Accounting Law Commons^™

It-Apas: Harmonizing Inconsistent Transfer Pricing Rules In Income Tax - Customs - Vat, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In most jurisdictions there are three separate spheres of transfer pricing analysis - income tax, customs and VAT. Although they share policy objectives, terminology and frequently borrowing methodologies from one another these domestic transfer pricing systems are not in harmony.

Businesses find this lack of harmony costly, problematical, but also a planning opportunity. The door is open for arbitrage.

What if the transfer pricing rules within a jurisdiction were harmonized? The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are considering this question.

This paper synthesizes the range of transfer pricing regimes currently in use, …

Car Flipping In The U.K.: The Vat Fraud Marketplace And Certified Solutions, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud and its offspring carousel fraud and contra trading fraud are siphoning huge amounts of VAT revenue from the UK Treasury. This fraud is not a function of the goods involved. It is a function of the market-place. Recently another type of market-place dependent VAT fraud has taken hold in the UK - car-flipping.

In some instances the market-place where these frauds festers is a pre-existing or natural market-place, one that grows out of legitimate commercial practices. Fraudsters enter this market-place (so the argument goes) and take advantage of legitimate businesses who unwittingly get caught up …

Financial Accounting And Corporate Behavior, David I. Walker

Washington and Lee Law Review

The power of financial accounting to shape corporate behavior is underappreciated. Advocates of positive accounting theory have argued that even cosmetic changes in reported earnings can affect share value, not because market participants are unable to see through such changes to the underlying fundamentals, but because of implicit or explicit contracts that are based on reported earnings and transaction costs. However, agency theory suggests that accounting choices and corporate responses to accounting standard changes will not necessarily be those that maximize share value. For a number of reasons, including the fact that executive compensation is often tied to reported earnings, …

Worldwide Financial Reporting: The Development And Future Of Accounting Standards, George J. Benston, Michael Bromwich, Robert E. Litan, Alfred Wagenhofer

Brigham Young University International Law & Management Review

No abstract provided.

The Screening Effect Of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Stephen Choi, Karen K. Nelson, Adam C. Pritchard

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

Prior research shows that the PSLRA increased the significance of merit-related factors, such as the presence of an accounting restatement or insider selling, in determining the incidence and outcomes of securities fraud class actions. (Johnson, Nelson, and Pritchard, 2007). This result, however, is consistent with two possible hypotheses. First, the PSLRA may have reduced solely the incidence of non-meritorious litigation. Second, the PSLRA may have changed the definition of merit, effectively precluding claims that would have survived and produced a settlement pre-PSLRA. This paper tests these alternative hypotheses. We find that pre-PSLRA claims that settled for nuisance value would be …

English Reforms To Judicial Selection: Comparative Lessons For American States? , Judith L. Maute

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article offers a brief comparative look at American and British jurisprudential pending selection reforms, and argues that American states could improve their appointive systems by incorporating modern personnel recruitment and hiring practices. To restore public confidence in the courts, people must believe that judges exercise legitimate authority, undistorted by personal or partisan preferences. Beyond changes to the structural selection process in the Constitutional Reform Act, the extended conversations are bringing about foundational cultural shifts in the role of judges and their manner of selection. We could learn much from Britain’s modernized appointive system that aims to be open, transparent, …

Incorporation Choice, Uniformity, And The Reform Of Nonprofit State Law, Garry W. Jenkins

Georgia Law Review

This Article explores the significance of private lawmaking initiatives in the reform process of nonprofit state law. Specifically, Professor Jenkins considers projects led by the American Bar Association, American Law Institute, and National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. He documents and explains how various institutional dynamics, ingrained habits, and other factors unique to the tax-exempt sector, most notably the choices of nonprofit organizations regarding where to incorporate,affect the ways in which nonprofit law is developed. To that end, the Article presents empirical findings revealing that nonprofits are far less likely than for-profit corporations to opt for out-of-state incorporation.This, …

Charities, Endowments, And Donor Intent: The Uniform Prudent Management Of Institutional Funds Act, Susan N. Gary

Georgia Law Review

American charities manage substantial funds in conjunction with carrying out their charitable purposes, holding some funds for current operating needs and others as endowments. The legal rules on managing and investing those funds have worked well, but are now somewhat out of date, and revisions to these rules will benefit donors, charities, and charitable beneficiaries. Because laws regulating charities come from a variety of sources, including trust law, nonprofit corporation statutes, federal tax laws, and additional state statutes, this Article does not address the full panoply of regulations governing charities. Rather, the Article takes a narrow focus: the investment, management, …

Revising The Model Nonprofit Corporation Act: Plus Qa Change, Plus C'Est La M~Me Chose, Lizabeth A. Moody

Georgia Law Review

The proposed revision of the 1988 version of the Model Nonprofit Corporation Act (MNCA) leaves most of the 1988 revisions in place. Overall the changes will bring the Act closer to the Model Business Corporation Act which was the stated intention of the 1988 revision. The major changes which are being proposed include: dropping the classification scheme which divided nonprofit corporations into Public Benefit, Mutual Benefit and Religious corporations;deleting certain provisions with respect to the role of the attorney general; prohibiting cumulative voting; including provisions of the Model Entity Transactions Act (META); and providing for Select Exempt Corporations.

Fiduciary Duties In Distressed Corporations: Second-Generation Issues, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

This paper examines variations in corporate fiduciary duties arising from financial distress. This paper argues whether there is an affirmatively enforceable duty under the principles of Credit Lyonnais is not moot, because, inter alia, the availability of aiding and abetting liability for breach of fiduciary duty will give rise to a greater set of potentially liable defendants (aiding and abetting a fraudulent transfer typically not separately giving rise to liability), allowing a court to reverse some outcomes that would otherwise obtain under the in pari delicto doctrine and the Wagoner rule, and will expand the remedies available. This paper argues …

Plea Bargaining's Survival: Financial Crimes Plea Bargaining, A Continued Triumph In A Post-Enron World, Lucian E. Dervan

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword: Introducing The Law Of Nonprofit Organizations And Philanthropy, David A. Brennen

Georgia Law Review

On January 5, 2007, the Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law Section of AALS held its first program at the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The program, entitled "State-Level Legal Reform of the Law of Nonprofit Organizations,"was a fitting way to launch what should prove to be a valuable contribution to the study of law relating to nonprofit organizations and philanthropy. This burgeoning area of academic legal study is well poised to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years due to its impact on many traditional areas of legal study, including tax law, corporate law, estate law, trust law, …

Fixing 404, Joseph A. Grundfest, Steven E. Bochner

Michigan Law Review

Although debate persists as to whether the costs of Sarbanes-Oxley's Section 404 regulations exceed their benefits, there is broad consensus that the rules have been inefficiently implemented. Substantive and procedural factors contribute to the rules' inefficiency. From a substantive perspective, the terms "material weakness" and "significant deficiency" are central to the implementing regulations and are easily interpreted to legitimize audits of controls that have only a remote probability of causing an inconsequential effect on the issuer's financial statements. As a quantitative matter the literature suggests that a control with a remote probability of causing an inconsequential effect has an expected …

What's Good For The Goose Is Not Good For The Gander: Sarbanes-Oxley-Style Nonprofit Reforms, Lumen N. Mulligan

Michigan Law Review

In this Article, I contend that the Sarbanes-Oxley-inspired nonprofit reforms currently being put forward in seven states, particularly the costly disclosure requirements, will be of little value in the effort to improve ethical nonprofit board governance. After providing a primer on the oversight of nonprofit organizations and highlighting the unique difficulties facing the nonprofit sector the Article reviews the recent Sarbanes-Oxley-like nonprofit reforms introduced in seven states. It then contends that the disclosure- focused reforms that form the bulwark of these initiatives will not foster improved ethical nonprofit board governance. It also argues that this failure stems from the inappropriate …