this modification when the customer receiving the services has a permanent establishment (PE) in the Czech Republic. The modification is authorized by RVD 58.

This change is a limited adoption of RVD 58(b), and functions like a full force of attraction principle in direct taxation. If caught by these rules, transactions that …

California Biometrics: A Second Proposal For California's Commission On The 21st Century Economy, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This proposal takes a long view to revenue reform. It seeks to fundamentally align the sales tax with the digital foundation of the 21st Century economy.

The core policy question is whether California is willing to change the way it defines sales tax exemptions; is it willing to move from product-centric to person-centric exemptions. Certified tax determination systems can be relied upon. A key element in this proposal is the encryption of exemption certificates in IDs (smart cards with biometric identifiers that will allow the poor or handicapped to make certain purchases tax free).

This proposal suggests that (for example) …