Tax Law Commons^™

Back To The 1930s? The Shaky Case For Exempting Dividends, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article is based in part on the author’s U.S. Branch Report for Subject I of the 2003 Annual Congress of the International Fiscal Association, to be held next year in Sydney, Australia (forthcoming in Cahiers de droit fiscal international, 2003). He would like to thank Emil Sunley for his helpful comments on that earlier version, and Steve Bank, Michael Barr, David Bradford, Michael Graetz, and David Hasen for comments on this version. Special thanks are due to Yoram Keinan for his meticulous work on the EU regimes (see Appendix). All errors are the author’s. In this report, Prof. Avi-Yonah …

Revised Innocent Spouse Rules Offer Greater Tax Relief, Linda M. Johnson, A. Bruce Clements

Faculty Articles

When a married couple files a joint tax return, both spouses become jointly and severally liable for the income taxes due, including any additional taxes, interest, and penalties determined at a later date. In the event of an underpayment of income tax, the IRS can proceed against either spouse to collect the entire tax deficiency. This places a spouse in a precarious position in situations where the other spouse deliberately omits income or overstates deductions on a jointly filed income tax return, even if the spouse is totally unaware of the other's transgressions. Relief from joint and several liability is …

Commercial Activity And Charitable Tax Exemption, John D. Colombo

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Buy-Sell Agreements And Nontax Issues In Planning For Business Succession, Farhad Aghdami

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Exit Strategies For Owners Of Privately Held Businesses, R. Marshall Merriman Jr., Arthur E. Cirulnick, Paul H. Wilner

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Choosing A Business Entity For The 21st Century, Samuel P. Starr, Thomas P. Rohman, L. Michael Gracik Jr.

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Uses Of Life Insurance For The Closely-Held Business, Mary Anne Mancini

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Employee Benefits Issues In Purchase And Sale Of Privately Held Business, Andrea L. O'Brien

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Employer Tax Liability For Employees' Tips: Fior D'Italia, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Given Nevada's heavy concentration of businesses in which employees are tipped, lawyers here may be more than usually interested in a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court. On June 17, 2002, the Court decided United States v. Fior D'ltalia, Inc. By 6 to 3, the Court held that the IRS may use an “aggregate estimation” method to determine employers’ liability for Social Security (FICA) taxes imposed on their employees’ tip income. The decision is an important development in a controversy of long duration, but it is not the end of that controversy. This article …

Deconstructing The General Plan Of Rehabilitation, John W. Lee

Faculty Publications

The general plan of rehabilitation doctrine provides that expenses incurred as part of a plan of general rehabilitation must be capitalized even though the same expenses incurred separately would be deductible as ordinary and necessary repairs. The emerging general standard after INDOPCO for current deduction of an expenditure with future benefits, the case with most repair/ improvement expenditures, is a balancing test: Whether the taxpayer ’s administrative and record keeping costs associated with capitalization outweigh the potential distortion of income from a current deduction of the future benefit expenditures. “Rough justice” rules for current deduction of future benefits expenditures, reflecting …

Family Law, Elizabeth P. Coughter, Ronald R. Tweel

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

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.

Why Craft Isn't Scary, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

In April 2002, the Supreme Court of the United States decided United States v. Craft. The Court held that the federal tax lien attaches to a tax-debtor spouse’s interest in property held in tenancy by the entirety even when the other spouse does not owe tax and state law provides that entireties property and interests cannot be reached by separate creditors of only one spouse.

Craft was correctly decided. The older, contrary view that Craft displaced was fundamentally at odds with federal tax collection analysis as laid out by the Court. In addition, the old view invited tax abuse and …

Service With A Chagrin: The Problem Of Aggregate Estimates Of Unreported Tips In United States V. Fior D'Italia, Inc., Christopher A. Crowson

Campbell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Young V. Commissioner, 240 F.3d 369 (4th Cir. 2001) - The Assignment Of Income Doctrine And Section 1041 As Applied To Attorneys' Contingent Fees In Transfers Incident To Divorce: A One-Two Punch To Stun The Recognition Of Gain, Chad Stoop

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Corporate Managers, Agency Costs, And The Rise Of Double Taxation, Steven A. Bank

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Drawing The Line Between Taxes And Takings: The Continuous Burdens Principle, And Its Broader Application, Eric Kades

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transaction Costs Relating To Acquisition Or Enhancement Of Intangible Property: A Populist, Political, But Practical Perspective, John W. Lee

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Proposal To Reform The Like Kind And Involuntary Conversion Rules In Light Of Fundamental Tax Policies: A Simpler, More Rational, And More Unified Approach, Fred B. Brown

All Faculty Scholarship

Almost from the beginning of the federal income tax, the law has contained two nonrecognition provisions that have undergone relatively little change: the like kind rule and the involuntary conversion rule. Commentators have questioned the policy grounds for the like kind rule in general, and for some of its particular features, such as the exchange requirement. Congress and its staffers have also noted the complexity caused by certain aspects of the rule and have enacted or proposed remedial changes in this regard. The involuntary conversion rule also contributes to the complexity of the tax system given the fact-intensive analysis that …

Pay Equity: A Fundamental Human Right, Margot Young

All Faculty Publications

This paper undertakes the limited task of determining what interpretive consequences, if any, might flow from the removal of federal pay equity provisions from their current location in the Canadian Human Rights Act and placement of such provisions in their own stand-alone legislation. Part of the interpretive stance courts currently bring to their consideration of the federal pay equity provisions reflects the placement of these provisions within federal human rights legislation. Courts have held that human rights legislation has a special nature or quasi-constitutional status. This status results from the fundamental character of the values the legislation expresses and the …

Waiting To Exhale?: Global Warming And Tax Policy, Roberta Mann

American University Law Review

This article explores the links between energy policy, tax policy and global warming. This article focuses on tax policy, because the emerging consensus among legal scholars favors economic incentives rather than command-and-control regulations for reaching environmental goals, and the Federal income tax has proved an effective delivery system for economic incentives.

After briefly discussing of the science of global warming and the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, the article reviews the impact of both existing tax law and current proposals for energy legislation on global warming, as well as potential international law consequences of failure to act …

After Craft: Implementation Issues, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Scientists often observe that answering one question about the world or universe causes many new questions to arise. Chess players understand that to win material in the opening or middle game is empty without playing the end game properly. Military commanders and their civilian superiors know that winning a battle is not an end in itself. They must then address what do with their victory, how to turn it to useful result. Having to confront these second-generation or follow-up problems clearly beats the alternatives (remaining ignorant or losing the game or battle), but initial success ushers in not immediate repose …

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

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ability To Pay, Stephen Utz

Faculty Articles and Papers

There is broad agreement that a fair tax should be imposed in accordance with taxpayers' ability to pay. A utility-based interpretation of this standard, used in most tax policy discussions today, does not adequately reflect the its historical development and cannot escape long standing and devastating criticisms from within welfare economics and on other general grounds. This article traces the history of ability to pay, with special reference to the standard's emergence along with the British and German income tax laws, and in the theoretical literature that followed the adoption of income tax laws there and elsewhere. The article concludes …

Income Tax Planning For Long-Term Care, David M. English

Faculty Publications

Planning for long-term involves more than the preparation of powers of attorney and counseling on possible asset transfers to qualify for Medicaid reimbursement. Steps should also be taken to make certain that the person receiving care continues to file an income tax return and does so at a minimum possible income tax cost. Practitioners should be familiar with the procedure for filing a return on behalf of an incapacitated individual. The medical expense deduction, while of little importance for most taxpayers, is critical for many elderly, particularly for those receiving long-term care. Long-term care insurance and life insurance may be …

Enron, Accounting, And Lawyers, Matthew J. Barrett

Journal Articles

Enron's collapse painfully illustrates the importance of financial accounting to all lawyers. Accounting is often referred to as "the language of business." Virtually every lawyer represents businesses, their owners, or clients with adverse legal interests, such as creditors and customers. Especially after Enron, lawyers cannot competently represent clients if they do not grasp certain basic principles about accounting. This article lists the top ten accounting lessons that any lawyer could learn from the scandal. These lessons include the components of a complete set of financial statements, the choices inherent in generally accepted accounting principles, the distortions possible in pro forma …

Tax Law, Robin Jean Davis, Louis J. Palmer Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aljs In State-Local Tax Cases: To Whom Is Deference Due?, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

This installment of the column reports on an interesting recent Nevada sales tax case, State Dep’t of Taxation v. Masco Builder Cabinet Group. The case involved two issues: (1) whether the Department of Taxation gave appropriate deference to the findings and conclusions of the administrative law judge who had originally heard the case, and (2) whether the principle of equitable tolling applied to extend the statute of limitations period for the taxpayer’s refund claims. The taxpayer, represented by attorney Brett Whipple, prevailed in the Nevada Supreme Court on both issues.

The first part below develops the facts of Masco …

Tax Shelters And The Tax Minimization Norm: How Does The Patenting Of Tax Advice Transform The (Global) Playing Field, Linda M. Beale

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Out Of The Black Hole: Reclaiming The Crown Of King Coal, Wendy B. Davis

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.