Tax Law Commons^™

Section 254 Of The Telecommunications Act Of 1996: A Hidden Tax?, Nichole L. Millard

Federal Communications Law Journal

Congress has the sole power to levy and collect taxes. The Supreme Court has ruled that Congress may delegate this authority to administrative agencies so long as the will of Congress is clearly defined in the legislation. However, section 254 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 operates as an unconstitutional delegation of Congress' authority to tax. This legislation provides the FCC with unfettered discretion in defining the boundaries of universal service and the authority to mandate that all consumers of telecommunications services subsidize the cost for low-income and rural consumers, as well as schools, libraries, and health care providers.

Taxation Of Damages After Schleier - Where Are We And Where Do We Go From Here?, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

This article will examine the reasoning of the Schleier decision and speculate as to how taxation of pre-1996 damages will likely apply in light of Schleier. First, the article will set forth a very brief history of the judicial and administrative constructions of the statutory exclusion, and explore tax policy justifications for providing an exclusion from gross income for certain damages. These latter two items (set forth in Parts II and III of this article) are areas that have been extensively addressed previously by several commentators, including the author of this article.' The reason for exploring tax policy issues is …

Interpreting Tax Legislation: The Role Of Purpose, Deborah A. Geier

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This 1995 article uses tax cases to explore various methods of statutory interpretation.

Paint-By-Numbers Tax Lawmaking, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

Although their meaning and contours have long been controversial, the general criteria for evaluating changes in tax law enjoy both stability and consensus. At least since Adam Smith, there has been virtually universal agreement that the nation's tax law should be fair, economically efficient, and simple to comply with and to administer. Tax law changes should be designed to make the law more equitable, easier to comply with, more conducive to economic growth, and less likely to interfere with private economic decisionmaking.

Precisely what these criteria imply for policymaking is controversial, however. Fairness is often said to require that people …

Graveyard Robbery In The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act Of 1993: A Modern Look At The Constitutionality Of Retroactive Taxes, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 775 (1994), Andrew G. Schultz

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Section 338 And Its Foolish Consistency Rules - The Hobgoblin Of Little Minds, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

The purposes of this Article are to examine whether there is any longer a reason for concern because a target corporation can choose selected assets for nonrecognition and to what extent the 1994 regulations properly deal with potentially abusive circumventions of tax goals. Before examining the current status of the consistency requirements, the historical background that led to the adoption of Section 338 and the operation of the section is discussed. The historical background includes: the judicially created Kimbell-Diamond rule, the codification and modification of that rule by the old version of Section 334(b)(2), the operation of the old version …

A Step In The Right Direction: Washington Passes The Limited Liability Company Act, Jessica A. Eaves

Seattle University Law Review

This Article describes how and why the LLC Act was passed, and provides a general outline of the LLC form in Washington. Section II outlines the perceived barriers to operating a business in Washington state. Section III sets out a brief legislative history of the Act, including the attempts by the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association to block the legislation, and proposed amendments to the legislation. Section IV describes the specifics of the LLC entity by reference to the Washington Limited Liability Company Act. Section IV also presents the comparative advantages of LLCs to other business forms. Finally, Section V …

An Economic And Political Look At Federalism In Taxation, Daniel Shaviro

Michigan Law Review

Part I of this article examines the reasons for preferring locationally neutral taxes and explains the basic tension between locational neutrality and state and local autonomy in taxation. Part II examines the federal judicial check on state and local taxation, which often relies on a principle barring discrimination against outsiders or interstate commerce. Part III explores the need for a broad federal judicial check by examining state and local governments' reasons for imposing (or avoiding) locationally distortive taxes, the countervailing benefits of allowing such governments broad autonomy in taxation, and Congress' willingness to strike down locationally distortive taxes under its …

Compensatory And Punitive Damages For A Personal Injury: To Tax Or Not To Tax, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Since the adoption in 1919 of the Revenue Act of 1918, damages received on account of personal injuries or sickness have been excluded by statute from gross income.1 This exclusion, which does not apply to reimbursements for medical expenses for which the taxpayer was previously allowed a tax deduction,2 is presently set forth in section 104(a)(2). One might expect that a provision having recently attained the ripe age of 75 years without change in its basic language would have a settled meaning. However, recent litigation under section 104(a)(2) bristles with unsettled issues. Does the exclusion apply to punitive damages? To …

Commentary: The Tax Legislative Process -- A Critical Need, William D. Popkin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Rolling Down The Curtain On "Roll-Ups": The Case For Federal Legislation To Protect Limited Partners, Kenneth R. Hillier

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines roll-ups and the lack of alternatives available to reluctant limited partners. Part I focuses on existing judicial remedies for limited partners, such as injunctions and actions for damages, and explains why these courses of action provide inadequate protection. This Part then reviews recent attempts at statutory protection and points out the shortcomings of these remedies. Part II examines safeguards afforded analogously situated corporate shareholders and sets forth arguments why limited partners should receive similar protection. After demonstrating the need for legislation, Part III suggests a workable structure for this statutory protection. Then, the Note discusses the relative …

Assessing The Limited Liability Company, Wayne M. Gazur, Neil M. Goff

Publications

The limited liability company is one of the newest forms of business organization. This form combines the limited liability of a corporation with the tax benefits normally associated with a partnership. The authors examine various implications and ramifications of this organizational form.

New York's Real Property Tax Law: The More Changes That Are Made, The More Things Stay The Same, Ira M. Sockowitz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Congressional Diversions: Legislative Responses To The Estate Valuation Freeze, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

No abstract provided.

Omnibus Taxpayers' Bill Of Rights Act: Taxpayers' Remedy Or Political Placebo?, Creighton R. Meland Jr.

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines whether the bill, as drafted, addresses the problems which spawned it. It anticipates the bill's effects on existing law and identifies areas where the bill would likely create new problems in the administration of the federal tax laws. It further identifies areas where the bill would solve problems. This Note concludes that (1) the bill's audit provisions will not significantly expand taxpayer rights, and may in fact disrupt the audit process; (2) except for safeguards for installment agreements, the bill's attempts to reform IRS collections procedures will not achieve its intended objectives; and (3) the bill's damages …

What Has Happened To The Tax Legislative Process?, Pamela Brooks Gann

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Showdown at Gucci Gulch: Lawmakers, Lobbyists and the Unlikely Triumph of Tax Reform by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Alan S. Murray

Should General Utilities Be Reinstated To Provide Partial Integration Of Corporate And Personal Income—Is Half A Loaf Better Than None?, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

The General Utilities doctrine is the name given to the now largely defunct tax rule that a corporation does not recognize a gain or a loss on making a liquidating or nonliquidating distribution of an appreciated or depreciated asset to its shareholders. The roots of the doctrine, can be traced to a regulation promulgated in 1919 that denied realization of gain or loss to a corporation when making a liquidating distribution of an asset in kind. No regulatory provision existed which specified the extent to which realization would or would not be triggered by a nonliquidating distribution such as a …

Collapsible Corporations Under The Tax Reform Act Of 1986, Boris I. Bittker

Cleveland State Law Review

This article discusses collapsible corporations under §341, and explains how it was originally intended to be a narrowly applied, temporary tool for tax avoidance, but thanks to a broad statute may now be used in many other circumstances. Section I gives a brief overview of the historical applications of the collapsible corporation. Section II explains when §341 applies and parses the statute language. Section III establishes the overall framework for a collapsible corporation, starting with a definition for “collapsible corporation” comprised of three elements. Section IV discusses the rebuttable presumption of collapsibility established by §341(c). Section V then lays out …

Impact Of Tax Reform Act Of 1986 On Law Schools And Law Faculty, Christopher R. Hoyt

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Tax Legislation, Mark A. Stach

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Tax Reform Act Of 1986 On Legal Education And Law Faculty, Christopher R. Hoyt

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Misconstruction Of A Procedural Statute-A Critique Of The Court's Decision In Badaracco, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

When a taxpayer files an honest' federal income tax return for a taxable year, section 6501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code2 limits the period of time during which the Government can assess a tax for that year to a three-year period commencing with the date that the return was filed. The three-year limitations period is extended for an additional three years by section 6501(e)(1)(A) if the taxpayer's return omits properly includible gross income in an amount in excess of twenty-five percent of the gross income that was reported. If a taxpayer fails to file a return for a taxable year …

Taxation, Wendel B. Turner

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Misconstruction Of A Procedural Statute--A Critique Of The Court's Decision In Badaracco, Douglas A. Kahn

Michigan Law Review

Before addressing the lessons to be derived from Badaracco, it is necessary to make good on the author's claim that it can be demonstrated to the satisfaction of a reasonably skeptical reader that the Court's decision was patently wrong and resulted from a poor technique of statutory construction. This is a heavy burden, especially since the decision was reached by an overwhelming majority of the Court and since two courts of appeals and at least one student law review note reached the same result. The reader must judge whether the author succeeds in satisfying it. This Article will first …

Personal, Living Or Family Matters And The Value Added Tax, L. Hart Wright

Michigan Law Review

No tax is ever implemented in a manner which is perfectly responsive to the logical implications of its basic purpose. VAT is no exception.

Those who foster this tax basically intend that ultimate tax incidence be suffered only by individuals and then only in the degree to which they dip into society's pool of consumer-type goods and services. But their implementing legislation is always designed to fall short of reaching all consumer-type goods and services. Ullman's proposed Tax Restructuring Act of 1979 would have been no exception. Under it, a substantial proportion of all such benefits actually would have been …

Taxation, Charles D. Dunbar

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fairness In Rate Cuts In The Individual Income Tax, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (the 1981 Act) made significant changes in federal income, estate, and gift taxation, touching virtually every taxpayer.¹ The centerpiece of the 1981 Act consisted of rate reductions in the individual income tax.² These reductions, said to average 23%, served a number of different but related objectives. First, those in favor of the tax cuts posited that all taxpayers would benefit from equitable, across-the-board reductions in an excessive and growing tax burden.³ Related to this objective was an anticipated reduction in the size of the federal government, because less tax money …

The 1982 Minimum Tax Amendments As A First Step In The Transition To A "Flat-Rate" Tax, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

The massive body of tax legislation enacted in the first two years of the Reagan Administration offers little guidance for predicting the future direction of United States tax policy. Dramatically different Congressional coalitions – each led by the President – passed by very narrow margins the nation's largest tax reduction (the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981) and then the next year enacted the largest peacetime tax increase (the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982). In each case, short-term political and fiscal concerns dominated the debates. The 1981 legislation reduced taxes in an effort to stimulate economic activity …

Survey Of Developments In The Fourth Circuit: 1981

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Decline And Fall Of Taxable Income, Glenn E. Coven

Michigan Law Review

After first exploring the intellectual climate that has facilitated the congressional disregard of taxable income, this Article will examine three areas in which taxable income is no longer the exclusive mechanism for allocating the burden of taxation. That examination will outline the undesirable consequences of the decline of taxable income, and demonstrate that Congress need not have disregarded taxable income to secure the desired pattern of taxation. Because the use of multiple rate schedules constitutes the most significant deviation from the concept of taxable income in terms of the number of taxpayers that it affects and the popular resentment against …