Tax Law Commons^™

Inherited Excess Mortgage Property: Death And The Inherited Tax Shelter, Louis A. Del Cotto, Kenneth F. Joyce

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Case For An Income Tax, Alan Gunn

Journal Articles

Recent studies by the US Treasury Department and the Meade Committee in Britain have one thing in common. They recommend a progressive tax on personal consumption as an alternative to the income tax and discuss of the practical problems of substituting consumption for income as the tax base. These studies suggest that replacing the income tax with an expenditure tax is now being considered a serious possibility. Advocates for the expenditure tax base their arguments on considerations of equity, administrative convenience and economic efficiency. The article examines the merits of these arguments, with a focus on four important non-economic issues …

The Development Of The Federal Law Of Gambling, G. Robert Blakey, Harold A. Kurland

Journal Articles

The Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling, believing that the States should have the primary responsibility for determining what forms of gambling may legally take place within their borders, recently suggested that the federal government should prevent interference by one State with the gambling policies of another, and should act to protect identifiable national interests.

Although this broad recommendation reinforces the role the federal government has traditionally played in regulating gambling, the Commission also proposed specific amendments to the cur- rent federal gambling laws. Should Congress act upon the Commission's report or otherwise attempt a comprehensive …

Tax Avoidance, Alan Gunn

Journal Articles

Professor Gunn explores the merits of “tax avoidance” approaches in dealing with cases involving unpaid taxes. He describes definitions of the term and also illustrates some alternatives to the tax avoidance approach. Looking at how tax avoidance is dealt with in laws and in judicial decisions Gunn notes that lawmakers should not attempt to formulate authoritative rules on preventing it. This is because taxpayers have a well-known desire to reduce their taxes, and will find ways to get around laws. Authoritative and too well defined rules ignore what taxpayers might do in response to them. Professor Gunn concludes by arguing …

Taxation Of Distributions From Accumulation Trusts: The Impact Of The Tax Reform Act Of 1976, David T. Link, Michael J. Wahoske

Journal Articles

The complex rules governing the taxation of income from trusts and estates have at times been described as incomprehensible. Perhaps the most confusing of these are the accumulation distribution throwback rules. In an effort to alleviate some of this confusion, Congress included accumulation trusts within the purview of the Tax Reform Act of 1976. Though Congress claimed that the rules are now "considerably simplified," it is not without some effort that one is able to translate the statutory language into a form useful to the practitioner.

Given the complexity of the rules, it is necessary to begin with a caveat. …

The Ab (Abc) And Ba Transactions: An Economic And Tax Analysis Of Reserved And Carved Out Income Interests, Kenneth F. Joyce, Louis A. Del Cotto

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Psychological Autopsy In Judicial Opinions Under Section 2035, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

It is surprising how many cases have been litigated under Section 2035 of the Internal Revenue Code, which imposes an estate tax on inter vivos gifts in contemplation of death. It is also surprising that those hundreds of judicial opinions embody rigid perceptions of human life, and of attitudes toward death-perceptions which range from incisive to naive. They disclose a judicial system of death psychology which is detailed, systematic and (sometimes) accurate. This is an inquiry into those opinions as psychological autopsies.

The traditional judicial view of a gift in a contemplation of death case implies that the dead man …

Taxation Of The Trust Annuity: The Unitrust Under The Constitution And The Internal Revenue Code, Louis A. Del Cotto, Kenneth F. Joyce

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Income Taxation Of The Capital Gains Of A Trust, Kenneth F. Joyce

Journal Articles

March

Computation Of Future Damages: A View From The Bench, William Burns Lawless

Journal Articles

At the turn of the century the United States Supreme Court held that a common-law action could not be maintained in a court of the United States against a Mexican railroad, incorporated in Colorado, for the wrongful death in Mexico of an American switchman. Mr. Justice Holmes, writing for the majority, said that the American court should refuse to administer a Mexican statutory rule of damages which provided compensation in the form of scheduled, periodic payments instead of the lump-sum award traditional to American jury verdicts.

While the case is of primary interest for students of conflict of laws, it …

Rira -- A Legal Information System In The Internal Revenue Service, David T. Link

Journal Articles

The IRS legal information retrieval program is still in its infancy. The results of its use so far indicate that the program is on a sound foundation. Consequently, the Office has great hopes for it. By eliminating a great deal of the duplication of effort among the attorneys it promises to result in certain economies to the Office. More important, it should assure a more consistent treatment of taxpayers through greater coordination than has ever been possible in the past. And most important, by providing more comprehensive and timely decision-making information the system should further the Offices constant goal of …

Valuation Of Closely-Held Stock For Federal Tax Purposes: Approach To An Objective Method, Joseph O'Meara, Lyle R. Johnson, Eli Shapiro

Journal Articles

The present double-standard approach to the valuation problem discriminates against owners of closely-held stock, that is, corporate shares which have no public market. The disparity of treatment is traceable to the unfortunate fact that, whereas actual sales or bona fide bid and asked prices govern the valuation for federal tax purposes of listed stocks and of unlisted stocks which "are dealt in through brokers or have a market," the criteria employed in valuing closely-held stock are predominantly subjective. This makes a paradise for "experts" but they seldom agree and few, if any, of their assumptions and conclusions are anything more …

Federal Income Tax In Relation To Consumer Cooperatives, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

The taxation of consumer cooperative associations has proceeded on an erroneous assumption deriving from Eisner v. Macomber. Contrary to that assumption, so long as these non-profit, mutual-benefit undertakings confine themselves to their proper functions they have no income under the Sixteenth Amendment and cannot validly be required to pay an income tax.