Taxation-Federal Commons^™

Debate On Carried Interest, Jeffrey H. Kahn, Calvin H. Johnson, Douglas A. Kahn

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Head In The Clouds, Head In The Sand: Federal Failure To Update Guidance On Computer Transaction In An International Context, Logan S. Weaver

Washington Law Review

The United States has two different rationales for taxing income of non-U.S. persons and entities. First, the income may be “sourced” to the United States, as defined in the Internal Revenue Code. Alternatively, the income may be effectively connected to a trade or business within the United States that provides income to the non-U.S. person or entity. The sourcing rules for income of non-U.S. persons and entities depend heavily on the nature of the underlying transaction and the geographical location where certain key elements of the transaction take place. So long as the non-U.S. person or entity avoids activities that …

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 …

Federal Tax Update (Powerpoint), Stephen L. Owen

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Taxation, Craig G. Bell, Michael H. Brady

University of Richmond Law Review

This article reviews significant recent developments in the laws affecting Virginia state and local taxation. Its sections cover legislative activity, judicial decisions, and selected opinions or pronouncements from the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Attorney General of Virginia over the past year.

Tax Reform On Homeownership, Margaret Ryznar

University of Miami Law Review

The 2017 tax reform, by curtailing the deductions for mortgage interest and state and local taxes, frustrates the American public policy of encouraging homeownership. Yet, there are many reasons that public policy has encouraged homeownership for decades. Most importantly, homeownership is an important savings tool for Americans—and tax reform should be mindful of it.

Law School News: Does Indictment Mean Correia Will Likely Be Forced To Resign? Law School Dean Says 'Wait A Week' 10/17/2018, Michael Holtzman, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Legislative Foundation Of The United States' New International Tax System, Joshua D. Harms

Seattle University Law Review

This Note begins with commentary on the United States’ former worldwide system of taxation. This system taxed multinational corporations’ offshore profits at the applicable domestic income tax rate less credits for taxes paid to foreign governments. This tax regime provided for the deferral of income tax due on the profits of multinational corporations’ overseas operations until the time of repatriation. This Note considers the issues inherent in this system and analyzes the repatriation tax holiday under the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. This holiday has been unanimously criticized by both sides of the political aisle and led to large …

The Beat And Treaty Overrides: A Brief Response To Rosenbloom And Shaheen, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Bret Wells

Articles

In a recent article in Tax Notes International, H. David Rosenbloom and Fadi Shaheen argue that the base erosion and antiabuse tax (IRC section 59A, as enacted in 2017) is a potential violation of articles 23 and 24 of U.S. tax treaties. They say the BEAT does not override those treaties, so those agreements can be relied on to overcome the effects of the BEAT. In our opinion, that conclusion is wrong for two reasons: The BEAT is not a treaty violation, and even if were, it is a treaty override.

Section 4968 And Taxing All Charitable Endowments: A Critique And A Proposal, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

No abstract provided.

Beps, Atap, And The New Tax Dialogue: "A Transatlantic Competition?", Reuven Avi-Yonah, Gianluca Mazzoni

Articles

Since its launch in 2013, the US actively participated in all aspects of the BEPS project. However, until recently, the general view was that following the conclusion of the BEPS negotiations and the change of Administration the US is stepping back from the BEPS process. While the EU was charging ahead with implementing BEPS through the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD), the US stated that it was already in compliance with all BEPS minimum standards and therefore other than Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) it had no further BEPS obligations. The US decided not to sign the Multilateral Instrument (MLI) to implement BEPS …

De Novo: Reviewing Tax Court Redressability Incongruities In Innocent Spouse Relief Sections 66© And 6015(F), Jason Harn

Seattle University Law Review

Part One of this Note details the historical background of joint and several liability in federal income taxation. Part Two introduces, compares, and contrasts the two statutory provisions Congress has enacted to relieve “innocent spouses” from joint and several liability. Part Three discusses the incongruent standards of review applied by the Tax Court to these—§§ 66 and 6015—two substantially similar relief provisions. Finally, Part Four suggests remedies to alleviate this incongruity.

How Shell Entities And Lack Of Ownership Transparency Facilitate Tax Evasion And Modern Policy Responses To These Problems

Marquette Law Review

The purpose of this article is to review the use and application of shell entities, as they facilitate tax evasion, impede investigations, and harm society. This article details the types and characteristics of shell entities, reviews actual cases to exhibit how shells are abused, outlines reasons shells disguise beneficial ownership, and analyzes steps taken by countries and organizations to thwart the abuse of shell entities. Many types of shell entities are used by tax evaders and are often layered in an intricate network which conceals the identity of beneficial owners. Nominees and bearer shares are used in tandem with shell …

Per Se Economic Substance, Jesse P. Houchens

BYU Law Review

The economic substance doctrine is used by the IRS and courts to distinguish legal tax avoidance from tax evasion. More specifically, executive and judicial bodies use this doctrine to revoke statutorily compliant tax benefits that arise from transactions that lack, beyond such tax benefits, both a subjective business purpose and an objective economic effect. The most common tool for measuring the objective economic effect of a transaction is the pre-tax profit test. However, disagreement among courts and scholars applying this test has led to taxpayer uncertainty and accusations of reverse-engineered opinions. In this Comment, I reevaluate and propose an alternative, …

Front Matter (Letter From The Editor, Masthead, Etc.)

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of The Head Of Household Filing Status, Chau Le

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Summaries For The 33rd Annual Tei-Sjsu High Tech Tax Institute, Silin Chen, June Hostetter, Sahdia Saiara, Jessica Wong, Cherry Zheng

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Tax Journal Volume 7, No. 2 – Summer 2018

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Tax Journal's Interview With Mr. Eric Ryan, Sara (Yaqin) Sun

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

The Beat And Treaty Overrides: A Brief Response To Rosenbloom And Shaheen, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Brett Wells

Law & Economics Working Papers

In a recent paper posted on SSRN, Profs. David Rosenbloom and Fadi Shaheen argue that the Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) (IRC section 59A), as enacted in 2017, is a potential violation of Articles 23 and 24 of US tax treaties. In addition, they argue that the BEAT does not override those treaties and therefore the treaties can be relied upon to overcome the effects of the BEAT. In our opinion, this conclusion is wrong, for two reasons. First, we believe that the BEAT is not a treaty violation. Second, we believe that even if the BEAT were found to …

Failed Charity: Taking State Tax Benefits Into Account For Purposes Of The Charitable Deduction, Roger Colinvaux

Buffalo Law Review

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) substantially limited the ability of individuals to deduct state and local taxes (SALT) on their federal income tax returns. Some states are advancing schemes to allow taxpayers a state tax credit for contributions to a charity controlled by the state. The issue is whether state tax benefits are deductible as a charitable contribution for purposes of the federal income tax. Under a general rule of prior law—the full deduction rule—state tax benefits were ignored for purposes of the charitable deduction. If the full deduction rule is applied to the state workaround schemes, then …

Tax Expenditure And The Treatment Of Tax Incentives For Investment, Agustin Redonda, Santiago Diaz De Sarralde, Mark Hallerberg, Lise Johnson, Ariel Melamud, Ricardo Rozemberg, Jakob Schwab, Christian Von Haldenwang

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Governments use tax expenditures to boost investment, innovation and employment. However, these schemes are largely opaque, costly and often ineffective in reaching their stated goals. They also frequently trigger unwanted side effects. In order to improve the performance of these tools, the authors present three concrete policy proposals: First, governments should increase transparency on tax benefits. G20 members should take the lead on this with frequent and comprehensive tax expenditure reports. Second, G20 governments should improve the design of tax incentives with the aim of minimizing the generation of windfall profits and negative spillover effects within and across (in particular, …

Maintaining Condominiums And Homeowner Associations: How Much Of A Priority?, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

During the recent real estate crisis, competition for scarce dollars pitted the holders of defaulted mortgages against condominiums and homeowner associations seeking to collect maintenance assessments. Statutes providing mortgagees with lien priority threatened association ability to provide services, and imposed a disproportionate burden on non-defaulting unit owners. Statutes enacted in other states gave associations a “super priority” lien for six months of assessments, but left uncertainty about the meaning of that super priority in an environment in which foreclosure delays became the norm.

The last five years have brought a spate of litigation over the relative rights of associations and …

Federal Income Taxation, Robert A. Beard, Gregory S. Lucas

Mercer Law Review

In 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and courts within its jurisdiction decided a number of important federal taxation cases. Among these are a case that raises novel constitutional arguments under the Equal Protection Clause, a case that lodges a constitutional challenge to the United States Tax Court, and a case that addresses a matter of first impression in the circuit about the deductibility of amounts paid in the context of a divorce proceeding. These three cases are discussed herein.

Cross-Subsidies: Government's Hidden Pocketbook, John Brooks, Brian Galle, Brendan S. Maher

Faculty Scholarship

Governments can use regulation to pay for public goods out of the pockets of consumers, rather than taxpayers. For example, the Affordable Care Act underwrites care for women and the infirm through higher insurance premium payments by healthy men. Building on a classic article from Richard Posner, we show that these “cross-subsidies” between consumers are a common feature of modern law, ranging from telecommunications to intellectual property to employee benefits.

Critics of the ACA, and even some of its supporters, argue that taxes would be a better choice. Taxes are said to be more transparent, and to fit better with …

Higher Education Savings And Planning: Tax And Nontax Considerations, F. Philip Manns Jr., Timothy M. Todd

Texas A&M Law Review

Funding higher education is among the critical financial decisions made by individuals and families. There are myriad options. Yet, the conventional wisdom—namely using Section 529 Plans—may not be the optimal vehicle to effectuate this goal. Therefore, this Article discusses various strategies to plan, save, and pay for higher education. It compares various savings methods including gifts, UTMA accounts, Section 529 Plans, trusts, and other vehicles. The analysis explores both tax and non-tax considerations, including the effect of different strategies on financial aid, transaction costs, investor control, income taxes, gift and estate taxes, flexibility, and creditor protection. This Article concludes that …

Does The United States Still Care About Complying With Its Wto Obligations?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”) contains a provision that on its face appears to be a blatant violation of the WTO’s Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) rules. New IRC section 250 applies a reduced 13.125% tax rate to “foreign derived intangible income” (FDII), which is defined as income derived in connection with (1) property that is sold by the taxpayer to any foreign person for a foreign use or (2) services to any foreign person or with respect to foreign property. In other words, this category comprises exports for property and services, including royalties from the …

Private Benefits In Public Offerings: Tax Receivable Agreements In Ipos, Gladriel Shobe

Vanderbilt Law Review

Historically, an initial public offering ("IPO") was a process whereby a company sold all of its underlying assets to the public. A new tax innovation, the "tax receivable agreement" ("TRA'), creates private tax benefits in public offerings by allowing pre-IPO owners to effectively keep valuable tax assets for themselves while selling the rest of the company to the public. Prior to 2005, TRAs were almost never used in IPOs. Today they have become commonplace, changing the landscape of the IPO market in ways that are likely to become even more pronounced in the future. This Article traces the history of …

Accessible Reliable Tax Advice, Emily Cauble

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Unsophisticated taxpayers who lack financial resources are disadvantaged by a shortage of adequate tax advice. The IRS does not have the resources to answer all questions asked, and the IRS’s informal advice comes with no guarantee as to its accuracy and offers the taxpayer no protection when it is mistaken. Furthermore, non-IRS sources of advice have not sufficiently filled the void left by a lack of satisfactory IRS guidance. These biases against unsophisticated taxpayers have been noted by existing literature. This Article contributes to existing literature by proposing several novel reform measures to assist unsophisticated taxpayers.

First, with respect to …

Unwise Integration Of The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Into The Common Reporting Standard - Taking Taiwan As An Example, Yi-Hsin Wu

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note critically examines the challenges of integrating the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), using Taiwan as a case study. It argues that integrating FATCA into CRS is unnecessary and could exacerbate compliance burdens for financial institutions, particularly in jurisdictions like Taiwan that have already invested significant resources into FATCA compliance. Instead, the note advocates for revising FATCA to clarify its provisions and reducing withholding tax obligations, while postponing CRS implementation to allow better preparation and avoid unfair competitive disadvantages.