Tax Law Commons^™

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

2002 Eleventh Circuit Survey: Federal Taxation, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

During 2002 federal courts in the United States decided nineteen cases that directly impact federal tax law in the Eleventh Circuit. These cases involve a variety of tax law matters including Federal Insurance Contributions Act ("FICA") payroll tax, estate and gift tax, IRS authority to levy and assess tax, and discharges in bankruptcy. Other tax-related matters addressed by courts in 2002 that impact tax law in the Eleventh Circuit include inventory recapture in an S-corporation conversion, attorney fees for the prevailing party in a tax dispute, and injunctions against tax preparers. By far the most important tax case decided in …

Tax Incentives: A Means Of Encouraging Research And Development For Homeland Security?, Jennifer L. Venghaus

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Child Tax Credit: How To Phase-Out Family Values, Jonnie M. Jennings

St. Thomas Law Review

In recent years, the integrity of our nation's tax system has been challenged with every new section added to the current Internal Revenue Code ("I.R.C." or the "Code") because Congress has created an unrealistic task of tax calculation for the average taxpayer. It is goal of the Code to express progress in how we tax ourselves, which is done by striving for a certain level of fairness in horizontal and vertical equity. One of the ways that Congress attempts to meet this goal is through developing certain personal credits and deductions but then providing for the phasing-out of benefits in …

An International Tax Regime In Crystallization, Yariv Brauner

UF Law Faculty Publications

The grand illusion of a single, worldwide, tax system that will eliminate all international inefficiencies, and assist all the nations of the world to maximize their relative advantages, is, as commonly accepted, utopian. The tax, academic and professional, writing in the field of international taxation, and cross-border interaction, between tax systems and jurisdictions has grown, exponentially, in the last decade, but no significant work has been done to prove, or disprove, the naivety of this hypothesis. Some scholars and tax executives, in certain international organizations, have discussed ideas along this line, but no single organization has, seriously, attempted to promote …

A Resource Guide To Tax Law Careers, Robert H. Hu

Faculty Articles

This Guide is designed to assist law students and attorneys in the pursuit of careers in tax law. It is also intended for librarians and career counselors to readily find tax law career information so that they can assist their clients effectively. It includes resources in both print (for example, books and articles) and electronic formats (for example, Web sites). Each item included has a brief annotation so that the user can quickly decide the relevancy and value of that item.

Race Conscious Affirmative Action By Tax Exempt 501(C)(3) Corporations After Grutter And Gratz, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment generally acts as a legal limit on the permissible bounds of government action. Accordingly, public universities and other government entities are constitutionally prohibited from engaging in acts that violate equal protection of the laws. The Supreme Court recently reinforced this point when it ruled, in two related cases, that public universities may consider the race of applicants when making admissions decisions, so long as an applicant's race does not amount to a deciding factor when granting admission. By its very terms, the constitutional limitation imposed by the Equal Protection Clause only directly …

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 …

Charities And The Constitution: Evaluating The Role Of Constitutional Principles In Determining The Scope Of Tax Law's Public Policy Limitation For Charities, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article expands the discussion of whether tax-exempt charities, for constitutional law purposes, should be treated as government actors, as private actors or as something in between. While government actors are subject to constitutional law restrictions concerning discrimination and free speech, private non-government actors are not generally subject to these same restrictions. Although tax-exempt charities are often thought of as sovereigns and, thus, government-like, the fact remains that charities are private entities created to serve public purposes. As private entities, charities - like all other private entities - are not necessarily bound by constitutional law principles. Still, the many “public” …

Why Repeal Of The Death Tax Means The Second Demise Of Substantive Due Process, Paul E. Mcgreal

San Diego Law Review

Death and taxes. For the first two centuries of American democracy, the former has been the province of Providence, the latter the concern of Congress. Congress has focused on the Internal Revenue Code, leaving death to the aging process, human folly, religion, and Darwinian forces. In a stunning power grab, Congress recently upset this order, asserting control over both domains. No longer satisfied to allow life to run its

course, Congress has sought to hasten accrual of the Death Tax. simply, Congress has sanctioned the killing of rich Baby Boomers.

Revisiting The Taxation Of Punitive Damages, Gregg D. Polsky, Dan Markel

Scholarly Works

In our recent article, Taxing Punitive Damages, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1421879, we argued (1) that plaintiffs in punitive damages cases should be allowed to introduce to the jury evidence regarding the deductibility of those damages by defendants, and (2) that this jury tax-awareness approach is better than the Obama Administration’s suggested alternative of disallowing those deductions.

To our delight, Professor Larry Zelenak and Paul Mogin have each provided published comments to our piece on Virginia Law Review's In Brief companion website. Professor Zelenak’s thoughtful response focuses on our prescriptive claim that jury tax-awareness is better than nondeductibility, while Mr. Mogin disputes …

Crumbs For Oliver Twist: Resolving The Conflict Between Tax And Support Claims In Bankruptcy, Michelle A. Cecil

Faculty Publications

This article is premised on the assumption that the congressional goal of preferring support claims over federal income tax claims is indeed a laudable one, based on three interrelated policy justifications. First, support claimants are unable to spread their risk of loss like the government is able to do by raising tax rates or increasing tax revenue from other sources. As three prominent bankruptcy scholars noted in their recent study of consumer bankruptcy entitled The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt:

Tax Expenditures, Social Justice And Civil Rights: Expanding The Scope Of Civil Rights Laws To Apply To Tax-Exempt Charities, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In recent years, courts have decided a number of cases in which private organizations discriminated against people based solely on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or other immutable traits. For example, in 2000, the Boy Scouts of America revoked a New Jersey man's membership in the Boy Scouts because he was gay. New Jersey's supreme court held that the Boy Scouts' action violated New Jersey's anti-discrimination law. Notwithstanding the state court's holding, the United States Supreme Court concluded that the First Amendment prevented any court from forcing the Boy Scouts to keep a gay man as a member of its …

First Bite And The Private Benefit Doctrine: A Comment On Temporary And Proposed Regulation 53.4958-4t(A)(3), Darryll K. Jones

Journal Publications

The purpose of this article, then, is first to show how the Service's concession to the first bite rule, without a corresponding restatement of the private benefit doctrine, renders the public powerless to prevent a charity's distribution of profit in certain significant circumstances. In the absence of corrective action, the more aggressive and savvy charities will quickly recognize and exploit the loophole. Second, the article discusses and refines a proposal I have previously made concerning a restatement of the private benefit doctrine in a manner that would close the loophole. Since the private benefit doctrine is very closely related to …

The Supreme Court Justice And "Boring" Cases, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

This is a short essay discussing the phenomenon of boring cases at the Supreme Court. It examines two letters written by Supreme Court Justices to sick colleagues–a 1903 letter from Chief Justice E.D. White to William Day, and a 1941 letter from William O. Douglas to Hugo Black. The essay argues that one true and underappreciated measure of the worth of a Supreme Court Justice is not merely their ability to be (or at least appear to be) brilliant in the once-a-decade blockbuster cases. Instead, in selecting Supreme Court Justices, we should look just as much at their ability to …

The Use And Misuse Of Antiabuse Rules: Lessons From The Partnership Antiabuse Regulations, Alan Gunn

Journal Articles

Subchapter K of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code was designed to achieve simplicity and flexibility in taxing partners. To limit this flexibility the regulations under subchapter K contain "antiabuse rules", aimed at insuring that subchapter K rules are applied consistently, with the "intent" of those rules in mind and allowing the Commissioner to treat a partnership as an aggregate of its partners in applying any Internal Revenue Code provision. Though antiabuse rules have received harsh criticism for being badly written, they are valuable in many ways. Such rules define abuse as something distinct in principle from substance-over-form and business purpose …

The Power Of The Treasury: Racial Discrimination, Public Policy, And "Charity" In Contemporary Society, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The Treasury Department is empowered to enforce “established public policy” with respect to tax-exempt charities. Under this public policy power, the Treasury has revoked the tax-exempt charitable status of organizations that discriminated against blacks, organizations whose members engaged in civil disobedience against war, and organizations involved in illegal activity. The Treasury interprets its public policy power as applying to any activity that violates clear public policy. Thus, presumably, the Treasury could use this power to deny tax-exempt charitable status to an organization that engages in conduct that violates assisted suicide laws, anti-abortion laws, or other sufficiently “established” public policies.

The …

The Death Of The "Death Tax"?: An Introduction, Deborah A. Geier

Cleveland State Law Review

I would like to consider the question: What brings us together today to consider the possible repeal of the estate tax? We would not likely be here today if the repeal of the estate tax were not a serious political possibility, and it would not likely be a serious political possibility if many middle-class taxpayers earning the median household income of about $40,000 to $50,000 per year did not support outright repeal, rather than much needed reform. The article then explains why taxpayers support outright repeal today when they would not have done so even ten years ago. The article …

Death Taxes: A Critique From The Margin, Patricia A. Cain

Cleveland State Law Review

The proper taxation of the family under both the income tax and the estate tax has been debated for ages. It is an old issue. My purpose, however, is to consider the issue from a perspective somewhat different from that of those who have debated the issue over the years. My perspective is the perspective of the marginalized taxpayer. I critique from this perspective to see if it can tell us anything new about the old debate and to ensure that the ultimate tax treatment is just as to all taxpayers. The estate tax is supposed to be a tax …

Addressing Inequities In The Collection Of Social Security Taxes For U.S. Citizens Working Abroad

San Diego Law Review

Social Security and Medicare taxes are imposed on employee wages and self-employment earnings prior to retirement. One half of the tax is. paid by the employer and one half by the employee, with the employer's portion being paid out of the general funds of the business and the

employee's portion being subtracted from her wages. With a self- employed individual, the outcome changes. The totality of the tax

remains the same; however, the self-employed individual assumes responsibility for both halves of the Social Security and Medicare taxes!

The same amount of tax is paid, but it is paid completely by …

The Scintilla Of Individual Profit: In Search Of Private Inurement And Excess Benefit, Darryll K. Jones

Journal Publications

Private inurement certainly manifests itself in "protean" ways, but regardless of form, the prohibition against private inurement must be rendered consistent with the generally accepted notion that exempt entities are singularly distinguishable from taxable entities by the act of forbearance with respect to individual profit, since that is the distinction the prohibition was originally intended to enforce. Rendering the prohibition consistent with the single notion underlying the existence and theories of tax-exemption will resolve much of its elasticity, elusiveness, and long-lasting evolution. Such a result is necessary and good not only because of the imposition of personal liability under section …

Advertisements And Sponsorships In Charitable Cyberspace: Virtual Reality Meets Legal Fiction, Darryll K. Jones

Journal Publications

By now, it is perhaps cliche to quote Sir Walter Scott's familiar refrain' when referring to communications occurring via the World Wide Web (the Web). And yet, that age-old wisdom comes readily to mind when one considers the unrelated business income tax (UBIT) as it relates to charities that, for consideration paid, participate in a profit-seeker's web-based marketing communications. That first lie, to be precise, is that a charity's payment-induced, unlimited public display of a profit-seeker's logo, slogan and product, when unaccompanied by "comparative or qualitative descriptions" or explicit requests to buy, results in no trade or business income for …

State Taxation Of Interstate Commuters: Constitutional Doctrine In Search Of Empirical Analysis, David Schultz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

United States -- Tax Treatment For "Foreign Sales Corporations" Wto Doc. Wt/Ds108/Ab/R, Stanley I. Langbein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Corporate Nonrecognition Provisions: A Comparison Of The U.S. And Canadian Tax Regimes, Catherine Brown, Christine Manolakas

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article compares the rules governing the federal income taxation of corporate reorganizations in Canada with those in the United States, including transfers of property to a corporation, corporate divisions, share-for-share exchanges, amalgamations or mergers, recapitalizations, and corporate dissolutions. The paper outlines the provisions governing a particulartype of corporate transaction, compares the Canadian tax results with those of the United States, comments on any differences between particular tax provisions, and examines the practical implications of these differences. The authors conclude that although there are a number of parallels between the U.S. and Canadian tax systems, fundamental differences exist that change …

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 …

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 …

Child Care And Federal Tax Policy (Symposium: Women, Equity And Federal Tax Policy: Open Questions), Ann F. Thomas

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.