Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Consistency Is Key: To Preserve Legislative Intent The Irs Must Afford Legal Recognition To Non-Marital Relationships In A Post-Doma World, Shane R. Martins

Marquette Elder's Advisor

Although the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Windsor v. US allows for federal recognition of same-sex marriages, the Internal Revenue Service will only grant spousal recognition to couples residing in states that term same-sex unions as marriages. Consequently, spousal treatment will not be extended to non-marital relationships, even in states that treat their Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships as “marital equivalents.” Given that spousal recognition for federal tax purposes was intended to ensure geographic uniformity and horizontal equity, the IRS must grant spousal recognition to couples who are in relationships that their respective state identifies as a “marital equivalent”.

Chapter 546: Preventing Retroactive Taxes On Entrepreneurs, Nicholas Kump

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tax Ferrets, Tax Consultants, Bounty Hunters, And Hired Guns: The Property Tax Netherworld Fueled By Contingency Fees And Champertous Agreements, J. Lyn Entrikin

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Contingency fee agreements between local tax assessors and contract auditors on the one hand, and property owners and private tax consultants on the other, create perverse financial incentives that undermine the integrity of state and local property tax administration. When local governments engage outside auditors to identify undervalued or escaped taxable property, the practice raises serious due process and ethical concerns. As a matter of policy, diverting a share of property tax revenue to private third parties in consideration for outsourced tax assessment services undermines public accountability and reduces net property tax revenue for local government services. And when states …

Occupy Wall Street, Distributive Justice, And Tax Scholarship: An Ideology Critique Of The Consumption Tax Debate, Partrick Crawford

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “This Article argues that the pro-consumption tax literature is wrong to claim that no legitimate fairness objections to the consumption tax exist. It argues that the persistent and widespread wariness about replacing our current hybrid consumption tax/income tax system with a pure consumption tax is, contrary to what the pro-consumption tax literature asserts, completely justified. In fact, our reservations about the consumption tax’s fairness reflect legitimate concern about the role of capitalist power in America, particularly over the past thirty years. Indeed, the more the nation continues to experience the social welfare effects of increased capitalist power, the more …

Stubhub's Tug At The Municipal Purse String: Why The Home-Rule Taxing Powers Enumerated In The Illinois Constitution Must Remain Broad And Strong, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 37 (2014), Joseph Kearney

UIC Law Review

The issues facing Illinois cities are equally, if not more, important today as in 1970 and will require local leaders to be able to use all governance tools at their disposal. The ability of a municipality to raise revenue is arguably one of the most important expressly granted by home rule. Accordingly, the Stubhub case should be viewed with caution going forward, as it raises the possibility of potentially serious challenges to municipal home rule power in the future. This article, then, will do several things. First, it will give the reader a concise definition and history of the constitutional …

Inhibiting Intrastate Inequalities: A Congressional Approach To Ensuring Equal Opportunity To Finance Public Education, Joshua Arocho

Michigan Law Review

What is the purpose of the international law on armed conflict, and why would opponents bent on destroying each other’s capabilities commit to and obey rules designed to limit their choice of targets, weapons, and tactics? Traditionally, answers to this question have been offered on the one hand by moralists who regard the law as being inspired by morality and on the other by realists who explain this branch of law on the basis of reciprocity. Neither side’s answers withstand close scrutiny. In this Article, we develop an alternative explanation that is based on the principal–agent model of domestic governance. …

Locality V. Online Travel Company: Does The Bell Finally Toll For Quill Corp. V. North Dakota, Jaan Rannik

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Income Imputation: Toward Equal Treatment Of Renters And Owners, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

This chapter argues that fundamental fairness principles demand changes in U.S. tax law to place those who rent on an equal tax footing with those who own their residences. The disparity in tax treatment of owners and renters results primarily from the failure of the tax law to include the use value from investment of capital in a personal residence in the incomes of owners. While the yield from investment in a personal residence is not cash, the yield is valuable as it replaces an outlay for dwelling use the owner otherwise would have to make. That occupancy right as …

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.

Heal The Suffering Children: Fifty Years After The Declaration Of War On Poverty, Francine J. Lipman, Dawn Davis

Scholarly Works

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the War on Poverty. Since then, the federal tax code has been a fundamental tool in providing financial assistance to poor working families. Even today, however, thirty-two million children live in families that cannot support basic living expenses, and sixteen million of those live in extreme poverty. This Article navigates the confusing requirements of an array of child-related tax benefits including the dependency exemption deduction, head of household filing status, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child Tax Credit. Specifically, this Article explores how altering the definition of a qualifying child …

Comments: The Illegal Immigrant Tax: Evaluating State Remittance Taxes Under The Dormant Commerce Clause And The Equal Protection Clause, Meredith Cipriano

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

California – Land Of “Lawless Taxation” And The “Midnight Special”: Outlier Or Leader In A Growing Trend?, Mystica M. Alexander

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Taxpayers in California recently found themselves the target of a retroactive grab for revenue by the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) in what has called an act of “lawless taxation” by the state of California. The source of the conflict was the Qualified Small Business Stock credit that had been in place in California since 1993. The tax credit, which was designed to encourage innovation and investment in California-based enterprises, allowed business owners who had at least eighty percent of their assets and employees in California to take a credit of fifty percent of the capital gain realized on a …

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 …

Tax Ferrets, Tax Consultants, Bounty Hunters, And Hired Guns: The Property Tax Netherworld Fueled By Contingency Fees And Champertous Agreements, J. Lyn Entrikin

Law Faculty Scholarship

Contingency fee agreements between local tax assessors and contract auditors on the one hand, and property owners and private tax consultants on the other, create perverse financial incentives that undermine the integrity of state and local tax administration. When local governments engage outside auditors to identify undervalued or escaped taxable property, the practice raises serious due process and ethical concerns. As a matter of policy, diverting a share of property tax revenue to private third parties in consideration for outsourced tax assessment services undermines public accountability and reduces net property tax revenue for local government services. And when states allow …

Taking The Bloody Linen Out Of The Closet: Menstrual Hygiene As A Priority For Achieving Gender Equality, Inga T. Winkler, Virginia Roaf

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

Regular menstruation signals a woman's health and fertility. menstruation is surrounded by shame, secrecy, embarrassment, fear, humiliation, silence, taboo, and stigma. Linked to this taboo, many cultural and religious norms-often grounded in patriarchal assumptions-seek to prevent contact with menstruating women and girls in order to avoid 'contamination' or 'becoming impure'. To some extent, this perception of menstruation is a paradox, given that motherhood is glorified. However, menstruation is not perceived as feminine', and it does not conform to the stereotypical role and behavior of women. Such stereotypes require women to be beautiful and beautified, deodorized and fresh, not bloody and …

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 …

Recent Developments In Virginia Taxation, Craig D. Bell, William L.S Rowe

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

The overall purpose of this article is to provide Virginia tax and general practitioners with a concise overview of the recent developments in Virginia taxation that will most likely impact those practitioners. This article does not, however, discuss many of the numerous technical legislative changes to title 58.1 of the Virginia Code, which covers taxation.

Central Falls Retirees V. Bondholders: Assessing Fear Of Contagion In Chapter 9 Proceedings, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

Modern Chapter 9 litigation has been characterized by extraordinary protections for municipal bondholders, and Central Falls is no exception. Although not well understood by politicians, fear of contagion has encouraged the adoption of legal arrangements that have limited the bankruptcy courts’ ability to include bondholders in the cost of restructuring municipal debt. This preference for bondholders (and, by extension, their insurers) has meant increased misery for taxpayers and retirees. Given that all of these actors appear to have been complicit to some degree in the creation and maintenance of the fiscally imprudent conditions that triggered bankruptcy and that evidence of …

Leveling The International Playing Field With The Marketplace Fairness Act, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Boryana Madzharova

Faculty Scholarship

Quill v. North Dakota unbalanced the American retail market with its preference for out-of-state over in-state sellers. The preference under Quill is that sellers without physical presence in a state cannot be compelled to collect the sales tax. If the buyer does not voluntarily remit the complementary use tax, the purchase is effectively tax-free. As a result, Quill is seen as facilitating tax avoidance and driving business to sellers who have no in-state nexus, notably e-businesses. Revenue losses are estimated in excess of $10 billion per year.

The reach of the Quill decision is international. Preferred sellers can reside just …