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Income tax

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Full-Text Articles in Tax Law

Reconsidering The Taxation Of Foreign Income, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2009

Reconsidering The Taxation Of Foreign Income, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

The purpose of this Article is to analyze the consequences of taxing active foreign business income,1 and in particular, to compare a regime in which a home country taxes foreign income to a regime in which it does not. In practice, countries typically do not adopt such extreme policy positions. For example, a country such as France, which largely exempts foreign business income from taxation, nevertheless taxes small pieces of foreign income;2 and a country such as the United States, which attempts to tax the foreign incomes of U.S. corporations, permits taxpayers to defer home country taxation in some circumstances, …


Protectionist Pitfalls In U.S. Tax Reform, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2009

Protectionist Pitfalls In U.S. Tax Reform, James R. Hines Jr.

Book Chapters

The magnitude of current and projected U.S. budget deficits makes it appropriate for the government to cast its net wide in seeking new revenue sources. In doing so, however, there is the danger of misconstruing the role of domestic taxation in a global economy, and thereby designing a tax reform proposal with significant protectionist elements.


Risks, Rents And Regressivity Revisited, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2009

Risks, Rents And Regressivity Revisited, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article seeks to survey the debate in the United States about whether the tax base should be income or consumption, and then focus on some recent arguments that have been made in favour of a consumption tax. In the author's opinion, none of these arguments are convincing, and he would favour adopting a consumption tax in addition to, and not in lieu of, the existing income tax.


Enforcing Dividend Withholding On Derivatives, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Nov 2008

Enforcing Dividend Withholding On Derivatives, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The United States imposes a 30 percent withholding tax on dividends paid to nonresident aliens. However, this tax is rarely paid by portfolio investors because they can swap into U.S. securities, receiving payments to match both capital gain and dividends. Treasury has ruled that swap payments have an origin in the taxpayer’s residence so there is no withholding obligation on payments that match dividends. The proposal would impose withholding tax on dividend equivalents on the ground that there is no policy justification for a distinction between dividends, substitute dividends under securities lending transaction (which are treated as dividends and are …


Will The Tax Man Cometh To Coach Rodriguez?, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn Aug 2008

Will The Tax Man Cometh To Coach Rodriguez?, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn

Articles

There has been much in the news recently about coaches of major college sports teams moving to a new school and incurring an obligation to make payment to their old school under a buyout provision in their contract. The most recent example is the highly publicized move of Richard Rodriguez from West Virginia University to the University of Michigan. Coach Rodriguez had a contract with his former employer that required him to pay $4 million dollars to West Virginia if he left for another coaching position. After a suit was filed, it was reported that the parties agreed that the …


Tax Interpretation, Planning, And Avoidance: Some Linguistic Analysis, Menahem Pasternak, Christophe Rico Jan 2008

Tax Interpretation, Planning, And Avoidance: Some Linguistic Analysis, Menahem Pasternak, Christophe Rico

Akron Tax Journal

No abstract provided.


Foreign Income And Domestic Deductions, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2008

Foreign Income And Domestic Deductions, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

To what extent should taxpayers deduct expenses incurred domestically that contribute to foreign income production? It is widely believed that if the home country does not tax foreign income, then it also should not permit deductions for that portion of domestic expenses attributable to earning foreign income. This prescription is, however, inconsistent with the decision to exempt foreign income from taxation in the first place. The paper shows that, for any system of taxing foreign income, the consistent and efficient treatment is to permit domestic expense deductions for all expenses incurred domestically. This differs from the current U.S. regime, under …


Third-Party Tax Administration: The Case Of Low- And Moderate-Income Households, Michael S. Barr, Jane K. Dokko Jan 2008

Third-Party Tax Administration: The Case Of Low- And Moderate-Income Households, Michael S. Barr, Jane K. Dokko

Articles

Using a unique household-level data set, this article investigates the taxfiling experiences and refund behavior of low- and moderate-income (LMI) households. We document households' tax-filing behavior, attitudes about the withholding system, use of tax refunds to consume and save, and the mechanisms by which households would prefer to receive their income. We also document the prevalence of the use of tax-preparation services and the receipt of tax refunds and refund-anticipation loans. Finally, we argue that there may be a role for tax administration to enable LMI households to make welfare-improving financial decisions.


From The Greedy To The Needy, Wendy G. Gerzog Jan 2008

From The Greedy To The Needy, Wendy G. Gerzog

All Faculty Scholarship

In some instances when the taxpayer makes a charitable donation, the loss of revenue to the government, and the corresponding gain to the taxpayer, far exceeds the benefit to the charity. Some of these losses may be generated by government sanctioned complex transactions and even government created devices. This article proposes a new way to examine "quid pro quo" charitable gifts that reflects the rationale for the charitable deduction.The article analyzes various charitable donations in terms of the dollars gained by the taxpayer, the dollars lost by the government, and the dollars received by the charity. After considering a sliding …


The Aches And Pains Of Transition To A Consumption Tax: Can We Get There From Here?, Daniel S. Goldberg Apr 2007

The Aches And Pains Of Transition To A Consumption Tax: Can We Get There From Here?, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses probably the most significant obstacle to the adoption of a consumption tax: the negative effects on existing wealth that the transition from the income tax to most forms of a consumption tax would have. The Congressional Budget Office in its 1997 study posed the question, “How to Get There from Here.” The difficulty with transition and the changes in the tax law since the CBO study, however, prompt the more basic question: “Can we get there from here?” This article deals with this question by examining the effects of transition on existing wealth under a variety of …


The Theory And Practice Of Tax Reform, Lawrence Zelenak Apr 2007

The Theory And Practice Of Tax Reform, Lawrence Zelenak

Michigan Law Review

On January 7, 2005, President Bush-flush with recent electoral victory- issued an Executive Order creating the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. The Order instructed the bipartisan Panel to recommend one or more plans for major reform of the federal income tax. The president did not, however, permit the Panel to begin its work on a blank slate. Instead, the Order required (among other things) that the Panel's proposals be revenue-neutral, simpler than current law, "appropriately progressive," and supportive of homeownership and charity. Although the Order contemplated that the Panel might offer more than one tax reform plan, it …


Taxing Consumption And Other Sins, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2007

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 …


Tax Consequences When A New Employer Bears The Cost Of The Employee's Terminating A Prior Employment Relationship, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn Jan 2007

Tax Consequences When A New Employer Bears The Cost Of The Employee's Terminating A Prior Employment Relationship, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn

Articles

The next few months will be busy ones for moving companies that have NCAA basketball coaches as customers. In the past few months, several men's college basketball coaches have accepted jobs at different schools. Several of those coaches, who were still under contract at their former institution, had buy out provisions that allowed them to terminate their relationship for a set price. John Beilein is a prominent example of this since his buy out price was so high. Last season, Beilein was the head basketball coach at West Virginia University where he was under contract with the school until 2012. …


Commentary, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2007

Commentary, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Book Chapters

David Rosenbloom has delivered an important lecture on an important topic: whether exploiting differences between the tax system of two different jurisdictions to minimize the taxes paid to either or both ("international tax arbitrage") is a problem, and if so, whether anything can be done about it in a world without a "world tax organization." As Rosenbloom states, international tax arbitrage is "the planning focus of the future," and recently has been the focus of considerable discussion and debate (for example, upon the promulgation and subsequent withdrawal under fire of Notice 98-11). Rosenbloom's lecture is one of the first attempts …


A Lifetime Income Tax, Herwig J. Schlunk Apr 2006

A Lifetime Income Tax, Herwig J. Schlunk

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Under current tax law, there can be considerable period-by-period divergence between a taxpayer's after-tax income and her desired or actual consumption. This divergence will cause the taxpayer to borrow. One can view such borrowing either as being incurred to fund consumption, or as being incurred to fund the taxpayer's income tax payments. If one takes the latter view, one can ask whether a good income tax law should force a taxpayer to borrow to pay her taxes. I answer the question in the negative, and propose a lifetime income tax that would eliminate the need for typical taxpayers to borrow …


Personal And Political Bias In The Debate Over Federal Income Taxation Rates And Progressivity, Richard J. Kovach Jan 2006

Personal And Political Bias In The Debate Over Federal Income Taxation Rates And Progressivity, Richard J. Kovach

Akron Tax Journal

Unlike the commentaries of flat tax proponents, this article will not attempt to dispel the notion of progressive taxation. Rather, this article will first question whether professors who write about tax policy can as a group reach unbiased conclusions about progressivity policy. Next, this article will address a few progressivity concepts that fuel taxation debates. Finally, this commentary will outline some ideas for structuring the federal income taxation system in ways that reduce political rancor and potentially create reasonable acceptance by tax producers, tax beneficiaries, and their respective advocates.


The Three Goals Of Taxation, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2006

The Three Goals Of Taxation, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The current debate in the United States about whether the income tax should be replaced with a consumption tax has been waged on the traditional grounds for evaluating tax policy: efficiency, equity, and administrability. For example, Joseph Bankman and David Weisbach recently argued for the superiority of an ideal consumption tax over an ideal income tax on three grounds: First, that the consumption tax is more efficient because it does not discriminate between current and future consumption,' while both income and consumption taxes have identical effect on work effort. Second, that the consumption tax is at least as good at …


Comparative Fiscal Federalism: What Can The U.S. Supreme Court And The European Court Of Justice Learn From Each Other's Tax Jurisprudence?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2006

Comparative Fiscal Federalism: What Can The U.S. Supreme Court And The European Court Of Justice Learn From Each Other's Tax Jurisprudence?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In October 2005, a group of distinguished tax experts from the European Union and the United States, who had never met before, convened at the University of Michigan Law School for a conference on "Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing the U.S. Supreme Court and European Court of Justice Tax Jurisprudence." The purpose of the conference was to shed comparative light on the very different approaches taken by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the U.S. Supreme Court to the question of fiscal federalism. The conference was sponsored by the U-M Law School, U-M's European Union Center, and Harvard Law School's …


The Report Of The President's Advisory Panel On Federal Tax Reform: A Critical Assessment And A Proposal, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2006

The Report Of The President's Advisory Panel On Federal Tax Reform: A Critical Assessment And A Proposal, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

ON November 1, 2005, The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform ("Panel") submitted its report ("Report") to the Secretary of the Treasury.1 At 272 pages, this is the most important and wide-ranging plan to reform the United States federal tax system since Blueprints for Basic Tax Reform (1977).2 While prospects for immediate action appear dim, the Report will no doubt be the basis of discussion of federal tax reform for a long time to come.


Taxes That Work: A Simple American Plan, Michael J. Graetz Jan 2006

Taxes That Work: A Simple American Plan, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

In November 2005, the President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform, appointed by President Bush to suggest options for reforming and simplifying the federal tax code, unanimously recommended two alternative plans: a "simplified income tax" (SIT) and a "growth and investment tax" (GIT). The two plans shared much in common. For example, both would: (1) Reduce the top marginal tax rate-to 33% under the SIT plan and 30% under GIT plan; (2) eliminate the alternative minimum tax (AMT); (3) replace the earned income tax credit (EITC) and refundable child credits with a "work credit"; (4) replace personal exemptions, the standard deduction, …


Taxation, Craig D. Bell Nov 2005

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

This article reviews significant developments in the law affecting Virginia taxation. Each section covers recent legislative changes, judicial decisions, and selected opinions or pronouncements from the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Virginia Attorney General over the past year. The overall purpose of this article is to provide Virginia tax and general practitioners with a concise overview of the recent developments in Virginia taxation most likely to have an impact on their practices. This article will not, however, discuss many of the numerous technical legislative changes to the State Taxation Code of Title 58.1.


The Community Income Theory Of The Charitable Contributions Deduction, Johnny Rex Buckles Oct 2005

The Community Income Theory Of The Charitable Contributions Deduction, Johnny Rex Buckles

Indiana Law Journal

The charitable contributions deduction, a longstanding yet controversial feature of the Internal Revenue Code, has been justified under subsidy theories and tax-base theories. Focusing on the latter, this Article presents and explains a new tax-base theory in support of the charitable contributions deduction-the community income theory. This theory posits that some income, designated as "community income, " is properly excluded from the personal income tax base because it is more naturally attributed to the community than to the individual members of the community. Adopting the presumption that the community generally should be treated as a tax exempt entity, this Article …


Computing Interest On Overpayments And Underpayments: How Difficult Can It Be? Very!, Mary A. Mcnulty, David H. Boucher, Joseph M. Incorvaia, Robert D. Probasco May 2005

Computing Interest On Overpayments And Underpayments: How Difficult Can It Be? Very!, Mary A. Mcnulty, David H. Boucher, Joseph M. Incorvaia, Robert D. Probasco

Faculty Scholarship

Taxpayers often assume that the difficult part of a tax dispute is resolving the tax liability and penalties, while interest computation is fairly straightforward. In the authors' experience, however, interest determinations are as subject to controversy and prone to error as tax liability determinations. The Article explores some of the areas that taxpayers should review carefully in the process of finalizing interest computations.

- Frequent Errors. The Article reviews twelve areas in which, even though the law is settled and the facts are usually clear, the Service's interest computations frequently include mistakes. Taxpayers need to be aware of these provisions, …


A New Understanding Of Tax, Edward J. Mccaffery Mar 2005

A New Understanding Of Tax, Edward J. Mccaffery

Michigan Law Review

Perhaps we should blame it all on Mill. A great deal and possibly all of the mind-numbing complexity of America's largest and least popular tax follows from the decision to have a progressive personal income tax. Proponents wanted an individual income tax notwithstanding - indeed, in large part because of - such a tax's "double taxation" of savings. This double-tax argument is an analytic point generally attributed to Mill's classic 1848 treatise, Principles of Political Economy. Historically, much of the support for the Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, came from Southern and Midwestern, progressive, agricultural interests, who wanted, in …


Vultures In Eagles' Clothing: Conspiracy And Racial Fantasy In Populist Legal Thought, Angela P. Harris Jan 2005

Vultures In Eagles' Clothing: Conspiracy And Racial Fantasy In Populist Legal Thought, Angela P. Harris

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article has three interrelated aims. First, I will briefly describe the online world of the legal populists. My second aim in this Article is to give an account of legal populism that connects it with the American tradition of conspiracy theory and with the political consciousness of survivalism. My third and final aim in this Article is to examine, as David Williams has done in a wonderful series of articles, the relationship between the nation dreamed of by many legal populists and the one inhabited by state-sanctioned legal insiders.


Closing The International Tax Gap, Joseph Guttentag, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2005

Closing The International Tax Gap, Joseph Guttentag, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Book Chapters

In July of 1999, the Justice Department entered into a plea bargain with one John M. Mathewson of San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Mathewson was accused of money laundering through the Guardian Bank and Trust Co. Ltd., a Cayman Islands bank. Mr. Mathewson was chairman and controlling shareholder of Guardian, and in that capacity had access to information on its depositors. In return for a reduced sentence, Mr. Mathewson turned over the names of the persons who had accounts at Guardian. The result was an eye-opener: The majority of the accounts were beneficially owned by U.S. citizens, and the reason they …


Brief For Prof. Stephen B. Cohen, Pro Se, As Amicus Curiae Supporting Respondents, Commissioner Of Internal Revenue V. Banks, Nos. 03-892 & 03-907 (U.S. Aug. 16, 2004), Stephen B. Cohen Aug 2004

Brief For Prof. Stephen B. Cohen, Pro Se, As Amicus Curiae Supporting Respondents, Commissioner Of Internal Revenue V. Banks, Nos. 03-892 & 03-907 (U.S. Aug. 16, 2004), Stephen B. Cohen

U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.


Does The Tax Law Discriminate Against The Majority Of American Children? The Downside Of Our Progressive Rate Structure And Unbalanced Incentives For Higher Education, Lester B. Snyder Aug 2004

Does The Tax Law Discriminate Against The Majority Of American Children? The Downside Of Our Progressive Rate Structure And Unbalanced Incentives For Higher Education, Lester B. Snyder

San Diego Law Review

Our graduate income tax structure provides an incentive to shift income to lower-bracket family members. However, some parents have much more latitude to shift income to their children than do others. Income derived from services and private business - by far the majority of American income - is less favored than income derived from publicly traded securities. The rationale given for this discrimination is that parents in services or private business, as opposed to those in securities, do not actually part with control of their property. This Article explores these tax broader (yet subtle) tax benefits and their impact on …


Designing A Work-Friendly Tax System, Jonathan Barry Forman Jun 2004

Designing A Work-Friendly Tax System, Jonathan Barry Forman

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Taxes tend to influence individual choices between labor and leisure, and high effective marginal tax rates on earned income tend to discourage work. In particular, the empirical evidence shows that high effective marginal tax rates tend to discourage work by low- and moderate-income individuals, especially those that are trying to work their way out of the welfare system. Unfortunately, the current federal tax system often imposes its highest effective marginal tax rates on just those individuals. The purpose of this paper is to suggest some simple ways to reduce those high effective marginal tax rates. One approach would be …


The U.S. Consumption Tax: Evolution, Not Revolution, Daniel S. Goldberg May 2004

The U.S. Consumption Tax: Evolution, Not Revolution, Daniel S. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

The article expresses the view that the current Internal Revenue Code has evolved into a hybrid income tax and consumption tax. It begins by explaining the difference between an income tax and a consumption tax and provides the backgrounds of the alternative forms of consumption tax: (1) consumed income, (2) yield exemption, and (3) point-of-sale taxation. Under the consumed income tax model of consumption tax, the individual taxpayer includes all items of income, both from labor and from capital, in its tax base, and then subtracts or deducts the portion of that income that he saves or invests. The resulting …