Business Organizations Law Commons^™

Perspectives - Michael Carlton Of Carlton Architecture, James Hagy, Emily Barile

Rooftops Project

Michael Carlton talks with The Rooftops Project’s Emily Barile and Professor James Hagy about the intersections among architecture, interior design, real estate, and not-for-profit strategic planning.

Panorama - Caring For The Palace Museum, Bejing, China, James Hagy, Cai Bowen

Rooftops Project

Shi Zhimin discusses his work as Director of the Ancient Building Management Office of The Palace Museum in Beijing, still also recognized by many visitors as the former Chinese imperial palace known as The Forbidden City, with Cai Bowen and Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project.

Perspectives - Richard Cohn, Motion Picture Gaffer, Magician, Musician, James Hagy, Kristen Porro

Rooftops Project

The Rooftops Project’s Kristen Porro talks with Richard Cohn, Gaffer (Chief Electrician) to the television and movie industry on location in New York City, and performing magician, who shares tricks of his two trades that not-for-profits can use to make the most of often imperfect performance spaces.

Perspectives - Kimse Yok Mu: An Organization’S Effort For The Advancement Of Life, James Hagy, Shaan Lodi

Rooftops Project

The Rooftops Project’s Shaan Lodi talks with Turkish relief organization Kimse Yok Mu about its approach to the real estate needed to support disaster response and other work in often challenging settings in 96 countries.

The Professional Corporation—Has The Death Knell Been Sounded?, Forest J. Bowman

Pepperdine Law Review

The favorable tax reasons for incorporating a professional practice have been substantially reduced by the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The retirement benefits of the professional corporation have effectively been eliminated by TEFRA. In addition, the new allocation of income powers provided by TEFRA may have eliminated the tax incentive for forming a professional corporation. The professional's decision whether to incorporate his practice will now rest with his desires as to how he wishes to carry out that practice. This article discusses the changes that TEFRA has wrought, and its impact on the professionals' decision to incorporate.

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 …

Omg! Esd Codified!: The Overreaction To Codification Of The Economic Substance Doctrine, Monica D. Armstrong

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Tax Response To The Executive Pay Problem, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

Many observers believe that that the public company executive labor market is deficient and results in systematically excessive compensation. This Article accepts that premise and considers potential regulatory responses. Specifically, this Article proposes and analyzes a two-pronged tax response to the problem of excessive executive pay – the imposition of a surtax on executive pay in excess of a threshold combined with investor tax relief. These two prongs respond to the chief concerns raised by excessive executive pay. The imposition of a surtax would reduce the after-tax income of executives, which would directly address the unfairness of excessive pay and …

Social Enterprise: Who Needs It?, Brian Galle

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

State statutes authorizing firms to pursue mixtures of profitable and socially-beneficial goals have proliferated in the past five years. In this invited response essay, I argue that for one large class of charitable goals the so-called “social enterprise” firm is often privately wasteful. While the hybrid form is a bit more sensible for firms that combine profit with simple, easily monitored social benefits, existing laws fail to protect stakeholders against opportunistic conversion of the firm to pure profit-seeking. Given these failings, I suggest that social enterprise’s legislative popularity can best be traced to a race to the bottom among states …

Economic Justice And The Internal Point Of View, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

The West is in a tumult about money. In the United States, the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement captured the public's attention, sounding themes of fiscal irresponsibility and material inequality, respectively. Political negotiations over the so-called "fiscal cliff," the debt ceiling, taxes, and entitlement spending, have kept these themes before the public eye. In Europe, the protests have been more dramatic, and the declarations of national leaders that the European Union is in no danger of disintegrating have sounded at times suspiciously forceful.

Despite all of the exhortations that lawmakers should do something, the public debates …

Vat Triangulation With A Us Middleman Vstr, C-587/10, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

It is not every day that an American firm finds itself in the middle of an EU VAT controversy that significantly develops the law. However, the September 27, 2012 decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) does just that. The case is Vogtländische Straβen-,Tief- und Rohrleitungsbau GmbH Rodewisch (VSTR) v. Finanzamt Plauen.

In November 1998 Atlantic International Trading Company (AIT), an American company established in New York, NY, purchased two stone-crushers from VSTR, a firm established in Germany. AIT quickly re-sold the stone-crushers to an end user established in Finland. The VSTR/AIT contract was “ex works,” that is AIT …

The Like-Kind Exchange Equity Conundrum, Bradley T. Borden

Florida Law Review

The tax-free treatment of like-kind exchanges presents one of tax law’s most compelling equity conundrums. Tax law generally does not tax property holders on the property’s appreciation but does tax gain or loss recognized by property sellers and exchangers of non-like-kind property. In the basic Aristotelian system, equity requires that likes be treated alike, but the system does not provide criteria to determine what is alike. Depending upon the criteria, exchangers of like-kind property can be similar either to holders or to sellers and exchangers of non-like-kind property. The equity conundrum asks whether tax law should treat exchangers of like-kind …

Introduction To M&A Tax: Due Diligence Traps In S Corp Acquisitions (Slides), Robert G. Mcelroy, William M. Richardson

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Partnership Tax Planning Without Falling Into The Canal (Slides), Andrea M. Whiteway

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Partnership Tax Planning Without Falling Into The Canal (Outline), Andrea M. Whiteway

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

How Long Can This Go On? The Controversy Over The Application Of The Statute Of Limitations To S Corporations And Their Shareholders, J. Marcus Sommers

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Charitable Organizations And Commercial Activity: A New Era - Will The Social Entrepreneurship Movement Force Change?, Jaclyn Cherry

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

It is no longer a new trend for charitable organizations to become involved in commercial activities. Thousands of nonprofit organizations have embraced the social entrepreneurial concept and have either created “commercial” type ventures as part of their nonprofits, have created spin-off organizations or subsidiary organizations, or have moved into the new area of hybrid organizations. Because there are no clear rules or guidelines for dealing with this issue, the third sector finds itself with rogue components and a spin-off group of hybrid organizations being loosely termed “social entrepreneurs.” Though these groups have grown in numbers in recent years, they have …

Agents Without Principals: Regulating The Duty Of Loyalty For Nonprofit Corporations Through The Intermediate Sanctions Tax Regulations, Carly B. Eisenberg, Kevin Outterson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Delaware corporate law imposes a duty of loyalty on officers and directors as a mechanism to regulate and deter self-dealing transactions. In nonprofit corporations, however, there are generally no shareholders with direct financial incentives to monitor against self-dealing. In the absence of shareholders and other principals, Congress and the IRS have articulated duty of loyalty rules for nonprofits that reach far beyond those applied to the for-profit world--most prominently the § 4958 intermediate sanctions. This article identifies the persons who owe a duty of loyalty to a nonprofit corporation, the applicable fiduciary standards for violating the duty of loyalty, and …

Perspectives - Benjamin Webb Of The Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Benjamin Webb discusses the rewards and challenges of being responsible for facilities management and energy for the largest mixed-program cultural center in the Southeastern U.S.

Profile - Legal Aid Center Of Southern Nevada, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Responding to an ever-increasing need for pro bono legal services, the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada recently broke ground in downtown Las Vegas on what will become its new headquarters. Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project, talks with Eexecutive Director Barbara Buckley about the project and the role that the new facility will play in advancing the Center’s mission and its services to clients.

Perspectives - Alyssa Bellew Of The Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church Of Pasadena, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

At manyplaces of worship, responsibility for oversight of the physical facilities falls to administrative staff as one more adjunct to an already busy schedule. At others, property tasks may be left to volunteers. The “on-the-job training” may often be self-taught. Professor James Hagy explores these challenges with Alyssa Bellew, Administrative Director of Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church.

Panorama - International Perspectives: Kathleen Curran, Director Of Casa Nuevo Horizonte, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

In this first of our series of international perspectives, Kathleen Curran relfects on the important role that physical space has played in her charitable mission in Bolivia supporting promising students seeking an advanced education in a setting of poverty.

Perspectives - Alice Korngold Of Korngold Consulting, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Alice Korngold of Korngold Consulting presents her views on optimizing the match between not-for-profit organizations and prospective board member volunteers.

Perspectives - Steve Marcussen And Jonathan Sklar Of Cushman & Wakefield, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Steve Marcussen and Jonathan Sklar of Cushman & Wakefield’s Los Angeles office share thoughts on how not-for-profit organizations can be more effective with their real estate assets and in implementing projects with outside real estate brokerage advisors.

Profile - Fernbank Museum Of Natural History, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Any natural history or science museum would be proud to haev the diversity of collections and programmatic resources found at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia. But few if any can law claim, as Fernbank does, to having “grown out of a forest.” Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project, talks wiht Aneli Nugteren, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Fernbank Museum, about its unique campus, mission, and facilities.

Profile - The California Endowment’S Center For Healthy Communities, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

When the California Endowment planned new headquarters space for its own operations, its vision also included creating conference space suitable for events by other not-for-profits, opportunities for formal and informal collaboration among not-for-profits with compatible missions, and even incubator spaces for smaller organizations in need of an office presence. In this second article in his series looking at not-for-profits as urban neighbors, Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project, talks with Anne-Marie Jones, Director of the Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities, and Edward de la Torre, its Director of Facilities and Events.

Contribution Of A Built-In Loss To A Partnership, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Before 2004, it was possible to use the partnership tax provisions of the code to shift the benefit ofa loss deduction for a decline in property valuefrom the person who incurred it to another person.One method of accomplishing that goal involvedthe contribution of depreciated property to a partnership.

Medical Devices Excise Tax (Mdet) — A Market-Specific Vat?, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Andrew Shact, Gail Wasylyshyn

Faculty Scholarship

VATs flourish in complex, clearly defined markets. New York discovered this when it converted its single-stage retail sales tax on hotel rooms, the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax (HROT), into a multi-stage European-style VAT. The HROT VAT-conversion demonstrates that (a) in a clearly defined market where (b) a single stage tax is imposed on (c) only part of a complex supply chain that (d) losses attributable to supply-chain-fragmentation can be remedied by moving to a multi-stage VAT.

The Medical Devices Excise Tax (MDET) imposes as 2.3% excise tax on the sale by manufacturers, producers or importers of clearly identified medical devises …

Federal Income Taxation Of Business Enterprises: Cases, Statutes, Rulings, Sergio Pareja, Richard A. Westin, Ricahrd C.E. Beck

Faculty Book Display Case

This fourth edition covers the basics of the federal income taxation of partnerships and corporations including the taxation of LLCs, LLPs and S corporations. In addition, it alludes to a short list of other business enterprises. It is designed to be taught as two major components: partnerships and corporations. Both components use the traditional "cradle-to-grave" approach. Because of their practical importance, the book makes reference to Social Security taxes and estate taxes. There is no discussion of State income taxes.

Although the book is comparatively short, the materials are thorough and are heavily supplemented with problems.

The cases have been …

Profile - The Gates Foundation Leed Platinum Seattle Headquarters, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

In this first article in his series looking at not-for-profits as urban neighbors, Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project, visits with the Gates Foundation at its recently opened LEED Platinum Seattle headquarters campus.