I. INTRODUCTION The following Table of Legal Authority Addressing the Federal Definition of Tax Partnership presents a summary of numerous statutes, cases, regulations, and rulings (the legal authority) that address the federal definition of tax partnership. The Table is a work-in-progress.[1] Nonetheless, it may serve a useful purpose in its current unfinished condition. The Table is the byproduct of a law review...

Executive Summary This report examines the federal tax burden for middle-income married-couple families with two children, and reaches the following conclusions: Median income after taxes for married-couple families with two children reached a record high of $57,330 in 2003, an increase of $1,233 (or 2.2 percent) from the 2000 level. The income tax relief passed in 2001 and 2003 buoyed income after federal taxes...

Written by: Allison Christians and Yariv Brauner[*] PART I. THE MEANING OF “ENTERPRISE” AND “BUSINESS” IN DOMESTIC NON-TAX LAW The terms ―business‖ and ―enterprise‖ are very widely used in United States legislation[1] Given the prevalence of the terms – business and enterprise, an exhaustive survey of their use in non-tax legislation in the United States is beyond the scope of this report....

Significant change is anticipated in the Japanese Consumption Tax. This is the conclusion of the Japanese Tax Commission in its mid-term report, presented to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on June 17, 2003. When the Tax Commission’s Chairman, Professor Hiromitsu Ishi,[1]submitted A Sustainable Tax System for Japan’s Aging Society[2]the Commission indicated that it was responding to a“state of crisis…[brought...

The most sustained U.S. tax policy debate of the past 30 years concerns proposals to replace and/ or supplement the Federal Income Tax with a consumption tax.[2] Public finance economists and legal tax policy scholars challenged[3] and defended[4] the current income tax system on grounds of fairness,[5] efficiency, [6] and simplicity.[7] This debate over revamping the national taxing scheme has not been argued purely...

Abstract The efficiency consequences of taxation through its effect on occupational choice can be the opposite of the traditional labor supply effects that economists have focused on. Murphy et al. (1991) argue that some occupations may have positive, others negative, externalities. If occupations with positive externalities tend to be more enjoyable, then progressive taxation can have the efficiency benefit of encouraging...

Written by: Edward J. McCaffery and James R. Hines Jr. 1. Introduction Pity President Obama. Pity tax. Pity the dreams of progressives everywhere. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign gave believers in redistribution a brief shining moment of hope. Obama’s candidacy featured stirring calls for the richest Americans to give back and share more with their less fortunate fellow citizens. Yet even then, beneath...

Written by: Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren Executive Summary Many experts believe that gasoline taxes should be increased for a variety of reasons. Their arguments are unpersuasive. Oil is not disappearing, and when it becomes more expensive, market agents will substitute away from gasoline to save money. The link between oil price shocks and recessions, although real in the 1970s, has been much more benign since...

Fixing the Constitutional Absurdity of the Apportionment of Direct Tax argues that the Constitutional requirement that "direct tax" be apportioned among the states according to population should never be used to make any federal tax impossible. "Direct tax" is a word like "trash" defined by what you are going to do with it, and "direct tax" originally meant "apportionable tax." Before the Constitution, "direct tax" included...

Written by: Govinda R. Timilsina and Hari B. Dulal 1. Introduction Fiscal instruments are primarily price-based instruments that take advantage of market mechanisms and work through prices (Acutt and Dodgson, 1997). These instruments include: congestion charge or toll tax, emission and/or pollution tax or charge (e.g., carbon tax, sulfur tax), fuel tax (e.g., any excise tax on fuel or a BTU tax), vehicle tax (e.g.,...

This paper provides clear, theoretically sound, guidelines to evaluate the appropriateness of 23 different valuation methods to estimate the present value of tax shields. We first show that the value of tax shields is the difference between the present values of two different cash flows with their own risk: the present value of taxes for the unlevered company and the present value of taxes for the levered company....

‘‘A tax can be a means for raising revenue, or a device for regulating conduct, or both.’’ — Felix Frankfurter[1] ‘‘Frankly, I think government shouldn’t have a darn thing to do with what we sell or how our customers eat. As long as it is safe, tastes good and is fair priced, why should the mayor care?’’ — Frances Sack, operating partner, Dalessandro’s, a chain of cheesesteak restaurants in...

INTRODUCTION “Distrust of the bureaucracy is surely one reason for the clamor for adversary proceedings in the United States.”[1] In a series of hearings in 1997 and 1998, Congress heard allegations that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS or “Service”) abused taxpayers during the process of collecting taxes.[2] The resulting distrust of the tax bureaucracy led Congress to create a special adversary proceeding...

On December 11, 2008 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders announced appointments to the Commission on the 21stCentury Economy. The mandate is to propose ways to modernize the California revenue system by April 15, 2009. The Governor is concerned with the “feast-or-famine” budget cycles, and Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg emphasized that the Commission is expected to provide...

Written by: R. Michael Alvarez and Edward J. McCaffery Abstract This paper examines the relationship between attitudes on potential uses of the budget surplus and gender. Survey results show relatively weak support overall for using a projected surplus to reduce taxes, with respondents much likelier to prefer increased social spending on education or social security. There is a significant gender gap with men being...

Abstract This paper identifies three sources of risk for tax shields (TS): two of them associated with debt risk and one associated to operating risk. A set of conditions for defining risky debt associated to cash flow and not to accounting earnings is presented. The paper shows that realization of tax shields for finite cash flows in any period of time t are correlated with Earnings before Interest and Taxes and are...

Abstract This paper surveys the empirical research on fiscal institutions of the last three decades. The main results are: (i) Constitutional or statutory fiscal limitations have in most cases proved to be effective in cutting down public expenditure, revenue, and debt. (ii) Budgetary procedures matter as well. They might be less effective than constitutional or statutory rules, but in a situation where it is impossible...

Written by: Edward J. McCaffery(#) and Jonathan Baron (t) Abstract The principal findings of behavioral economics and cognitive psychology over the past several decades have been to show that human beings deviate from ideal precepts of rationality in many settings, showing inconsistent judgment in the face of framing and other formal manipulations of the presentation of problems. This paper summarizes the findings...

Abstract Our graduate income tax structure provides an incentive to shift income to lower-bracket family members. However, some parents have much more latitude to shift income to their children than do others. Income derived from services and private business-by far the majority of American income -is less favored than income derived from publicly traded securities. The rationale given for this discrimination is that...

Written by: Steven R. Schneider, Steven R. Dixon, Miller & Chevalier Chartered, Mona L. Hymel 1.01 Introduction and Overview. After many proposed and temporary regulations and recent legislative changes, major portions of the new anti-tax shelter rules are now final.[2] Although targeted at abuses, the regime is broad and can unexpectedly impact lawyers and accountants involved in common business transactions....