Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

California Zappers: A Proposal For The Commission For The 21st Century Economy, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

California has not uncovered a single instance of technology-assisted cash skimming - there are no zappers, and no phantomware in California. Is this because Californians are not skimming cash sales with technology, or is this because the California technology works so well that the fraud cannot be detected?

The record in foreign jurisdictions is reasonable clear. Automated sales suppression technology is widely used to skim cash sales, denying the state revenues from consumption taxes that have been paid by the consumer, reducing taxable business profits, and funding a cash hoard out of which unreported employee wages are paid. Government studies …

The Irs's Flawed Solution To The Controversy Over Deductible Claims Against The Estate And The Necessity For A Date-Of-Death Standard, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 789 (2009), Lisa K. Johnson

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Reenactment And Inaction Doctrines In State Tax Litigation, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

This installment of Interpretation Matters discusses two related canons of statutory interpretation and illustrates their use in state and local tax controversies. Assume that a state revenue agency or court construes a tax statute and that the construction is later challenged in another case. Between the two cases, the state legislature reenacts the provision without changing it or the legislature takes no action to amend the provision to overturn the construction in the first case. Some courts treat the reenactment without change, or even the inaction, as evidence that the legislature agreed with the construction in the first case, so …

Hot Topics In Virginia Taxation - The Present And The Future?, Craig D. Bell, William L.S. Rowe

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Marshall V. Northern Virginia Transportation Authority: The Supreme Court Of Virginia Rules That Taxes Can Be Imposed By Elected Bodies Only, Patrick M. Mcsweeney, Wesley G. Russell Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Substance And Form In State Taxation, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

In the interpretation of tax statutes, a venerable principle is that “taxation should move in an atmosphere of practical realities rather than amid the intricate and wooden concepts” of legal formalities. That principle is familiar in federal taxation, and it holds no less sway in state and local taxation. Indeed, the idea that the substance of a transaction usually controls over the form of the transaction is not confined to taxation; it is a principle of U.S. law generally.

The principle commands that the underlying reality of the events usually determines tax consequence; the forms or labels attached to the …

Tax Incentives For Economic Development: Personal (And Pessimistic) Reflections, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Tax Nexus And Apportionment: Voice, Exit, And The Dormant Commerce Clause, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

The dormant Commerce Clause concept of tax nexus is best understood as a rough, but serviceable, proxy for the taxpayer's standing in the political process. This perspective leads me to defend Quill Corporation v. North Dakota and the much maligned physical presence test for tax nexus. As a matter of legislative policy, the critics of this test may be correct. However, as a matter of constitutional law, the courts should adhere to an expanded physical presence standard as Congress crafts for the long term broader nexus rules based on economic presence. Taxation is an inherently and irreducibly political matter. An …

Federal Fairness To State Taxpayers: Irrationality, Unfunded Mandates, And The "Salt" Deduction, Brian Galle

Michigan Law Review

By sheer dollars alone, the largest impact of the Alternative Minimum Tax is to deny many taxpayers the deduction for the taxes they paid to their state and local governments under § 164 of the Internal Revenue Code. This Article provides a fine-grained analysis of the overall fairness of the state-andlocal- tax deduction--and, by implication, the fairness of its partial repeal through the Alternative Minimum Tax. I offer for the first time a close examination of how newly understood limits on taxpayer mobility and rationality might affect individuals' choices of bundles of local taxes and localgovernment services, which in turn …

Managing California's Fiscal Roller Coaster, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article analyzes the causes of California's budget crises and prescribes institutional mechanisms for improving California's budgetary management.

Federal Fairness To State Taxpayers: Irrationality, Unfunded Mandates, And The 'Salt' Deduction, Brian Galle

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

By sheer dollars alone, the largest impact of the Alternative Minimum Tax is to deny many taxpayers the deduction for the taxes they paid to their state and local governments under § 164 of the Internal Revenue Code. This Article provides a fine-grained analysis of the overall fairness of the state- and local-tax deduction ¿ and, by implication, the fairness of its partial repeal through the Alternative Minimum Tax. I offer for the first time a close examination of how newly understood limits on taxpayer mobility and rationality might affect individuals' choices of bundles of local taxes and local government …

The 7% Property Tax Cap: The Battle In Cook County, Irina Dashevsky

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Still Separate And Unequal: Illinois Education Funding, Jay H. Rowell

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Forging Fiscal Reform: Constitutional Change, Public Policy, And The Creation Of Administrative Capacity In Wisconsin, 1880-1920, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In 1911, Wisconsin became one of the first U.S. states to adopt an effectively administered income tax. Wisconsin reformers were able to overcome several institutional barriers to create the administrative capacity necessary to assess and collect a graduated income tax that in time raised significant revenue, but did not supplant the property tax. With this limited success, the Wisconsin income tax soon became a model for other states and even the national government. In this sense, Wisconsin was a leader in forging fiscal reform. Political activists, lawmakers, and other government actors in the Badger State led a turn-of-the-century property tax …

Questions About Tax Increment Financing In North Carolina, Joseph Blocher, Jonathan Q. Morgan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Original Understanding Of The New Hampshire Constitution’S Education Clause, Edward C. Mosca

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “In 1993, the New Hampshire Supreme Court held that “part II, article 83 [of the state constitution] imposes a duty on the State to provide a constitutionally adequate education to every educable child in the public schools in New Hampshire and to guarantee adequate funding,” and that this duty is enforceable by the judiciary. This decision, known as Claremont I, was the wellspring of a line of decisions that has radically changed both the manner in which public education is funded in New Hampshire and the respective roles of the judicial branch and the representative branches in formulating education …

Recent Tax Developments In Virginia: 2006-2007, Craig D. Bell, William L.S. Rowe

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

The Commerciality Doctrine As Applied To The Charitable Tax Exemption For Homes For The Aged: State And Local Tax Perspectives, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This essay examines the question of how state and local government officials should consider federal tax law principles, like the commerciality doctrine, when they challenge state and local property tax exemptions that rely, at least in part, on tax-exempt charitable status for federal income tax purposes. In particular, this essay uses the example of continuing care retirement communities to consider tax-exempt law’s commerciality doctrine in an attempt to discern distinctions between “homes for the aged” that are “charitable,” and thus entitled to exemption, and those that are too commercial, and thus not entitled to exemption. In fact, one might say …

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

This article reviews significant developments in the law affect-ing Virginia taxation. Each section covers recent legislative changes, judicial decisions, and selected opinions or pronouncements from the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Attorney General of Virginia over the past year. The overall purpose ofthis article is to provide Virginia tax and general practitioners with a concise overview of the recent developments in Virginia taxation most likely to have an impact on their practices. This article will not, however, discuss many of the numerous technical legislative changes to the State Taxation Code of Title 58.1.

Daimlerchrysler V. Cuno: The Supreme Court Hits The Brakes On Determining The Constitutionality Of Investment Incentives Given By States To Corporate America, Jonathan Edwards

Mercer Law Review

In DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno, the United States Supreme Court, under the pen of Chief Justice Roberts, unanimously held that state taxpayers did not have Article III standing to challenge local property tax abatements and investment tax credits given to DaimlerChrysler Corporation ("Daimler"). Claiming standing as municipal and state taxpayers, the plaintiffs challenged the City of Toledo and the State of Ohio's decisions to offer Daimler certain exemptions from and reductions of its local property and state franchise taxes. The Court held that the plaintiffs failed to satisfy the injury-in-fact and redressability requirements of standing because their alleged injury …

Imagining A Progressive And Comprehensive Consumption Tax, Sean K. Raft

ExpressO

The income tax system has become quite a mess. Unfortunately, the brunt of that mess falls primarily on the backs of the individual taxpayer, who is required to sift through the tens of thousands of pages of instructions and tax rules just to calculate, file, and pay what they owe. The filing burden and costs of compliance are already exorbitant, but they are only increasing.

In response to the complaints over the increasing complication, economists and tax scholars have imagined ways to improve or replace the income tax. Yet, the alternatives are either regressive or fail to generate enough revenue …

A Winner For The Windy City: A Comment In Support Of Establishing A Land-Based Casino In The City Of Chicago, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1391 (2007), Ronald Neroda

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ideal Deal: How Local Governments Can Get More For Their Economic Development Dollar, Rachel Weber, David Santacroce

Books

This handbook is designed to provide local economic development practitioners with an important tool. It takes the reader step-by-step through the different elements of contracts that treat public incentive packages as a quid pro quo for public benefits. Each section discusses a different element of the ideal deal: valuation of public costs and benefits, performance standards, disclosure and oversight, and enforcement. In each section we provide detailed examples of model provisions used by local governments in their incentive legislation, ordinances, and contracts -- information that has not before been obtained or recorded in any systematic way. These examples are meant …

Preface To Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing The European Court Of Justice And The Us Supreme Court's Tax Jurisprudence, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Other Publications

In October 2005, a group of distinguished tax experts from both the European Union and the United States convened at the University of Michigan Law School for a conference on 'Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing the US Supreme Court and European Court of Justice Tax Jurisprudence.' The conference was sponsored by the Law School, the European Union Center, and Harvard Law School's Fund for Tax and Fiscal Research. Attendees from Europe included Michel Au jean, the principal tax official at the EU Commission, Servaas van Thiel, chief tax advisor to the EU Council, Michael Lang (Vienna) and Kees van Raad (Leiden), …

Designing Interstate Institutions: The Example Of The Streamlined Sales And Use Tax Agreement, Brian Galle

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article presents a case study in designing cooperative interstate institutions. It takes as its subject the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement ("SSUTA"), a recently-developed compact among the States now awaiting congressional ratification. The SSUTA's primary goal is to bring uniformity to the field of state and local sales taxation, a regime in which multi-jurisdictional sellers now confront thousands of different sets of rules. I predict here that the SSUTA as currently designed is unlikely to accomplish that goal, and attempt to suggest possible amendments that could improve its expected performance. From these efforts I extract larger lessons about …

The Market-Participant Exception And The Dormant Foreign Commerce Clause, J. T. Hutchens

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note argues against extending the Market-Participant Exception to the Dormant Foreign Commerce Clause, asserting that such an extension would undermine the federal government's exclusive authority over foreign affairs and potentially disrupt national foreign policy. While the exception is well-established in interstate commerce, its application to foreign commerce raises unique concerns, including the risk of international retaliation and the erosion of the "one voice" principle in international relations. The author emphasizes that the constitutional separation of powers and the Supremacy Clause further support the necessity of federal primacy in foreign trade matters.

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

Scholarly Works

Under the "internal consistency" doctrine articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court under the dormant Commerce Clause, a state tax must be structured so that if every state were to impose an identical tax, interstate commerce would fare no worse than intrastate commerce. Although a relatively recent addition to the Court's Commerce Clause jurisprudence, the doctrine has played a significant role as the basis for the judicial invalidation of a wide array of state and local taxes. In American Trucking Associations, Inc., v. Michigan Public Service Commission, 545 U.S. 429 (2005), however, the Court sustained an admittedly "internally inconsistent" $100 per …

Introduction To Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing The European Court Of Justice And The Us Supreme Court's Tax Jurisprudence, James R. Hines Jr.

Other Publications

This volume brings together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to consider federalist tax jurisprudence as practiced in Europe and the United States. These essays display a broad range of shared concerns, which is not to say that the scholars agree on all points of substantive policy and interpretation. What can be said is that there is general agreement that the exercise of comparing the tax jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice and the US Supreme Court is likely to be informative and beneficial to all concerned.

The Incoherence Of Dormant Commerce Clause Nondiscrimination: A Rejoinder To Professor Denning, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

A sound intuition animates Professor Denning's defense of the doctrinal status quo under the dormant commerce clause: the courts should not lightly abandon well-established constitutional canons. I nevertheless remain unconvinced by Professor Denning's effort to justify the long-standing interpretation of the dormant commerce clause as forbidding taxes which discriminate against interstate commerce. Whatever the historical justification for this constitutional precept, its past utility, or its visceral appeal, dormant commerce clause nondiscrimination is today doctrinally incoherent in tax contexts. The problem is not one of borderlines and close cases. Rather, at its core, the notion of dormant commerce clause tax nondiscrimination …