Tax Law Commons^™

Elaine Gagliardi On Uncertain Times: Anticipating Change And Reacting To Recent Wealth Transfer Tax Developments, Elaine H. Gagliardi

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

Looming on the horizon is the very real possibility of estate tax repeal. In the interim for those clients needing to immediately make estate planning decisions, the question becomes what planning strategies best meet client needs in the face of an uncertain estate tax. Acknowledging that the ultimate answer depends on individual circumstances and goals, some common planning strategies nevertheless emerge as better options than others to address particular client goals, especially those of married couples. These planning strategies work well now and can be adapted to work well under the most likely Congressional response to repeal. Republicans have alluded …

Proposed Internal Revenue Service Procedure Regarding Revocation Of Tax Exempt Status For Private Schools Which Discriminate On The Basis Of Race, David L. Anderson

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Beps, Reuven Avi-Yonah, Haiyan Xu

Articles

This article evaluates the recently completed Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project of the G20 and OECD and offers some alternatives for reform.

The Negative Capital Account Maze, Walter D. Schwidetzky

All Faculty Scholarship

Outside Hubert I and Hubert II, there has been little discussion of negative capital accounts in the tax context and almost no discussion in the nontax context. Nontax law, however, is critically important. This report provides an integrated discussion of the application of tax and nontax law to negative capital accounts.

One of the challenges in writing this report is that it requires a discussion of both the at-risk rules of section 465 and the debt allocation rules of section 752. Complex issues involving sections 465 and 752 and their interaction are worthy of their own articles. Indeed, others have …

A Philosophy Toolkit For Tax Lawyers, Bret N. Bogenschneider

Akron Law Review

Philosophy functions as a tool for tax lawyers.The various schools of philosophy are akin to a toolkit with different tools suited for differing projects where the more tools the tax lawyer knows how to use, the more effective he or she will be in the practice of tax law. This paper accordingly sets out to provide a systemization of philosophy relevant to tax law in the areas of Moral Philosophy, Legal Philosophy, Law and Economics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language, and Critical Legal Studies. A summary is provided of each followed by a discussion of prior …

"Cut - And That's A Wrap" - The Film Industry's Fleecing Of State Tax Incentive Programs, Randle B. Pollard

Akron Law Review

When film production costs in California skyrocketed in the 1990s, states began creating tax incentive programs to attract film industry production. Currently, thirty-seven states have some type of film industry incentives and twenty-two states offer film tax credits. The 2014 movie Divergent, based on a science fiction book trilogy that takes place in a future post-apocalypse Chicago, cost $85 million to create, $30 million of which was spent in Illinois. The film producers promised to produce 1,000 jobs and in return received over $5 million in Illinois film tax credits. Did the reduction of tax revenue collected by the state …

Tax Treaty Models - Past, Present, And A Suggested Future, Doron Narotzki

Akron Law Review

Most scholarly research on tax treaties deals with the question of whether tax treaties are essentially necessary and how they work to eliminate double taxation, attract foreign direct investments, and promote the exchange of information. Although these questions are important, each of them treats one specific aspect of tax treaties in a way that can be described as, at best, speculative. That specific aspect is the tax policy a country wishes to implement in each tax treaty. Although everyone assumes a policy exists, no one actually knows what the policy is or any other details regarding it. All too often, …

Clean Energy Tax Credits: Creating An Energy Welfare State Or Saving The Planet, K. Alex Langley

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

This article addresses possible tax incentives that may be available in addition to or as an alternative to current tax credits. First, it will provide an overview of America’s ever-evolving energy policy. This section explains why the country’s energy policies resemble a rollercoaster. Second, this article offers a brief history of tax credits, specifically clean energy tax credits and fossil fuel tax credits. Part three describes Master Limited Partnerships (“MLPs”) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”), two tax-flavored entity choices used by the oil and gas industry to improve their bottom line. Specifically, part three explores the tax benefits of …

The Tampon Tax: Sales Tax, Menstrual Hygiene Products, And Necessity Exemptions, Jennifer Bennett

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Women in the United States face many economic obstacles that their male counterparts do not. Many of these obstacles – including the wage gap, economic issues related to childbearing, and implicit bias in the workplace, among others – are the result of multiple political, social, and cultural factors, making them hard to eliminate. The tampon tax is comparatively simple to take on: if state legislatures decide to remove it, women will no longer have to pay it. The term “tampon tax” refers to how the majority of states impose a general sales tax on tampons, pads, reusable menstrual cups, and …

An American Football Team In London: How Tax Consequences For International Athletes Could Affect The Success Of A Potential Nfl Franchise In London, Brett Smith

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Although the NFL has not announced any definite plans to place a team in London, it has taken significant steps in that direction. By 2022, it could be a reality. As the laws in the U.S. and U.K. currently stand, NFL athletes playing for a team in London would face more income taxes than if they played for a U.S.-based team. The extra tax liability the players would face in the U.K. could prevent players from signing with the London team. If the London franchise struggles to field talent, it will struggle on the field as well. Without reform in …

Eu Tax Probe, State Aid & The Case Of Amazon, Tomislav Krmek

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Multinational entities are shifting their profits from jurisdictions with high tax rates to low tax jurisdictions that result in sovereign governments losing millions of dollars and euros. Profits are moved away from the jurisdictions in which the economic activity occurs and sovereign governments face difficulties in exercising their right to taxation. The most common method employed for artificially (but legally) shifting profits is the transfer of intangibles (intellectual property). This article will discuss this legal tax avoidance in the European Union by multinational entities using that common technique: shifting of goods and services between affiliates (transfer pricing). Companies are getting …

Business Tax Burdens And Tax Reform, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

Tax reforms affect economic performance by changing incentives for business formation, expansion, and operation. The United States has the highest corporate tax rate among OECD countries in 2017, and despite offering significant additional deductions, exclusions, and tax credits, imposes the heaviest tax burdens. This paper offers a new measure of corporate tax burdens based on information in tax expenditure budgets; this measure implies that the burden of U.S. corporate taxation in 2017 is equivalent to that produced by a corporate tax rate between 31.2-34.6% without additional deductions, exclusions, or tax credits. Efficient design of a business tax system encourages activities …

Revisiting Erisa’S Church Plan Exemption After Advocate Health Care Network V. Stapleton, Emily Morrison

Northwestern University Law Review

For much of the last forty years, ERISA’s church plan exemption has existed quietly without much fanfare. But increased litigation over the last five years has dragged the exemption into the spotlight. The litigation focuses on religiously affiliated hospital systems and whether their pension plans have been correctly classified as church plans exempt from ERISA.

This Note examines the history behind the church plan exemption, including statutory modifications made in 1980 and the IRS’s longstanding interpretation of these changes, which precipitated the dispute at issue in the current wave of litigation. While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Advocate …

Southern Cal. Edison V. State Dep’T Of Taxation, 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 49 (Jul. 27, 2017), Karson Bright

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court considered whether an electrical utility company was entitled to a tax refund after it had paid taxes under an alleged discriminatory taxation scheme. The Court held that the company was not entitled to a tax refund because the company’s statutory construction argument regarding NRS 372.270 in conjunction with NRS 372.185 would create absurd results. Moreover, the company did not provide sufficient evidence demonstrating substantially situated competitors who benefited from the unconstitutional taxation scheme. Finally, the Court found that the company was not entitled to a tax credit for the money it paid to an out-of-state tax because the …

Tax-Deductible Conservation Easements And The Essential Perpetuity Requirements, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Property owners who make charitable gifts of perpetual conservation easements are eligible to claim federal charitable income tax deductions. Through this tax-incentive program the public is investing billions of dollars in easements encumbering millions of acres nationwide. In response to reports of abuse in the early 2000s, the Internal Revenue Service (Service) began auditing and litigating questionable easement donation transactions, and the resulting case law reveals significant failures to comply with the deduction’s requirements. Recently, the Service has come under fire for enforcing the deduction’s “perpetuity” requirements, which are intended to ensure that the easements will protect the subject properties’ …

A Diachronic Approach To Bob Jones: Religious Tax Exemptions After Obergefell, Samuel D. Brunson, David J. Herzig

Indiana Law Journal

In Bob Jones University v. United States, the Supreme Court held that an entity may lose its tax exemption if it violates a fundamental public policy, even where religious beliefs demand that violation. In that case, the Court held that racial discrimination violated fundamental public policy. Could the determination to exclude same-sex in-dividuals from marriage or attending a college also be considered a violation of fundamental public policy? There is uncertainty in the answer. In the re-cent Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriage, the Court asserted that LGBT individuals are entitled to “equal dignity in the eyes of …

Financing Central Cities: The Economics Underlying Fiscal Strategy Options, Michael Wasylenko

Center for Policy Research

A consortium of Syracuse City and Onondaga County governments along with a number of local area non-profit organizations have recently organized a commission on Local Government Modernization for the Syracuse area. The Report makes three major recommendation to strengthen the local public sector in the Syracuse region: seek opportunities to share public services across local jurisdictions to reduce costs, adopt the Minneapolis region model for sharing revenues from new commercial and industrial development across localities, and work toward merging Syracuse City government with Onondaga County government. At the same time, current non-city residents would not have responsibility for the city …

A Progressive Federal Tax Credit For State Tax Payments, Eric Kades

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Territoriality And The Original Intent Of Subpart F, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

On April 26 President Trump issued a one page tax reform outline that included territoriality - that is, making dividends from the non-subpart F income of controlled foreign corporations tax exempt. Territoriality is also included in the House Republican "Better Way" blueprint, and was supported by the Obama administration and in bipartisan legislation introduced in 2016 by Senate Finance Committee members Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.

W(H)Ither The Tax Gap?, James Alm, Jay A. Soled

Washington Law Review

For decades, policy makers and politicians have railed against the “tax gap,” or the difference between what taxpayers are legally obligated to pay in taxes and what they actually pay in taxes. To close the gap, Congress has instituted numerous reforms with varying degrees of success. Notwithstanding these efforts, the tax gap has largely remained intact, and, if anything, it has gradually grown over the last several decades. However, the tax gap may well begin to diminish in size (or “wither” away), if not immediately then over time. Three developments will help narrow the tax gap’s size. First, the ubiquity …