Taxation-Federal Estate and Gift Commons^™

Moore Questions, Some Answers: Fixing The Personal Tax System Despite Constitutional Constraints, David Gamage, John R. Brooks, Edward J. Mccaffery

Faculty Scholarship

Moore v United States was expected to rule on the constitutional necessity of the tax-law realization requirement originating from Eisner v Macomber, a potential impediment to progressive tax reform efforts aimed at shutting down the planning techniques of Buy Borrow Die. The various opinions in Moore, however, provided no definitive answer to this core question, instead leaving many more questions. Amid the lingering uncertainty, we argue that various responses to the problem of wealthy Americans’ not needing to pay any taxes remain possible after Moore. An incremental, “mix-and-match” approach to progressive tax reform may best suit the …

Getting Donor-Advised Funds Regulation Right: Closing The Public Support Test Loophole, Benjamin Leff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Donor-Advised Funds (“DAFs”) have been the subject of vigorous critical scholarship in the past two decades. This Article addresses two timely issues in DAF regulation: the theoretical justifications for extra strict regulation of DAFs, and, in light of those justifications, how to close a major loophole in the regulatory scheme. DAFs have been called “virtual private foundations” because they are similar in some respects to private foundations, but until two decades ago, they were treated for legal purposes as public charities. In 2006, Congress enacted legislation that both formally recognized DAFs for the first time and subjected them to several …

Taxation’S Limits, Luís C. Calderón Gómez

Articles

Countless pages have been devoted to the question of why everyone should pay tax, yet its opposite has gone largely unnoticed: why should some people and organizations not pay tax? Our tax system exempts from ordinary income taxation a wide and diverse array of people and organizations engaged in significant economic activity—from parents providing childcare services for their family to consular activities and charities operating animal shelters—seemingly without a convincing explanation. Perhaps because of the dizzying diversity of tax-exempt activities, scholars and policymakers have avoided comprehensively or coherently justifying our exemption regimes.

This Article develops a novel normative theory that …

Unintended Consequences Of Fetal Personhood Statutes: Examples From Tax, Trusts, And Estates, Bridget J. Crawford, Alexis C. Borders, Katherine Keating

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The laws of taxation, trusts, and estates are new fronts in the culture wars over abortion. After the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, some anti-abortion states enacted fetal personhood statutes that have the potential to unsettle and destabilize longstanding legal doctrines that otherwise create predictability and stability in the laws of taxation and succession. This Article makes three principal claims: descriptive, predictive, and normative. First, the Article explores how Dobbs opened the door for states like Georgia to treat zygotes-embryos-fetuses as “dependents” for state income tax purposes. Second, the Article identifies some of the …

The Realization Rule As A Legal Standard, Sloan G. Speck

Publications

The realization “rule” in tax law is better characterized as a legal standard. This characterization matters after the Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. United States, which sets the stage for future courts to decide that the Constitution mandates realization— an identifiable event before accrued income is reportable by taxpayers. The stakes of a constitutional realization requirement are underappreciated. Because current statutory law embeds realization as a background principle, a constitutional realization requirement would operate as a taxpayer-initiated antiabuse doctrine—a sword that taxpayers could use selectively to invalidate parts of the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations. This novel constitutional …

Keeping Current - Probate [Notes], Julia Koert, Paula Moore, William P. Lapiana, Jake W. Villanueva

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Keeping Current - Probate [Notes], Julia Koert, Paula Moore, William P. Lapiana, Jake W. Villanueva

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Keeping Current - Probate [Notes], Julia Koert, Paula Moore, William P. Lapiana, Jake W. Villanueva

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Keeping Current - Probate [Notes], Claire Hargrove, Paula Moore, William P. Lapiana, Jake W. Villanueva

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Once More Unto The Breach, Renee R. Roth, William P. Lapiana

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Strings Are Attached: Revealing The Hidden Subsidy For Perpetual Donor Limits On Gifts, Roger Colinvaux

Scholarly Articles

Charitable gifts often come with strings attached. Donors limit their gifts in many ways, by restricting an asset’s use or purpose, controlling the timing of spending (as in an endowment), securing naming rights, or by retaining effective control over the distribution or investment of the asset by giving to a charitable intermediary such as a donor advised fund or private foundation. Most donor limits are perpetual in nature and a form of dead hand control. The Article explains that default rules strongly favor donor limits. Property law allows donors wide latitude to place limits on gifts, and they are easy …

Remediating Injustices For Black Land Loss: Taking The Next Step To Protect Heirs' Property, Phyllis C. Taite

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Taxing Wealth: Strategic Methods To Address Growing Inequalities, Phyllis C. Taite

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Donor-Advised Funds In The Wake Of The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are conduits for charitable giving that support immediate tax deductions while creating a reservoir of assets for subsequent disposition to end-use charities. The number of new DAF accounts has skyrocketed in the wake of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). This Article presents evidence suggesting that bunching charitable contributions to game the TCJA-enhanced standard deduction likely motivates much of the onslaught of new DAF accounts established since 2016 and argues that the typical buncher is likely to differ from other DAF account holders in ways that matter from a policy perspective. Thus, while DAF critics …

Keeping Current - Probate [Notes], Claire Hargrove, Paula Moore, William P. Lapiana, Jake W. Villanueva

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Haunting Of Wealth Law, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

Wealth law is full of ghosts, ghosts everywhere all at once. As a form of both preservation and disruption, a form of continuance as well as a form of interruption, ghosts are reminders of the past in its multiple forms. But they are also figures that prompt consideration of the present as well as speculation about the future. Jacques Derrida, who suggested the idea of “hauntology,” posited haunting and the ghostly as being “time out of joint,” a reference to Hamlet’s confused cry upon seeing his father’s ghost that Derrida analyzes extensively. In this sense, ghosts are akin to inheritance, …

Substance Over Form In Transfer Tax Adjudication, Richard Schmalbeck, Jay A. Soled

Faculty Scholarship

The elevated exemption level under the federal transfer tax system (now in excess of $24 million for a married couple) has opened up new and abusive tax-avoidance opportunities. In many areas of the tax law, the substance over form doctrine historically has been effective in controlling such abuses; however, for a myriad of reasons, transfer tax jurisprudence has been marred by the reluctance of courts to embrace this doctrine. In this analysis, we urge reconsideration of that posture.

Broken Infrastructure, Del C. Wright Jr.

Faculty Works

This article examines the cryptocurrency-related provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, focusing on amendments to the Internal Revenue Code that expand tax reporting and surveillance obligations for digital assets. Specifically, it analyzes the new “Broker” and “Tax” provisions, which extend reporting requirements beyond traditional financial intermediaries to actors in the blockchain ecosystem who may lack access to the necessary data. The article situates these provisions within the broader regulatory and political context, tracing their roots to prior Treasury rulemaking efforts and exploring their intended role in closing the “tax gap.” It highlights the significant compliance challenges, …

Estate Planning For Cannabis Business Owners: An Introduction, Bridget J. Crawford, Jonathan G. Blattmachr

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

As more states legalize cannabis sales, estate planners may increasingly be called upon to advise clients with interests in cannabis-related businesses. This essay seeks to assist estate planners in two ways. First, it aims to raise general awareness of cannabis business owners' unique concerns. Second, the essay provides an overview of some of the fundamental issues about which cannabis business owners are likely to seek estate planning advice: business formation matters, wealth transfers, the ability of trusts to own cannabis-related businesses, and gift, estate, and income tax considerations.

In most states that permit legal cannabis sales, there is limited (or …

Why A Federal Wealth Tax Is Constitutional, Ari Glogower, David Gamage, Kitty Richards

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The 2020 Democratic presidential primaries brought national attention to a new direction for the tax system: a federal wealth tax for the wealthiest taxpayers. During their campaigns, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) both introduced proposals to tax the wealth of multimillionaires and billionaires, and to use the revenue for public investments, including in health care and education. These reforms generated broad public support—even among many Republicans—and broadened the conversation over the future of progressive tax reform.

A well-designed, high-end wealth tax can level the playing field in an unequal society and promote shared economic prosperity.

Critics have …

The Rich, Lucas A. Santos

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

The rise of the super rich dramatically rose in the 1980’s. The once dominant oil and gas sector was taken over by finance and technology overall. We are able to see a rise of these super rich, or the one percent, and even how quickly they were able to recover from the 2008 Recession. Now, the one percent are making continuous substantial gains in a current world, where a pandemic has struck and many are struggling. I talk about the use of public policy in order to regain this economic gap between the one percent and the rest of the …

Basis And Bargain Sales: Income Tax And Other Concerns, Bridget J. Crawford, Jonathan G. Blattmachr

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this article, the authors explain the income tax consequences of the sale during lifetime and at death of property for less than fair market value. The authors focus in particular on the tax consequences of a bargain sale by a transferor who wishes to confer some financial benefit on a family member, but leave the rest of her estate to charity. Generally speaking, death-time bargain sales may be preferable to similar transactions during lifetime, if the assets have a low basis pre-death, because of the step up in income tax basis under section 1014. The authors also discuss in …

Reforming State Corporate Income Taxes Can Yield Billions, Darien Shanske, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The federal government should be providing states and localities with hundreds of billions of dollars in aid. The arguments against such aid, including the claim that the states have somehow been profligate, do not stand up to scrutiny. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that the federal government will do enough, and it is already the case that the federal government is acting too slowly. States and local governments, which generally operate under balanced budget constraints, are, accordingly, already making sweeping cuts4 that will deepen the recession and reduce services when they are most needed.

Rather than make these cuts, it would …

Can The Wealth Tax Effectively Serve As A Backdrop To Estate And Gift Taxes?, Phyllis C. Taite

Other Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Making Tax Policy Great Again: America, You've Been Trumped, Phyllis C. Taite

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Waging War On Dynastic Wealth With A Wealth Tax, Phyllis C. Taite

Other Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Critical Tax Project, Feminist Theory, And Rewriting Judicial Opinions, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Introduction to Symposium on Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Tax Opinions.

Elaine Gagliardi On The Family Limited Partnership In 2018: Powell, Cahill, And Income Tax Basis At Death, Elaine H. Gagliardi

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

The Tax Court’s 2017 holding in Estate of Powell v. Commissioner1 followed by its 2018 decision in Estate of Cahill v. Commissioner,2 signals a need to rethink how best to structure the family limited partnership and the terms of the partnership agreement. In a shift away from its historical approach to analyzing gross estate inclusion of family limited partnership assets, the Powell court endorses application of Section 2036(a)(2)3 to include the value of partnership assets in decedent’s gross estate, and in an unprecedented step employs Section 2043 to determine the value of family limited partnership assets includible in the gross …

Determining An Asset's Tax Basis In The Absence Of A Meaningful Transfer Tax Regime, Jay A. Soled, Richard L. Schmalbeck

Faculty Scholarship

Until recently, in those circumstances where there was a valuation range with respect to a particular asset, executors faced a choice: among estates subject to the estate tax, declaring a high value would increase the estate tax liability; however, due to the Internal Revenue Code's "basis equal to fair market value" rule applicable at death, declaring a low value would expose heirs to a greater capital gains tax on subsequent asset disposition. Because the estate tax rates were higher and that tax was immediate (as opposed to deferred until a later sale by the heir), executors typically minimized asset values, …

Improving Tax Rules By Means-Testing: Bridging Wealth Inequality And "Ability To Pay", James M. Puckett

Faculty Scholarship

The federal income tax can and should do more to address wealth disparities and income inequality. The income tax does not directly count wealth, and the realization rule and basis "step-up" at death exclude substantial amounts of income for the wealthy. The Constitution limits Congress's ability to tax wealth. Despite these serious challenges, this Article considers how to potentially bridge the gap between wealth and the income tax. For example, asset-based phase-outs in the income tax should pass muster without apportionment, although their bite would necessarily be limited. The Article posits that the public would be more receptive to phase-outs …