Tax Law Commons^™

Yesterday's Protester May Be Tomorrow's Saint: Reimagining The Tax System Through The Work Of Dorothy Day, Bridget J. Crawford, W. Edward Afield

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article offers a critical exploration of Day's views on the relationship between the tax system and Catholic social theory. Part I of this Article provides a biographical sketch of Dorothy Day and an overview of the Catholic Worker movement. Part II explores Day's views on taxation, pacifism, and social justice. It attempts to reconcile her belief in wealth redistribution with her nonpayment of federal income taxes and her failure to seek tax-exempt status for the Catholic Worker. Part III examines Day's tax resistance in the context of Catholic social teaching, particularly as that thought was developing during Day's lifetime …

A New Framework For Taxing Cryptocurrencies, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Mohanad Salaimi

Articles

This Article explores the tax law challenges associated with the taxation of cryptocurrencies and offers proposals to address such challenges. The Article addresses the proper tax treatment of different cryptocurrency transactions and activities. It examines various aspects associated with the taxation of cryptocurrency through its life cycle, starting from earning cryptocurrency, through its disposal or exchange. The Article also examines the tax treatment of two special crypto events, hard forks and airdrops. Specifically, this Article describes a proposal to tax cryptocurrencies based on their unique features. It argues that various ways of earning or receiving crypto tokens (for example, mining …

What Would Surrey Say? The Long Reach Of Stanley S. Surrey, Reuven Avi-Yonah, Nir Fishbien

Articles

Stanley S. Surrey died in 1984, two years before the enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which gave us the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as amended. Historians have recently discovered Surrey’s work through his memoirs, published in 2022, and several articles based on the memoir and on the unpublished Surrey papers at Harvard Law School. There is no doubt that Surrey was a towering historical figure during his “Half-Century with the Internal Revenue Code.” As his protégé Donald Lubick, who served as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy in both the Carter and the Clinton Administrations, stated, Surrey …

Individual Mobility And The Corporate Tax, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly increased the ability of individuals to move to their preferred location on the globe and continue to work remotely. This phenomenon has significant implications for individual income taxation because if they are U.S. citizens, these individuals are subject to two global residence-based tax regimes.

Pillar 2 And The Credits., Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The international tax provisions of the Build Back Better Act (BBB) passed by the House of Representatives represent a reasonable compromise. They are consistent with the OECD’s Pillar Two statement, and they represent a significant move toward the implementation of the single tax principle (STP). In what follows, we will discuss the proposed changes and how they fit in with the new international tax regime (ITR). We will also address the possible interactions with the ITR if BBB is not enacted.

Constitutional Review Of Federal Tax Legislation, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Yoseph M. Edrey

Articles

What does the Constitution mean when it says that “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States” (U.S. Const. Article I, Section 8, Clause 1)?

The definition of “tax” for constitutional purposes has become important considering the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (“NFIB”), in which Chief Justice Roberts for the Court upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) under the taxing …

Taxes, Administrative Law, And Agency Expertise: Questioning The Orthodoxy, Scott Schumacher

Articles

One of the foundations of administrative law is that federal agencies and their employees are experts in their respective fields. In addition, the many judgments and decisions made by these experts are based on a thorough record after extensive factfinding. As a result, so the theory goes, courts, particularly courts of general jurisdiction like the United States District Courts, should give deference to the determinations made by these experts. But what if the facts underpinning this foundation are not true in all cases? Should courts nevertheless provide deference to decisions by agencies when it is evident that an agency's determinations …

The Future Of The Corporate Form In Income Tax: A Case Study Of Canada, Jinyan Li

All Papers

A corporation is nothing but a piece of paper. And yet, this piece of paper enjoys the status of a person and has an independent identity as a taxpayer (the “separate entity principle”). It can generate tremendous value for its shareholders through tax savings resulted from tax deferral, tax shifting, and tax subsidies. Why does tax law allow such value to exist? Is there any hard line constraining the scope of the tax benefits associated with the corporate form? To what extent can the two pillars (Pillar One and Pillar Two) crush the corporate form? What is the future of …

Virtual Worlds, Real Money: Tax Issues In The Metaverse, Vincent Ooi, Daryl Loy

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

When it comes to the tax world, the starting point is that international tax law does not currently give any special status to a meta realm as a distinct jurisdiction. The metaverse is not a term of art recognised by tax law. However, what we are likely to see is a change in business models and behavioural patterns, leading to different kinds of taxable events becoming either more or less prominent. Tax law may not inevitably change but the tax issues of the day will.In this article, we highlight three broad business models that are likely to feature prominently in …

“Engaged In”: The Rocky Marriage Between Commercial And Business Activity And Subchapter V Eligibility, Blake Clevenger

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

The Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, which created subchapter V bankruptcy relief for eligible small business debtors, is a step towards a small-business-friendly bankruptcy environment. The legislative history of subchapter V stated the goal of this new statute was to provide a cost-effective and streamlined path to reorganization to allow financially distressed small businesses to remain in business. To be eligible for subchapter V relief, a debtor must, among other requirements, be “engaged in commercial or business activities.” However, courts have continuously disagreed on the meaning of “engaged in commercial or business activities.” Courts have …

Corporate Governance And Gender Equality: A Study Of Comply-Or-Explain Disclosure Regulation, Aaron A. Dhir, Sarah Kaplan, Maria Arabella Robles

Seattle University Law Review

In 2020, the Nasdaq Stock Market filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking permission to adopt a board diversity-related disclosure requirement for its listed companies. In 2021, the SEC approved the proposal, thus entrenching Nasdaq’s position as the most significant stock exchange to date to mandate listing rules that reflect the intention of diversifying corporate boardrooms. Nasdaq’s movement into the diversity space is not the first attempt to address homogeneous boards in the U.S. In 2009, the SEC adopted a rule requiring publicly traded firms to report on whether they consider diversity in identifying director nominees. …

The World Moved On Without Me: Redefining Contraband In A Technology-Driven World For Youth Detained In Washington State, Stephanie A. Lowry

Seattle University Law Review

If you ask a teenager in the United States to show you one of their favorite memories, they will likely show you a picture or video on their cell phone. This is because Americans, especially teenagers, love cell phones. Ninety-seven percent of all Americans own a cell phone according to a continuously updated survey by the Pew Research Center. For teenagers aged thirteen to seventeen, the number is roughly 95%. For eighteen to twenty-nine-year-olds, the number grows to 100%. On average, eight to twelve-year-old’s use roughly five and a half hours of screen media per day, in comparison to thirteen …

Judicial Ethics And The Eradication Of Racism, Dontay Proctor-Mills

Seattle University Law Review

In 2020, the Washington Supreme Court entrusted the legal community with working to eradicate racism from its legal system. Soon after, Washington’s Commission on Judicial Conduct (hereinafter the Commission) received a complaint about a bus ad for North Seattle College featuring King County Superior Court Judge David Keenan. Along with a photo of Judge Keenan’s face, the ad included the following language: “A Superior Court Judge, David Keenan got into law in part to advocate for marginalized communities. David’s changing the world. He started at North.” The Commission admonished Judge Keenan for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct, in part …

A Path Forward: Litigating The Treaty-Based Claims Of Children Sexually Abused In The Indian Health Service System, Peter B. Janci, Stephen F. Crew, Zachary Pangares

Seattle University Law Review

In 1855, representatives for the United States traveled to the Great Plains with orders to seek peace with Blackfoot Nation so the westward expansion of “civilized” white settlers could continue without interruption. After weeks of negotiations, the United States plan materialized. The terms of these promises were memorialized on October 17, 1855, in a treaty between the United States government and Blackfoot Nation.

One hundred and sixty-seven years later, representatives for the United States and the Blackfoot Nation convened in Rapid City, South Dakota to discuss the U.S. government’s breach of the treaty’s terms. Eight Native men, including three from …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Why Corporate Boards Should Include Lgbtq+ People, Jeremy Mcclane, Darren Rosenblum

Seattle University Law Review

Corporate boardrooms sit at the heart of most of society’s most consequential decisions but fall far short of the diversity of our society. The current movement toward board diversification aims to remedy the underrepresentation of marginalized groups on corporate boards. More recently, some efforts have included LGBTQ+ people, even though the basis for their inclusion on corporate boards remains largely unstated. This Article examines both the normative and instrumental bases for LGBTQ+ inclusion in board diversity initiatives, articulating unspoken assumptions and linking LGBTQ+ people to the broader inclusion effort. In so doing, it begins to surface the unique issues LGBTQ+ …

The Canadian Digital Services Tax, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

The Digital Services Tax (DST) may never be enacted in Canada. At least that seems to be what most Canadian tax professionals hope for: the draft Digital Services Tax Act (DSTA), released by the federal government in December 2021, has received little meaningful commentary; likely few Canadian taxpayers potentially affected by the DSTA (and their tax advisors) have attempted to learn from experiences of DST compliance in other countries; and the world also has little to learn from Canadian taxpayers’ preparation for a potential DST. This essay highlights three ways in which this collective dismissal of Canada’s proposed DST is …

A Beginner's Guide To Cryptocurrencies: Explaining The Technologies Behind Cryptocurrencies, How The United States Taxes And Regulates Them, And Offering Changes To The Existing Taxation And Regulation Schemes, J. Merritt Francis

Law Student Publications

The United States federal government has attempted to use its existing regulatory and taxation schemes to regulate and tax cryptocurrencies, while many individuals are still unsure as to what cryptocurrency really is. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Future Trading Commission have both asserted their jurisdiction over cryptocurrency, resulting in unclear guidance for developers in the cryptocurrency space and a failure to adequately protect investors. Further, the Internal Revenue Service taxes cryptocurrency like a security rather than a currency, which disincentivizes adopting cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Nevertheless, although cryptocurrencies are taxed like securities, there are tax …

The Mirage Of Mobile Capital, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

Capital mobility has preoccupied scholars of international taxation for more than 30 years. According to prevailing narratives, when capital is highly mobile, countries compete to attract investment, creating a race to the bottom; capital mobility also enables multinational enterprises (MNEs) to shift profits. The appeal of these narratives has culminated in the OECD’s proposed Global Minimum Tax, which declares the aim of substantially curtailing tax competition. This paper suggests, however, that the significance of mobile capital for international taxation may be largely an illusion.

Four deflationary arguments are advanced. First, the rising importance of intangibles for MNEs makes capital less, …

The Utpr And The Credits, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Critics of the UTPR (formerly known as the undertaxed payments rule) of the G-20/0ECD/ inclusive framework base erosion and profit shifting project's pillar 2 have focused on the potential impact of the top- up tax on U.S. environmental credits enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act(IRA, P.L.11 7-169) and on credits to encourage domestic chip manufacturing in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act (the CHIPS Act, P .L. 117-167). They argue that Congress's ability to effectively implement its chosen policy goals is undermined because the UTPR - when applied to other parts of U.S. multinational enterprises - …