Tax Law Commons^™

Market Bubbles And Wasteful Avoidance: Tax And Regulatory Constraints On Short Sales, Michael R. Powers, David M. Schizer, Martin Shubik

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, a speculative bubble in Internet stocks has burst and several "blue chip" firms have failed amidst high profile allegations of corporate misconduct. Why did high-tech start-ups with no earnings attain such lofty valuations? Why didn't sophisticated investors keep prices at saner levels? And why didn't more sophisticated investors look past accounting gimmicks much earlier to uncover problems at Enron and other firms? More generally, why did the mechanisms of market efficiency prove inadequate? While there obviously is no single answer to these complex questions, this Article focuses on one piece of the problem: U.S. tax and regulatory …

Rethinking The Jurisdiction Of Bankruptcy Courts Over Post-Confirmation Federal Tax Liabilities: Towards A New Jurisprudence Of 11 U.S.C. § 505, Shu-Yi Oei

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

American Offshore Business Tax Planning: Can Australian Lawyers Get A Piece Of The Action?, J Clifton Fleming, Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Dividends Reconsidered, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

When JGTRRA 2003 reduced the income tax rate on dividends received by individuals to that of net capital gains, Feld explains, it also changed the relative attractiveness of alternative forms of corporate payout. Interest payments on shareholder debt and compensation to shareholder-employees, which generally provide superior returns to individuals, now yield less after-tax benefit in some circumstances than dividend payments. Feld says the change also calls into question the continuing function of a number of code provisions intended to prevent a "bailout" of corporate earnings at net capital gain rates and whose rules now affect primarily corporate rather than individual …

Preserving Basis After Redemption, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

To shut down a particular kind of offshore tax shelter scheme regarded as abusive, the Treasury has proposed changes in the way shareholders recover investment after engaging in corporate redemptions taxed as dividends. This article argues that the proposed regulations operate poorly in the more typical setting of distributions by corporations to individual shareholders, that existing law produces better results in those situations, and that the Treasury should employ narrower rules to attack tax shelter arrangements.

Anonymous Speech And Section 527 Of The Internal Revenue Code, Donald B. Tobin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Frictions And Tax-Motivated Hedging: An Empirical Exploration Of Publicly-Traded Exchangeable Securities, William M. Gentry, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

As financial engineering becomes more sophisticated, taxing income from capital becomes increasingly difficult. We offer the first empirical study of a high profile strategy known as "taxfree hedging," which offers economic benefits of a sale without tnggering tax. We explore nontax costs that taxpayers face when hedging by issuing so-called "DECS," "PHONES," and other publicly-traded exchangeable securities. Focusing on 61 transactions between 1993 and 2001, we shed light on why taxpayers might prefer to hedge through private "over-the-counter" transactions: An offering of exchangeable securities is announced in advance and implemented all at once, triggering an almost 4 percent decline in …

The Case For Tax Sparing Along With Expanding And Limiting The Subpart F Regime, Samuel C. Thompson Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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 …

Theories Of Distributive Justice And Limitations On Taxation: What Rawls Demands From Tax Systems Symposium - Rawls And The Law: Panel Vi: Property, Taxation, And Distributive Justice, Linda Sugin

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay attempts to map out how such an inquiry would be conducted in light of Rawls. Rather than searching in theories of justice for required precepts of taxation, we might more fruitfully ask what constraints, if any, a particular theory of justice imposes on the tax system. Application of such an approach to Rawls's theory of justice may explain his apparent preference for a flat consumptionbased tax. This preference is otherwise quite puzzling in light of much of what Rawls wrote about economic justice, and might lead us to expect him to endorse a progressive income tax. If Rawls's …

Campaign Finance Disclosure And Section 527 Of The Code: A Look At The District Court's Opinion In National Federation Of Republican Assemblies, Donald B. Tobin

Faculty Scholarship

This report examines the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in National Federation of Republican Assemblies v. United States, which dealt with section 527 political organizations.

Choice Of Entity For A Venture Capital Start-Up: The Myth Of Incorporation, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Fresh Start For The U.S. Tax System, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

We are now in a quiet interlude awaiting the next serious political debate over the nation's tax system. No fundamental tax policy concerns were at stake in the 2002 disputes over economic stimulus or the political huffing and puffing about postponing or accelerating the income tax rate cuts of the 2001 Act. Those arguments were concerned principally with positioning Democratic and Republican candidates for the 2002 congressional election, not tax policy.

But the coming decade, with its paint-by-numbers phase-ins and phaseouts of 2001 Act tax changes, the tax cuts waiting to spring into effect, and the sunset of the entire …

Erwin Griswold's Tax Law – And Ours, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

It is a pleasure for me to be here today to deliver the Erwin N. Griswold Lecture. And it is an honor to follow those who have graced this lectern before me. They include important mentors to me. Several are close friends. Today, we are in a quiet interlude awaiting the next serious political debate about restructuring the nation's tax system. No fundamental tax policy concerns are at stake in the current disputes over economic stimulus or in the political huffing and puffing about postponing or accelerating the income tax rate cuts of the 2001 Act. Those arguments are concerned …

Asset Acquisitions: A Colloquy, Samuel C. Thompson Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rendering Unto Caesar Or Electioneering For Caesar--Loss Of Church Tax Exemption For Participation In Electoral Politics, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

The restriction on church participation in political campaigns contained in the Internal Revenue Code operates uneasily. It appears to serve the useful purpose of separating the spheres of religion and electoral politics. But the separation often is only apparent, as churches in practice signal support for a particular candidate in a variety of rays that historically have not cost them their exemptions. Although the limited enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service has reflected the sensitive nature of the First Amendment values present, the federal government should provide more formal elaboration by statute or regulation. Focus on the use of funds …

Reverse Like-Kind Exchanges: A Principled Approach, Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Anatomy Of Valuing Stock In Closely Held Corporations: Pursuing The Phantom Of Objectivity Into The New Millennium, Stephen J. Leacock

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Change Of Control Board: Federal Preemption Of The Law Governing A Target's Directors, Samuel C. Thompson Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

This article sets out a proposed federal uniform standard governing the actions by the board of directors of a publicly held corporation that is the target of a change of control transaction. This proposal would apply in each of the following four merger and acquisition transactions: (1) the acquisition of a target in an arm's-length negotiated merger or acquisition; (2) the acquisition of a target in a management buyout; (3) the proposed acquisition of a target in a hostile tender offer; and (4) the acquisition by a target's controlling shareholder of the minority interests in such target in a freezeout …

Frictions As A Constraint On Tax Planning, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

The government often uses narrow tax reforms to target specific planning strategies. Sometimes the targeted transaction is stopped. But in other cases, taxpayers press on, tweaking the deal just enough to sidestep the reform. The difference often lies in transaction costs, financial accounting, and other 'frictions, " which are constraints on tax planning external to the tax law.

This Article contributes a methodology for determining whether frictions will block end runs, and illustrates the effect of frictions by comparing the constructive sale rule of section 1259 with the constructive ownership rule of section 1260. These reforms use the same statutory …

The David R. Tillinghast Lecture: Taxing International Income: Inadequate Principles, Outdated Concepts, And Unsatisfactory Policies, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

It is a pleasure to be here today to deliver the first David R. Tillinghast Lecture of the 21st century, a lecture honoring a man who has done much to shape and stimulate our thinking about the international tax world of the 20th.

Our nation's system for taxing international income today is largely a creature of the period 1918-1928, a time when the income tax was itself in childhood. From the inception of the income tax (1913 for individuals, 1909 for corporations) until 1918, foreign taxes were deducted like any other business expense. In 1918, the foreign tax credit (FTC) …

Deferral: Consider Ending It Instead Of Expanding It, J. Clifton Fleming Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Taxes, Bankruptcy, And The Lazarus Problem, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

[1] The Ninth Circuit recently barred the IRS from its day in court in a personal bankruptcy proceeding. ¹ The issue in the case concerned the effect, in a chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding, of a dismissal order followed later by an order reinstating the case. The Ninth Circuit counted the number of days between the dismissal and the reinstatement against the government and ordered the IRS proof of claim dismissed as untimely. As a result, the tax owing became subject to discharge in the bankruptcy without taxpayer payment.

[2] The result defeats the intent of the statute and creates waste …

E-Tax: Fundamental Tax Reform And The Transition To A Currency-Free Economy, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

South African Perspectives: Its Prospects And Its Income Tax System, Samuel C. Thompson Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sticks And Snakes: Derivatives And Curtailing Aggressive Tax Planning, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

The most important tax problem of recent months is the impact of aggressive tax planning on corporate tax revenue. The Secretary of the Treasury blames the "tax shelter industry," in which tax lawyers and investment bankers develop and market tax-motivated transactions. This Article analyzes aggressive tax planning, and recommends ways to impede it, in a context rife with opportunities for planning: the tax rules for complex financial instruments known as derivatives. While planning opportunities are prevalent elsewhere in the tax law as well, this Article focuses on derivatives because the problem is particularly acute – indeed, derivatives have been called …

U.S. Taxation Of Profits From Internet Software Sales - An Electronic Commerce Case Study, J. Clifton Fleming Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Getting Serious About Curtailing Deferral Of Us Tax On Foreign Source Income, Robert J. Peroni, J. Clifton Fleming Jr., Stephen E. Shay

Faculty Scholarship

When a U.S. person conducts business or investment activity abroad through a foreign corporation in a country that imposes only low rates of tax, the so-called deferral privilege allows the U.S. taxpayer to defer substantial amounts of U.S. tax at the cost of only a small foreign levy. Hence, the deferral privilege operates as a tax subsidy of sorts for U.S. persons with operations in low tax foreign countries and provides a major incentive for U.S. persons to shift their business operations and investments to foreign countries that impose little or no tax on the earnings of the foreign corporations.To …

Randolph W. Thrower Lecture: Your Tax Dollars At Work: Why U.S. Tax Law Needs To Be Changed, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

I focus here on prospects for tax reform. Things are quiet, politically, on the tax reform front. The Republicans in 1999 are talking about an across-theboard tax cut less extensive than Ronald Reagan's tax cut of 1981. On February 1, 1999, President Clinton, in his budget proposals, offered thirty-eight "targeted" tax reduction proposals and seventy-four tax increase proposals. It took the Treasury Department 197 closely typed, single-spaced pages to describe the proposals. We do not appear to be on the verge of major tax simplification.

Collapse Section 341, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

Simplification of current income tax provisions always runs an uphill course. As a proper standard for evaluating a provision of existing law we should ask whether, if it did not exist, we would need to invent it. Unfortunately, when we move to the task of crafting and altering the details of current law, the blandishments of equity, revenue yield, and special-interest gain easily outshine the sober virtue of simplification; we forget this potentially embarrassing question.

As a modest step toward simplification, I propose the repeal of one section of the code, a section famed among tax cognoscenti for its opaque …