Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Fictitiously Overstating Taxable Income, Stanley Veliotis

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enough Is As Good As A Feast, Noah C. Chauvin

Seattle University Law Review

Ipse Dixit, the podcast on legal scholarship, provides a valuable service to the legal community and particularly to the legal academy. The podcast’s hosts skillfully interview guests about their legal and law-related scholarship, helping those guests communicate their ideas clearly and concisely. In this review essay, I argue that Ipse Dixit has made a major contribution to legal scholarship by demonstrating in its interview episodes that law review articles are neither the only nor the best way of communicating scholarly ideas. This contribution should be considered “scholarship,” because one of the primary goals of scholarship is to communicate new ideas.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

States Should Consider Partial Wealth Tax Reforms, David Gamage, Darien Shanske

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article is a contribution to Project SAFE (State Action in Fiscal Emergencies). In other essays in this project, we explain steps the federal government should take to help state and local governments cope with their looming budget crises. The federal government is much better positioned to manage these crises than states and localities and, ideally, it would act sufficiently to prevent the need for state and local governments to cut spending or raise taxes. However, we fear that the federal government may fail to act sufficiently, leaving states and localities with the need to make painful spending cuts, raise …

How The Federal Reserve Should Help States And Localities Right Now, Darien Shanske, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The COVID-19 pandemic is a giant catastrophe, but the Federal Reserve can still mitigate the looming fiscal crises facing state and local governments. This article — a contribution to Project SAFE (State Action in Fiscal Emergencies) — builds on our prior background essay explaining state and local budget issues.

Racialized Tax Inequity: Wealth, Racism, And The U.S. System Of Taxation, Palma Joy Strand, Nicholas A. Mirkay

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article describes the connection between wealth inequality and the increasing structural racism in the U.S. tax system since the 1980s. A long-term sociological view (the why) reveals the historical racialization of wealth and a shift in the tax system overall beginning around 1980 to protect and exacerbate wealth inequality, which has been fueled by racial animus and anxiety. A critical tax view (the how) highlights a shift over the same time period at both federal and state levels from taxes on wealth, to taxes on income, and then to taxes on consumption—from greater to less progressivity. Both of these …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Tax Policy For The Wider Cryptoverse, Arild B. Doerge

Student Scholarship

The rapid rise of Bitcoin and other “cryptoassets” offers many interesting technological capabilities but also comes with uncertainty and volatility in the markets for these assets. The diversity of types of cryptoassets is increasing rapidly, while public understanding and government policy have generally been slow to take account of this diversity. In regard to taxation policy related to cryptoassets, current IRS guidance merely categorizes cryptoassets as general property. The policy implications of this classification run contrary to fundamental goals of tax policy by inhibiting how people use cryptoassets, making compliance more complex and ambiguous than necessary, and taxing cryptoasset transactions …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection Supreme Court Appellate Division Third Department

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

U.S. Tax Reform: Considerations For Service Members [Notes], Kan Samuel

Faculty Scholarship

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.

Sourcing Service Receipts For Franchise Tax Apportionment In Texas, Ray Langenberg, Matt Jones

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Getting Local Governments Where They Need To Go Without Taking Taxpayers For A Ride: "Cabs," Why They Are Used, And What Can Be Done To Prevent Their Misuse, Heather G. White

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

The First Real-Time Blockchain Vat - Gcc Solves Mtic Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Following years of study the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) appears ready to adopt the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and put in place a tax system that will stabilize revenue. A value added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax (CIT) are considered. A VAT Framework Agreement, that functions like the VAT Directive in the EU, has been agreed.

Although new, the GCC VAT is very worthy of attention. From a tax policy perspective, it is making notable improvements to EU VAT design. The GCC VAT is (potentially) the world’s first real-time, blockchain-secured, multi-jurisdictional VAT. This is a remarkable …

Finding The Pearl In The Oyster: Supercharging Ipos Through Tax Receivable Agreements, Christopher B. Grady

Northwestern University Law Review

A new, “supercharged” form of IPO has slowly developed over the last twenty years. This new form of IPO takes advantage of several seemingly unrelated provisions of the tax code to multiply pre-IPO owners’ proceeds from a public offering without reducing the amount public investors are willing to pay for the stock. Supercharged IPOs use a tax receivable agreement to transfer tax assets created by the IPO back to the pre-IPO ownership, “monetizing” the tax assets. As these structures have become more efficient, commentators have expressed concerns that these agreements deceive shareholders who either ignore or do not understand the …

Zappers - Technological Tax Fraud In New Hampshire, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

No other State is as vulnerable to Zappers as is the State of New Hampshire. Zappers and related software programming, Phantom-ware, facilitate an old tax fraud – skimming cash receipts. In this instance skimming is performed with modern electronic cash registers (ECRs). Zappers are a global revenue problem, but to the best of this author’s knowledge they have not been uncovered in New Hampshire. Seen from a global perspective however, it seems unlikely that they are not here.

New Hampshire’s fiscal vulnerability to Zappers comes from its heavy reliance on precisely the industry segment that has been found to be …

Replacing Havoc: Creating Rules For Sovereign Default, Edward J. Kelley

Cleveland State Law Review

Sovereign debt is an ongoing threat to a State’s economic stability and its citizens’ standard of living. A single occurrence of default begins a cycle in which it becomes increasingly more difficult for an indebted State to pay its debts and ensure the survival of its citizens. Because central banking systems and direct spending are often inadequate methods to boost an indebted State’s economy, a more expansive solution to sovereign debt is required. The initial solution to the growing problem of sovereign debt is an international treaty that will allow the world economy to establish monitoring mechanisms to prevent debt …

Of More Than Usual Interest: The Taxing Problem Of Debt Principal, Charlene D. Luke

Seattle University Law Review

Leverage is an essential but often troubling component of the U.S. market. The financial crisis highlighted the risks and complexity of a leverage web that includes flesh-and-blood people from all walks of life and paper people from all corners of the business and investment world. In the tax area, the potentially problematic incentive effects of interest deductibility have long engaged a wide array of tax commentators and policymakers. While interest deductibility rightly receives widespread scrutiny, a more comprehensive approach to leverage is needed. This Article focuses on the surprisingly complicated tax treatment of cash (and cash equivalent) borrowings. This Article …

Super-Liens To The Rescue? A Case Against Special Districts In Real Estate Finance, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

In a time of limited resources and sluggish economic growth, competition between cities has become palpable, and the race for new investment often dictates the public agenda. To that end, the explosive growth of public-private partnerships between local governments and private investors has resulted in the creation of a myriad of special taxing districts, the purposes of which are limited only by the imagination. Of particular concern has been the growth of certain real estate development-related districts. Although first conceived to fund critical improvements where conventional credit was not available, in more recently years these special districts have been used …

Sales Suppression As A Service (Ssaas) & The Apple Store Solution, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

The problem of sales suppression fraud is estimated to cost state and local governments $20 billion annually ($2 billion in New York restaurants alone). Modern sales suppression (skimming) is carried out with technology (Zappers and Phantom-ware). Nine undercover sting operations in and around Manhattan and the Bronx by investigators working for New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance (NY-DT&F) have identified the SSaaS variant of modern skimming.

A striking example of SSaaS may be unfolding in the $1 million sales suppression case against Congressman Michael Grimm (R-NY). It is alleged that Grimm skimmed sales from his Healthalicious restaurant in Manhattan, …

Taking The Bloody Linen Out Of The Closet: Menstrual Hygiene As A Priority For Achieving Gender Equality, Inga T. Winkler, Virginia Roaf

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

Regular menstruation signals a woman's health and fertility. menstruation is surrounded by shame, secrecy, embarrassment, fear, humiliation, silence, taboo, and stigma. Linked to this taboo, many cultural and religious norms-often grounded in patriarchal assumptions-seek to prevent contact with menstruating women and girls in order to avoid 'contamination' or 'becoming impure'. To some extent, this perception of menstruation is a paradox, given that motherhood is glorified. However, menstruation is not perceived as feminine', and it does not conform to the stereotypical role and behavior of women. Such stereotypes require women to be beautiful and beautified, deodorized and fresh, not bloody and …

Leveling The International Playing Field With The Marketplace Fairness Act, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Boryana Madzharova

Faculty Scholarship

Quill v. North Dakota unbalanced the American retail market with its preference for out-of-state over in-state sellers. The preference under Quill is that sellers without physical presence in a state cannot be compelled to collect the sales tax. If the buyer does not voluntarily remit the complementary use tax, the purchase is effectively tax-free. As a result, Quill is seen as facilitating tax avoidance and driving business to sellers who have no in-state nexus, notably e-businesses. Revenue losses are estimated in excess of $10 billion per year.

The reach of the Quill decision is international. Preferred sellers can reside just …

E-Verify Can Stop Refund Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Andrew Shact

Faculty Scholarship

Two issues in the current Washington debates need to be linked. E-Verify, the Internet-based database that allows employers to verify an employee’s work eligibility that is at the center of the immigration debate, is the ideal tool for stopping tax refund fraud. All that is needed is a digital signature of the E-Verify result, and the mandatory inscription of this signature on tax documents to make them self-authenticating.

The central features of this proposal have been made before. The technology it requires is tried and proven. The processes and procedure it advocates are in place and effectively deployed in foreign …

Zappers & Employment Tax Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Beyond the grey area of worker misclassifications and general employment tax irregularities there are darker employment relationships where workers are intentionally paid in cash “off-the-books” or “under-the-table.” Grey employment relationships present civil enforcement issues that may become criminal; darker-relationships are criminal from the beginning. Zappers are found on the dark side.

Zappers are fraud-technologies that automatically (and remotely) skim cash from electronic cash registers (ECRs) or back room point of sales (POS) systems. Globally, tax auditors are finding that Zappers frequently provide the cash that is used to compensate “under-the-table” workers. In fact, a Zapper appears to be at the …

How Tax Increment Financing (Tif) Districts Correlate With Taxable Properties, Randall K. Johnson

Faculty Works

This article deals with Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which is a popular economic development tool. TIF borrows against future tax revenues to subsidize current development projects. In Illinois, this economic development tool is justified by its promise to expand the local tax base: by increasing tax revenues, increasing the number of tax payers or increasing the number of taxable properties in the area. However, it is not clear that TIF delivers on its promise. A new dataset, which is introduced in this article, helps to clarify the issue. It does so by providing information about the number of TIF Districts …

Medical Devices Excise Tax (Mdet) — A Market-Specific Vat?, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Andrew Shact, Gail Wasylyshyn

Faculty Scholarship

VATs flourish in complex, clearly defined markets. New York discovered this when it converted its single-stage retail sales tax on hotel rooms, the Hotel Room Occupancy Tax (HROT), into a multi-stage European-style VAT. The HROT VAT-conversion demonstrates that (a) in a clearly defined market where (b) a single stage tax is imposed on (c) only part of a complex supply chain that (d) losses attributable to supply-chain-fragmentation can be remedied by moving to a multi-stage VAT.

The Medical Devices Excise Tax (MDET) imposes as 2.3% excise tax on the sale by manufacturers, producers or importers of clearly identified medical devises …

Vat Experimentation — New York & Illinois, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

US States are experimenting with VATs to solve market-specific problems with tax compliance and revenue yields. Experimentation has been going on for years. Sometimes the experiment is a success; at other times it needs more work.

Although not called VATs either before, during or after adoption – that is what these experiments are. Market-specific VATs are producing benefits long promoted by VAT advocates, notably: an increase in revenue without an increase in tax rates; increased administrative efficiency without significant costs to business; more stable deposits from fractionated payments; and lower enforcement costs from the self-enforcing nature of the VAT.

There …