Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Corporate Tax Policy And The Right To Know: Improving State Tax Policymaking By Enhancing The Legislative And Public Access, Richard Pomp

Faculty Articles and Papers

This report examines the need for disclosure of state corporate income tax data in order to facilitate more thoughtful tax policymaking as well as accountability and openness in government. While disclosure of federal income tax data has been resolved by the SEC’s required disclosures of public corporations, the only states that have laws mandating disclosure of information relating to their state’s income tax are Arkansas, West Virginia, and Massachusetts.

Firm-specific disclosure of corporate tax information at the state level is necessary for informed tax policy, essential to public understanding of corporate tax reform issues, and will complement SEC mandated disclosures. …

Tax Policy At The Beginning Of The Clinton Administration, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

Ten years ago, in 1983, the Yale Journal on Regulation was started by students at the Yale Law School to foster scholarship and debate on issues of regulatory policy. Today the Journal staff consists of students from Yale University graduate and professional programs in law, management, forestry, and public health. One of the Journal's primary missions was to track the regulatory/deregulatory developments under the Reagan Administration and later the Bush Administration. Since our tenth anniversary coincided with the installment of a Democratic Administration under President Clinton, we have asked two professors at the Yale Law School to submit an essay …

Rider V. County Of San Diego: Special Districts And Special Taxes Under Proposition 13, William A. Stahr

San Diego Law Review

The voters of California passed initiative Proposition 13 in 1978. This initiative limited the ability of state and local taxing authorities to raise revenue. The courts were left with the difficult task of interpreting that initiative as applied to numerous factual situations, a task made more difficult by the lack of any meaningful legislative history. When San Diego County sought to finance certain judicial and criminal facilities with a sales tax increase, the California Supreme Court had already lain out an analysis of Proposition 13 that suggested the new tax was constitutionally imposed. However, upon challenge in Rider v. County …

State Taxation Of Nonresidents' Pension Income, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This article examines the issues raised by the efforts of some states to tax the pension income of their former residents and of the proposed congressional legislation to forbid such taxation. While there may be sound policy reasons for forbidding state taxation of nonresident pension income, they have yet to emerge clearly from the rhetoric that has thus far dominated the debate over the pension tax issue. The goal of the article is to examine the questions raised by the controversy over state taxation of nonresident pensions in the hope that dispassionate analysis of the problem may contribute to a …

The Refund Of Taxes Paid Pursuant To An Unconstitutional Tax Scheme And The Pass-On Defense: Beams Intellectual Dishonesty Threatens Every States' Budetary Stability, Edmund J. Rollo

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Economic And Political Look At Federalism In Taxation, Daniel Shaviro

Michigan Law Review

Part I of this article examines the reasons for preferring locationally neutral taxes and explains the basic tension between locational neutrality and state and local autonomy in taxation. Part II examines the federal judicial check on state and local taxation, which often relies on a principle barring discrimination against outsiders or interstate commerce. Part III explores the need for a broad federal judicial check by examining state and local governments' reasons for imposing (or avoiding) locationally distortive taxes, the countervailing benefits of allowing such governments broad autonomy in taxation, and Congress' willingness to strike down locationally distortive taxes under its …

Equitable Apportionment In Oklahoma: What Hath The Courts Wrought?, Mark R. Gillett

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Taxation, Thomas P. Rohman, Wendy B. Gayle

University of Richmond Law Review

This article covers legislative changes and judicial decisions affecting Virginia taxation from July, 1991 to July, 1992. Its purpose is to alert Virginia's tax and general practitioners to these developments.

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Perfecting The Special Use Election: Congress Giveth, And The Service Taketh Away, Mark R. Gillett

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Justice Scalia And The Commerce Clause: Reflections Of A State Tax Lawyer, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This paper considers Justice Scalia's substantive views of the restraints that the commerce clause imposes on state taxation. My purpose is to examine critically Justice Scalia's dormant or "negative" commerce clause analysis of the state tax issues on which he has opined and to draw from that examination some general conclusions about Justice Scalia's commerce clause jurisprudence.

The Finnigan Case: A Reply To Vogelenzang's Second Stage Apportionment Of Unitary Income, Walter Hellerstein, Jerome R. Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

In this article J. Hellerstein and W. Hellerstein take issue with arguments made by Pierre Vogelenzang in a special report in Tax Notes that California’s second-stage apportionment of the income of a unitary business amounts to unconstitutional extraterritorial taxation. In the Finnigan case, the California State Board of Equalization held that sales made into California by a corporation that is not itself taxable in California, but is a member of a unitary group that is taxable there, are includable in the numerator of the state’s sales factor in apportioning income. The authors defend this result, arguing that the separate identity …

Tax To Grind: Unequal Personal Income Taxation Of Massachusetts Single-Parent Families And Options For Reform, Randy Albelda

New England Journal of Public Policy

While Massachusetts households headed by single parents have, on average, less income than other types of families, they are subject to the same effective income tax rate as the population as a whole. Consequently, such head-of-household families are victims of inequitable tax treatment in two ways. First, their current personal exemptions result in a higher tax burden on these families than on families of the same size and income who file joint income tax returns. Second, head-of-household families, defined as single filers, must apply a lower no-tax threshold than joint filers, even though the former are also composed of two …

Judicially-Suggested Harassment Of Indian Tribes: The Potawatomis Revisit Moe And Colville, Michael Minnis

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Preliminary Reflections On Mckesson And American Trucking Associations, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

On June 4, 1990, the Supreme Court issued its long awaited decisions in McKesson Corp v. Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. Smith. Both cases raised the question of whether a taxpayer has a right to a refund of unconstitutional state taxes. This article analyzes these decisions separately and considers the implications of these decisions on future state tax litigation. The article has two purposes: first, to analyze the McKesson and American Trucking Association cases; and second, to consider their implications for future constitutional challenges to state taxes. The article concludes by stating …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Taxation, Carle E. Davis

University of Richmond Law Review

In its 1990 session, Virginia's General Assembly passed many bills amending sections of and adding new sections to title 58.1 of the Code of Virginia (the "Code"). These bills affected a broad range of areas, including the individual and corporate income tax, the sales and use tax, real estate and recordation taxes, and miscellaneous local taxes. The Supreme Court of Virginia also decided several cases concerning miscellaneous taxation issues. In addition, the Virginia Department of Taxation finalized several regulations and promulgated proposed regulations. This article covers legislative and regulatory changes, and recent judicial decisions affecting Virginia taxation from July 1989 …

New York's Real Property Tax Law: The More Changes That Are Made, The More Things Stay The Same, Ira M. Sockowitz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Scalia And The Elusive Idea Of Discrimination Against Interstate Commerce, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection Run Amok? An Analysis Of The Nebraska Supreme Court's Decision In The Northern Natural Gas Case, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

In Northern Natural Gas Co. v. State Board of Equalization and Assessment, the Nebraska Supreme Court held that the state could not constitutionally tax the personal property of one taxpayer while exempting the personal property of other taxpayers. Specifically, the court held that pipelines were entitled to an exemption of their personal property because the personal property of railroads and car-lines had been exempted from taxation pursuant to the provisions of the Railroad revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 (the 4-R Act), which requires that the railroad and car-line property be taxed in the same way as other commercial …

State Taxation Of Federally Deferred Income: The Interstate Dimension, James C. Smith, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

Most states that impose income taxes conform their levies to the federal model. Consequently, when income is realized but not recognized at the federal level-for example, when a taxpayer reinvests the gain from the sale of her former residence in a new residence or when a taxpayer realizes gain from the exchange of like-kind property -- states typically follow the federal rule in deferring recognition of that income. On the assumption that state conformity to the federal nonrecognition rules reflects an implicit endorsement of the policies underlying those rules, state deferral ordinarily raises no issue independent of those raised by …

Redemption From Tax Sales In Illinois - Confusion Galore, 23 J. Marshall L. Rev. 107 (1989), Guerino Turano

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Taxation And The Supreme Court, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

The Supreme Court's outpouring of significant state tax decisions in recent years has elicited little more than a yawn from most constitutional scholars. The nation's preeminent law reviews, which once were filled with articles examining the Court's state tax opinions, pay scant attention to them today. Leading constitutional law casebooks make only passing reference to state taxation. Indeed, the Court itself has expressed ennui over the prospect of adjudicating a seemingly endless stream of state tax controversies. The lack of academic interest in the Court's state tax jurisprudence may be attributable to several factors. Matters of greater cosmic significance -- …

Is "Internal Consistency" Foolish?: Reflections On An Emerging Commerce Clause Restraint On State Taxation, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

Before 1983, the Supreme Court had never uttered the phrase "internal consistency" in a state tax opinion. Since 1983, however, the Court has invoked the principle of "internal consistency" on four separate occasions in adjudicating the validity of state taxes under the commerce clause. Indeed, by 1987, the Court could refer almost casually to the "internal consistency" criterion as "the test ... we have applied in other contexts." The Court's talk of "internal consistency" cannot be dismissed as mere rhetoric. Three of the four taxes that have been put to the "internal consistency" test have flunked it; cases approving taxes …

Utility Gross Receipt Taxes And Inter-Exchange Telecommunications Carriers, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This article addresses whether there is any continuing justification for applying state utility gross receipts taxes to interexchange telecommunications carriers. First, the article explores the historical basis for imposing special taxes on utilities, including telecommunications companies, and observes that such levies were designed as a quid pro quo for the special rights and privileges the state granted to utilities. Next, it traces the evolution of the telecommunications industry and demonstrates that the historical rationale for imposing gross receipts taxes on the telecommunications industry no longer applies to the competitive segment of the industry in which interexchange carriers operate. The article …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Taxation, Carle E. Davis

University of Richmond Law Review

In its 1988 session, the Virginia General Assembly passed a multitude of bills amending and supplementing title 58.1 of the Code of Virginia (the "Code"). These bills affected a broad range of areas, including the individual and corporate income tax, the sales and use tax, the local business license tax, and the real estate and recordation taxes.

Primer On Florida's Sales Tax On Services, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This special report describes the basic structure and operation of the Florida sales tax as adopted in its final form by the Florida Legislature on June 6, 1987 in order to clear up confusion about the tax. It begins by addressing the amount of controversy that the recently enacted sales and use tax on services has created and states that much of the controversy is based on confusion over what the law actually says and how it works. Next, the report goes into the operation of the statute and stresses that the tax applies only to services that are consumed …

A Primer On Florida's Sales Tax On Services, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This special report is based on the Legal Study of Florida’s Sales Tax on Services prepared by Professor Hellerstein, Prentiss Wilson, Jr., and Morrison & Foerster for the Florida Department of Revenue. This special report deals with the issues arising from Florida’s extension of the sales tax to cover services. The report first discusses the issue of pyramiding of taxes and explores the question of how that issue should be treated in the context of sales services in light of the pre-existing treatment of the issue in the context of sales of tangible personal property. Next, the problem of defining …

First Union National Bank V. Florida Department Of Revenue, 502 So. 2d 964 (Fla. 1st Dca 1987), David Talbert

Florida State University Law Review

Tax-CORPORATE FRANCHISE TAX-A TAX IN SEARCH OF AN IDENTITY

Commerce Clause Restraints On State Taxation: Purposeful Economic Protectionism And Beyond, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

Few questions in recent years have spawned as much controversy and as little academic interest as the scope of commerce clause restraints on state tax power. The Supreme Court has handed down an extraordinary number of significant decisions addressed to the limitations the commerce clause imposes on state taxation. Yet these decisions have barely caught the eye of the nation's leading law reviews or constitutional scholars. Even those observers who have recognized the Court's renaissance of interest in the dormant commerce clause have largely confined their attention to state regulation, as distinguished from state taxation, of interstate commerce. If there …

Analysis Of Tax Incentives For Business Development In West Virginia, Harry Preston Henshaw Iii

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.