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Full-Text Articles in Tax Law

Why The Corporate Amt Should Be Retained, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Nov 2001

Why The Corporate Amt Should Be Retained, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The corporate AMT is under attack. Repeal has been proposed by the White House, endorsed by the ABA/AICPA/TEI tax simplification project, and included in the stimulus bill passed by the House of Representatives. Repeal is supported on two principal grounds: That the corporate AMT increases complexity, and that it is pro-cyclical.


Are Tax "Benefits" For Religious Institutions Constitutionally Dependent On Benefits For Secular Entities?, Edward A. Zelinsky Jul 2001

Are Tax "Benefits" For Religious Institutions Constitutionally Dependent On Benefits For Secular Entities?, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

The Supreme Court generally conditions tax exemptions, deductions, and exclusions for religious organizations and activities upon the simultaneous extension of such benefits to secular institutions and undertakings. The Court's position flows logically from its acceptance of the premise that tax exemptions, deductions, and exclusions constitute subsidies. However, the "subsidy" label is usually deployed in a conclusory and unconvincing fashion. The First Amendment is best understood as permitting governments to refrain from taxation to accommodate the autonomy of religious actors and activities; hence, tax benefits extended solely to religious institutions should pass constitutional muster as recognition of that autonomy.


The Cash Balance Controversy Revisited: Age Discrimination And Fidelity To Statutory Text, Edward A. Zelinsky Apr 2001

The Cash Balance Controversy Revisited: Age Discrimination And Fidelity To Statutory Text, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

No abstract provided.


The Uneasy Marriage Of Export Incentives And The Income Tax, Mihir A. Desai, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2001

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 …


Treating Tax Issues Through Trade Regimes (Symposium: International Tax Policy In The New Millennium), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2001

Treating Tax Issues Through Trade Regimes (Symposium: International Tax Policy In The New Millennium), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Professor Paul R. McDaniel has performed an extremely valuable service in clarifying the relationship between trade and tax law. In particular, he has done so by pointing out that, to a large extent, the two spheres do not overlap, much less clash in their objectives. This makes sense because, fundamentally, the goal of trade law is to facilitate trade, while the goal of tax law is to raise revenue. Thus, for example, an ideal tariff under trade law is set at zero, but an ideal tax under tax law is set at some positive rate. It therefore should not be …


The Cash Balance Controversy, Edward A. Zelinsky Apr 2000

The Cash Balance Controversy, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

No abstract provided.


Equal Taxation: A Commentary, John A. Miller Jan 2000

Equal Taxation: A Commentary, John A. Miller

Articles

No abstract provided.


Globalization, Tax Competition, And The Fiscal Crisis Of The Welfare State, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2000

Globalization, Tax Competition, And The Fiscal Crisis Of The Welfare State, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This Article examines the increased use of tax incentives as weapons in the international competition to attract investment. Professor Avi-Yonah argues that the establishment of tax havens allows large amounts of capital to go untaxed, depriving both developed and developing countries of revenue and forcing them to rely on forms of taxation less progressive than the income tax. He points to social insurance programs, many of which are already on uncertain courses as aging populations imperil their fiscal health, as likely to bear the brunt of the revenue loss that tax havens cause. Professor Avi-Yonah contends that both economic efficiency …


Commentary (Response To Article By H. David Rosenbloom), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2000

Commentary (Response To Article By H. David Rosenbloom), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

David Rosenbloom has delivered an important lecture on an important topic:' whether exploiting differences between the tax system of two different jurisdictions to minimize the taxes paid to either or both ("international tax arbitrage") is a problem, and if so, whether anything can be done about it in a world without a "world tax organization." As Rosenbloom states, international tax arbitrage is "the planning focus of the future,"2 and recently has been the focus of considerable discussion and debate (for example, upon the promulgation and subsequent withdrawal under fire of Notice 98-11).3 Rosenbloom's lecture is one of the first attempts …


United States -- Tax Treatment For "Foreign Sales Corporations" Wto Doc. Wt/Ds108/Ab/R, Stanley I. Langbein Jan 2000

United States -- Tax Treatment For "Foreign Sales Corporations" Wto Doc. Wt/Ds108/Ab/R, Stanley I. Langbein

Articles

No abstract provided.


The Constitutionality Of Taxing Compensatory Damages For Mental Distress When There Was No Accompanying Physical Injury, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1999

The Constitutionality Of Taxing Compensatory Damages For Mental Distress When There Was No Accompanying Physical Injury, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Since 1919, statutory tax law has excluded from gross income compensatory damages received on account of a personal injury or sickness.1 The current version of that exclusion is set forth in section 104 (a) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.2 The construction of that exclusion, both by the courts and by the Commissioner, underwent significant alterations over the 80-year period that the provision has existed.3 The statute itself was amended several times, most recently in 1996.4 It is the 1996 amendment that has raised a constitutional issue concerning the validity of a portion of the statute.5


A Critique Of The Proposed National Tobacco Resolution And A Suggested Alternative, Jon D. Hanson, Kyle D. Logue Jan 1998

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 Jan 1998

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 Jan 1998

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 …


U.S. Notice 98-11 And The Logic Of Subpart F: A Comparative Perspective, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 1998

U.S. Notice 98-11 And The Logic Of Subpart F: A Comparative Perspective, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In this report, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah argues that the dichotomy between active and passive income that underlies subpart F and Notice 98-11 is obsolete, and should be replaced with an explicit link to source tax rates, as most of our trading partners do in similar legislation.


The Hazards Of Tinkering With The Common Law Of Future Interests: The California Experience, Laura E. Cunningham Apr 1997

The Hazards Of Tinkering With The Common Law Of Future Interests: The California Experience, Laura E. Cunningham

Articles

No abstract provided.


U.S. International Treatment Of Financial Derivatives, Reuven Avi-Yonah, Linda Swartz Mar 1997

U.S. International Treatment Of Financial Derivatives, Reuven Avi-Yonah, Linda Swartz

Articles

The current proposals to substitute consumption for income as the principal U.S. tax base have already been the topic of considerable commentary in these pages. However, one issue has received relatively little attention in the discussion of the various reform proposals: What potential complications are likely to arise if a single major player in the world's economy unilaterally adopts radical tax reform? The global economy is becoming more and more unified, with multinational corporations dominating world trade and trillions of dollars in portfolio investment flowing across national boundaries. In this economy, what would be the consequences if a single country, …


To End Deferral As We Know It: Simplification Potential Of Check-The-Box, Reuven Avi-Yonah Jan 1997

To End Deferral As We Know It: Simplification Potential Of Check-The-Box, Reuven Avi-Yonah

Articles

On December 17, 1996, the Treasury Department issued final regulations under section 7701 of the Internal Revenue Code implementing the regime dubbed "check-the-box," under which taxpayers can elect to be treated as corporations or as passthrough entities for U.S. tax purposes. The purpose of this article is to argue that the adoption of these regulations affords a momentous opportunity for Congress to achieve significant simplification of the notoriously complex U.S. international tax rules. Fundamentally, the adoption of check-the- box means that U.S. taxpayers will be able to elect whether or not their foreign-source active income will enjoy deferral from current …


International Taxation Of Electronic Commerce, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 1997

International Taxation Of Electronic Commerce, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article submits proposals for taxing the digital economy on the basis of the benefits and single tax principles.


The Unsolved Problem Of The Unfunded Mandate, Edward A. Zelinsky Jan 1997

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

Articles

No abstract provided.


Minority Discounts, Fair Market Value, And The Culture Of Estate Taxation, William S. Blatt Jan 1997

Minority Discounts, Fair Market Value, And The Culture Of Estate Taxation, William S. Blatt

Articles

No abstract provided.


Toward A Tax-Based Explanation Of The Liability Insurance Crisis, Kyle D. Logue Sep 1996

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 …


Virtual Taxation: Source-Based Taxation In The Age Of Derivatives, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 1996

Virtual Taxation: Source-Based Taxation In The Age Of Derivatives, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

What are the implications of the explosive growth in the market for derivative financial instruments for international taxation? As Rosenbloom (1996) has pointed out, derivatives do not pose a particular international tax problem as long as one focuses on residence-based taxation. In that context, the issues raised by derivatives are the same as in a purely domestic context, which have been discussed extensively elsewhere (e.g., Warren, 1993). However, when the focus is on source-based taxation, and in particular source-based taxation of passive income (i.e., withholding taxes), the rise of derivatives has far-reaching implications. In 1994, then U.S. International Tax Counsel …


The American Dream In Legislation: The Role Of Popular Symbols In Wealth Tax Policy, William S. Blatt Jan 1996

The American Dream In Legislation: The Role Of Popular Symbols In Wealth Tax Policy, William S. Blatt

Articles

No abstract provided.


The Structure Of International Taxation: A Proposal For Simplification, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 1996

The Structure Of International Taxation: A Proposal For Simplification, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The article explains the structure of the international tax regime and offers suggestions for improvement.


Faculty Spotlight - Kyle D. Logue, Kyle D. Logue Jan 1996

Faculty Spotlight - Kyle D. Logue, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

Most of my teaching and research efforts are currently spent in two general fields of law - taxation and insurance. Which raises an interesting question: Why would a rational person decide to devote a good portion of his academic career to areas of law that many people - lawyers and nonlawyers alike - find painfully boring and unreasonably complicated? The ta and insurance lawyers in the audience, of course, already know the answer - that ta ation and insuran e are e ceptionally interesting topics and that, if one wants to understand how the real world works (in particular, the …


Tax Transitions, Opportunistic Retroactivity, And The Benefits Of Government Precommitment, Kyle D. Logue Jan 1996

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 …


The International Implications Of Tax Reform, Reuven Avi-Yonah Nov 1995

The International Implications Of Tax Reform, Reuven Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article examines the U.S. tax consequences of the use of derivative instruments in international financing transactions. The outline focuses in large part on the inconsistent U.S. tax treatment that results &om the use of various derivative financial instruments in cross-border financing transactions and the resulting implications for U.S. withholding taxes on ordinary equity and debt investments.


Taxation Of Damages After Schleier - Where Are We And Where Do We Go From Here?, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1995

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 …


Section 338 And Its Foolish Consistency Rules - The Hobgoblin Of Little Minds, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1994

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 …