Tax Law Commons^™

Employer Tax Liability For Employees' Tips: Fior D'Italia, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Given Nevada's heavy concentration of businesses in which employees are tipped, lawyers here may be more than usually interested in a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court. On June 17, 2002, the Court decided United States v. Fior D'ltalia, Inc. By 6 to 3, the Court held that the IRS may use an “aggregate estimation” method to determine employers’ liability for Social Security (FICA) taxes imposed on their employees’ tip income. The decision is an important development in a controversy of long duration, but it is not the end of that controversy. This article …

After Craft: Implementation Issues, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Scientists often observe that answering one question about the world or universe causes many new questions to arise. Chess players understand that to win material in the opening or middle game is empty without playing the end game properly. Military commanders and their civilian superiors know that winning a battle is not an end in itself. They must then address what do with their victory, how to turn it to useful result. Having to confront these second-generation or follow-up problems clearly beats the alternatives (remaining ignorant or losing the game or battle), but initial success ushers in not immediate repose …

Aljs In State-Local Tax Cases: To Whom Is Deference Due?, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

This installment of the column reports on an interesting recent Nevada sales tax case, State Dep’t of Taxation v. Masco Builder Cabinet Group. The case involved two issues: (1) whether the Department of Taxation gave appropriate deference to the findings and conclusions of the administrative law judge who had originally heard the case, and (2) whether the principle of equitable tolling applied to extend the statute of limitations period for the taxpayer’s refund claims. The taxpayer, represented by attorney Brett Whipple, prevailed in the Nevada Supreme Court on both issues.

The first part below develops the facts of Masco …

Should Ambiguous Revenue Laws Be Interpreted In Favor Of Taxpayers?, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

There was a time when courts construed, or said that they construed, ambiguous federal tax statutes in favor of taxpayers. That time is long past. Or is it? This article examines whether, because of a recent Supreme Court case, the pro-taxpayer constructional preference may be resuscitated, and whether it should be.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly In Post-Drye Tax Lien Analysis, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Discovery In Summary Assessment Proceedings, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

When the collection of tax could be imperiled by going through the usual deficiency procedures, the IRS may make a jeopardy assessment or a termination assessment (hereinafter sometimes called “summary assessment”) and proceed immediately to collection. To prevent the misuse of this power, section 7429 provides affected taxpayers expedited administrative and judicial review. The IRS has made tens of thousands of jeopardy and termination assessments over the years, and there are hundreds of court decisions in litigated section 7429 cases.

The unique nature of jeopardy and termination assessments makes section 7429 proceedings very different from typical tax litigation. This article …

Bureau Of State Audits, Joshua L. Brothers

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Unfinished Business On The Taxpayer Rights Agenda: Achieving Fairness In Transferee Liability Cases, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

The taxpayer rights movement has been a driving force of tax legislation and administration for over a decade. It has produced the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR) in 1988, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2 (TBOR2) in 1996, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights 3 (TBOR3) in 1998, lesser statutory initiatives, and an array of important administrative changes by the Service. While the future of the movement can be debated, it is clear that, for now, it remains a force to be reckoned with in tax policy.

This article advances a proposal to extend and complete one thrust of the taxpayer …

Bureau Of State Audits, Elisa D 'Angelo Weichel

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Bureau Of State Audits, Allen R. Greenway

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Conterm Ltd. V. Finance Ministry, Itzchak Zamir, Aharon Barak, Mishael Cheshin

Translated Opinions

Facts: The petitioner acquired a license from the Customs Authority to operate a licensing warehouse on land in dispute between it and the Port and Train Authority. The Customs Authority asked for proof that the petitioner had a right in the land, as required by the regulations, and in return it received an agreement that did not appear to address such a right. The Customs Authority granted the license anyway. When it became aware of the dispute over the land, it refused to renew the license. The central question is whether the petitioner had a duty to disclose the existence …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Tax Transitions, Opportunistic Retroactivity, And The Benefits Of Government Precommitment, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

What if the current federal income tax laws were repealed and replaced with a simple flat tax? What if the entire Internal Revenue Code (with its graduated rates and countless deductions, exclusions, and credits) were scuttled in favor of a broad-based consumption tax? Only a few years ago, such proposals would have seemed radical and extremely unlikely to be adopted. But times are changing. Calls for a drastic overhaul of the Internal Revenue Code have become commonplace, even at the highest levels in the tax-policy community. In addition, proposals that would replace the income tax with a flat-rate broad-based consumption …

Bureau Of State Audits, J. D. Fellmeth

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Fog, Fairness, And The Federal Fisc: Tenancy-By-The-Entireties And The Federal Tax Lien, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Bureau Of State Audits, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Bureau Of State Audits, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Bureau Of State Audits, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Bureau Of State Audits, A. Rovell

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Bureau Of State Audits, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Bureau Of State Audits, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Bureau Of State Audits, F. Quevedo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Common Misconceptions: The Function And Framework Of "Trade Or Business Within The United States", Nancy H. Kaufman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Kaufman examines the administrative and jurisdictional functions of the Internal Revenue Code's term "trade or business within the United States" in the taxation of foreign persons' income and the existing framework established for the term's interpretation. The author contends that the courts, by relying on two common misconceptions of the term, have made the term's application unpredictable. The author further believes that defining the term according to its functions would serve United States tax policy and economic interests. This definition would focus primarily on facts indicating an ongoing commitment to participation the United States economy. The …

Office Of The Auditor General, F. Quevedo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Tax Preparer Program, C. Mckinnon

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Tax Preparer Program, S. Delaney

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Office Of The Auditor General, D. Levinson

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Tax Preparer Program, S. Delaney

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.