Tax Law Commons^™

Vat In The Gcc - Missing Trader Frauds, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

All VATs are susceptible to missing trader (MT) fraud. VATs adopted in an economic community are particularly more susceptible. The EU, for example, loses in excess of €100b annually to this fraud. Given the anticipated adoption of a European-style credit-invoice VAT in the GCC by January 1, 2018, this paper offers a technology-based solution involving the real-time tracking of taxable transactions with centrally collected (securely encrypted) data flows that are risk-analyzed by artificial intelligence (AI).

Vatcoin: The Gcc's Cryptotaxcurrency, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Mike Cheetham

Faculty Scholarship

Bitcoin is the world’s first peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. VATCoin is similar, but it is used in tax compliance. Both Bitcoin and VATCoin are distributive ledger applications built upon blockchain technology. Bitcoin’s ledger is public; VATCoin’s is private. If adopted, VATCoin could well become the world’s first government-mandated cryptotaxcurrency. Unlike Bitcoin, VATCoin will not be a speculative currency. It is always fixed to the home currency.

This paper proposes that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) adopt VATCoin in its VAT Framework. The GCC is expected to have multiple 5% VATs in place by January 1, 2018. There is an ample amount of …

Increasing Charitable Contributions Through The Use Of Trusts, Philip P. Martin, Jr., Joseph A. Sinclitico

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Quis Custodiet: Disestablishment And Standing To Sue, Thomas J. O'Toole

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Australia's Maal And Dpt On Internet-Based Businesses, Antony Ting, Tommaso Faccio, Jeffrey M. Kadet

Articles

Australia has received considerable attention as a result of its unilateral actions to discourage multinational profit shifting. Those actions include the 2015 enactment of the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law and the Australian Treasury’s May 2016 proposal for a diverted profits tax. This article considers how those actions might affect non-Australian multinational entities that conduct internet platform services for, and earn revenues from, Australian customers if those MNEs take no action. It also reviews structural alternatives.

As will be seen from the example set out in the article, the Australian royalty withholding tax is a major portion of the possible tax increases …

Profit-Shifting Structures: Making Ethical Judgments Objectively, Part 2, Jeffrey M. Kadet, David Koontz

Articles

MNCs and their advisors have seemingly taken ethics out of the mix when considering the profit-shifting tax structures they have so prolifically and enthusiastically implemented over the past several decades. There may be a variety of reasons for this. First, U.S. tax law is a self-assessment system, meaning that in most cases taxpayers compute and pay tax without advance approval of their tax positions from the IRS. No third party technical test or propriety standard has to be passed on the front end for any tax strategy or structure. Second, direct personal benefits accrue to management and advisors from implementing …

Perspectives - Susanna Fodor Of Scarola Malone Zubatov, James Hagy, Alicia Langone

Rooftops Project

In a recent visit with the Rooftops Project's Alicia Langone and Professor James Hagy, construction lawyer Susanna Fodor offers views on the tenant improvement process when a not-for-profit organization selects space to lease and on routine repair and renovation projects for properties a not-for-profit may own.

Perspectives - Marty Festenstein Of Nelson, James Hagy, Jennessy Angie Rivera

Rooftops Project

Interior Design Professional Marty Festenstein shares insights on the design process for tenant spaces with Professor James Hagy and Rooftops Project team member Jennsessey Rivera.

Perspectives - Emmy Award-Winning Producer And Director Thomas Kaufman, James Hagy, Colin Pearce

Rooftops Project

What makes an effective message when asking for donations to a capital project using video and streaming media? Professor James Hagy and Rooftops Team member Colin Pearce asked Emmy Award-winning producer and director Tom Kaufman after screening his remarkable two-minute video for the Playtime Project, the goal of which was to fund construction of a children’s playground for a large homeless shelter in a converted, former general hospital in the District of Columbia.

The Luxembourg Effect: Patent Boxes And The Limits Of International Cooperation, Lilian V. Faulhaber

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article uses patent boxes, which reduce taxes on income from patents and other IP assets, to illustrate the fact that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice has a longer reach than has previously been recognized. This article argues that, along with having effects within the European Union, the ECJ’s decisions can also have effects on countries outside of the EU. In the direct tax context, the ECJ’s jurisprudence has hampered the ability of both EU and non-EU countries to police international tax avoidance.

In 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) proposed restrictions on patent …

Taxation As Insurance, John R. Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A central yet often overlooked aspect of an income tax is that it acts as insurance against the risk of low income. Because a person’s payments to government are a function of income, he can be assured that in a time of low income, his tax payments will decrease and transfers will increase, while the standard benefits of governments continue to flow. Because everyone, no matter how successful, faces some risk of lost income, that assurance provides us an insurance benefit, even if our income never actually drops.

Profit-Shifting Structures: Making Ethical Judgments Objectively, Part 1, Jeffrey M. Kadet, David Koontz

Articles

MNCs and their advisors have seemingly taken ethics out of the mix when considering the profit-shifting tax structures they have so prolifically and enthusiastically implemented over the past several decades. There may be a variety of reasons for this. First, U.S. tax law is a self-assessment system, meaning that in most cases taxpayers compute and pay tax without advance approval of their tax positions from the IRS. No third party technical test or propriety standard has to be passed on the front end for any tax strategy or structure. Second, direct personal benefits accrue to management and advisors from implementing …

International Tax Implications Of The Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development Proposal To Neutralize Hybrid Mismatch Arrangements, Dean Harris

Catholic University Law Review

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed a sixteen part plan titled Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). This comment focuses on the second part of that plan; Neutralizing Hybrid Mismatch Arrangements. Mismatches have become a useful tool for corporations to achieve double non-taxation in various jurisdictions. The comment begins by laying the groundwork of what a hybrid mismatch arrangement is and the current problems and complications with them in international tax. Next, this comment addresses various jurisdictional approaches to mismatches, including: Ireland, The United Kingdom, The United States, and Denmark. The paper moves forward onto a …

Is Corporate Integration A Good Idea?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, David Burton, Curtis Dubay, David S. Miller, Steven T. Miller, Stuart L. Rosow, Eric Toder, Alan D. Viard, Richard A. Westin

Other Publications

In general, I believe that integration is advisable as a way of addressing the biases of the classical system against using the corporate form, in favor of retaining earnings, and in favor of debt financing.

In terms of the bias against the corporate form, dividend deduction is as good as dividend exemption or imputation. In all three cases, there is only one level of tax imposed, at the shareholder level for dividend deduction or imputation, and at the corporate level for dividend exemption. If the top shareholder tax rate is higher than the corporate tax rate, both imputation and dividend …

The Uneasy Case For The Retirement Of Douglas Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

In the fall semester of 1964, a young Douglas Kahn joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School. During the spring semester of 2016, he will teach his final course as a full-time faculty member. For the interim fifty two years, he has been a fixture of the Michigan law school community. As a tax professor, former student, and his son, I am pleased and honored to write this introduction for an edition of the Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review honoring Professor Kahn’s tenure at the University of Michigan.

Nfib V. Sebelius And The Individual Mandate: Thoughts On The Tax/Regulation Distinction, Kyle D. Logue

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

When Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion of the Court in National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius (NFIB) explaining the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) minimum essential coverage provision (sometimes referred to as the individual mandate), he reasoned that the mandate—or, more precisely, the enforcement provision that accompanied the mandate (the Shared Responsibility Payment or SRP)—could be understood as a tax on the failure to purchase health insurance. According to this view, the enactment of the mandate and its accompanying enforcement provisions fell within Congress’s virtually unlimited power to “lay and collect taxes.” This tax-based interpretation …

Doug Kahn: The Pied Piper Of Tax Law, Barrie Lawson Loeks, Burt P. Rosen

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Doug Kahn’s love of tax law appears to be contagious. His wife was a tax lawyer, his son is now a tax law professor, and even his daughter in law is a tax lawyer. Doug may have caught the “tax disease” from his elder brother, who was also a leading tax lawyer. In politics, we have the Kennedys, the Bushes, and the Clintons; in the world of tax law, we have the Kahn family dynasty. One can only assume that the discussions around the family Thanksgiving table sliced and diced tax regulations and policies right along with the turkey and …

A Grateful Testimonial To Doug Kahn, Terrence G. Perris

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

It is difficult for me to accept the reality that Doug Kahn is about to retire after a triumphant fifty-two year tenure as a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. For much of the nearly forty-seven years of my association with the Law School, first as a student and then as an alumnus, Doug has practically symbolized the Law School for me, as he went from being a revered teacher, to a valued mentor, to a dear friend, to a colleague and co-author, and, dare I say, to virtually a member of the family. But I am only …

A Note, Robert T. Pelinka Jr.

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

I find it quite meaningful that heartwarming reflections about Douglas Kahn come very naturally to me. Perhaps that, in and of itself, says something about this incredible man. For context, my time in physical proximity to Professor Kahn came during my years as a student-athlete at the University of Michigan, where I graduated from the Ross School of Business, and the Law School. I was also a member of The Michigan Wolverines Basketball Team, where I participated in three NCAA Final Fours, and earned an NCAA Championship Title. I mention these things, not to tout my own accomplishments, but rather …

Where Does One Begin To Describe A Professor Who Literally Changed Your Life?, Kelli Turner

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

A bit of background to set the stage, if you’ll indulge me. Growing up in West Bloomfield, Michigan, I was never overly ambitious, nor did I have any lofty academic goals. In particular, I never had any desire to go to law school or, for that matter, to become a lawyer. I come from a family of trial attorneys and it never interested me much. I was a numbers person and didn’t enjoy a lot of deep reading and essay writing (somewhat ironic as I’m writing this for a law journal). But when I started in public accounting and developed …