Hillenmeyer, "Convenience Of The Employer," And The Taxation Of Nonresidents' Incomes,
2016
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Hillenmeyer, "Convenience Of The Employer," And The Taxation Of Nonresidents' Incomes, Edward A. Zelinsky
Articles
In Hillenmeyer v. Cleveland Board of Review, Ohio’s Supreme Court unanimously declared that Cleveland’s municipal income tax violated the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution by taxing a nonresident athlete under the “games-played” method rather than the “duty-days” method. According to the Ohio court, the games-played approach overtaxed Mr. Hillenmeyer by allocating to Cleveland Mr. Hillenmeyer’s compensation from the Chicago Bears using the percentage of the Bears’ games played in Cleveland. By this approach, Cleveland taxed Mr. Hillenmeyer extraterritorially, reaching income he earned from services he performed for the Bears outside of Cleveland’s borders. Due Process, the Ohio …
A Hitchhiker’S Guide To The Oecd’S International Vat/Gst Guidelines,
2016
UGA School of Law
A Hitchhiker’S Guide To The Oecd’S International Vat/Gst Guidelines, Walter Hellerstein
Scholarly Works
The OECD’s International VAT/GST Guidelines, which were released in their consolidated form at the OECD’s Global Forum on VAT in Paris in late 2015, are the culmination of nearly two decades of efforts to provide internationally accepted standards for consumption taxation of cross-border trade, particularly trade in services and intangibles. This article provides a roadmap to the Guidelines, especially for readers who may be unfamiliar with consumption tax principles, in general, or VATs in particular. Part II of the article provides the background to the Guidelines, describing the basic features of a VAT, the problems with which the Guidelines are …
'The Better Part Of Valour Is Discretion': Should The Irs Change Or Surrender Its Oversight Of Tax-Exempt Organizations?,
2016
Notre Dame Law School
'The Better Part Of Valour Is Discretion': Should The Irs Change Or Surrender Its Oversight Of Tax-Exempt Organizations?, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer
Journal Articles
Recent events have highlighted the difficulties the Internal Revenue Service faces when attempting to ensure that purportedly tax-exempt organizations in fact qualify for that status. The problems in this area go much deeper than a group of IRS employees subjecting certain organizations to greater scrutiny based on their political leanings, however. For decades members of the public, the media, the academy, and Congress have criticized the limited ability of the IRS to ensure that organizations claiming exemption from federal income tax in fact deserve that categorization. Yet examples of IRS failings in this area continue to arise with depressing frequency. …
New Research On The Stubborn Persistence Of Tax Expenditures,
2016
Washington University in St. Louis School of Law
New Research On The Stubborn Persistence Of Tax Expenditures, Conor Clarke
Scholarship@WashULaw
In this essay I examine new research on tax expenditures. By utilizing survey experiments, several new studies have explored when and why the public prefers spending programs organized as tax credits rather than direct expenditures, even when the substance and cost of the policies are the same. I argue that this 'framing effects' research can help explain why tax expenditures have continued to grow faster than government spending as a whole, and why tax expenditure budgets have failed to stop this growth.
What Are Tax Havens And Why Are They Bad?,
2016
Washington University in St. Louis School of Law
What Are Tax Havens And Why Are They Bad?, Conor Clarke
Scholarship@WashULaw
This essay reviews Gabriel Zucman's The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens. Zucman's important new book brings clarity to a confusing subject -- but occasionally does so at the expense of nuance. My review has three goals. First, I summarize and appraise Zucman's central findings, and re-estimate his revenue-loss totals for the United States using tax-rate assumptions that I believe are more realistic. Second, I position Zucman's findings against the backdrop of the wider literatures on tax havens and inequality, and attempt to answer the two questions in this essay's title. Third, I comment on Zucman's call …
No State Left Behind: An Analysis Of The Post-Egtrra Death Tax Landscape And An Argument For Kentucky To Repeal State Death Taxes,
2016
University of Kentucky
No State Left Behind: An Analysis Of The Post-Egtrra Death Tax Landscape And An Argument For Kentucky To Repeal State Death Taxes, Mary Ellen Wimberly
Kentucky Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Fragmented Oversight Of Nonprofits In The United States: Does It Work? Can It Work?,
2016
Notre Dame Law School
Fragmented Oversight Of Nonprofits In The United States: Does It Work? Can It Work?, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer
Journal Articles
Previously Brendan Wilson and I concluded that oversight of nonprofit governance would be most effective if it remained the responsibility of the states, although it would benefit from both a federal funding mechanism and enhanced coordination with the Internal Revenue Service.' More recently I concluded that oversight of federal tax exemption would be better served if Congress shifted the locus of that oversight to a national, self-regulatory organization working in close cooperation with the IRS given the perennial financial and other limitations faced by the IRS.2 What neither of these earlier articles addressed, however, was whether the current split of …
Marital Sharing Of Transfer Tax Exemptions,
2016
Saint Louis University School of Law
Marital Sharing Of Transfer Tax Exemptions, Kerry A. Ryan
All Faculty Scholarship
This Article analyzes portability and its antecedents in order to distill a positive account of marital sharing oftransfer tax exemption amounts. Prior to 2010, the estate and gift tax exemption equivalent was a nontransferable, separate tax attribute of each spouse. A spouse could only access his or her spouse’s effective exemption by shifting property into the other spouse’s tax base. With the enactment of portability, Congress decoupled tax-free availability of a spouse’s unified credit from the necessity of a prior intra-spousal transfer. All that is required is an election by the decedent spouse, via the executor, to share the decedent’s …
Constructive Unilateralism: U.S. Leadership And International Taxation,
2016
University of Michigan Law School
Constructive Unilateralism: U.S. Leadership And International Taxation, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Articles
In recent years, various U.S. international tax proposals have been advanced on the basis that we should follow the lead of our major trading partners. For example, it has been argued that we should adopt a "territorial" tax system (really, an exemption for dividends by controlled subsidiaries of U.S. multinationals) because most of our trading partners have done so. Other voices have called for the United States to adopt a "patent box" because the United Kingdom and other EU jurisdictions have one.
A Bipartisan Tax Reform?,
2016
University of Michigan Law School
A Bipartisan Tax Reform?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Articles
A Bipartisan Tax Reform?By Reuven S. Avi-YonahIf one listens to what Democratic and Republicancandidates for president are saying on the cam-paign trail, it would appear that the chances for taxreform in 2017 and beyond are minimal. A biparti-san approach is essential for tax reform to passbecause even if there are majorities from the presi-dent’s party in both houses, major tax reform wouldnot likely get through the Senate without 60 votes.But the parties seem very far apart on tax reform.Democrats are focused on using the tax system toreduce inequality and are determined to raise thetax rates at the top of the …
Bitcoin Transactions: A Bit Of Financial Privacy,
2016
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Bitcoin Transactions: A Bit Of Financial Privacy, Sumit Agarwal
Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal
No abstract provided.
The Phase-Out And Sunset Of Travel Restrictions In The International Health Regulations,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
The Phase-Out And Sunset Of Travel Restrictions In The International Health Regulations, Sarah R. Goldfarb
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
Whether and to what extent travel restriction should be implemented during international infectious disease epidemics became a controversial issue, most recently, during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. The primary authority on the manner in which to respond to such epidemics is the International Health Regulations (IHR). The IHR is a treaty, established by the World Health Organization (WHO), which governs and coordinates international responses to international infectious disease epidemics. Despite the WHO's strong advisement to the contrary, many countries who were signatories to the IHR implemented travel bans and other types of travel restrictions to prevent the transmission of the disease …
Treaties In The Aftermath Of Beps,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
Treaties In The Aftermath Of Beps, Yariv Brauner
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
The article argues that, despite the fanfare around it, the outcome of the BEPS project is unlikely to be dramatic, at least in the short term. Beyond a period of increased legal uncertainty and aggressive enforcement by some countries, it expects little substantive change in tax treaties. The challenges to the dominance of the OECD and the richest countries would likely be assuaged with marginal concessions, most or all of which not be affecting tax treaties. Yet, the article sees a silver lining in the non-substantive, structural, and instrumental outcomes of the BEPS project. It argues that even if unintended, …
Kill-Switches In The U.S. Model Tax Treaty,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
Kill-Switches In The U.S. Model Tax Treaty, Allison Christians, Alexander Ezenagu
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
The new U.S. Model income tax treaty contains an unusual addition: mechanisms for the parties to unilaterally override the negotiated treaty rates in specified circumstances. Previewed last year in proposed form—a first for the Treasury—these new mechanisms work as kill-switches, partially terminating the treaty as to one or both treaty partners. The idea is to forestall a more problematic outcome, such as an enduring breach of one of the parties’ expectations, or the opposite, a complete termination of all the treaty terms in the face of such a breach. Yet embedding a kill-switch in a treaty creates distinct legal, procedural, …
Location Savings And Segmented Factor Input Markets: In Search Of A Tax Treaty Solution,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
Location Savings And Segmented Factor Input Markets: In Search Of A Tax Treaty Solution, Mitchell A. Kane
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
This article analyzes the proper bounds of source-based taxation of profits generated when firms outsource factor inputs, such as labor, to achieve cost savings. The article advances arguments grounded in efficiency, treaty text, and international distribution to justify greater source-based taxation than has historically been the case. To implement such expanded taxation, the article proposes a modification to transfer-pricing rules in instances where factor inputs are acquired from affiliates and a modification to the tax treaty rules regarding permanent establishments where factor inputs are acquired from unrelated parties. Finally, the article deals with a range of complications, particularly relating to …
Tax Treaties And The Taxation Of Services In The Absence Of Physical Presence,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
Tax Treaties And The Taxation Of Services In The Absence Of Physical Presence, Michael S. Kirsch
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
The increasing ability to deliver personal services electronically raises significant cross-border tax issues. In particular, given that the service provider need not be physically present in the would-be source country, significant questions arise as to the continued viability of tax treaty rules that focus on the service provider’s physical location. In response to these developments, proposed changes to the United Nations Model tax treaty have been approved that would allow source country taxation of technical services, even in the absence of the service provider’s physical presence. This article raises concerns about the broad scope of the proposed changes and recommends …
Unilateral Responses To Tax Treaty Abuse: A Functional Approach,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
Unilateral Responses To Tax Treaty Abuse: A Functional Approach, Omri Marian
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the attention given to abusive tax schemes that take advantage of bilateral tax treaties. The ensuing discourse tends to view potential responses to treaty abuses as a hierarchical set of options, gradually escalating, in which treaty termination is a last resort option. This article argues that the hierarchical view of unilateral responses to treaty abuse is misguided. Unilateral responses to treaty-based abuse are not hierarchically ordered. Rather, the approach to treaty abuse is (and should be) functional, adopting specific types of unilateral responses based on the type of treaty abuse …
When International Tax Agreements Fail At Home: A U.S. Example,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
When International Tax Agreements Fail At Home: A U.S. Example, Diane Ring
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
Over the past two and a half years, the international tax community has focused on the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project (BEPS project) undertaken by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at the behest of the G20. According to the OECD, the resulting 2015 agreement involved the direct participation of more than sixty countries. An additional fifty-nine countries indirectly participated through regional dialogues. Furthermore, numerous international organizations are credited with participating in discussions and contributing to the resulting product. But, effective implementation of the BEPS agreement requires domestic action of various types—the domestic side of international agreement …
How Reform-Friendly Are U.S. Tax Treaties?,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
How Reform-Friendly Are U.S. Tax Treaties?, Fadi Shaheen
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
This article addresses the treaty compatibility aspect of proposals for reforming the U.S. international tax system. Finding that a reform proposal is treaty compatible obviates the need for renegotiating or overriding existing U.S. treaties to implement the proposal if enacted. After establishing that a U.S. move to an exemption system would be treaty compatible despite the literal reading of Article 23 of the U.S. Model income tax treaty as requiring a credit system, the article argues that any system that is or can be expressed as an outright fixed or floating combination of exemption and credit is treaty compatible regardless …
Tax Treaties As A Network Product,
2016
Brooklyn Law School
Tax Treaties As A Network Product, Tsilly Dagan
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
The copiousness of tax treaties is often presented as proof, not only of their success but also of their desirability. In focusing on alleviating double taxation by allocating tax revenues, however, the treaties project is a missed opportunity. This article explains that an international tax standard is a network product and uses network theory to explore the potential advantages and drawbacks of the tax treaty network in entrenching such a standard. Networks facilitate stability and self-enforcement. By joining (and remaining in) a network, users benefit from the compatibility with other users; this, in turn, incentivizes new users to join and …
