Law and Economics Commons^™

The Interplay Between Norms And Enforcement In Tax Compliance, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

What will increase individuals' compliance with the federal income tax? There are rich legal, economic, and sociological literatures examining this question. The traditional answer that increased enforcement will increase compliance is supported by both economic modeling and a number of experiments. However, studies show that appeals to normative beliefs about honesty in taxpaying play an important role as well.

A number of scholars have suggested that vigorous enforcement of the tax laws may be counterproductive because it may suggest that noncompliance is the norm. This article argues, in part, that enforcement and a compliance norm are not inconsistent but rather …

Taxing International Portfolio Income, Michael J. Graetz, Itai Grinberg

Faculty Scholarship

Most analyses of the taxation of international income earned by U.S. corporations or individuals have addressed income from direct investments abroad. With the exception of routine bows to the "international tax compromise" and sporadic discussions of the practical difficulties residence countries face in collecting taxes on international portfolio income, the taxation of international portfolio income generally has been ignored in the tax literature.

Analysis and reassessment of U.S. tax policy regarding international portfolio income is long overdue. The amount of international portfolio investment and its role in the world economy has grown exponentially in recent years. In most years since …

Redistributing Optimally: Of Tax Rules, Legal Rules, And Insurance, Kyle D. Logue, Ronen Avraham

Articles

From the beginning of the law and economics movement, normative legal economists have focused almost exclusively on evaluating the efficiency of alternative legal rules. The distributional consequences of legal rules, therefore, have largely been ignored. It is tempting to conclude that legal economists are hostile or indifferent to concerns of distributional fairness. In fact, however, the discipline of economics has a great deal to say about distributional policy. The normative branch of economics, known as welfare economics, has always been deeply concerned with distributional issues. It is not that welfare economists purport to know a priori the "right" or "optimal" …

Learning To Live With An Imperfect Tax: A Defence Of The Corporate Tax, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Following an introduction, the paper is divided into two parts followed by a conclusion. Part II reviews a number of objectives of the corporate tax, arguing that they should carry more weight as arguments in favour of the corporate tax than they are often attributed. Furthermore, while it is conceded that the corporate tax is a second or even an nth best tax for achieving these objectives, there are simply no administratively feasible or politically acceptable alternatives to it. The arguments reviewed in the paper are as follows. First, by taxing income from capital, the corporate tax increases the comprehensiveness, …

Women And Pension Reform: Economic Insecurity And Old Age, 35 J. Marshall L. Rev. 673 (2002), Lorraine Schmall

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Uneasy Marriage Of Export Incentives And The Income Tax, Mihir A. Desai, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

This paper investigates the economic effect of tax incentives for American exports. These incentives include a partial tax exemption for export profits (available by routing exports through foreign sales corporations) and the allocation of some export profits to foreign-source income for purposes of U.S. taxation. The analysis highlights three important aspects of these policies. First, official figures appear to understate dramatically the tax expenditures associated with some U.S. export incentives. Correctly measured, total export benefits provided through the income tax are equivalent to a 1-percent ad valorem subsidy. Second, the 1984 imposition of more rigorous requirements for obtaining export subsidies …

The Death Of The Income Tax (Or, The Rise Of America’S Universal Wage Tax), Edward J. Mccaffery

Indiana Law Journal

The killing of the income tax has not been open and notorious: such is not the style of contemporary politics. As with other markers of progressive social policy—the promises of universal health care, Obamacare, come to mind6—the income tax is dying a death by stealth, albeit stealth played out in plain view. The plot lines of the tragedy are apparent. The individual “income” tax has been split in two. One tax, for the masses, is a simple, increasingly formless wage tax. This wage/income tax adds higher brackets onto the payroll tax, the model toward which the wage/income tax aims, to …

The Tyranny Of Money, Edward J. Mccaffery

Michigan Law Review

The more things change, the more they stay the same. A human activity almost as venerable as the accumulation and opulent display of vast riches is the condemnation of the accumulation and opulent display of vast riches. People have been busily engaged at each for several millennia now. Both continue in full flower as America races into the twenty-first century with its liberal capitalist democracy ascendant around the world, its rich richer than ever, its less-rich curiously lagging behind. Yet figuring out what, exactly, is wrong with the excessive accumulation and opulent display of wealth, on the one hand, and …

If Taxpayers Can't Be Fooled, Maybe Congress Can: A Public Choice Perspective On The Tax Transition Debate, Kyle D. Logue

Reviews

In When Rules Change: An Economic and Political Analysis of Transition Relief and Retroactivity , Shaviro takes the various strands of the existing literature on retroactivity and weaves them together, applying his unique combination of legal expertise, political pragmatism, and theoretical sophistication in public finance economics as well as political science. The result is a subtle, balanced, and scholarly treatise on transition relief and retroactivity that should serve as the starting point for all future research in the field. In its stated objectives, the book is admirably ambitious.

This Review will, in a broad sense, follow Shaviro's characterization of the …

The Conundrum Of Executive Compensation, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

Much of the scholarship on executive compensation that appears in law reviews assumes that large U.S. corporations overpay their chief executive officers ("CEOs"). This assumption is understandable, as many of these compensation packages are indeed stunning. The question of whether CEOs are overpaid, however, is complicated. Some scholars in other disciplines, principally in economics and management science, have studied the issue but, as this Article demonstrates, this literature does not confirm the assumption. Indeed, some studies suggest that CEO pay is competitive. Moreover, efforts to reduce the level of executive compensation may have the unintended consequence of achieving the opposite …

Transfer Pricing, Anders Leif Allvin

LLM Theses and Essays

Transfer pricing is one of the principal international taxation issues of the 1990s and potentially of future decades as well. For corporate enterprises, it can be difficult enough to do business in just one country, but it gets even more complex when they go international. The growth of multinational enterprises (MNEs) creates complex taxation issues for both the tax administrations as well for the MNE. Transfer pricing concerns allocation of income earned within affiliated corporate groups in different countries, which must satisfy tax authorities that they are not evading taxes through the use of transfer pricing. The main problem with …

Windfalls, Eric Kades

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

U.S. Income Taxation Of Foreign Parties: A Primer, Ernest R. Larkins

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

Over the last five years for which data are available, the number of foreign corporations showing net income on Form 1120F, U.S. Income Tax Return of a Foreign Corporation, has increased 36.5 percent. [1] In addition, the number of individuals granted temporary stays in the United States as non-immigrants has steadily increased from 9.5 million in 1985 to 24.8 million in 1996, an average annual increase of 9.1 percent. [2] These increases evidence growing opportunities to serve international clients and suggest that tax professionals must have a fundamental working knowledge of the way the U.S. tax system treats foreign parties. …

Front Matter

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Economic Espionage: The Front Line Of A New World Economic War

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Syracuse Journal Of International Law And Commerce - Vol. 26, No. 1 (Complete)

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

1997-1998 Survey Of International Law In The Second Circuit

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

This survey reviews significant case law from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Federal District Courts in New York, and the New York Court of Appeals decided from Aug. 1, 1997 through Aug. 1, 1998. Only those cases which overturned old law and/or broke new ground were included in this survey. Consequently, cases that simply reaffirmed previous decisions were not reported.

Table of Contents I. Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act II. Forum Non-Conveniens III. Immigration and Nationality Act IV. Quasi-In-Rem Jurisdiction and the Question of Due Process for Foreign Entities V. Warsaw Convention

Saddam Hussein As Hostes Humani Generis? Should The U.S. Intervene?, Edieth Y. Wu

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

This article discusses several jurisdictional principles which may assist the United States in its efforts to acquire jurisdiction in certain situations that are declared, by the United States, egregious enough to warrant intervention. The United States has long used the "effects doctrine" 1 to assert extraterritorial jurisdiction. This article concentrates on developing and employing the Hostes Humani Generis Theory 2 and its past and possible future use. The central focus is to determine whether the possibility exists that the United States may use the theory in an effort to acquire physical jurisdiction over Saddam Hussein.

A survey, though not comprehensive, …

Smokers' Compensation: Toward A Blueprint For Federal Regulation Of Cigarette Manufacturers, Jon D. Hanson, Kyle D. Logue, Michael S. Zamore

Articles

Although nothing is certain in Washington, sweeping federal legislation in the cigarette area is more likely now than has ever been the case. Congress is currently considering several proposals for comprehensive federal regulation of the cigarette market, a market that has until now gone largely untouched by government intervention. Among those proposals, the one that has received the most attention, and the one that in fact motivated policy makers to look anew at the problems posed by cigarettes, is the proposed national tobacco resolution (the "Proposed Resolution"). The Proposed Resolution, which has been advanced by a coalition of state attorneys …

The Costs Of Cigarettes: The Economic Case For Ex Post Incentive-Based Regulation, Jon D. Hanson, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

Cigarette smoking causes over 420,000 deaths annually in the United States, roughly twenty percent of all U.S. deaths, making cigarettes the single greatest preventable cause of death in this country. Indeed, tobacco kills more people every year than alcohol, illicit drugs, automobile accidents, violent crime, and AIDS combined. And not only are cigarettes deadly to smokers; they kill nonsmokers as well. According to a recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the "sidestream" or "passive" smoke from cigarettes - so-called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) - is responsible annually for approximately 3000 lung cancer deaths, between 150,000 and 300,000 lower …

Women And Children In The Economy: Reflections From The Income Tax System, Faye Woodman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

I have been asked to speak on “women and economics” with specific reference to the Canadian tax system. It is my thesis that the economic vulnerabilities of women and children in this nation are reflected and reinforced in the tax system. Further, it is my view that societal attitudes about who should support, and how we should support, children contribute to a complex synergy within the economic/tax system. This has the potential to produce a new underclass of government dependents who are dependent because, paradoxically, they receive so little support. Finally, I end with a plea for a broader commitment …

The Sps Agreement Of The World Trade Organization And International Organizations: The Roles Of The Codex Alimentarius Commission, The International Plant Protection Convention, And The International Office Of Epizootics, Terence P. Stewart, David S. Johanson

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

The proper fanctioning of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) depends in part upon three international organizations, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), and the International Office of Epizootics (OIE). The SPS Agreement states that the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards of these organizations are the benchmark international standards for WTO members, and recent WTO decisions demonstrate the importance of international standards in the settlement of WTO disputes involving SPS measures. The Codex, IPPC, and OIE also provide valuable services that benefit the …

Book Review, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

Book Review: Richard Haas, The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War, New York, Council on Foreign Relations (1997)

A Dynasty Weaned From Biotechnology: The Emerging Face Of China

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

A Critique Of The Proposed National Tobacco Resolution And A Suggested Alternative, Jon D. Hanson, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

The first criticism is that the proposed resolution would not require manufacturers and, in tum, consumers to pay anything approaching the true total costs of cigarettes, costs that we estimate to be at least $7 per pack, a number that is considerably higher than other estimates that have been reported in the media. Our estimate includes some, but not all, of the costs borne ultimately by smokers themselves, by smokers' insurers, and by individuals injured by second-hand smoke. It includes only future costs and excludes many of those. So, for example, the figure includes neither the health-care costs that have …

Restating Capitalization Standards And Rules: The Case For "Rough Justice" Regulations (Part Two), John W. Lee, Eldridge Blanton, Veena Luthra, Glenn Walberg, Darryl Whitesell

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

International Aspects Of Fundamental Tax Reconstructing: Practice Or Principle, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

The globalization of economic activity, including the expansion of international trade, the amazing ability of international capital markets to transfer capital rapidly across borders, and the movement in Europe toward greater economic unification, have made it more difficult for nations independently to fashion tax laws that properly balance their own equity, economic efficiency and simplicity goals. This is what makes this conference to analyze the international aspects of recent proposals to replace the federal income tax with some form of consumption tax, with particular emphasis on the Nunn-Domenici "USA" tax and the Armey-Shelby flat tax ("flat tax"), so important. As …

Restating Capitalization Standards And Rules: The Case For "Rough Justice" Regulations (Part One), John W. Lee, Eldridge Blanton, Veena Luthra, Glenn Walberg, Darryl Whitesell

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Unsolved Problem Of The Unfunded Mandate, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

No abstract provided.

Toward A Tax-Based Explanation Of The Liability Insurance Crisis, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

The so-called liability insurance crisis of 1985 and 1986 transformed the way we think about tort law and about liability insurance markets. The crisis phenomena, which first appeared in late 1984 and lasted until mid-1986, consisted of enormous increases in liability insurance premiums and alarming reductions in the availability of certain types of liability coverage. In the two principal liability lines of insurance (Other Liability and Medical Malpractice), premiums increased by hundreds (in some cases thousands) of percentage points in a matter of months. At the same time, the availability of liability insurance contracted sharply. The liability policies that were …