Taxation-Federal Commons^™

Tax Recognition, Barry Cushman

Journal Articles

This article was prepared for the St. Louis University Law Journal’s “Teaching Trusts & Estates” issue. Many law students take a course in Trusts & Estates, but comparatively few enroll in a class devoted to the federal wealth transfer taxes. For most law students, the Trusts & Estates course provides the only opportunity for exposure to some of the basic features of the estate tax, the gift tax, the generation-skipping transfer tax, and some related features of the income tax. The coverage demands of the typical Trusts & Estates course do not allow for intensive discussion of these issues, but …

Form 1023-Ez And The Streamlined Process For The Federal Income Tax Exemption: Is The Irs Slashing Red Tape Or Opening Pandora's Box, Manoj Viswanathan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Almost-Restatement Of Income Tax Of 1954: When Tax Giants Roamed The Earth, Lawrence A. Zelenak

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

States Versus Tribes: The Problem Of Multiple Taxation Of Non-Indian Oil And Gas Leases On Indian Reservations, Erin Marie Erhardt

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

How Should Governments Promote Distributive Justice?: A Framework For Analyzing The Optimal Choice Of Tax Instruments, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A particular methodology derived from public finance economics has become very influential in the legal literature on taxation and related topics. Sometimes called the “double-distortion” approach, this methodology forms the heart of Louis Kaplow’s book “The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics” and is also the foundation of prominent work by other leading tax legal scholars such as David Weisbach and James Hines.

This Article develops an extended critique of how the double-distortion approach has been used to make legal policy arguments. In doing so, this Article constructs a framework for analyzing how governments can optimally raise revenues and promote …

A Way Forward For Tax Law And Economics? A Response To Osofsky's "Frictions, Screening, And Tax Law Design", David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Essay responds to Leigh Osofsky's, "Who’s Naughty and Who’s Nice? Frictions, Screening, and Tax Law Design." Osofsky’s analysis suggests that tax rules might be designed so as to take account both of heterogeneity in taxpayers’ tax planning proclivities and of taxpayer characteristics relevant for distribution. By designing tax rules so as to create frictions that differentially impose higher costs on those taxpayers who are more successfully circumventing existing taxes we can perhaps reform our tax system so as to better achieve equitable distribution at lower efficiency costs. This Essay argues that Osofsky's analysis is generally correct and that it …

Book Review. Deficits, Debt, And The New Politics Of Tax Policy By Dennis S. Ippolito, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Taxes, The Problem And Solution: A Model For Vanishing Deductions And Exclusions For Residence-Based Tax Preferences, Phyllis C. Taite

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Beyond Tax Credits: Smarter Tax Policy For A Cleaner, More Democratic Energy Future, Felix Mormann

Articles

Solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies have the potential to mitigate climate change, secure America's energy independence, and create millions of green jobs. In the absence of a price on carbon emissions, however, these long-term benefits will not be realized without near-term policy support for renewable energy. This Article assesses the efficiency of federal tax incentives for renewables and proposes policy reform to promote renewable energy more cost-effectively through capital markets and crowdfunding.

Federal support for renewable energy today comes primarily in the form of accelerated depreciation and, critically, tax credits. Empirical evidence reveals that only a fraction of …

Fiscal Federalism As Risk-Sharing: The Insurance Role Of Redistributive Taxation, John R. Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In addition to funding government and redistributing income, a redistributive tax-and-transfer system, and a progressive income tax in particular, provides insurance against the risk of uncertain future income. By providing for high taxes for high incomes, and low taxes, exemptions, and transfers for low incomes, a progressive income tax lowers the volatility of potential after-tax income relative to a lump-sum tax. This insurance function is distinct from the redistributive function of the system, since it provides a direct risk-mitigation benefit to the taxpayer himself, rather than simply redistributing income from one taxpayer to another.

This article analyzes the question of …

Mitt Romney, The 47% Percent, And The Future Of The Mass Income Tax, Lawrence A. Zelenak

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Uneasy Case Against Tax Lien Subordination, Shu-Yi Oei

Faculty Scholarship

I.R.C. § 6323, which governs how the federal tax lien ranks against the interests of the taxpayer’s other creditors, subordinates the tax lien to the claims of other creditors in various ways. Tax lien subordination is commonly justified on the grounds that it enhances taxpayer asset value, facilitates commercial transactions, and reduces monitoring costs for private creditors. This short essay argues, however, that these benefits may be illusory. Tax lien subordination may, in fact, create costs and distortions and may lead to unfair distributive results. This essay suggests that the tax lien priority scheme might be made less costly by …

Tearing Out The Income Tax By The (Grass)Roots, Lawrence A. Zelenak

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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 …

Why Y? Reflections On The Baucus Proposal, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The international tax reform proposal introduced by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., on November 19 contains several significant innovations that promise to define the terms of the debate for the foreseeable political future. (Prior coverage: Tax Notes Int’l, Nov. 25, 2013, p. 691.) It is therefore worth examining in detail even if it seems unlikely that progress toward meaningful reform can be achieved very soon.

Recent Developments & Tax Planning For High Income Taxpayers, Cameron N. Cosby, Brian J. O'Connor

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

A Review Of International Business Tax Reform, Alexander M. Lewis

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Corporate Tax Reform: A Debate, Deborah A. Geier, Omni Y. Marian, David S. Miller, Adam H. Rosenzweig

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Professor Geier participated in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate, where the debaters were assigned different roles, so the opinions expressed were not necessarily their own. On the first point debated, Professor Geier was assigned to argue: The Affirmative: We Need to Tax Corporationsat the Entity Level. Others argued the negative: The United States Should Repeal the Corporate Income Tax. On the second point debated, Professor Geier argued the negative, that Dividend Exemption Is NOT the Best Method of Corporate/Shareholder Integration, and is in fact the worst method. On the third point, Professor Geier argued in the affirmative, that the corporate tax …

The End Of Cash, The Income Tax, And The Next 100 Years, Gregg D. Polsky, Jeffery H. Kahn

Scholarly Works

The income tax is technologically very similar to the way it was in its early years, and technological developments have been at the margins of the income tax and have not affected its core elements. Still, technological improvements have made third-party reporting and withholding more efficient, which has allowed these mechanisms to become more pervasively used. Technology has also made it easier for taxpayers to substantiate their activities. These changes have facilitated the evolution of the incometax from its original class tax to the mass tax it is today.

While further technological advances might improve the federal income tax, it …