Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Selected Issues In State Business Taxation, Walter Hellerstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article surveys selected issues in state business taxation.The topics were chosen with the hope that they would be of general interest to the conference for which this Article originally was prepared. The Article therefore eschews the detailed case analysis that typifies much of the law review writing about state and local taxation-including my own-and focuses instead on broader policy and economic questions that those concerned with state business taxation should find no less important.

Part II of this Article considers business taxes and state tax incentives. Part III discusses federal and state tax conformity. Part IV addresses a number …

Constitutional Limitations On Income Taxes In Tennessee, Walter P. Armstrong, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Until either article 2, section 28 or the judicial construction of that section is modified, Tennessee will be unable to levy a general personal income tax. The revenue needs of the state will rise dramatically during the next twenty years, placing increasing strain on the antiquated and regressive privilege-property tax structure no win effect.' As noted earlier, a constitutional amendment specifically authorizing a personal income tax does not appear to be a likely prospect for the foreseeable future. The only feasible solution seems to be the passage of a nongraduated income tax, such as that proposed by the Tax Modernization …

Forward: Symposium On State Sales Tax, Charles F. Conlon

Vanderbilt Law Review

One of the most remarkable developments in state finance is the rapidity with which the retail sales tax has become the most important fixture in the revenue system. Practically unknown a quarter century ago, by five years later in 1935 the tax yielded $284 million, slightly less than 13 per cent of state tax collections --unemployment compensation taxes aside. Last year, state sales tax revenues amounted to $2.6 billion, or about 23 per cent of state tax collections. For the future the prospect is that sooner or later all but a few, if indeed not all the states, will be …