Tax Law Commons^™

Perpetuating Inequality By Taxing Wealth, Goldburn P. Maynard Jr.

Fordham Law Review

This Article attempts to correct this shortcoming in the progressive argument by returning narrative to its central place in the estate tax debate. Drawing on psychological insights, I hope to underscore the difficulty of the effort to preserve progressive taxation and combat wealth inequality.

The Corruption Of Liberal And Social Democracies, Timothy K. Kuhner

Fordham Law Review

Thomas Piketty repeats throughout Capital in the Twenty-First Century that today’s levels of inequality are not inevitable, much less natural, and has connected the state of democracy worldwide to rising economic inequality. Wealth transfers from the state to the private sector, wealth transfers from labor to capital, and tax laws favorable to the concentration of wealth require that the participatory and representative facets of democracy be kept in check. Beyond suitable material conditions, the growth and maintenance of inequality necessitates a justificatory ideology. This Article explores the possibility that the laws of political finance can help connect the dots. Legal …

How Individual Income Tax Policy Affects Entrepreneurship, David Clingingsmith, Scott Shane

Fordham Law Review

This Article reviews the empirical literature on the effects of individual income tax policy on entrepreneurship. We find no evidence of consensus, even on relatively narrow questions such as whether individual income tax rates deter or encourage entrepreneurial entry. We believe the absence of consensus reflects both the complexity of mechanisms connecting tax policy to entrepreneurial decision making and the infeasibility of employing the most reliable empirical methods, such as experiments, in this domain.

The Semantics Of Sin Tax: Politics, Morality, And Fiscal Imposition, Bruce G. Carruthers

Fordham Law Review

In this Article, I consider how negative social meanings can be projected through public revenue systems and propose to examine the link between taxation and representation in a new light.7 First, I discuss how social meanings are attached to money and then explain how, through the use of earmarking, this works in the case of tax revenues. I next briefly review the history of sin taxes at both the state and federal levels. Finally, I use computational linguistic methods to suggest that the fiscal significance of sin taxes, and their cultural significance, are loosely coupled.

Framing Middle-Class Insecurity: Tax And The Ideology Of Unequal Economic Growth, Martha T. Mccluskey

Fordham Law Review

This Article first explains how the prevailing discourse frames federal tax support for the middle class as either consumption or redistribution, both of which appear to be essentially unproductive and potentially destructive. Second, this Article examines the expansion of state and local tax support for elite private capital. In contrast to tax support favoring the middle class, this upper-class support is accepted widely as necessary for productive economic development. Operating below the radar of prominent tax debates, this state and local tax policy reveals more starkly and perversely how prevailing views of tax rationalize inequality and austerity. This Article concludes …

Taxing Losers, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

The U.S. tax system, like most in the world, benefits capital gains in two ways. Investors can defer paying tax until they "realize" any gain (typically by sale) rather than when the gain simply occurs via rising prices. Additionally, individual investors pay a lower, preferred rate on their long-term capital gains as compared to their other ordinary income (such as compensation or business profits).

However, investors face a burden with respect to their capital losses. Rather than allowing for unlimited capital loss deductions, the Code largely forces investors to match their capital losses against their capital gains. Limits on capital …

A Critique Of Saudi M&A Laws, Mulhim Hamad Almulhim

SJD Dissertations

This dissertation aims to elucidate Saudi Arabia’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) laws. The dissertation studies and analyzes current Saudi M&A laws with reference to comparative models from different countries and provides recommendations to improve the transparency and efficiency of Saudi Arabia’s M&A laws. Such improvements may help companies attempting to conduct M&A activity in Saudi Arabia address certain barriers and difficulties, which may in turn help to stimulate the Saudi Arabian economy.

Saudi Arabia is considered one of the world’s foremost emerging markets. Since Saudi Arabia joined the World Trade Organization, its stock market has been growing quickly, including rapid …

Student Loans As Taxes, John R. Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The growth of college tuition and the corresponding rise in student loan debt have become major issues of public importance. Total outstanding student debt is at least $1.3 trillion, and tuitions keep growing, even while we arguably need to invest more in higher education to add skills and grow our economy. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has made higher education reform a major part of his Democratic presidential campaign platform, proposing a new financial transactions tax to pay for large grants to states that offer free tuition to public universities. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, has proposed grants to states to offer …

The Internet Tax Freedom Act: Necessary Protection Or Deferral Of The Problem?, Timothy Fallaw

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Profit-Shifting Structures And Unexpected Partnership Status, Jeffrey M. Kadet, David Koontz

Articles

Many U.S.- and foreign-based MNCs that have implemented carefully researched tax strategies to reduce their income taxes are coming under increased scrutiny. Most MNC tax strategies involve businesses they conduct worldwide, but which are managed from the U.S. These strategies have several factors in common:

(i) Companies established in tax havens or otherwise structured to attract little if any tax;

(ii) Intercompany agreements placing commercial risk and intangibles in such companies, thereby shifting profits to such companies;

(iii) Conduct of centralized activities and functions in the U.S. (in addition to group senior management), which are integral to and which critically …

Registered Savings Plans And The Making Of Middle Class Canada: Toward A Performative Theory Of Tax Policy, Lisa Philipps

Articles & Book Chapters

Politicians across Canada’s political spectrum strive to position themselves as defenders of the middle class, and tax policy is a prime vehicle for making this pitch. Any tax reform proposal can be examined critically to evaluate its likely distributional impacts and how well these map onto specific definitions of the middle class. This article attempts, however, a different project. Drawing on the ideas of Judith Butler, it analyzes instead how tax policy produces middle-class identity through the very process of claiming to advance middle-class interests. The case study for this purpose is the rise of tax incentives for saving as …

Tax Treaties-Reciprocal Exchange Of Information-Summons Power Contained In Irc Section 7602 May Be Used To Obtain Information From Domestic Sources For Use By Canadian Authorities In Investigating The Canadian Tax Liability Of A Canadian Company, Tim J. Floyd

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The 21st Century Fight Over Who Sets The Terms Of The Charity Property Tax Exemption, Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

Turning from the substantive issue of defining charity, this article considers the “who” question by examining the roles of the courts, legislatures, municipalities, and charities in determining exemption and payments in lieu of taxes. The three covered topics – constitutional power, statutory interpretation, and the “intermediate sanctions” of user fees and PILOTs – braid together to form the procedural framework for the financial relationship between nonprofit property owners and the taxing jurisdictions that host them. Change the parameters of one, and you change the others. Staying off the rolls or minimizing the tax bite often results from compromise – whether …

Is An American Value Added Tax Inevitable?, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Fixing The Fmla's Flaws: A Fight For Care, Adult Children, And Tax Incentives, Kelsey A. Jonas

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conservation Easements And The Valuation Conundrum, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

For more than fifty years, taxpayers have been able to claim a federal charitable income tax deduction under Internal Revenue Code § 170(h) for the donation of a conservation easement or a façade easement. For just as long, the deduction has been subject to abuse, including valuation abuse. Dismayed by the expenditure of significant judicial and administrative resources to combat abuse in the easement donation context, the Treasury Department recently proposed reforms, including reforms to address valuation abuse. The reforms were proposed in somewhat of an analytical vacuum, however, because there has been no comprehensive analysis of the easement valuation …

Profiles - Right Where We Started: Celebrating New York City Organizations At The Same Locations Over A Century Or More, James Hagy, Alicia Langone, Jordan Moss, Sahar Nikanjam, Bridget Pastorelle, Colin Pearce, Jennessy Angie Rivera, Ronna Zarrouk

Rooftops Project

Featuring these New York City not-for-profit institutions: The Art Students League of New York; The Bowne House Historical Society; The Bronx Zoo; Carnegie Hall; Flushing Friends (Old Quaker) Meeting House; Middle Collegiate Church; Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanic Garden and Sailors’ Snug Harbor in the City of New York

This article was collaboration among Professor James Hagy, Director of The Rooftops Project at New York Law School, and Alicia Langone, Jordan Moss, Sahar Nikanjam, Bridget Pastorelle, Colin Pearce, Jennessy Angie Rivera, and Ronna Zarrouk, student members of The Rooftops Project.

Tax Expenditure Limitations (Tels) And State Expenditure Structure, Jeffrey M. Kulik

All Capstone Projects

Background: Tax Expenditure Limitations (TELs) are limits placed on either outlays of cash or creation of new revenues via tax levy by states. There have been many TEL initiatives since the so-called Taxpayer Revolt of the late 1970s.

Purpose: This paper analyzes the impact of TELs on different types of state expenditures. This study provides a comparative analysis of different types of TELs on the state level and aims to evaluate the effect of TEL policy on state expenditure structures.

Methods: Using panel data analysis, this work finds that states with more stringently binding tax and expenditure limitations-in addition to …

The Enigma Of Wynne, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

The five-justice Wynne majority used that case to make a major statement about the dormant Commerce Clause. In many respects, Wynne is an enigma that perpetuates an inherent problem of the Courts dormant Commerce Clause doctrine: the Court declares some ill-defined taxes as unconstitutionally discriminatory because they encourage in-state investment, while other economically equivalent taxes and government programs that similarly encourage intrastate economic activity are apparently acceptable under the dormant Commerce Clause.

Wynne is thus more important than the immediate situation it addresses, and will have consequences beyond the immediate circumstances it addresses. A decision as enigmatic as it is …

Don't Forget The Standard Deduction, John R. Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The presidential candidates this campaign season are a diverse group with a wide range of tax policy proposals, but they agree unanimously about one thing: the need to limit itemized deductions. Sadly, however, none of their proposals tackles how limits on itemized deductions would affect the other side of the equation—the standard deduction — which is also very much in need of reform.