Taxation-Federal Commons^™

Harmonizing Federal Tax Law And The State Legalization Of Marijuana, Daniel Rowe

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitutionality Of A National Wealth Tax, Dawn Johnsen, Walter Dellinger

Indiana Law Journal

The United States needs innovative approaches to help rebuild foundational, shared understandings of American democracy, the American Dream, and opportunity and fairness. Tax policy provides one central context in which collective judgments about fundamental values help form national identity. We believe that a national wealth tax (that is, a tax on individuals’ net worth) should be among the policy options under consideration to support vital infrastructure, social service, and other governmental functions. Although not a new concept, a wealth tax may be an idea whose time has come, as inequality soars toward record highs.

Our aim in this Essay is …

Is Capping The Deduction For State And Local Taxes Constitutional?, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

In the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Congress capped the deduction available for state taxes not attributable to businesses or investments, and representatives of high-tax states are challenging the constitutionality of that cap—which, they argue, was motivated by animus. This article considers several possible rationales for a challenge—intergovernmental tax immunity, political animus in general, the uniformity rule, and equal protection—and concludes that the case for overturning the cap on constitutional grounds is weak at best.

Increasing Transparency In The Us Tax Court, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Transparency is a widely accepted judicial norm because it increases accountability. Access to U.S. Tax Court documents has long differed from access to the documents of other courts. For example, the Tax Court does not participate in PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). This essay discusses some of the ways in which access to Tax Court documents has been restricted; areas in which the Tax Court has increased transparency over the years; upcoming changes; and where increased transparency is still needed, such as with respect to case statistics.

The Future Of The New International Tax Regime, Rosanne Altshuler, Fadi Shaheen, Jeffrey Colon, Michael Graetz, Rebecca Kysar, Susan Morse, Daniel Shaviro, Richard Phillips, Danielle Rolfes, David Rosenbloom, Stephen Shay, Steven Dean

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Wayfair And The Retroactivity Of Constitutional Holdings, David Gamage, Adam Thimmesch, Darien Shanske

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This essay analyzes the issue of retroactivity with respect to the Supreme Court case of South Dakota v. Wayfair.

Four Walls Do Not An Eating Facility Make: Arguing Against The U.S. Tax Court's Unprecedented Jacobs V. Commissioner Decision, Brendan Zwaneveld

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Definitions Of Income, John R. Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

What is income? It’s a seemingly simple question that’s surprisingly hard to answer. Income is the basis for assigning tax burdens, for distributing transfers, and for broader normative issues of inequality and justice. Yet we lack a shared conception of income, and a pure, rigorous definition of income is impossible. In this Article I review the intellectual history of the income concept among tax and fiscal theorists to show the difficulty of the problem, and also to show that some important debates about what’s proper under an income tax can be explained instead as arguments over competing income definitions that …

The Economics Of American Higher Education In The New Gilded Age, Paul Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

Taxation Of Gamblers: The House Always Wins, Christine Manolakas

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Improving Tax Rules By Means-Testing: Bridging Wealth Inequality And “Ability To Pay”, James M. Puckett

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

It Takes A Village: Empowering The Dead Broke Parent, Wendy Tolson Ross

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Does Enforcement Reduce Voluntary Tax Compliance?, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Governments generally use enforcement methods, such as audits and the imposition of penalties, to deter noncompliance with tax laws. Although this approach is consistent with most economic modeling of tax compliance, some scholars caution that enforcement may backfire, “crowding out” taxpayers’ intrinsic motivations to pay taxes to such an extent that they reduce their tax payments. This article analyzes the existing evidence to determine if this occurs. In fact, field studies suggest that enforcement tools, such as audits, are effective deterrents, generally greatly increasing tax collections. A few recent studies have found that audits have a negative effect on the …

Tax 2018: Requiem For Ability To Pay, Alice G. Abreu

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

Enactment of the TCJA was followed by a mad dash to understand its effects. The speed and process of enactment left no time for serious attempts to analyze whether the TCJA transforms the income tax system in any fundamental way. This Essay is a first step in that analysis. Although some of the most important changes I discuss are set to expire or phase out after 2025, understanding their policy implications is important, not only because they are the law now but also because Congress may extend them, perhaps indefinitely.

The TCJA has changed the way the tax system operationalizes …

Effects Of The New Sourcing Rule: Eci And Profit Sharing, David L. Koontz, Jeffery M. Kadet

Articles

For the first time in eons, Congress has seen fit to change a basic rule for the sourcing of income. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (P.L. 115-97) minced few words in its addition of a single sentence to section 863(b) that applies to sales or exchanges of inventory property (1) produced in whole or in part by the taxpayer in one country, and (2) sold or exchanged in another country. The United States can either be the country where the inventory property is produced or the country where it is sold.

With this change, income from the sale of …

Letter From Jeffery M. Kadet And David L. Koontz To The Internal Revenue Serv. (June 5, 2018) On Notice 2018-43, 2018-2019 Priority Guidance Plan Regulatory And Ruling Guidance Concerning Various International Tax Issues, Jeffery M. Kadet, David L. Koontz

Articles

A principal focus of our suggestions is the modernization and updating of regulations as well as providing guidance that will affect the many multinational corporations (MNCs) whose operations take place partially or wholly within the U.S. Many of these MNCs have embarked on complicated and legalistic schemes whose primary purpose is to shift profits without any real operational changes and to record those profits within zero- and low-taxed foreign members. Importantly, this includes not only U.S.-based MNCs, but also the many inverted MNCs that structured their inversions to remain untouched by the §7874 anti-inversion rules.

Sourcing Rule Change: Manufacturing And Competitiveness, Jeffery M. Kadet

Articles

In this article, Kadet explains how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act favors foreign-based manufacturers selling through a U.S. sales branch over comparable U.S. manufacturers, and he recommends legislative fixes.

Abandoning Realization And The Transition Tax: Toward A Comprehensive Tax Base, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 imposed a tax, the “transition tax,” on as much as 31 years of undistributed, accumulated corporate income. This article focus on that transition tax as it evaluates thefunction and constitutionality of the tax and considers whether the transition tax might serve as a model for addressing the broader problem of deferred income in the United States. The article views the transition taxas joining the expatriation tax and other mark to market inclusion provisions in abandoning any pretext that there is continued vitality in the realization principle as something more compelling than any …

The Rainy Day Earned Income Tax Credit: A Reform To Boost Financial Security By Helping Low-Wage Workers Build Emergency Savings, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Sara Sternberg Greene, Ezra Levin, Kathryn Edin

Faculty Scholarship

Financial stability depends on emergency savings. Low-wage workers regularly experience drops in income and unexpected expenses. Households with savings absorb these financial shocks but most low-income Americans lack rainy day savings. Therefore, even a small shock, like car repairs, can result in a cascade of events that throws a low-income family into poverty. Nonetheless, existing policies address emergency savings only indirectly. However, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) already functions as an imperfect, makeshift savings tool. This lump sum refund at tax time gives workers a moment of financial slack, but many EITC recipients lack emergency reserves later in the …

Foreword – The 2017 Tax Cuts: How Polarized Politics Produced Precarious Policy, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

By lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, the 2017 tax legislation brought the U.S. statutory rate into closer alignment with the rates applicable in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations, thereby decreasing the incentive for businesses to locate their deductions in the United States and their income abroad. Its overhaul of the U.S. international income tax rules simultaneously reduced preexisting incentives for U.S. multinationals to reinvest their foreign earnings abroad and put a floor on the benefits of shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions. The 2017 legislation also added an unprecedented, troublesome lower rate for …