The Taxation Of Intellectual Capital,
2014
Seattle University School of Law
The Taxation Of Intellectual Capital, Lily Kahng
Faculty Articles
Intellectual capital-broadly defined to include nonphysical sources of value such as patents and copyrights, computer software, organizational processes, and know-how-has a long history of being undervalued and excluded from measures of economic productivity and wealth. In recent years, however, intellectual capital has finally gained wide recognition as a central driver of economic productivity and growth. Scholars in fields such as knowledge management, financial accounting, and national accounting have produced a wealth of research that significantly advances the conceptual understanding of intellectual capital and introduces new methodologies for identifying and measuring its economic value. This article is the first to analyze …
Sentencing In Tax Cases After Booker: Striking The Right Balance Between Uniformity And Discretion,
2014
University of Washington School of Law
Sentencing In Tax Cases After Booker: Striking The Right Balance Between Uniformity And Discretion, Scott A. Schumacher
Articles
It has been nearly ten years since the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in United States v. Booker, in which the Court invalidated the mandatory application of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. In the cases that followed, the Court addressed subsidiary issues regarding the application of the Guidelines and the scope of appellate review. However, despite — or perhaps because of — these opinions, there is little consensus regarding the status and extent of appellate review, as well as the discretion afforded sentencing courts. More troubling, what consensus there is seems to permit judges to impose any sentence they wish, as …
The Tax Reform Road Not Taken – Yet,
2014
Columbia Law School
The Tax Reform Road Not Taken – Yet, Michael J. Graetz
Faculty Scholarship
The United States has traveled a unique tax policy path, avoiding value added taxes (VATs), which have now been adopted by every OECD country and 160 countries worldwide. Moreover, many U.S. consumption tax advocates have insisted on direct personalized taxes that are unlike taxes used anywhere in the world. This article details a tax reform plan that uses revenues from a VAT to substantially reduce and reform our nation’s tax system. The plan would (1) enact a destination-based VAT; (2) use the revenue produced by this VAT to finance an income tax exemption of $100,000 of family income and to …
The Problem Of Abusive Related-Partner Allocations,
2014
University of Georgia School of Law
The Problem Of Abusive Related-Partner Allocations, Gregg D. Polsky, Emily Cauble
Scholarly Works
This Article highlights a flaw in the existing rules regarding partnership tax allocations that has not yet received sufficient attention by existing literature. Namely, the partnership tax allocation rules are implicitly premised on the assumption that partners are unrelated and, thus, transact with each other at arm’s length. As a result, related partners can and do devise tax allocation schemes that exploit the gap in the current partnership tax allocation rules to achieve unwarranted tax savings.
This Article proposes to end this abuse by disallowing special allocations among related partners. Under the proposal, allocations among related partners would be required …
Locality V. Online Travel Company: Does The Bell Finally Toll For Quill Corp. V. North Dakota,
2014
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Locality V. Online Travel Company: Does The Bell Finally Toll For Quill Corp. V. North Dakota, Jaan Rannik
Journal of Business & Technology Law
No abstract provided.
Schedularity In U.S. Income Taxation And Its Effect On Tax Distribution,
2014
Saint Louis University School of Law
Schedularity In U.S. Income Taxation And Its Effect On Tax Distribution, Henry Ordower
All Faculty Scholarship
Income tax systems in some countries follow primarily schedular models that classify income by type, match it with deductions from the same class, and compute a separate tax on each class. The United States income tax uses a global tax model under which it taxes citizens and permanent residents on their worldwide income without regard to source or character. The United States system is not purely global but includes schedular elements. This Article exposes embedded schedularity in the United States income tax in the three principal areas of investment income, personal services income, and tax free income. The Article tests …
Tax Court Sends Message On Valuation In Richmond,
2014
Saint Louis University School of Law
Tax Court Sends Message On Valuation In Richmond, Kerry A. Ryan
All Faculty Scholarship
In Estate of Helen P. Richmond, the Tax Court determined the proper value for estate tax purposes of a minority interest in a family-owned corporation holding mostly appreciated securities. The court also sustained an accuracy-related penalty against the estate, finding that it used an unsigned draft report by a noncertified appraiser as the basis for the stock valuation reported on Form 706.
Magnifying Deterrence By Prosecuting Professionals,
2014
University of Washington School of Law
Magnifying Deterrence By Prosecuting Professionals, Scott A. Schumacher
Articles
This article examines the recent series of criminal prosecutions against tax professionals and offshore bankers. These criminal cases, brought against the largest Swiss bank (UBS), the oldest Swiss bank (Wegelin), one of the largest accounting firms in the world (KPMG), as well as numerous lawyers and accountants, was a dramatic shift for the U.S. Department of Justice. After decades of tolerating abusive tax shelters and tax haven banks, the Government changed its policy. However, rather than indicting the individuals and corporations who invested in tax shelters or hid money in offshore accounts, the Justice Department indicted the lawyers, accountants, and …
Ending The Sweetheart Deal Between Big-Time College Sports And The Tax System,
2014
Duke Law School
Ending The Sweetheart Deal Between Big-Time College Sports And The Tax System, Richard L. Schmalbeck
Faculty Scholarship
This paper was prepared for the annual conference of the National Center for Philanthropy and Law, held at the NYU Law School, held October 24-25, 2013. The overall topic was “Tax Issues Affecting Colleges and Universities,” and I was asked to address specifically those issues relating to athletics. This paper considers two specific issues that have in common only that they involve college sports, and are plagued by egregiously bad, (in this case, egregiously generous), tax treatment: the failure of the IRS to regard any part of the revenue from college sports as unrelated business income, and the choice by …
China's Business-Tax-To-Vat Reform: An Interim Assessment,
2014
Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
China's Business-Tax-To-Vat Reform: An Interim Assessment, Wei Cui
All Faculty Publications
The reform to replace the Business Tax (BT) with the VAT is the largest tax reform initiative in China since 1994. This article assesses the first two years of the reform from a tax policy perspective. It shows that the government has tried to preempt resistance to reform through highly unusual tax design and by allowing local governments to retain revenue from pilot sectors. The VAT for pilot sectors is characterized by two new reduced rates that apply to a wide range of business-to-business transactions as well as consumer services (such as internet and mobile data services) not generally regarded …
Administrative Decentralization And Tax Compliance: A Transactional Cost Perspective,
2014
Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
Administrative Decentralization And Tax Compliance: A Transactional Cost Perspective, Wei Cui
All Faculty Publications
A common phenomenon in tax administration in developing countries is that tax is collected not according to the rules of law but according to informal agreements between taxpayers and tax collectors. This article offers a novel explanation of this phenomenon in the Chinese context in terms of administrative decentralization. Administrative decentralization is defined as the concentration of government functions at the lowest ranks of a geographically-dispersed bureaucracy. Decentralization increases communication costs associated with the implementation of law, and changes the structure of taxpayers’ costs in obtaining knowledge about the law. As a result, a “semi-compliant” type of behavior, involving many …
(Un)Appealing Deference To The Tax Court,
2014
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
(Un)Appealing Deference To The Tax Court, Leandra Lederman
Articles by Maurer Faculty
The U.S. Tax Court (Tax Court), which hears the vast majority of litigated federal tax cases, occupies an unusual place in the federal government. It is a federal court located outside of the judicial branch, but its decisions are appealable to the federal courts of appeals. This odd structure, coupled with the court's history as an independent agency in the executive branch, can give rise to important questions, such as the standard of review that should apply to its decisions. In particular, should the courts of appeals treat Tax Court decisions the same as those of district courts in tax …
Restructuring The U.S. Tax Court: A Reply To Stephanie Hoffer And Christopher Walker's The Death Of Tax Court Exceptionalism,
2014
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Restructuring The U.S. Tax Court: A Reply To Stephanie Hoffer And Christopher Walker's The Death Of Tax Court Exceptionalism, Leandra Lederman
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This article is an invited reply to an article in the Minnesota Law Review regarding whether the “reviewing court” provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) apply to the U.S. Tax Court, the principal court hearing disputes between taxpayers and the IRS. (The Tax Court has repeatedly said that the APA does not apply to it). It argues in part that the question of whether the Tax Court must apply the APA’s standard and scope of review when reviewing IRS action is not as clear as a matter of history and doctrine as Professors Hoffer and Walker argue. The author …
Valuation Lessons From Estate Of Adell,
2014
Saint Louis University School of Law
Valuation Lessons From Estate Of Adell, Kerry A. Ryan
All Faculty Scholarship
In Estate of Adell, the Tax Court determined that the correct value of a decedent’s interest in a closely held corporation was the figure reported on the original estate tax return. The court rejected alternative values as either using the incorrect valuation method or failing to account for the significant value of a key employee’s personal goodwill.
Retreat From Progressive Taxation In The Swedish Welfare State: Does Immigration Matter?,
2014
Saint Louis University School of Law
Retreat From Progressive Taxation In The Swedish Welfare State: Does Immigration Matter?, Henry Ordower
All Faculty Scholarship
This paper questions whether late twentieth century immigration patterns may have contributed to retreat from progressive taxation in Sweden (and elsewhere). The paper applies critical methodology to ask whether the societal generosity reflected in development of Sweden’s welfare state yielded to greater parsimony as Sweden opened its borders to ethnically and racially diverse groups of immigrants. The paper explores whether Sweden’s loss of societal homogeneity facilitated the development of a political climate in which protecting traditional Scandinavian-owned capital from taxation became acceptable. Social science literature already has detected various unintentional ethnic and gender biases in delivery of welfare services and …
Income Imputation: Toward Equal Treatment Of Renters And Owners,
2014
Saint Louis University School of Law
Income Imputation: Toward Equal Treatment Of Renters And Owners, Henry Ordower
All Faculty Scholarship
This chapter argues that fundamental fairness principles demand changes in U.S. tax law to place those who rent on an equal tax footing with those who own their residences. The disparity in tax treatment of owners and renters results primarily from the failure of the tax law to include the use value from investment of capital in a personal residence in the incomes of owners. While the yield from investment in a personal residence is not cash, the yield is valuable as it replaces an outlay for dwelling use the owner otherwise would have to make. That occupancy right as …
Mitt Romney, The 47% Percent, And The Future Of The Mass Income Tax,
2014
Duke Law School
Mitt Romney, The 47% Percent, And The Future Of The Mass Income Tax, Lawrence A. Zelenak
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Why The Buffett-Gates Giving Pledge Requires Limitation Of The Estate Tax Charitable Deduction,
2014
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Why The Buffett-Gates Giving Pledge Requires Limitation Of The Estate Tax Charitable Deduction, Edward A. Zelinsky
Articles
The Buffett-Gates Giving Pledge, under which wealthy individuals promise to leave a majority of their assets to charity, is an admirable effort to encourage philanthropy. However, the Pledge requires us to confront the paradox that the federal estate tax charitable deduction is unlimited while the federal income tax charitable deduction is capped. If a Giving Pledger leaves his wealth to charity, the federal fisc loses significant revenue since the Pledger thereby avoids federal estate taxation as charitable bequests are deductible without limit for federal estate tax purposes. Despite its laudable qualities, the Giving Pledge is a systematic (albeit inadvertent) threat …
Space Madness: Subsidies And Economic Substance,
2014
Boston University School of Law
Space Madness: Subsidies And Economic Substance, Steven A. Dean
Faculty Scholarship
Extending the reach of the recently codified economic substance doctrine to embrace transactions spurred by tax subsidies would help both Congress and taxpayers promote worthy objectives such as historic preservation and the production of renewable energy. Congress-or quite possibly the courts-could use losses as the lynchpin of an economic substance doctrine for subsidized transactions.
Taxing Indirect Transfers: Improving An Instrument For Stemming Tax And Legal Base Erosion,
2014
Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
Taxing Indirect Transfers: Improving An Instrument For Stemming Tax And Legal Base Erosion, Wei Cui
All Faculty Publications
Numerous countries (e.g. Canada, Australia and Japan) tax foreigners on the gain realized on their transfers of interests in foreign entities that invest in real estates in these countries. In the last few years, actions taken by tax authorities in India, China, Brazil, Indonesia and other non-OECD countries have highlighted the possibility of taxing a broader range of “indirect transfers” by foreigners. This Article argues taxing indirect transfers can have vital policy significance in countries where foreign inbound investments are actively traded in offshore markets: it may not only deter tax avoidance, but also stanch “legal base erosion” — the …
