Tax Law Commons^™

The Failure To Provide Adequate Higher Education Tax Incentives For Lower-Income Individuals, Natasha Mulleneaux

Akron Tax Journal

This Article suggests that the cost of the education incentives in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 is better spent on programs which more effectively subsidize lower-income families' educational expenses. Part II discusses the benefits of higher education for the nation and individuals, and it provides a brief history of the federal government's role in funding higher education. Part III discusses the effect that increasing tuition costs and eroding grant programs likely have on college attendance. Part IV outlines the educational incentives contained in the Taxpayer Relief Act and critiques the usefulness of the tuition tax credits, and Part V …

Bureau Of State Audits, Allen R. Greenway

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Are Frequent Flyer Benefits Really Benefits: An Analysis Of The Frequent Flyer Tax Debate And A New Theory Of Taxability For Frequent Flyer Benefts , Jennifer A. Cunningham

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note will begin with a brief history of frequent flyer programs and an explanation of how they operate, followed by a closer look at the traditional arguments for nontaxability of mileage earned on personal flights, taxability of mileage earned on business flights for an employer, and proposed theories for valuing the taxable mileage. Next, it will summarize failed attempts by both the courts and the legislature to resolve the issue. After establishing this background, the Note will explore the concept of gross income, particularly as reflected by section 61 of the Internal Revenue Code and interpreted by case law …

Tax Considerations For Australian Athletes Joining Professional Teams In The United States, William H. Baker

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Toward Adding Further Complexity To The Internal Revenue Code: A New Paradigm For The Deductibility Of Capital Losses, Michelle A. Cecil

Faculty Publications

This article examines problems inherent in the current loss limitation system, arguing that it is ill-equipped to meet parallelism concerns and that cherrypicking is not a problem that a loss limitation scheme should address. The article also argues that the current system is both fundamentally unfair to taxpayers and promotes economic inefficiency in the marketplace. It proposes an alternative system for the tax treatment of capital losses that would allow such losses to offset all types of income, but only up to the tax rate that would have been imposed had the losses instead been capital gains. The article concludes …

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

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.

Tax Exemptions And The Establishment Clause, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

Churches are exempted from a variety of taxes collected by the various levels and jurisdictions of government in the United States. For instance, they are almost always exempt from payment of property tax at the local level and from payment of income tax to both state and federal government. They are often exempt from payment of state sales tax on the products they sell. A person making a contribution to a religious organization is usually entitled to deduct the contribution from his income when calculating both his state and his federal income taxes at the end of the taxable year. …

Current Federal And State Conflicts In The Independent Contractor Versus Employee Classification Controversy, Jack E. Karns

Campbell Law Review

Part II of this Article outlines the development of the federal IRS worker classification status and attendant issues. Part III introduces some initiatives taken by the IRS in an effort to settle cases with taxpayers. Part IV discusses the federal criminal sanctions that can be imposed on an individual or entity which fails to collect or pay over to the United States Treasury these employment trust fund taxes. In Part V, the status of worker classification in North Carolina is considered relative to cases filed primarily with the Employment Security Commission. Finally, in Part VI, some observations are offered regarding …

International Tax Planning After Check-The-Box, Monica Gianni

UF Law Faculty Publications

Monica Gianni examines the international tax planning and structuring opportunities generated by the check-the-box regulations and evaluates the federal revenue authorities’ attempts to curb the resultant “abuses.”

It's New But Is It Improved: The New Innocent Spouse Provision, Jessica Luby Angney

Cleveland State Law Review

This article will examine the criticisms of the previous "innocent spouse" provision and proposals for reform that aided Congress in enacting a more equitable provision. The new "innocent spouse" provision, § 6015,' will be dissected to reveal the requirements, as well as the changes from the old provision. Also provided in this article will be examples of the new provision applied to cases decided under the old "innocent spouse" provision. Completing this article will be criticisms of the new provision and I.R.S. actions regarding the new provision.

Will Surfing The Web Subject One To Transient Tax Jurisdiction? Why We Need A Uniform Federal Sales Tax On Internet Commerce, Aaron G. Murphy

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment considers how Internet sales could be taxed if Congressional action is taken to remove the Commerce Clause impediments, which would leave only Due Process Clause limitations on Internet taxation. Though three potential solutions are addressed and analyzed for their potential treatment under the Due Process Clause, this Comment concludes that a federal uniform tax on Internet sales of goods will achieve the best balance of interests while avoiding Due Process problems. Part Two provides the reader with a basic description of the current law in the area of sales and use taxes and the problems the Internet poses …

Who Should Be Entitled To Claim The New Education Credits?, Glenn E. Coven

Faculty Publications

Professor Coven believes that the education assistance provisions enacted in 1997, while long overdue, were ill-considered and poorly constructed. Focusing on what should have been the simple question of who is entitled to claim an education tax credit, this report illustrates the harm that inadequate drafting produces. While section 25A appeared to deny a credit to a dependent child, an unfair and unwise result, the proposed regulations allow parents to shift the credit to their children but only on the forfeiture of the deduction for the personal exemption. That rule, says Coven, imposes a harsh penalty on low and middle-income …

Electronic Commerce And Non-Resident Aliens: The Internal Revenue Service Versus International Cyberspace Transactions, Jonathane M. Ricci

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The year is 1999. Jack Jones has just retired from practicing civil law in the United States and has returned to his home country of Trinidad, just off the coast of South America, where he now resides. Jack has an idea to keep him busy during retirement. He made many contacts in the U.S. legal community and his work is well-respected. So, Jack decided to keep writing for attorneys in the U.S.

Death By A Thousand Cuts: The Rule Against Perpetuities, Angela M. Vallario

All Faculty Scholarship

This article suggests the policy and social justifications against dead hand control far outweigh transfer tax advantages provided to wealthy settlors and the potential revenue expected to be generated by the abolishment legislation. The abolishment legislation may be readily adopted by other jurisdictions in light of the legislatures' failure to recognize the consequences of unlimited dead hand control.

This article recognizes that the Rule is complicated, and Rule violations present harsh consequences for practitioners and their clients. In fact, violations of the Rule, due to its complexity, have been held as an attorney error, not subject to a malpractice claim. …

Modern Coverture: Old Wine In Old Bottles, William P. Lapiana

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Muddling Along With The Federal Wealth Transfer Tax: A Survey Of Practitioners And Law School Professors, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

Recent efforts to repeal the wealth transfer tax system have prompted enormous discussion. In this Article, the author presents the results of his survey of members of the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Law Section about this issue and other reforms which have been enacted or suggested.

Interpreting The Income Tax Act - Part 1: Interpretive Doctrines, David G. Duff

All Faculty Publications

This two-part article discusses the various doctrines to which Canadian courts have referred in interpreting the Income Tax Act, evaluates these doctrines, and proposes an alternative "pragmatic" approach that offers a more open, reasoned, and balanced method of statutory interpretation than each of the alternatives otherwise available. Part 1 of the article reviews the four main doctrines applied by Canadian courts in interpreting the Income Tax Act: strict construction, purposive interpretation, the plain meaning rule, and the words-in-total context approach. After the characteristics of each of these four doctrines have been explained, the article examines leading tax cases in which …

Interpreting The Income Tax Act - Part 2: Toward A Pragmatic Approach, David G. Duff

All Faculty Publications

Part 1 of this two-part article reviewed the four main doctrines to which Canadian courts have referred in interpreting the Income Tax Act (strict construction, purposive interpretation, the plain meaning rule, and the words-in-total-context approach) and examined leading cases in which these doctrines have been defined and applied. Part 2 of the article evaluates each of the interpretive doctrines examined in part 1 and develops, as an alternative, an explicitly "pragmatic" approach. This alternative approach builds on the words-in-total-context doctrine by interpreting the words of the Act "in their entire context," having regard to the scheme of the Act, the …

Implications Of The Tax Reform Proposals For Fraud – Or – How To Shift To A Consumption Tax Without Helping The Cheaters, Kalyani Robbins

Akron Law Faculty Publications

The vast majority of the proposals on the table today are simply different implementation mechanisms of the same basic idea: a change in the tax base from income to consumption. The purpose of this article is to consider the implications some of these proposals have for the enforcement of tax compliance (prevention of cheating). For this reason, it will only briefly address the impetus for a consumption tax and the policy considerations behind it. The first part will also give short descriptions of the proposals that will be considered in this article: the National Retail Sales Tax, the Savings-Exempt Income …

Bastardy And The Statute Of Wills: Interpreting A Sixteenth-Century Statute With Cases And Readings, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

The Statute of Wills of 1540 created a tax loophole for transfers of property to illegitimate children. Assessments for wardships that would normally be imposed on certain transfers of land to children could be effectively avoided by establishing that the donee was illegitimate, and therefore a stranger to the donor for the purposes of the statute. English lawyers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries educated their colleagues about this newly available loophole. In the inns of court, lawyers discussed the statutory provisions and recent revenue cases from the Court of Wards. This article sets out the loophole, examines how the …

Implications Of The Tax Reform Proposals For Fraud – Or – How To Shift To A Consumption Tax Without Helping The Cheaters, Kalyani Robbins

Faculty Publications

The vast majority of the proposals on the table today are simply different implementation mechanisms of the same basic idea: a change in the tax base from income to consumption. The purpose of this article is to consider the implications some of these proposals have for the enforcement of tax compliance (prevention of cheating). For this reason, it will only briefly address the impetus for a consumption tax and the policy considerations behind it. The first part will also give short descriptions of the proposals that will be considered in this article: the National Retail Sales Tax, the Savings-Exempt Income …

Trusts And Estates Practice Into The Next Millennium, Marc S. Bekerman, Gerry W. Beyer

Articles & Chapters

As the world prepares to enter the next millennium, the practice of trusts and estates law continues to evolve. Factors driving this evolution include an increase in life expectancy, numerous advances in medical technology, the increased geographic mobility of individuals, the growing use of revocable trusts as will substitutes, the trend to abolish the rule against perpetuities and restrictions on the ability of creditors to reach self-settled trusts. Due to advances ranging from low-tech improvements, such as refrigeration and sewer systems, to sophisticated medical procedures, such as organ transplantation and dialysis, people are living longer than their ancestors. This article …

State Comparative Chart Llc And Llp Statutes, James J. Wheaton

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Square Pegs In Round Holes: Llcs Under Other Statutes, James J. Wheaton

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Setting An Agenda For A Study Of Tax And Black Culture, Beverly I. Moran

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

At present the Internal Revenue Code unthinkingly reflects many aspects of white culture including historical opportunities that whites have received for wealth building and marriage. In order for the federal tax laws to tax fairly all cultures within the purview of taxation must also find their values reflected. The article sets out how the tax laws might begin to incorporate black culture.

Windfalls, Eric Kades

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transfer Pricing, Anders Leif Allvin

LLM Theses and Essays

Transfer pricing is one of the principal international taxation issues of the 1990s and potentially of future decades as well. For corporate enterprises, it can be difficult enough to do business in just one country, but it gets even more complex when they go international. The growth of multinational enterprises (MNEs) creates complex taxation issues for both the tax administrations as well for the MNE. Transfer pricing concerns allocation of income earned within affiliated corporate groups in different countries, which must satisfy tax authorities that they are not evading taxes through the use of transfer pricing. The main problem with …

The Law Of Sales Taxes In A Cyberspace Economy, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This article focuses on three questions of state sales’ tax:

(1) What is the basic structure of states’ sales tax laws and how do these laws apply to electronic commerce?

(2) What are the existing federal constitutional restraints on the states’ power to impose sales taxes and how do those restraints limit the states’ ability to apply their laws to electronic commerce?

(3) What are the restraints on Congress – to whom this commission’s recommendations will be directed – in legislating to limit or expand state taxing power, or otherwise enact rules governing taxation of electronic commerce?

Strict Liability For Abnormally Dangerous Activity: The Negligence Barrier, Gerald W. Boston

San Diego Law Review

My main thesis is that the doctrine of strict liability for abnormally dangerous activity (which I sometimes refer to by the acronym SLADA), memorialized in sections 519 and 520 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts,' has evolved to the point of near extinction because courts have concluded that the negligence system functions effectively to deter the serious risks posed by the activities involved. The Restatement (Second) provides that strict liability is inapplicable when the high degree of risk can be eliminated by the exercise of reasonable care.2 The evidence demonstrates that courts are increasingly making precisely that finding, usually without …