Taxation-Federal Commons^™

Bill Addressing Pope's Tax Issues As A U.S. Citizen Misses The Mark, Michael S. Kirsch

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From the Article

In this article, Kirsch looks at the language of the Holy Sovereignty Protection Act to consider whether it addresses and resolves various tax-related issues that arise from a U.S. citizen serving as pontiff, including income tax liability, the loss of a pontiff’s U.S. citizenship status, and the pope’s obligations for foreign bank account reporting.

Are Nonprofit Tax Exemptions And Deductions “Federal Financial Assistance”? Should They Be?, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

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Two recent federal court decisions have reignited the debate over whether “Federal financial assistance” as used in four federal anti-discrimination statutes includes the tax benefits enjoyed by most nonprofit organizations. Both courts concluded that it does. While an appellate court reversed one decision, and the other case settled without appellate review, these holdings create significant uncertainty. And this uncertainty affects the more than 1.8 million tax-exempt nonprofits, many if not most of which do not receive federal financial assistance through other channels and so could safely conclude these statutes do not reach them, absent these decisions.

This Article first considers …

Nonprofit Corporations & Politics: The Entity/Coordination Tension, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

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Federal tax law treats separate nonprofit corporations as distinct legal entities for almost all purposes, in common with most other areas of law. With respect to political activity, this means that one nonprofit corporation’s lobbying or election related actions are generally not attributed to another nonprofit corporation. This is the case even if the two entities have overlapping or even identical boards of directors. It is also the case even if the two entities collaborate regarding their respective activities and share employees, facilities, outside vendors, and other resources, as long as the entities reasonably allocate the costs for those shared …

21st Century Churches And Federal Tax Law, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Ellen P. Aprill

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Federal tax treatment matters to churches, the term the IRS uses for all types of religious congregations, including synagogues, mosques, and temples. The federal tax provisions most significant for churches and certain entities closely related to them, however, are not those that the public and commentators often assume. Exemption from income tax and the ability of donors to deduct contributions, the benefits that receive the most public attention, in fact provide surprisingly little benefit either to churches in the aggregate or to most individual churches. Their status as organizations taxexempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, moreover, imposes …

Tax Exemption Is Not A Subsidy–Except For When It Is, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Ellen P. Aprill

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In this report, Aprill and Mayer argue that there is no uniform answer to the question whether a tax exemption is a subsidy, and they urge policymakers and exempt organizations to note the distinctions when changes to laws or other guidance regarding exemption are under consideration.

Reframing Taxigration In The Search For Tax Justice, Jacqueline Lainez Flanagan

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The Search for Tax Justice is a Tax Notes State series examining the inequities inherent in state and federal taxes. In this installment, Jacqueline Laínez Flanagan, associate professor of law and director of the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law Tax Clinic, discusses tax challenges faced by immigrants and responds to myths about the undocumented taxpayer community.

Called To Serve: Elevating Human-Performed Caregiver And Volunteer Work In An Era Of Ai-Robotic Technologies, Hilary G. Escajeda

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Although the status quo of the traditional female caregiver has managed to muddle forward, it may begin to unwind as increasingly capable technologies dislodge humans from full-time employment and compel a redefinition of valuable work. Given this backdrop, this Essay seeks to open a dialogue for developing thoughtful, modem tax policies. Part I outlines the vocational endeavors of historically female community members who serve as caregivers and social volunteers. Next, Part II summarizes the economic value of volunteer and caregiver services. Part III examines whether tax policies should adopt a more expansive definition of beneficial occupations, as artificial intelligence (AI) …

Business Lobbying As An Informational Public Good: Can Tax Deductions For Lobbying Expenses Promote Transparency?, Michael Halberstam, Stuart G. Lazar

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The view that “lobbying is essentially an informational activity” has persistently served the suggestion that lobbying provides a public good by educating legislators about policy and the consequences of legislation.

In this article, we link a proposed tax reform with a substantive disclosure requirement to promote the kind of “information subsidy” that serves the public interest, while mitigating – at least to some extent – the distortion that may result from the imbalance of financial resources on the business side and other institutional contraints identified in the literature. We argue that corporate lobbying should be encouraged – by allowing business …

Tax Recognition, Barry Cushman

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This article was prepared for the St. Louis University Law Journal’s “Teaching Trusts & Estates” issue. Many law students take a course in Trusts & Estates, but comparatively few enroll in a class devoted to the federal wealth transfer taxes. For most law students, the Trusts & Estates course provides the only opportunity for exposure to some of the basic features of the estate tax, the gift tax, the generation-skipping transfer tax, and some related features of the income tax. The coverage demands of the typical Trusts & Estates course do not allow for intensive discussion of these issues, but …

Recent Irs Guidance Provides A Degree Of Certainty For 403(B) Plans, Gregory L. Needles, Christina Payne-Tsoupros

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The IRS has released long-awaited guidance expanding the availability of self correction for 403(b) plans and opening the pre-approved plan program. On Dec 12, 2012, the IRS released Rev. Proc. 2013-12, 2013-4 IRB 313, which expanded its self-correction program -- the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) -- for 403(b) plans. On 3/28/13, the IRS issued Rev. Proc. 2013-22, 2013-18 IRB 985, opening its 403(b) pre-approved plan program. The broader scope of correction under Rev. Proc. 2013-12 is a welcome relief to 403(b) plan sponsors, who may now take advantage of EPCRS to remedy mistakes and avoid plan disqualification in …

Nonprofits, Politics, And Privacy, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

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The first Part of this Article briefly reviews and contrasts the history and current rules governing disclosure and privacy in the federal tax, federal tax exemption, and federal election law contexts. This review reveals that both the cost-benefit approach and the right-to-privacy approach can be found in this history, but to a greater or lesser extent depending on the context. The second Part explores these two different approaches and the extent to which the existing disclosure rules reflect those approaches. This Part shows that the rules are sometimes but not always based both on the cost-benefit approach to disclosure, in …

The Unreasonable Case For A Reasonable Compensation Standard In The Public Company Context: Why It Is Unreasonable To Insist On Reasonableness, Stuart G. Lazar

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There is no question that corporate executives are well paid. But does high executive compensation mean excessive or unreasonable compensation? And if so, what is the solution to curbing the problem of excessive executive pay? More specifically, should the Internal Revenue Code be used as a means for regulating the actions of public companies?

This Article briefly explores these issues. In Part I, this Article provides a narrative of the excessive compensation debate. Without drawing a conclusion as to whether executive compensation is reasonably set or excessive in nature, Part I summarizes the history of public outrage surrounding executive pay. …

Schooling Congress: The Current Landscape Of The Tax Treatment Of Higher Education Expenses And A Framework For Reform, Stuart G. Lazar

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Education may be a cornerstone of our society, but the tax treatment of higher education expenses does not appear to have resulted from an intellectual exercise that would make our nation’s educators’ proud. The Internal Revenue Code provides two separate, but equally unsatisfying, routes that allow taxpayers to offset their income with the costs of higher education. Where an individual can reduce her tax liability while receiving an education, the effect is to reduce significantly the cost of that education.

First, where amounts spent on education qualify as an “ordinary and necessary business expense,” a taxpayer will be entitled to …

A Quiet Faith? Taxes, Politics, And The Privatization Of Religion, Richard W. Garnett

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The government exempts religious associations from taxation and, in return, restricts their putatively political expression and activities. This exemption-and-restriction scheme invites government to interpret and categorize the means by which religious communities live out their vocations and engage the world. But government is neither well-suited nor to be trusted with this kind of line-drawing. What's more, this invitation is dangerous to authentically religious consciousness and associations. When government communicates and enforces its own view of the nature of religion - i.e., that it is a private matter - and of its proper place - i.e., in the private sphere, not …

The Definition Of Voting Stock And The Computation Of Voting Power Under Sections 368(C) And 1504(A): Recent Developments And Tax Lore, Stuart G. Lazar

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Although the concepts of "voting stock" and "voting power" are pervasive throughout the Code, until recently, courts, commentators and the Service have devoted minimal energy to demystifying the confusion surrounding the definition of voting stock and even less to expanding upon the methodology of computing voting power. Recent developments, however, may prompt practitioners to take a second look at these terms. While a 1995 decision by the Tax Court adds little to the existing body of authority with respect to the determination of the owner of voting stock, the Service's analysis of the voting power requirement in a 1994 private …

Are Back Pay And Damages In Age Discrimination Cases Subject To Income Taxes?, Matthew J. Barrett

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The Internal Revenue Code excludes damages received "on account of personal injuries" from federal income taxation. In this case, the Supreme Court decides if back pay and damages received under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act qualify for this exclusion. The Court's decision could affect thousands of workers who have brought, or may bring, federal age discrimination claims after losing their jobs in downsizings. It may also resolve the tax status of punitive damages.

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

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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 Character Of A Partner's Distributive Share Under The "Substantial Economic Effect" Regulation, Alan Gunn

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Partnership income and deductions are allocated according to the amount and the character of each partner's distributive share. This article examines the ways in which the section 704(b) regulations apply the "substantial economic effect" test to character allocations. It argues that it is important to distinguish allocations of character from allocations of amounts to understand these regulations. This is because tests that the regulations apply to character issues have to do with source-measurement correspondence and proration, while amounts are determined according to economic effect in the capital account sense. Although the regulations' rules for character allocations purport to define "substantiality," …

Double Benefits And Transactional Consistency Under The Tax Benefit Rule, Kenneth F. Joyce, Louis A. Del Cotto

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No abstract provided.

Interest-Free Loans: The Odyssey Of A Misnomer, Kenneth F. Joyce, Louis A. Del Cotto

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No abstract provided.

Inherited Excess Mortgage Property: Death And The Inherited Tax Shelter, Louis A. Del Cotto, Kenneth F. Joyce

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No abstract provided.

The Ab (Abc) And Ba Transactions: An Economic And Tax Analysis Of Reserved And Carved Out Income Interests, Kenneth F. Joyce, Louis A. Del Cotto

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No abstract provided.

The Income Taxation Of The Capital Gains Of A Trust, Kenneth F. Joyce

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March

Taxation Of The Trust Annuity: The Unitrust Under The Constitution And The Internal Revenue Code, Louis A. Del Cotto, Kenneth F. Joyce

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No abstract provided.

Rira -- A Legal Information System In The Internal Revenue Service, David T. Link

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The IRS legal information retrieval program is still in its infancy. The results of its use so far indicate that the program is on a sound foundation. Consequently, the Office has great hopes for it. By eliminating a great deal of the duplication of effort among the attorneys it promises to result in certain economies to the Office. More important, it should assure a more consistent treatment of taxpayers through greater coordination than has ever been possible in the past. And most important, by providing more comprehensive and timely decision-making information the system should further the Offices constant goal of …

Federal Income Tax In Relation To Consumer Cooperatives, Joseph O'Meara

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The taxation of consumer cooperative associations has proceeded on an erroneous assumption deriving from Eisner v. Macomber. Contrary to that assumption, so long as these non-profit, mutual-benefit undertakings confine themselves to their proper functions they have no income under the Sixteenth Amendment and cannot validly be required to pay an income tax.