Taxation-Federal Commons^™

An Arm's Length Solution To The Shareholder Loan Tax Puzzle, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Tax Priorities: Marriage Neutrality, Children, And Contemporary Families, James M. Puckett

Faculty Scholarship

Tax scholarship has long struggled with whether married taxpayers should be taxed differently from unmarried taxpayers. Currently, married taxpayers are subject to different tax rates than unmarried taxpayers, and may file a joint tax return. A married couple may pay a higher or lower amount of tax than an unmarried couple with the same total income, and a single person generally pays more tax on a given income than a married couple with a single earner with the same income. These outcomes are difficult to reconcile with a commitment to income tax progressivity, which in theory requires that higher incomes …

When Canons Go To War In Indian Country, Guess Who Wins? Barrett V. United States: Tax Canons And Canons Of Construction In The Federal Taxation Of American Indians, John Lentz

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

One Is The Loneliest Number: The Single Taxpayer In A Joint Return World, Lily Kahng

Faculty Articles

The United States is one of the few developed countries to retain the joint income tax return, available for heterosexual married couples only. Since its adoption in 1948, its underlying assumptions have been challenged on many valid grounds, and yet it remains firmly embedded in mainstream political and policy discourse. In recent years, most of the debate surrounding the joint return has focused on reducing marriage penalties, bonuses, and determining who among the universe of couples ought to be extended the benefit of the marriage bonuses. The treatment of single people has received almost no attention. The scant attention paid …

The Grapes Of Wrathful Heirs: Terminations Of Transfers Of Copyright And "Agreements To The Contrary", Michael J. Bales

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Where Credit Is Due: Advantages Of The Credit-Invoice Method For A Partial Replacement Vat, Itai Grinberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

If a value-added tax (VAT) were chosen to supplement or replace some portion of the revenue from the income tax, a choice would likely be made between the credit-invoice method and the subtraction-method for calculating VAT liability. Credit-invoice method VATs and subtraction-method VATs are, at a conceptual level, very similar taxes. The key substantive difference between most subtraction-method VAT proposals and extant credit-invoice method VATs is that subtraction-method VAT proposals generally do not impose an invoice requirement. The invoice requirement substantially reduces tax avoidance opportunities in the VAT, and also ensures the ability to provide appropriate treatment for exports while …

Human Capital And Transfer Taxation, Kerry A. Ryan

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

W(H)Ither Economic Substance?, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Transactions that claim inappropriate tax benefits are a perennial problem. When the IRS claims a transaction is abusive, courts generally examine whether the taxpayer had a business purpose and whether the transaction had economic substance (essentially a prospect of profit before taxes). This two-pronged "economic substance doctrine" developed from a series of Supreme Court cases.

Unfortunately, the economic substance doctrine provides a poor proxy for the real question, which was the focus of the early cases-whether the claimed tax results are consistent with Congress's intent. One important drawback of the shift from a focus on congressional intent to a focus …

The Price Of Conflict: War, Taxes, And The Politics Of Fiscal Citizenship, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Since 2003 American political leaders and lawmakers have been committed to the simultaneous pursuit of tax cuts and military excursions abroad. Just a few decades ago, when military hawks were also deficit hawks, such a position would have seemed incongruous. This essay reviews, War and Taxes, a provocative and fascinating new book that seeks to explain the apparent dissonance of recent American wartime tax policy. In contrast to conventional wisdom which presumes that wartime patriotism has always and everywhere trumped self-interest, War and Taxes shows that the history of U.S. wartime taxation is not quite such a heroic tale. By …

American Economic Development, Managerial Corporate Capitalism, And The Institutional Foundations Of The Modern Income Tax, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Histories of the modern American income tax have generally focused on the role that social and political forces have played in the development of a new tax system. This article seeks to move beyond the social and political determinants to examine the economic factors that facilitated the adoption of the modern, graduated income tax. Without marginalizing the importance of social and political factors, the central aim of this article is to make a modest contribution to the legal and political historiography of the U.S. income tax by highlighting how changing material economic conditions afforded social groups, political reformers, and lawmakers …

Reducing Information Gaps To Reduce The Tax Gap: When Is Information Reporting Warranted?, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A core problem for enforcement of tax laws is asymmetric information. The taxpayer knows the facts regarding the relevant transactions it engages in during the year-or at least has ready access to that information. The government is forced to play catch-up, obtaining that information either from the taxpayer or from third parties. Information reporting is routinely used to address this information gap. The government obtains information about the taxpayer's tax situation from a third party and-equally important-the taxpayer knows that the government has received that information. This fosters taxpayer honesty. Information reporting is not a panacea, however. It imposes costs …

The Misuse Of Textualism: A Further Reply To Prof. Kahn, Stephen B. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Because readers have already endured four articles, two by me and two by Prof. Douglas A. Kahn, debating the meaning of section 67(e)(1), I am reluctant to respond to Prof. Kahn’s rejoinder, which appeared in the January 18 issue of Tax Notes. Nevertheless, our disagreement implicates the judicial craft of two U.S. Supreme Court members, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sonia Sotomayor. I therefore feel it important to answer Prof. Kahn’s latest contentions, recognizing my duty to be as brief as possible.

The Bankruptcy Hegemon: Section 524(A) And Its Effect On State And Federal Comity, Benjamin Margulis

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Debt-Financed Consumption And A Hybrid Income-Consumption Tax, Lawrence A. Zelenak

Faculty Scholarship

The debate between proponents of income taxation and proponents of consumption taxation has focused almost exclusively on the differing treatment of savings under the two tax bases. This is odd, given that income and consumption tax bases also differ in their treatment of debt-financed consumption. This Essay addresses the largely-ignored question of the taxation of debt-financed consumption. It contends that a strong case can be made in favor of a hybrid income-consumption tax base under which taxation is triggered by the earlier of consumption or income, so that both debt-financed consumption and saved income are included in the tax base. …

Of Punitive Damages, Tax Deductions, And Tax-Aware Juries: A Response To Polsky And Markel, Lawrence A. Zelenak

Faculty Scholarship

In “Taxing Punitive Damages,” Gregg D. Polsky and Dan Markel argue that defendants paying punitive damages are under-punished relative to juries’ intentions, because tax-unaware juries do not take into account the fact that the deductibility of punitive damages significantly reduces defendants’ after-tax costs. They note that the Obama administration has proposed addressing the under-punishment problem by amending the Internal Revenue Code to disallow deductions for punitive damages (and for settlements paid on account of punitive damage claims). They conclude, however, that the proposal would be ineffective because defendants could avoid its impact by disguising nondeductible punitive damage settlements as deductible …

Philosophical Objection To The Optimal Tax Model, A , Linda Sugin

Faculty Scholarship

This article questions the normative power of the optimal tax model by examining assumptions made by the developer of that model, James Mirrlees' . It makes a case for moving beyond utilitarian conceptions of social welfare that are at the foundation of the optimal tax model, and that have become the dominant construct in tax policy analysis. In explaining why the Mirrlees assumptions are problematic, the Article argues for a nuanced, philosophical understanding of fairness that incorporates the role of taxation into a broader conception of a just society. A fair tax must satisfy the full range of demands that …

Executive Compensation And Tax Neutrality: Taxing The Investment Component Of Deferred Compensation, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.