Tax Law Commons^™

Introduction To The Tax Simplification Symposium, Stephen Black

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Ours is a voluntary tax system. That is, we rely, in large measure, upon the honesty of the citizens to report and pay the correct amount of tax. However, as another April 15 has come and gone, we realize that this reliance casts an increasingly larger and larger burden upon the citizens, even amidst some of the largest tax cuts in history. Why?

In 2000, 71 million Americans paid an estimated $14.7 billion to paid tax preparers.1 The most prevalent reason is that most Americans are afraid to have errors on their return. Despite the fact that the Internal …

Private Lands Conservation In The U.S. Virgin Islands, Sonja Klopf, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

61 p. ; 28 cm

Social Security Reform: An Expository Report, Nathan J. Voss

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Myth Of Ownership / Myth Of Government, Jeffrey Schoenblum

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Indisputably, the lives of all individuals, now and throughout history, have not been commensurate in every respect. No individual has the most of everything at all times - net worth, love, happiness, security, companionship, fame, food, land, grandchildren, or whatever else he or she values.1 Nevertheless, a utopian strain in intellectual thought, emanating as the Enlightenment afterglow,2 continues to place its faith in the public construction of an ersatz equality that has never existed naturally.3 The Myth of Ownership, a recent book by two New York University law/philosophy professors, Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel, is a striking exemplar of this …

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 …

Corporate Finance, Corporate Law And Finance Theory, Peter H. Huang, Michael S. Knoll

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Conundrum Of Executive Compensation, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

Much of the scholarship on executive compensation that appears in law reviews assumes that large U.S. corporations overpay their chief executive officers ("CEOs"). This assumption is understandable, as many of these compensation packages are indeed stunning. The question of whether CEOs are overpaid, however, is complicated. Some scholars in other disciplines, principally in economics and management science, have studied the issue but, as this Article demonstrates, this literature does not confirm the assumption. Indeed, some studies suggest that CEO pay is competitive. Moreover, efforts to reduce the level of executive compensation may have the unintended consequence of achieving the opposite …

Ten Limitations To Ponder On Farm Limited Liability Companies, Jesse Richardson, L. Leon Geyer

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Are Frequent Flyer Benefits Really Benefits: An Analysis Of The Frequent Flyer Tax Debate And A New Theory Of Taxability For Frequent Flyer Benefts , Jennifer A. Cunningham

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note will begin with a brief history of frequent flyer programs and an explanation of how they operate, followed by a closer look at the traditional arguments for nontaxability of mileage earned on personal flights, taxability of mileage earned on business flights for an employer, and proposed theories for valuing the taxable mileage. Next, it will summarize failed attempts by both the courts and the legislature to resolve the issue. After establishing this background, the Note will explore the concept of gross income, particularly as reflected by section 61 of the Internal Revenue Code and interpreted by case law …

The American Dream In Legislation: The Role Of Popular Symbols In Wealth Tax Policy, William S. Blatt

Articles

No abstract provided.

Determining An Individual's Federal Income Tax Liability When The Tax Benefit Rule Applies: A Fifty-Year Checkup Brings A New Prescription For Calculating Gross, Adjusted Gross, And Taxable Incomes, Matthew J. Barrett

Journal Articles

The tax benefit rule should be described to indicate that it applies to credits and exclusions besides deductions, and deduction recoveries should be reported in the same location as was affected initially. The recovery should not affect gross income, for the purpose of tax equity. The recovery should rather affect either taxable income or adjusted gross income. The IRS and the courts should adopt this new description and principles.

The Indivisible Tax Gift, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

In Greene v. United States, the District Court for the Southern District of New York recently rewarded (with an income tax refund) the taxpayers' ingenuity in designing a charitable gift. The court did so, however, without discussion of a central issue in the case. Had it considered the nature of the gift more carefully, it might have denied or modified the claimed deduction.

What Has The Supreme Court Done - The Home Office Deductions Is Virtually Eliminated After Soliman, Robert J. Gerlack

Cleveland State Law Review

The purpose of this comment is to discuss the relatively short history of Internal Revenue Code § 280A and to discuss the cases leading up to the United States Supreme Court decision of Commissioner v. Soliman. The scope of the discussion will be limited to I.R.C. § 280A(c)(1)(A), which provides for a home office deduction if the dwelling unit is exclusively used on a regular basis and is the principal place of business for any trade or business. As will be discussed below, the Supreme Court has developed various standards to determine whether a home office deduction will be allowed. …

Cost Basis, Not Carryover Basis, For Corporate Transferees, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

Prof. Feld writes to the editor in a letter regarding Cal Johnson's letter "Issuer's FMV Basis Is Not Carried Over" (Tax Notes, July 6, 1992, p. 115).

Is An Employment-Discrimination Award Taxable?, L. Scott Stafford

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Section 752(C): The Other Issue In Tufts V. Commissioner, L. Scott Stafford

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Of Federal Income Taxes To Toxic Wastes: A Selective Study, Richard A. Westin

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

More demanding federal regulation, universal local opposition to waste treatment and disposal facilities, and increased long-term liabilities for waste sites have substantially restricted the supply of licensed waste handlers and have sharply increased the costs of waste disposal. As a result of increased costs and downstream liabilities for cleanup, industrial generators have begun to examine more closely their waste management practices and opportunities they may have to reduce the amount of hazardous waste they generate.

The urgent need to marshal the full range of industrial strategies to achieve significant reduction in the amount and toxicity of hazardous waste and the …

Indirect Aid To The Arts, Michael O'Hare, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

Most government support of arts institutions is indirect—the result of charitable deduction provisions of the federal income tax, property tax exemptions extended by local governments, and other tax provisions. The money that government forgoes through these provisions must be made up by higher taxes for all taxpayers. The public, however, has little say about how these funds are spent. By its very nature, the income tax deduction places the decision-making power over arts institutions in the hands of those with high incomes. Those with high incomes receive a greater tax benefit for each dollar they contribute, increasing the amounts they …

Fairness In Rate Cuts In The Individual Income Tax, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (the 1981 Act) made significant changes in federal income, estate, and gift taxation, touching virtually every taxpayer.¹ The centerpiece of the 1981 Act consisted of rate reductions in the individual income tax.² These reductions, said to average 23%, served a number of different but related objectives. First, those in favor of the tax cuts posited that all taxpayers would benefit from equitable, across-the-board reductions in an excessive and growing tax burden.³ Related to this objective was an anticipated reduction in the size of the federal government, because less tax money …

Income Tax Treaty Shopping: An Overview Of Prevention Techniques, Kenneth A. Grady

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The Internal Revenue Service in recent years has been particularly concerned about third-country residents use of bilateral income tax treaties to avoid paying tax on United States source income. Although third-country residents have benefitted from United States bilateral income tax treaties for more than twenty years, the loss of tax revenue from such unintended use was not considered a major problem. The recent proliferation of tax treaties between the United States and tax havens which resulted in an increased loss of tax revenues, however, has caused the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to change its evaluation of the treaty shopping problem. …

Foreign Investors Real Property Tax Act: Historical Perspective And Critical Evaluation, William D. Metzger

Faculty Scholarship

This Article first discusses the United States tax treatment of foreigners generally and the pre-Foreign Investors Real Property Tax Act withholding and taxation scheme with respect to foreign investment in United States real estate. Then follows a discussion of the several ways in which foreign investors were, before the Act, able to avoid tax on the disposition of United States real estate and a critical evaluation of the Act's response to those avoidance methods. Finally, a discussion of the Act's enforcement provisions and a general discussion of withholding of tax on nonresidents is provided.

Is An Interest Deduction For Personal Debt A Tax Expenditure?, Alan Gunn

Journal Articles

In the United States, generally all interest payments are deductible. In Canada, by contrast, only interest that is incurred for a business purpose is deductible. In both countries, however, the deduction for interest paid on debts connected with the acquisition of a personal asset is commonly analyzed and defended as if it were a tax expenditure. Thus, in the United States the "Deductibility of Mortgage Interest on Owner-Occupied Homes" (which constitutes about 60 per cent of all deductions for interest paid) and the "Deductibility of Interest on Consumer Credit" are included in all published tax expenditure lists. In Canada, the …

Carryover Basis: An Observation, An Irony, And A Proposal, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

Alan L. Feld is a Boston University Law School professor and visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In this article Feld describes the changes in the treatment of capital gains transferred at death that were enacted in the Tax Reform Act of 1976. Feld notes that tax reformers would have preferred to tax capital gains at death but accepted the carryover basis provision as a second-best solution.

He reports that in the case of the very largest estates, the combined, effect of carryover basis and the lower estate tax rates results at most in a total estate …

Taxation--"Section 306 Stock", Edward G. Kennedy

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

War Tax Refusal: Some Code Problems, William Tabac

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Throughout our history, many individuals and groups have employed tax refusal to make their points. Frustration with government policies and cynicism about the leaders who create them are driving more and more Americans toward radical forms of dissent. Civil disobedience is on the increase and struggling for status among protestors. So far attacks against the "establishment," its mores and property, have alternated between passive law breaking, such as tax and draft refusal, to the increasingly commonplace destruction of that which the protestors detests. But the mix is not equal, and this is demonstrated dramatically in the case of tax refusal. …

Income Tax--Corporate Reorganizations-Spin-Offs, Raymond Albert Hinerman

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Decedents' Estates, Trusts And Future Interest -- 1964 Tennessee Survey, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Validity of Instrument Which Only Appoints Fiduciary--Is an instrument which makes no testamentary gift, but only designates or appoints the personal representative to administer the estate and provides certain special powers of fiduciary administration entitled to probate as a valid will? While it has been said that there need be no dispositive gift of property to entitle a testamentary writing to probate as a will,' there seems to have been no definite court decision in Tennessee so holding until the recent case of Delaney v. First Peoples Bank of Johnson City. In that case a writing properly executed with the …

Income Tax--Embezzled Funds Represent Taxable Income, John Everett Busch

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Income Tax--Transactional Entered Into For Profit--Proper Basis For Computing Deductible Loss, Aaron David Trub

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Income Tax Aspects Of Real Estate Developments By Multiple Corporations, Audy Michael Perry

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.