Tax Law Commons^™

Mayo And The Future Of Tax Regulations, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Of the heady early days of the French Revolution, Wordsworth wrote: “Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven.” Those of us interested in the intersection of tax law and administrative law may be excused if we feel similar exhilaration about the time in which we live.

In terms of the intersection, this is the most exciting moment in the tax history of the United States. Recent cases have tested – and cases still in progress continue to test –- the validity of several Treasury regulations:

1. On January 11 the Supreme …

Schedule Utp - Two Major Issues, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

Although Corporate America is not happy about Schedule UTP, most corporations seem resigned to the schedule’s existence and are now attempting to comply. In the process, Corporations have been addressing many technical questions, but two seem to be receiving the most attention: the definition of a “tax reserve”, and the application of the transition rule to pre-2010 NOL carryforwards.

The current definition of tax reserve is circular and it is not clear whether it includes certain scenarios (e.g., deferred tax reserves). The application of the transition rule is of significant importance to corporations that incurred NOL carryforwards during the recession …

The Effect Of U.S. State Taxes On State Economic Prosperity, Casey Dainsberg

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Policy makers today are faced with trying to create solutions for economic troubles that become increasingly more complex and foreboding. Tax cuts and tax hikes are proposed and considered as possible solutions to various economic problems. However, the question still remains regarding which policies are most effective. The purpose of this research is to asses these competing claims. It seeks to find evidence that will shed light on one of these views. I have done this by accumulating tax and economic data from the fifty U.S. States between the years 2001-2009. Previous research has concluded that taxes do affect the …

The Untaxed King Of South Beach: Lebron James And The Nba Salary Cap, Mitchell L. Engler

San Diego Law Review

In contrast to Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has a salary cap designed to provide every team an equal and fair chance of competing for the championship. The Miami Heat's recent, incredible success in signing the game's three most hotly desired free agents, including mega-superstars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, therefore flies in the face of the NBA's attempted level playing field. How could one team so outmaneuver all the others in a sport that tried to eliminate such uncompetitive results via a salary cap?

As discussed in this Article, the answer lies in the law of …

Suitable For Framing: Business Deductions In A Net Income Tax System, David I. Walker

William & Mary Law Review

The federal tax code includes numerous provisions disallowing or curtailing income tax deductions related to such disparate activities as business lobbying and providing non-performance-based compensation to senior corporate executives. The primary claim of this article is that a tendency to mentally frame business deductions as subsidies, often reinforced by rhetoric explicitly framing deductions as subsidies, helps explain these provisions. The traditional “public policy” disallowances directed at lobbying, fines and penalties paid by businesses, and antitrust treble damages respond to an appearance of a taxpayer subsidy that would follow from deduction, despite the fact that it is far from clear that …

The Unequal Tax Treatment Of Intellectual Property, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Faculty Publications

The tax treatment of intellectual property receives surprisingly little attention despite intellectual property's important role in the economy. In this article, Maine and Nguyen evaluate the fairness of the intellectual property tax system, identifying differences in the tax treatment of what appear to be similar transactions.

Will Cutting The Payroll Tax Increase Jobs In The U.S.? Empirical Evidence From The Eu Vat, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Red Ink Rising, the Peterson–Pew Commission on Budget Reform’s report presents the country with a fiscal/employment dilemma – Congress must act immediately to stem the federal debt, but it must move carefully lest it harm employment in the fragile economy. In short, we must act fast and slow – we must decrease the debt and increase employment. This is a difficult task.

The Peterson-Pew dilemma (notably its jobs-creation aspect) was taken to heart by both of the reform commissions that issued reports soon thereafter (National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, The Moment of Truth and The Debt Reduction Task …

Chevron Deference To State Tax Agencies, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

The last installment of this column inaugurated a multi-installment project examining judicial doctrines of deference to interpretations and positions taken by state and local tax agencies. We noted that in the various states, these doctrines fall into about a half dozen categories.

This installment explores one of those categories. A major deference rule in federal administrative law (including tax law) emanates from the U.S. Supreme Court’s famous Chevron case. This installment considers the extent to which Chevron and similar approaches are applied in state and local tax cases.

The first part be low briefly describes C …

Vat Fraud: The Tradable Services Problem, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Tradable services – VoIP termination services, mobile minutes, software as a service (SaaS), or almost any service bought or sold in the “cloud” – are a distinct class of taxable supplies. These service-based supplies both resemble and differ fundamentally from goods. They also differ from services that are consumed-on-purchase (consumed services).

Tradable services are designed from the beginning for re-sale. They are hybrid supplies that behave commercially like goods, but have functional attributes that make them hard to distinguish from services generally. When determining the place of supply/ place of taxation for these kinds of supplies, their hybrid character presents …

Following The Apa Will Not Eliminate Useful Guidance, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Food Taxes: A Palatable Solution To The Obesity Epidemic?, Adriana Badilas

Global Business & Development Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Doma And Diffusion Theory: Ending Animus Legislation Through A Rational Basis Approach, David J. Herzig

Law Faculty Publications

Same-sex couple rights are the topic of much discussion and debate. There are court challenges to the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) as well as proposed marriage statutes. The message and the structure for the recognition of same-sex rights need to be modified. This Article proposes applying, for the first time in the area, modern sociology theory, specifically Diffusion Theory, to change how the message is delivered. Using Diffusion Theory to change the message frame will change judicial decisions. By using the backdrop of the Florida adoption statute, a comparison between the successful challenges to the Florida …

How Public Is Private Philanthropy? Separating Reality From Myth (Philanthropy Roundtable, 2d Ed. 2012) (With J. Tyler), Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Campaign Disclosure And Tax-Exempt Entities: A Quick Repair To The Regulatory Plumbing, Donald B. Tobin

Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that there are some quick regulatory fixes the Treasury can implement to ensure that tax-exempt organizations are operating within the rules and that aggressive tax planning is not being used as a way to obfuscate rules for political organizations requiring disclosure. The article recommends that Treasury promulgate new regulations to require disclosure by tax-exempt entities of expenditures and contributions in excess of $25,000. The article also proposes that Treasury institute procedures to require tax-exempt organizations to file for exempt status, and to provide procedures for ensuring that these organizations meet the requirements in the statute and are …

Who’S Going To Pick Up The Trash? Using The Build America Bond Program To Help State And Local Governments’ Cash Deficits, Randle B. Pollard

Scholarly Articles

All over the United States, state and local governments are facing increasing revenue deficits due to the current economic recession. Even during good economic times, state and local governments experience temporary cash-flow deficits. State and local governments use short-term municipal bond debt to finance temporary cash-flow deficits caused by the normal erratic collection of tax revenue. The issuance of short-term debt secured by future tax revenue has always been a financing tool that helped local governments with cash-flow problems.

The effects of the subprime mortgage crisis and the current recession threaten state and local governments’ ability to use this financial …

To Have And To Hold: What Does Love (Of Money) Have To Do With Joint Tax Filing, Stephanie Mcmahon

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Wealthy taxpayers have always attempted to reduce their federal income taxes. Before 1948, when the United States had an individual-based system, one popular method was to shift income between spouses so that more of a husband's income could be reported by and taxed to his lower-income, and thus lower-tax-bracket, wife. Congress eliminated the reward for this tax-avoidance behavior in 1948 by nationalizing income splitting via the joint return. Today, there are proposals to return to an individual-based system. Evaluating the proposal for individual filing, this Article first explores the development of the income-splitting joint return as a historical guide to …

Recovery Of Interest On A Tax Underpayment Caused By A Tax Advisor's Negligence, Jacob L. Todres

Akron Tax Journal

In my view, this area is relatively straightforward. There are three views that have developed. Once the views are apprehended, it should be relatively easy for a court to choose which view to follow. By presenting and analyzing the three views, this area will be appropriately elucidated and subsequently given the thoughtful attention it warrants.

In Part II, I will focus upon each of the three views and explore the rationale for each view. In Part III, I will trace the development of each of the views, especially the minority view and more modem, intermediate view. The goal of this …

Recent Developments Concerning The Estate Tax Inclusion Of Transfers To A Family Limited Partnership, Brent B. Nicholson

Akron Tax Journal

After a brief examination of the statutory and regulatory background, this paper will summarize the significant cases prior to Shurtz, the significant cases in the last year, discuss the facts and holdings of Shurtz, and then outline the coordinates that have emerged to guide taxpayers

From The Great Depression To The Current Housing Crisis: What Code Section 108 Tells Us About Congress's Response To Economic Crisis, Monica D. Armstrong

Akron Tax Journal

This article will explore the development of section 108, using the three major economic crises mentioned above as a timeline. Part II discusses the judicial debate of whether gross income should include discharge of indebtedness. Part III discusses the development of the insolvency exception following the Supreme Court's decision in Kirby Lumber, which held that gross income includes discharge of indebtedness. More specifically, it provides a discussion of court decisions that carved out exceptions to Kirby Lumber to provide tax relief to struggling businesses impacted by the Great Depression. This part closes with a discussion of the codification of the …

Informal Claims For Refund - A Winding Road, William A. Neilson

Akron Tax Journal

In reviewing the manner in which courts have interpreted [the informal claim] doctrine, it appears that the doctrine can be more effective if steps are taken to create a definite set of rules for the doctrine's application, and if those rules are incorporated into the IRC or Treasury regulations. This Article, after briefly reviewing the history of the informal claim doctrine and its current form, will discuss the possibility of creating such rules.

Keeping Republics Republican, Rob Atkinson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Shifting The Paradigm By Bringing Tax Arbitrage To The Lower Income Separated Family: Why Should The Middle To Upper Class Family Have All The Fun?, Reginald Mombrun

Akron Tax Journal

The background for this article is, of course, the duty of parents to provide sustenance for their children, a duty that necessarily survives the break-up of the family. In this article, I continue to address the problems of the child support system, and I continue to take a holistic view of the problem. A fundamental concept of family law is that the system must do what is in the best interests of the child. Few people will disagree with the soundness of this fundamental concept. However, the problem lies with its application. Although counterintuitive, focusing solely on the child to …

The Liability-Offset Theory Of Peracchi, Bradley T. Borden, Douglas L. Longhofer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The "Current Monthly Income" Debate: Unemployment Compensation As A "Benefit Received Under The Social Security Act"?, 44 J. Marshall L. Rev. 801 (2011), Brent Wilson

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Don't Burst The Bubble: An Analysis Of The First-Time Homebuyer Credit And Its Use As An Economic Policy Tool, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 23 (2011), Sarah J. Webber

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Charity In The 21st Century: Trending Toward Decay, Roger Colinvaux

Scholarly Articles

The Article argues that the federal tax law framework relating to charitable organizations is decaying. Through an overview of the historical development of the law relating to charity in the 20th century, the Article shows that the statutory law has passively accommodated significant growth of the charitable sector without demanding any rigor of the sector in the form of positive requirements or quantitative measures. This has led to growth without meaningful oversight – a recipe for problems. The Article then provides an overview of many of the scandals that engulfed the sector during the early 21st century and shows that …

Fundamentals Of Wealth Transfer Tax Planning, John A. Miller

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Role Of International Law And Practice In Addressing International Tax Issues In The Global Era, Charles H. Gustafson

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

The article discusses the role of international law and practice in deciphering complex international tax policy and administration issues as of July 2011. An August 2009 deal between the U.S. and Switzerland, known as the U.S.-Swiss Agreement, is also mentioned. The international law of jurisdiction is examined as it relates to the issue of double taxation.

Post-Wto China Tax Law System Reform And The Rule Of Law: Progress And Prospects, Tianlong Hu

SJD Dissertations

A close examination of China's accession commitments reveals that effective economic reform and trade liberalization call for substantiations from a matching legal infrastructure reform. For example, taxpayers' rights protection should be viewed in terms of broader political and civil rights reform. Indeed, a number of the values featured in the WTO principles and the rule of law framework encourage China's further integration into both the global trade network and the international human rights regime. This is particularly evident in the Chinese tax law context. WTO principles and the rule of law requirements must be introduced and evaluated together in tax …

Taxation Of Unmined Coal In Kentucky, Jesse M. Parrish

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.