Taxation-Federal Commons^™

Unbundling Social Security From The Payroll Tax, Henry Ordower

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To preserve social security as a welfare program primarily for older individuals and to ameliorate the distributional inequity of funding social security across income and wealth levels, this article recommends unbundling the benefit side of social security from its longstanding payroll tax funding mechanism. The article recommends replacing the payroll tax revenue with a budget allocation from general revenues accompanied by both revenue raisers and benefit limitations. Income tax rate increases linked to repeal of the FICA tax and tax expenditure limitations would enhance income tax revenue. Modifying social security benefits from their current overinclusive, entitlement structure for all to …

New York’S Proposed Mark-To-Market Tax Decouples From Federal Tax, Henry Ordower

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A proposal decouples NY from federal tax computations to tax billionaires on unrealized appreciation. If enacted, the proposal generates basis discontinuities across borders but enhances state revenue and may prove attractive to many states. The article reviews how states seek to enhance revenues and considers issues of cross-border taxation and the fundamental right to travel.

Abandoning Realization And The Transition Tax: Toward A Comprehensive Tax Base, Henry Ordower

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The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 imposed a tax, the “transition tax,” on as much as 31 years of undistributed, accumulated corporate income. This article focus on that transition tax as it evaluates thefunction and constitutionality of the tax and considers whether the transition tax might serve as a model for addressing the broader problem of deferred income in the United States. The article views the transition taxas joining the expatriation tax and other mark to market inclusion provisions in abandoning any pretext that there is continued vitality in the realization principle as something more compelling than any …

The Negative Capital Account Maze, Walter D. Schwidetzky

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Outside Hubert I and Hubert II, there has been little discussion of negative capital accounts in the tax context and almost no discussion in the nontax context. Nontax law, however, is critically important. This report provides an integrated discussion of the application of tax and nontax law to negative capital accounts.

One of the challenges in writing this report is that it requires a discussion of both the at-risk rules of section 465 and the debt allocation rules of section 752. Complex issues involving sections 465 and 752 and their interaction are worthy of their own articles. Indeed, others have …

Partnership Tax Allocations: The Basics, Walter D. Schwidetzky

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This article endeavors to help practitioners who are not partnership tax allocation experts identify when they should consult with those with that expertise. The partnership-allocation Treasury Regulations have been called "a creation of prodigious complexity ... essentially impenetrable to all but those with the time, talent, and determination to become thoroughly prepared experts on the subject." This article is written for those, to date at least, without that time and determination. At the same time, the article provides an introduction to the partnership tax allocation rules for those contemplating making the requisite investment of time and determination.

The term "partnership," …

The Expatriation Tax, Deferrals, Mark To Market, The Macomber Conundrum And Doubtful Constitutionality, Henry M. Ordower

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Taxpayers shift income offshore with lawful devices like operating through a foreign corporation. Taxpayers have enhanced the amount of that income lodged outside the U.S. with transfer pricing strategies. Andtaxpayers have evaded U.S. taxation of their worldwide income by secreting assets and income in tax haven, bank secrecy jurisdictions. Statutes, regulations and litigation seek to limit use of offshore opportunities toavoid the U.S. income tax. Penalties for taxpayers and their foreign hosts have been enacted to prevent thehiding of assets offshore. This article reviews many of those techniques and statutory or regulatory responses in the context of examining the 2008 …

Permitting Abused Spouses To Claim The Earned Income Tax Credit In Separate Returns, Fred B. Brown

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The earned income tax credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit for federal income tax purposes that is generally available to lowincome taxpayers who have income from either employment or selfemployment. The EITC is currently the largest government program providing aid to low-income individuals. The subsidy provided by the EITC is of particular importance to individuals subjected to domestic abuse, given that such individuals are often impoverished, and the EITC can provide them with the financial resources necessary to improve, endure, or leave an abusive relationship.

Despite the importance of the EITC, married individuals subjected to domestic abuse face serious …

A Simpler Verifiable Gift Tax, Wendy G. Gerzog

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The purpose of this article is to propose a simpler verifiable gift tax, to reassert basic principles of transfer taxes, to encourage simple, outright gifts, and to eliminate some of the major abuses in the current gift tax regime. To accomplish these goals, the proposed tax would simplify gift completion rules, adopt a hard-to-complete rule of transfer taxation, reduce the annual exclusion while expanding the consumption exclusion, and employ loss of preference inducements to increase gift tax compliance.

Integrating Subchapters K And S And Beyond, Walter D. Schwidetzky

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This Article builds upon a similar, lengthier effort that I published in the Tax Lawyer in 2009. While there is overlap, this Article contains much new material. Important case law and tax proposals from the House Ways and Means Committee have come out in the interim. Due to space limitations, unlike my Tax Lawyer effort, this Article attempts to avoid prolixity. It assumes the reader has good knowledge of both Subchapters S and K and the tax entity selection process. If you are not that reader, a review of my Tax Lawyer article or Professor Mann's article in this symposium …

Federalism And Phantom Economic Rights In Nfib V. Sibelius, Matthew Lindsay

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Few predicted that the constitutional fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would turn on Congress’ power to lay and collect taxes. Yet in NFIB v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court upheld the centerpiece of the Act — the minimum coverage provision (MCP), commonly known as the “individual mandate” — as a tax. The unexpected basis of the Court’s holding has deflected attention from what may prove to be the decision’s more constitutionally consequential feature: that a majority of the Court agreed that Congress lacked authority under the Commerce Clause to penalize people who decline to purchase health insurance. …

What's Wrong With A Federal Inheritance Tax?, Wendy G. Gerzog

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Scholars have proposed a federal inheritance tax as an alternative to the current federal transfer tax, but there are serious flaws with that idea. In existing inheritance tax systems, those problems include: (1) different tax rates and exemptions based on the decedent’s relationship to the beneficiary; (2) the lack of a tax on lifetime gratuitous transfers, including gifts with retained interests or control; and (3) the persistence of most current valuation distortion abuses. In any inheritance tax model, moreover, there would be significantly decreased compliance rates and increased administrative costs because by focusing on the transferees instead of the transferor, …

Pass-Through Entity Reform: Is A Major Overhaul Necessary?, Walter D. Schwidetzky

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No abstract provided.

Van Alen: A Reasonable Consistency, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In Van Alen, the Tax Court held that the duty of consistency required that two of the decedent’s children use the section 2032A basis valuation figures to determine gain on the sale of their interest in the decedent’s ranch, which was left to them in trust. The siblings had argued that their stepmother erroneously completed their father’s estate tax return.

Income Imputation: Toward Equal Treatment Of Renters And Owners, Henry Ordower

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This chapter argues that fundamental fairness principles demand changes in U.S. tax law to place those who rent on an equal tax footing with those who own their residences. The disparity in tax treatment of owners and renters results primarily from the failure of the tax law to include the use value from investment of capital in a personal residence in the incomes of owners. While the yield from investment in a personal residence is not cash, the yield is valuable as it replaces an outlay for dwelling use the owner otherwise would have to make. That occupancy right as …

Retreat From Progressive Taxation In The Swedish Welfare State: Does Immigration Matter?, Henry Ordower

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This paper questions whether late twentieth century immigration patterns may have contributed to retreat from progressive taxation in Sweden (and elsewhere). The paper applies critical methodology to ask whether the societal generosity reflected in development of Sweden’s welfare state yielded to greater parsimony as Sweden opened its borders to ethnically and racially diverse groups of immigrants. The paper explores whether Sweden’s loss of societal homogeneity facilitated the development of a political climate in which protecting traditional Scandinavian-owned capital from taxation became acceptable. Social science literature already has detected various unintentional ethnic and gender biases in delivery of welfare services and …

Graev: Conditional Facade Easement, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In Graev v. Commissioner, the Tax Court decided whether the taxpayers’ donations of a facade easement and cash contributions were conditional gifts and therefore disallowable as charitable deductions under the requirements of the regulations. The court reviewed the facts to determine whether the condition was allowed because it was “so remote as to be negligible.” The taxpayers argued that case law at the time of the donation allowed for a donation of between 10 and 15 percent of the value of the property, and that they had deducted a value constituting 11 percent of the property’s appraised value; that the …

Koons: Interest Deduction And Flp Valuation Practice Pointers, Wendy G. Gerzog

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The Tax Court's Koons decision explains the rules for allowing an estate to deduct interest payments, and it details how the court arrived at a determination of the value of a family limited liability company interest.

Valuing Fractional Interests In Art For Estate Tax Purposes, Wendy G. Gerzog

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It is difficult to value fractional interests in art because there is virtually no market in those interests. Nevertheless, the Tax Court in Estate of Elkins valued the decedent’s fractional interests in multiple artworks, which the decedent and his children highly cherished. First, the court addressed the restricted agreements under section 2703 and then the court determined the value of decedent’s interests in the art.

When Sommers Are Winters: Do Blanks Denote Revocability?, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In Sommers, ruling on both parties’ motions for partial summary judgment, the Tax Court dealt with claims of issue preclusion and collateral estoppel, equitable apportionment, the completion of gifts of limited liability company interests, and retained powers that would cause estate tax inclusion.

Two aspects of Sommers held particular interest for me. The first is that the parties appear to be arguing their opponent’s conventional position. The second is that the court grappled with whether the blanks left in the gift documents were immaterial to gift completion; however, the court did not address whether the decedent’s completed gifts qualified for …

Wimmer Wins Flp Annual Exclusions, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In Wimmer, the Tax Court held that the income stream from a taxpayer’s gifts of family limited partnership interests was eligible for the annual exclusion. By comparing the income interest in the partnership’s dividend paying marketable securities to the income interest in a trust, the court made Wimmer a winner. But does the opinion logically lead to that conclusion?

The Corporate Income Tax: United States Of America Report, Henry Ordower

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In the context of a European project describing variations in the structure of the corporate income tax, this paper briefly describes the United States corporation income tax and contextualizes it within the broader category of business entity taxation. The paper identifies the various tax models that the United States uses for business entities and discusses the historical delinking of limited liability protection for owners and managers from traditional double taxation.

Not All Defined Value Clauses Are Equal, Wendy G. Gerzog

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Defined value clauses used to value nonmarketable family limited partnership (FLP) interests create valuation distortions and other public policy issues. This paper describes these abuses and proposes the employment of restrictions similar to those applied to pecuniary formula marital deduction clauses.

The article explains how pecuniary formula marital deduction provisions created valuation distortions by allowing for undervaluation of the marital share that were remedied by the IRS’s Rev. Proc. 64-19 and the enactment of section 2056(b)(10). The article analyzes recent case law expanding the use of defined value clauses into the FLP area and criticizes the courts for not applying …

Facade Easement: Inexpert Valuation, Wendy G. Gerzog

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The article discusses the recent Dunlap decision, which involved facade easement transfers to the National Architectural Trust, a qualified charity that preserves building easements across the country, although most are in New York City. Although allowing a deduction for their cash contributions to NAT to enforce the easement and not finding any penalties applicable, the Tax Court held that despite two valuation reports written by accepted valuation experts, the taxpayers had not established any value for their easement.

Wandering Far Afield With Defined Value Clauses, Wendy G. Gerzog

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The Wandry decision extends the application of defined value clauses beyond those family limited partnership cases that transfer any excess value to a charity. In Wandry, the Tax Court reads Procter narrowly and ignores the fundamental rationale of Robinette.

Defined Value Clauses And Fair Market Value, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In Hendrix the Tax Court considered the issues of whether defined value clauses were the result of arm’s-length transactions and whether they were void as against public policy. The underlying dispute was whether the taxpayers’ transfers of the John H. Hendrix Co. stock were valued at fair market value. With a decision favoring the taxpayers, the defined value clauses in both McCord and Hendrix impede the accurate valuation of taxable gifts to family members and of deductible charitable gifts.

Boomer-Ang Eldercare: Deductible Claim?, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In this article, Gerzog discusses Estate of Olivo, in which the Tax Court determined the deductibility under section 2053 of a claim against the decedent’s estate for eldercare services provided by a family member.

Flp Loss, But Crummey Win, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In Turner the Tax Court determined that section 2036 applied to the decedent’s transfers of assets to his family limited partnership but that the insurance premiums he paid indirectly to his insurance trust qualified for the annual exclusion.

The New Super-Charged Pat (Power Of Appointment Trust), Wendy G. Gerzog

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This article proposes to repeal the QTIP provisions in order to collect revenue now for transfers that are essentially transfers to third parties and not to the decedent's spouse. Because there are advantages of increased flexibility attendant to a QTIP as opposed to a PAT, this article proposes to take those repealed QTIP benefits and attach them to the PAT, which would greatly enhance that marital deduction trust form. A super-charged PAT would thereby be able to preserve the decedent's GST tax exemption (like a reverse QTIP), create a decedent's by-pass trust by allowing a PAT (or a partial PAT) …

Excluding Expert Valuation Testimony, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In Boltar, a case in which the Tax Court addressed the valuation of a conservation easement, the court ruled on the admissibility of expert testimony.

Shapiro: Palimony And The Estate Tax, Wendy G. Gerzog

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In Estate of Shapiro, the Ninth Circuit held that an individual had a valid palimony claim under Nevada state law. However, the issue was whether the decedent’s estate qualified for a deduction for that claim under federal estate tax law.