Taxation-Federal Commons^™

Taxing Parents: Welfarist Theories, Shannon Weeks Mccormack

BYU Law Review

The Internal Revenue Code (the "Code") taxes parents inequitably. Couples with a sole earner are undertaxed compared to couples with dual earners and to single parents. Legal tax scholarship (including my own) has identified the many inequities that result from this sole-earner bias and have called for its elimination. But while these arguments have been sufficient for some, they do remain susceptible to the criticism that they are theoretically incomplete.

That critique might proceed as follows. Simply establishing that an inequity exists does not create a full argument for legal reform. After all, it might be argued, the Code plays …

Political Justice And Tax Policy: The Social Welfare Organization Case, Philip T. Hackney

Texas A&M Law Review

In addition to valuing whether a tax policy is equitable, efficient, and administrable, I argue we should ask if a tax policy is politically just. Others have made a similar case for valuing political justice as democracy in implementing just tax policy. I join that call and highlight why it matters in one arena—tax exemption. I also further that discussion by arguing that politically just tax policy does the least harm to the democratic functioning of our government and may ideally enhance it. I argue that our right to an equal voice in collective decision-making is the most fundamental value …

The Baby And The Bathwater: Reflections On The Tcja’S International Provisions, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In this article, the author considers how the international provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could be improved.

A ‘No Exceptions’ Tax System For The 21st Century, Stephen G. Marks

Faculty Scholarship

With a new administration come new opportunities. Here I present a tax proposal that I believe could garner support on both sides of the aisle. It has elements of the negative income tax, first proposed by conservative economist Milton Friedman; the flat tax (also called the “fair tax”), supported by many conservatives; and a universal basic income, promoted by Democrat Andrew Yang, combined in a way that is of the utmost simplicity. Call it the “No Exceptions Tax” (NExT). NExT is a federal personal income tax that replaces the current one. Here’s how it works

Is Gilti Constitutional?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In this article, Avi-Yonah argues that the global intangible low-taxed income regime may be an unconstitutional attempt to tax the foreign-source income of foreign entities, and he offers an alternative.

#Audited: Social Media And Tax Enforcement, Michelle Lyon Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

With limited resources and a diminished budget, it is not surprising that the Internal Revenue Service would seek new tools to maximize its enforcement efficiency. Automation and technology provide new opportunities for the IRS, and in turn, present new concerns for taxpayers. In December 2018, the IRS signaled its interest in a tool to access publicly available social media profiles of individuals in order to “expedite IRS case resolution for existing compliance cases.” This has important implications for taxpayer privacy.

Moreover, the use of social media in tax enforcement may pose a particular harm to an especially vulnerable population: low-income …

Bankruptcy, Taxes, And The Primacy Of Irs Refund Offsets: Copley V. United States, Michelle Lyon Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

The Bankruptcy Code and the Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.) are statutory labyrinths of federal law. Copley v. United States called on the Fourth Circuit to resolve a question that arose when respective provisions of each collided. At the heart of Copley was a married couple seeking a fresh start with an expected $3,208 income tax refund. The Copleys wished to resolve their outstanding debts in bankruptcy and maximize the relief afforded to them under the Virginia homestead exemption provision, as permitted by the Bankruptcy Code. On the other side of the proverbial table was the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) armed …

A Salt Cap Workaround That Works? Notice 2020-75, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

In November 2020, after the election was over, in form at least, the Treasury and the IRS issued Notice 2020-75, announcing that proposed regulations will be issued governing the treatment of new state laws that impose income taxes on what are passthrough entities for federal income tax purposes. Those laws are clearly intended to provide a way to circumvent the cap on the deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT) included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and the Notice is very taxpayer friendly in its understanding of these arrangements. This article considers the particulars and the …

Developments Affecting Intercollegiate Athletics And Taxation, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

Developments affecting whether some college athletic teams will be subject to the unrelated business income tax (UBIT) continue and may be accelerating. This article describes the relevant events over the past decade or so, and focuses on new rules generally permitting college athletes to benefit financially from marketing their names, images, and likenesses (NILs), and on the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston. Alston wasn’t a tax case, but what the Court said about the application of the Sherman Antitrust Act to the NCAA’s limitations on providing college athletes with education-related benefits seems to call …

When Can Taxpayers Invoke The Substance-Over-Form Doctrine?, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This article considers the circumstances under which taxpayers can disavow the form of a transaction they enter in order to claim better tax consequences based on the substance of the transaction. In some situations, the disavowal is noncontroversial because the Internal Revenue Service has blessed the transactions. In a few situations where the Service resists, however, taxpayers are sometimes successful anyway. The focus of the article is on the Tax Court’s 2021 decision in Complex Media, Inc. v. Commissioner, and substantial discussion is devoted to the Third Circuit’s well-known, and sometimes controversial, 1967 decision in Commissioner v. Danielson.

News Flash: Pay Your Federal Income Taxes; The Sixteenth Amendment Was Properly Ratified, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

The idea got around years ago—and it’s still around in tax-protester circles—that the Sixteenth Amendment wasn’t properly ratified and therefore that no legal obligation exists to pay federal income taxes. Wrong! The Amendment process was sloppy, but nothing happened that calls the legitimacy of the Amendment into question, particularly since the relevant officials considered the ratification issues in 1913, when the Amendment was formally adopted.

Why A Federal Wealth Tax Is Constitutional, Ari Glogower, David Gamage, Kitty Richards

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The 2020 Democratic presidential primaries brought national attention to a new direction for the tax system: a federal wealth tax for the wealthiest taxpayers. During their campaigns, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) both introduced proposals to tax the wealth of multimillionaires and billionaires, and to use the revenue for public investments, including in health care and education. These reforms generated broad public support—even among many Republicans—and broadened the conversation over the future of progressive tax reform.

A well-designed, high-end wealth tax can level the playing field in an unequal society and promote shared economic prosperity.

Critics have …

The Impact Of Particular Provisions Of The 2017 Tax Cuts And Jobs Act On The United States Economy Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hillary Obinna Maduka

LL.M. Essays & Theses

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is the most significant overhaul of the U.S. federal tax system in the last two decades. This paper seeks to discuss some of its most significant provisions and examine their overall impact on the U.S. economy, especially throughout the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

This paper begins by undertaking an overview of the legislative history of the Act and then proceeds to discuss three provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts which have had a tremendous impact on the U.S. economy by altering some major provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986. …

The Spirit Is Willing: A Proposal For American Single Malt Whiskey, Raymond Cleaveland

Seattle University Law Review

Over the past twenty-five years, small, independent American distilleries have carved out a new niche in the United States liquor market: craft single malt whiskey. Inspired by the success of single malt Scotch and other single malts, American craft distillers are now fighting for their own shelf behind the bar and in the liquor store aisle. In 2018, a cadre of these distillers petitioned the U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to formally recognize a new category of whiskey in the Code of Federal Regulations: American Single Malt Whiskey. For purposes of consumer protection, the Treasury …

For Richer Or Poorer: Incentivizing Meaningful Investments In Qualified Opportunity Zones, Monica L. Keo

Seattle University Law Review

The wealth disparity in the United States is nothing new. Many have proposed wealth taxes and higher tax rates for large corporations to address income inequality; however, these proposals have been criticized as tax programs that are difficult to administer. Congress passed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) in 2017 and created a new investment vehicle known as the Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ). The QOZ program incentivizes private investors to invest their capital gains in exchange for a reduction in capital gains tax. The underlying idea of the QOZ program is to utilize a new tool designed to spur …

Taxing Parents: Welfarist Theories, Shannon Mccormack

Articles

The Internal Revenue Code (the "Code") taxes parents inequitably. Couples with a sole earner are undertaxed compared to couples with dual earners and to single parents. Legal tax scholarship (including my own) has identified the many inequities that result from this sole-earner bias and have called for its elimination. But while these arguments have been sufficient for some, they do remain susceptible to the criticism that they are theoretically incomplete.

That critique might proceed as follows. Simply establishing that an inequity exists does not create a full argument for legal reform. After all, it might be argued, the Code plays …

The Rise Of Law And The Fall Of Circular 230: Tax Lawyer Professional Standards, 1985-2015, Michael Hatfield

Articles

This third article focuses on the two issues that dominated discussions of professional responsibility standards for tax lawyers in the 1985-2015 period: return position standards and tax shelter opinions. It opens with consideration of the ABA’s 1965 opinion providing “reasonable basis” as the standard for undisclosed return positions, and then traces the response to that opinion as the response prods the development of the 1985 replacement with its “realistic possibility of success” standard. The Article documents the extensive interaction between Congress, the Treasury Department, and the tax bar over the next 30 years during which penalties are studied and revised …

A Current Update Of Epcrs Through Rev. Proc. 2021-30, 49 Tax Mgmt. Comp. Plan. J. No. 8 (Aug. 6, 2021), Kathryn J. Kennedy

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tax Reform: A Missing Piece In Canada's National Housing Policy, Jinyan Li

All Papers

No abstract provided.

The Carbon Price Equivalent: A Metric For Comparing Climate Change Mitigation Efforts Across Jurisdictions, Gabriel Weil

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Climate change presents a global commons problem: Emissions reductions on the scale needed to meet global targets do not pass a domestic cost-benefit test in most countries. To give national governments ample incentive to pursue deep decarbonization, mutual interstate coercion will be necessary. Many proposed tools of coercive climate diplomacy would require a onedimensional metric for comparing the stringency of climate change mitigation policy packages across jurisdictions. This article proposes and defends such a metric: the carbon price equivalent. There is substantial variation in the set of climate change mitigation policy instruments implemented by different countries. Nonetheless, the consequences of …