Tax Law Commons^™

Using Ethanol As A Fuel To Reenergize Free Trade Area Of The Americas Negotiations, Marcel De Armas

ExpressO

Currently the United States imposes a 2.5 percent ad valorem tax along with a 14.27 cents per liter tax on imported ethanol from countries with normal trade relations under the harmonized tariff schedule. However, the United States exempts many countries from this tariff or reduces the tariff under various free trade agreements or initiatives. The issues that resulted in Doha’s failure also caused FTAA negotiations to temporarily stall since both Brazil and the United States wanted certain FTAA issues negotiated at the WTO level. The United States could initiate this process with a discussion of reducing or eliminating its ethanol …

A Tax Lawyer's Perspective On Section 527 Organizations, Gregg D. Polsky

Scholarly Works

Proponents of campaign finance reform generally assume that, by definition, all section 527 organizations are partisan, election-driven organizations. They also believe that by self-identifying to the IRS, these organizations receive substantial tax benefits. Based on these presuppositions, reformers argue that strict regulation of 527organizations is both constitutional and normatively beneficial. In this Essay, I argue that once section 527 is carefully analyzed from a tax perspective, it becomes evident that these assumptions are flawed. Ultimately, I conclude that section 527 should not be used as a mechanism for regulating campaign finance

The Application Of Tax Treaties To Investment Funds, Niccolo Pallesi

ExpressO

Among financial investors, investment funds are the ones that mostly have increased their importance in capital markets where the regulation on investment funds is still incipient. By using investment funds, individual investors can have the possibility to participate in various companies as well as in market places worldwide without the need of specific and elaborated knowledge of the same companies and markets. After an introductory chapter I start analyzing the definition and activity of an investment fund, attention is also paid to the UCITS regulation for European investment funds. In the next chapter I analyze how investment funds are taxed …

Imagining A Progressive And Comprehensive Consumption Tax, Sean K. Raft

ExpressO

The income tax system has become quite a mess. Unfortunately, the brunt of that mess falls primarily on the backs of the individual taxpayer, who is required to sift through the tens of thousands of pages of instructions and tax rules just to calculate, file, and pay what they owe. The filing burden and costs of compliance are already exorbitant, but they are only increasing.

In response to the complaints over the increasing complication, economists and tax scholars have imagined ways to improve or replace the income tax. Yet, the alternatives are either regressive or fail to generate enough revenue …

Section 965: A Traditional Corporate Tax Policy Evaluation, Jessica C. Kornberg

ExpressO

The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 dramatically reduced the tax on foreign subsidiary dividend payments to their United States parent companies. By many accounts, §965 introduces perverse incentives into the tax code. Critics of §965 argue that the possibility of a future repatriation holiday encourages multinationals to hoard even greater profits abroad and lobby for their tax-free return. In the long run, §965 may exacerbate rather than mitigate the deferral of foreign source income taxation. Now that §965 is set to expire and the repatriation taxes it triggered have been collected, its full impact is beginning to come clear. …

Only A Name? Trademark Royalties, Nexus, And Taxing That Which Enriches, Sheldon H. Laskin

Akron Tax Journal

This Article asserts that the correct constitutional nexus standard for state taxation of royalty income derived from the use of trademarks and tradenames is the well-established business situs rule for taxing intangibles. Pursuant to the business situs rule, a state may, consistent with federal constitutional requirements, levy an appropriately apportioned tax on the trademark royalty income of a business that has purposefully availed itself of the benefits and opportunities of doing business in that state. That is, intellectual property is presumed to have a taxing situs at any location where it is used to realize income. A state may therefore …

Repairing Facade Easements: Is This The Gift That Launched A Thousand Deductions?, Martha Jordan

Akron Tax Journal

This article explores the impact of such a covenant on the characterization for tax purposes of expenditures to maintain the façade. In particular this article explores the following question: Given that the charitable easement holder owns a nonpossessory interest in the façade, which imposes on the charity an obligation to repair and maintain the façade and entitles it to benefit from increases in the value of the façade, is a donor's assumption of the charity's obligation to repair the façade an additional charitable contribution to the charity? If a donor gratuitously makes improvements to property owned outright by a charity, …

The Three Faces Of Retainer Care: Crafting A Tailored Regulatory Response, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

Retainer care arrangements allow patients to pay a fee directly to a physician's office in order to obtain special access to care. Practices usually convert to retainer status by concentrating their attention on a small panel and dropping the majority of their patients. Proponents call retainer care a triumph of consumer-directed health care; opponents deride it as boutique medicine. Both sides are deploying a variety of legal tactics in order to attain their goals.

After surveying these conflicts, this article clarifies what is at stake by analyzing the three key features of retainer care: preventive care, queue-jumping, and amenity-bundling. Most …

Political Advocacy And Taxable Entities: Are They The Next "Loophole"?, Donald B. Tobin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Political Campaigning By Churches And Charities: Hazardous For 501(C)(3)S, Dangerous For Democracy, Donald B. Tobin

Faculty Scholarship

Nonprofit section 501(c)(3) organizations are prohibited from participating or intervening in an election on behalf of a candidate for public office. Despite this prohibition, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations have become increasingly active in political campaigns. Many organizations are either ignoring the political campaign ban or are using "issue discussion" or "lobbying" as a means of promoting candidates and testing the limits of the prohibition. Current scholarship surrounding the political campaign ban argues that the ban is either unconstitutional or inappropriate as a matter of public policy. This article argues that the ban is both meritorious and constitutional. It argues that taxpayer …

The Impact On Maryland's Budget Of Allowing Same-Sex Couples To Marry, M.V. Lee Badgett, Amanda K. Baumle, Shawn Kravich, Adam P. Romero

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Treble Damages In National Health Service Corps Contracts, Public Policy, And Hawronsky V. Commissioner, Richard C.E. Beck

Akron Tax Journal

The main thesis of this article is that Hawronsky v. Commissioner is erroneous and the deduction should be allowed because I.R.C. § 162(f) does not apply. The taxpayer did pay a "fine or similar penalty to the government," but he did not pay it "for the violation of any law," which is a necessary element of I.R.C. § 162(f). The taxpayer merely breached his NHSC contract. This crucial issue went completely unnoticed by the court and the parties. Because I.R.C. § 162(f) does not apply, the treble damages are (except for the original tax-free scholarship itself) a deductible business expense …

Crew 4 You, Inc. V. Wilkins: The Ohio Supreme Court Misapplies Statute And Precedent To Eliminate The Resale Exception To Sales Of Employment Services, Jon R. Stefanik Ii

Akron Tax Journal

This Note critically examines the Ohio Supreme Court's opinion in Crew 4 You. Part II examines the tax on retail sales, the resale exception and its application to services, and the significant Ohio Supreme Court cases applying the resale exception to transactions involving services. Part III provides a synopsis of the arguments and reasoning at each stage of the appeal in Crew 4 You, including the Tax Commissioner's assessment, his Final Determination, the decision of the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals ("BTA"), and the decision of the Ohio Supreme Court. Part IV analyzes the Ohio Supreme Court's reasoning …

Rethinking The Role Of The Judicial Step Transaction Principle And A Proposal For Codification, Yoram Keinana

Akron Tax Journal

Thus, as this article will conclude, the role of the step transaction doctrine has been diminishing over the years from a primary weapon against tax shelters into an alternative test. In order to revive its role, the step transaction principle could be codified. As opposed to the controversial proposed codification of the economic substance doctrine, in my view, the codification of the step transaction principle will be more acceptable. The last part of this article sets forth a basic proposal for such codification.

This article will continue as follows. The first part discusses the fundamentals of the general principle of …

Philosopher Kings And International Tax: A New Approach To Tax Haven, Tax Flight, And International Tax Cooperation, Steven A. Dean

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Construction Of A Fool's Paradise: Ethanol Subsidies In America, John A. Sautter, Laura Furrey, R. Lee Gresham

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Pension Protection Act Of 2006: An Overview Of Sweeping Changes In The Law Governing Retirement Plans, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 843 (2007), Craig C. Martin, Joshua Rafsky

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Past, Present And Future Of Health Care Reform: Can It Happen?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 767 (2007), David Pratt

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Much Ado About The Meaning Of "Benefit Accrual": The Issue Of Age Discrimination In Hybrid Cash Balance Plan Qualification Is Dying But Not Yet Dead, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 867 (2007), Barry Kozak, Joshua Waldbeser

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who Is Entitled To Survivor Benefits From Erisa Plans?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 919 (2007), Albert Feuer

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Winner For The Windy City: A Comment In Support Of Establishing A Land-Based Casino In The City Of Chicago, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1391 (2007), Ronald Neroda

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. Xix (2007), Kathryn L. Moore

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Banking The Poor: Overcoming The Financial Services Mismatch, Michael S. Barr

Book Chapters

Low-income households often lack access to bank accounts and face high costs for transacting basic financial services through check cashers and other alternative financial service providers. Twenty-two percent of low- and moderateincome American households do not have a checking or savings account. Many other "underbanked" families have bank accounts but still rely on high-cost financial services. These households find it more difficult to save and plan financially for the future. Living paycheck to paycheck leaves them vulnerable to medical or job emergencies that may endanger their financial stability, and lack of longer-term savings undermines their ability to improve skills, purchase …

A Call For Judicial Restraint: Federal Taxpayer Grievances Challenging Executive Action, Debra L. Lowman

Seattle University Law Review

This Article calls upon the Supreme Court to stay the Judiciary's hand in taxpayer grievances concerning purely executive action. Parts II and III of the Article provide the relevant background material for an understanding of the subject matter. Specifically, Part I recounts the evolution of taxpayer standing, taking the reader from the Supreme Court's decision in Frothingham to its counterpoint decision in Flast. Part III summarizes the Seventh Circuit's unprecedented decision in Freedom. Part IV demonstrates that taxpayer standing as conceived by the Freedom court does not conform to the standing paradigm formulated in Flast, and moreover, …

Book Review: The Battle For Social Security: From Fdr's Vision To Bush's Gamble, Nancy J. Altman, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 909 (2007), Kathryn L. Moore

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Boxing Out The Big Box Retailers: The Legal And Social Impact Of Big Box Living Wage Legislation, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1339 (2007), Christine Niemczyk

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Shrinking Boomer Social Security Retirement Benefits, Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Taxing Consumption And Other Sins, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

Federal and state governments in the United States use income and payroll taxes as their primary tools to collect revenue. In the rest of the world, governments also use income and payroll taxes, but rely much more heavily than does the United States on taxing consumption. Consumption taxes take many forms, including general sales taxes, value-added taxes, and excise taxes on the consumption of specific items including gasoline, alcohol, tobacco products, firearms, air travel, telephone communication, and others. The U.S. government does not use a value-added tax, making the United States unique among high-income countries and a rarity in the …

Introduction To Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing The European Court Of Justice And The Us Supreme Court's Tax Jurisprudence, James R. Hines Jr.

Other Publications

This volume brings together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to consider federalist tax jurisprudence as practiced in Europe and the United States. These essays display a broad range of shared concerns, which is not to say that the scholars agree on all points of substantive policy and interpretation. What can be said is that there is general agreement that the exercise of comparing the tax jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice and the US Supreme Court is likely to be informative and beneficial to all concerned.

The Cost Of Norms: Tax Effects Of Tacit Understandings, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

Most human interactions take place in reliance on tacit understandings, customary practices, and other legally unenforceable agreements. A considerable literature studying these informal arrangements (commonly referred to as social norms) has a decidedly positive flavor, arguing that many, if not most, of these norms are welfare enhancing. This Article looks at the less-appreciated darker side of social norms. It combines an analysis of modern sophisticated tax planning techniques with existing empirical studies of commercial relationships to reveal a disturbing connection. By relying on tacit understandings rather than express contractual terms, many taxpayers shift some of their tax liabilities to those …