Tax Law Commons^™

Money Is Morphing - Cryptocurrency Can Morph To Be An Environmentally And Financially Sustainable Alternative To Traditional Banking, Clovia Hamilton

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Survey Evidence In Trademark Actions, Ioana Vasiu And Lucian Vasiu

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Corporate Governance And Compelled Speech: Do State-Imposed Board Diversity Mandates Violate Free Speech?, Salar Ghahramani

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Real Persons Are The Corporations We Made Along The Way, Leonard Brahin

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Digital Barter Taxes Are Good Tax Policy, Young Ran (Christine) Kim, Darien Shanske

Articles

This short essay, aimed at state legislators, argues that digital barter taxes are good tax policy.

Now You Have It, Now You Don’T: Taxing Crypto, Part 2, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In “Coinbase: Are Cryptoassets Securities?” Tax Notes contributing editor Lee A. Sheppard highlights a recent district court decision indicating that some forms of cryptoassets are securities for securities law purposes and therefore fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC:

There are potential tax ramifications. Some, indeed many, cryptoassets could be securities under the securities law. That means that losses can’t be recognized on wash sales (section 1091). The IRS should issue a notice stating that many cryptoassets other than bitcoin are securities, so losses on wash sales can’t be recognized. A notice would not be a heavy lift. The taxpayers …

Critical Tax Theory In The U.S., Australia, And Brazil: Current Challenges And Perspectives For The Future, Júlia Silva Araújo Carneiro

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

Tax law has never been a neutral field. On the contrary, it impacts a range of identity axes, including socioeconomic class, race, and gender, and can act as a mechanism for maintaining the status quo or as a catalyst for social change. By examining the ongoing debate on critical tax theory in the United States, Australia, and Brazil, this Article shows that, no matter the differences found in distinct tax systems, tax law functions as a mirror of a country’s values and can be employed either to support or to disadvantage minorities.<.p>American critical tax scholars have consistently highlighted the …

Now You Have It, Now You Don’T: Taxing Crypto, Part 1, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The latest rise in the value of bitcoin has rekindled the debate on whether cryptocurrencies perform a useful function. For example, a recent article in the Financial Times argued: Have we learnt the lessons from the disastrous 2022 crash in digital assets? To judge from recent action in the crypto market, the answer appears to be no. Since hitting bottom after FTX collapsed into bankruptcy with a $9bn-ish hole in its balance sheet in November 2022, crypto market values have roughly tripled. Bitcoin’s price rose above $70,000 this week to touch record highs. A new wave of enthusiasm is growing, …

The Policy And Politics Of Alternative Minimum Taxes, David Gamage, Ari Glogower

Faculty Publications

This paper contributes to a literature offering qualified justifications for alternative minimum tax (AMT) structures. We conclude that there is a narrow case for justifying AMTs even from the social planner perspective and that the proposed Billionaire’s Minimum Income Tax satisfies that narrow case. Next, incorporating governance collective action problems and electoral political constraints, we conclude that these considerations support a broader case for justifying AMTs that potentially also supports both preference-disallowance AMTs and the new corporate alternative minimum tax enacted in 2022.

Squeezing Blood From Stones? A Comparative Analysis Of Tax Relief For Victim-Survivors In Australia And The United States, Christine Speidel, Leslie Book, Ann Kayis-Kumar

Faculty Publications

Women who leave abusive relationships generally do so with increased debt, reduced assets, insecure housing and longer-term economic insecurity. Most of these women will be experiencing economic abuse even after the relationship has ended, and many cite financial instability as a key factor driving them back into abusive relationships. So, it is imperative that the tax and transfer system helps rather than hinders (albeit inadvertently) this cohort of financially vulnerable taxpayers. However, this is not always the case, with victim-survivors of economic abuse often liable for tax debts incurred by former partners operating businesses in the victim-survivor's name.

This article …

The International Tax Revolution: Introduction, Christine Kim, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

(This book chapter, Introduction, is included in the forthcoming book, titled THE INTERNATIONAL TAX REVOLUTION, which the Cambridge University Press will publish in 2024-25.)

The past decade has witnessed the creation of a new international tax regime (ITR). Since the advent of globalization in the 1980s and digitalization in the 1990s, the original ITR ceased to function as intended. The main problems were the increased mobility of capital related to intangibles, a relaxation of capital controls, and increased tax competition. The outcome was a significant fall in tax revenues that threatened the social safety net of the modern welfare state. …

Littlejohn’S Unjust Tax Sentence, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

On May 1 Charles Littlejohn began serving a five-year prison sentence for unauthorized disclosure of tax information. His crime is described by the Department of Justice as follows: According to court documents, Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., while working at the IRS as a government contractor, stole tax return information associated with a high-ranking government official (Public Official A). Littlejohn accessed tax returns associated with Public Official A (and related individuals and entities) on an IRS database after using broad search parameters designed to conceal the true purpose of his queries. He then uploaded the tax returns to a …

History Of Mexico’S Tax Regime: A Haphazard Journey, Nicolás José Muñiz Arias

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Mexico’s tax regime can best be described as haphazard and uncoordinated, as indirect levies were often assessed to satisfy short-term needs, irrespective of the economic capacity to pay of the local population. When compared to other members of the OECD, Mexico reports a relatively low tax-to-GDP ratio. This may be attributable to the vast presence of small to medium size companies conducting business in the informal market, the comparatively minor percentage of individuals and companies that regularly pay tax, and proliferation of tax benefits historically enjoyed by the wealthy.

This Article covers the more salient features of Mexican tax legislation …

Should U.S. Tax Law Be Constitutionalized?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Moore is the first Supreme Court case involving a constitutional challenge to a federal income tax law since Macomber, which was decided more than a century ago. Whatever way the Court rules, other such cases are likely to be brought and some of them may reach the Court. Moore won’t be the last case of its kind.

The Case For Targeted Location Incentives, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Both the global intangible low-taxed income provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the substance-based income exclusion of pillar 2 provide incentives to shift real investment to lowtax locations. Under GILTI, a 10 percent return on tangible assets of the subsidiaries of U.S. multinationals (qualified business asset investment) is exempt from tax. Under pillar 2, the top-up tax calculation excludes 10 percent of payroll costs and 8 percent of the carrying value of tangible assets in a jurisdiction.

Can Investment Treaties Defeat Pillar 2?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In their excellent recent Tax Notes International article, “Using Investment Treaties to Prevent Pillar 2’s Revocation of Promised Tax Incentives,” Javier Rubinstein, Lauren Friedman, and Tamsin Parzen make an interesting new argument about the interaction between bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and pillar 2. They argue that an investor benefiting from an existing BIT can rely on it to prevent the imposition of a qualified domestic minimum top-up tax (QDMTT) even without resorting to treaty arbitration. This argument is problematic, however, because it does not fully address the likely reaction of other countries that are not party to the BIT.

Decoding Cryptocurrency Taxes: The Challenges For Estate Planners, Max Angel

Duke Law & Technology Review

In this article, Angel explores the unique challenges of estate planning with cryptocurrency, which include accurately valuing those assets, preserving their value, and addressing the complex tax implications of transferring cryptocurrency to heirs.

Reforming International Investment Law To Advance Tax Justice, Madeleine Songy

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Reforming International Investment Law to Advance Tax Justice" highlights the detrimental impact of current international investment treaties on tax justice and sustainable development objectives. It argues that Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms often impede states' ability to implement effective tax policies by allowing foreign investors to challenge tax measures. The brief recommends a comprehensive reform of international investment law to ensure that investment treaties support rather than undermine tax justice. This can include eliminating ISDS provisions, drafting new treaties that safeguard the sovereign right of states to regulate taxation, and facilitating cooperation among states to reform tax systems at national, …

California V. Texas: Avoiding An Antidemocratic Outcome, Jon Lucas

Journal of Law and Health

The Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) contains a section titled “Requirement to Maintain Essential Minimum Coverage.” Colloquially known as the Individual Mandate, this section of the Act initially established a monetary penalty for anyone who did not maintain health insurance in a given tax year. But with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the monetary penalty was reset to zero, inducing opponents of the ACA to mount a legal challenge over the Individual Mandate’s constitutionality. As the third major legal challenge to the ACA, California v. Texas saw the Supreme Court punt on the merits and instead decide …