Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Taxing Local Energy Externalities, Hannah J. Wiseman

Notre Dame Law Review

There is a fundamental problem of scale in the governance of industrial development. For some of the fastest-growing U.S. industries, the negative impacts of development fall primarily at the local level, and the benefits tend to accrue more broadly to states and the federal government. These governments accordingly have inadequate incentives to address the very localized negative externalities of development. Yet states also increasingly preempt most local control over some forms of development. This creates a regulatory void, in which state and federal regulations are inadequate, and local governments lack the power to use traditional Pigouvian tools such as regulation, …

Subsidizing Economic Segregation Through The State And Local Tax Deduction, Gladriel Shobe

UC Irvine Law Review

Economic segregation has increased over the past half-century. The trend of rich localities getting richer while poor localities get poorer is particularly concerning because it limits upward mobility and perpetuates intergenerational income inequality. This Article makes the novel argument that the state and local tax deduction subsidizes economic segregation. It arrives at that conclusion by showing that the “local tax deduction” provides a greater subsidy, per capita, for wealthy, economically segregated localities because only those localities have a critical mass of wealthy taxpayers who claim the deduction. This allows wealthy localities, but not poor localities, to provide services at a …

State And Local Taxation, Brian Sengson, Diandria Green, Blake Joiner, David Greenberg

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys the most critical and comprehensive changes in Georgia law occurring between June 1, 2019, and May 31, 2020. Most notably, the article discusses Georgia’s tax response to COVID-19, Georgia’s new marketplace facilitator statute, the jurisdictional limits of the Georgia Tax tribunal, and other important topics.

Taxation, Craig D. 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 Parts cover legislative activity, judicial decisions, and selected opinions and other pronouncements from the Virginia Department of Taxation (the “Tax Department” or “Department of Taxation”) and the Attorney General of Virginia over the past year. Part I of this Article addresses state taxes. Part II covers local taxes, including real and tangible personal property taxes, license taxes, recordation taxes, and administrative local tax procedures. The overall purpose of this Article is to provide Virginia tax and general practitioners with a concise overview of the …

Information Matters In Tax Enforcement, Leandra Lederman, Joseph C. Dugan

BYU Law Review

Most scholars recognize both that the government needs information about taxpayers’ transactions to determine whether their reporting is honest, and that third third-party reporting helps the government obtain that information. Given governments’ reliance on tax collections, it would be risky to think that information or third third-party reporting is not needed by tax agencies. However, a recent article by Professor Wei Cui asserts that “modern governments can practice ‘taxation without information.’” Professor Cui’s argument rests on two claims: (1) “giving governments effective access to taxpayer information through third parties does not explain the success of modern tax administration” because, he …

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.

Mandatory Tax Penalty Insurance, Michael Abramowicz

Indiana Law Journal

In a mandatory tax penalty insurance regime, taxpayers would be required to find insurers to certify portions of their tax returns. A certifying insurer would be subject to a governmental auditing regime insurers of randomly selected filings would pay an amount equal to the inverse of the selection probability multiplied by the underpayment, or they would receive money from the government in the case of overpayment. The insurers function as private auditors with no incentive to underestimate their customers' tax liability. Such a regime will consume real resources, ultimately paid by taxpayers, and thus should not be imposed universally. But …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Kaestner Fails: The Way Forward, Mitchell M. Gans

William & Mary Business Law Review

This past term, the Supreme Court applied the Due Process Clause to prevent the states from closing down a tax strategy that employs out-of-state trusts. Many had hoped that the case would serve as a vehicle for the Court to overrule taxpayer-friendly precedents that make the strategy possible. But it failed. The question that emerges is whether the decision leaves the states with a path to address the strategy and thereby prevent it from being used to exacerbate issues of inequality. After examining the decision, this Article considers the options available to the states and then suggests a way forward.

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

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

South Dakota V. Wayfair: An Ill-Conceived Blow To The Free Flow Of Interstate Commerce, Revel Shinn Atkinson

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

For more than a century, brick-and-mortar retailers have been losing local customers—first with the rise of mail-order houses and then more acutely with the rapid growth of online retail. As a result, states have noticed a significant loss in sales tax revenue. While an equivalent amount of tax is typically still owed to the state in the form of a use tax, which is to be remitted to the state by the customer, because these taxes are not automatically collected at the time of the sale, customers have overwhelmingly elected not to pay them. In an effort to recover this …

Pub. L. No. 86-272 And The Anti-Commandeering Doctrine: Is This Anachronism Constitutionally Vulnerable After Murphy V. Ncaa?, Matthew A. Melone

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

State taxing authority suffers from little of the structural impediments that the Constitution imposes on the federal government’s taxing power but the states’ power to tax is subject to the restrictions imposed on the exercise of any state action by the Constitution. The most significant obstacles to the states’ assertion of their taxing authority have been the Due Process Clause and the Commerce Clause. The Due Process Clause concerns itself with fairness while the Commerce Clause concerns itself with a functioning national economy. Although the two restrictions have different objectives, for quite some time both restrictions shared one attribute—a taxpayer …

Wayfair Or No Fair: Revisiting Internet Sales Tax Nexus And Consequences In Texas, Jennifer Mendez Lopez

St. Mary's Law Journal

Since 1967, the Supreme Court has revisited the issue of nexus requirements in interstate commerce to keep up with social and technological advancements. However, these restrictive requirements have deprived states of a substantial tax basis. As technology continues to develop exponentially, this presents the need for a new standard that overturns precedent case law. Specifically, the Internet has grown and now necessitates the consideration for and e-commerce taxation collection.

South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. correctly decided that states have the power to collect taxes from qualifying out-of-state businesses without the need for a physical presence. Wayfair is moving in the …

Qap Out: Why The Federal Government Should Require More From How States Allocate Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Connor Blancato

Journal of Law and Policy

Prohibitively high land acquisition and construction costs block affordable housing developers from using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program in high opportunity areas. Policymakers must study the history of housing policy in the United States and realize that the LIHTC program works because it suitably balances previously problematic private-market competition, federalism concerns, and compliance issues. Federal lawmakers can look to Qualified Allocation Plans drafted by individual states as a way to encourage the construction of affordable housing without upsetting this equilibrium. To encourage such development, the federal government can require states, in determining tax credit allocations through QAPs, to give …

Taxes, Theft, And Indian Tribes: Seeking An Equitable Solution To State Taxation Of Indian Country Commerce, Adam Crepelle

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Strange Case Of The Seven Assessors, Janet Howard, Shaun Rafferty

New England Journal of Public Policy

New Orleans was, before Katrina, the only parish (county) in Louisiana to have multiple assessors. There were seven. Each of them had his or her own district, and collectively they formed the Board of Assessors. The strange structure was the vestige of times past, with no rhyme or reason in modern times.

Bellsouth V. Cobb County And The 9-1-1 Act: Taxation Without A Right Of Action, Davis Lackey

Mercer Law Review

The State of Georgia has long recognized the importance of providing emergency services for its citizens. The on-call availability of medical services in our communities is a vital resource for those in need. The Georgia Legislature enacted the Emergency Telephone Number “911” Service Act of 1977 (9-1-1 Act or Act), which streamlined the emergency services phone number into a single, three-digit emergency number that would effectively reduce response time. Specifically, the Georgia General Assembly was concerned with the existence of too many phone numbers for emergency services throughout the state. In 2005, the Georgia General Assembly amended the Act that …

New York City Property Taxes And Appeals: A Systemic Subversion Of Constitutional Rights, Phoenix Marino

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

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

State And Local Taxation, Brian Sengson, Diandria Green, David Greenberg

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys the most critical and comprehensive changes in Georgia law occurring between June 1, 2017, and May 31, 2019.1 In addition to noteworthy cases decided in state and federal courts, this Article details legislation enacted during the survey period that affects Georgia tax law.

• State Constitutional Changes
• Georgia Sales and Use Taxation
• Georgia Income Taxation
• State Tax Credits
• State Tax Controversy

Tax Policy And Our Democracy, Clinton G. Wallace

Michigan Law Review

Review of Anthony C. Infanti's Our Selfish Tax Laws: Toward Tax Reform That Mirrors Our Better Selves.

The Threshold Question: Oklahoma’S Taxing Task After South Dakota V. Wayfair, Jonathan Rogers

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.