George H. Mahon Professor of Law, Texas Tech University School of Law
The Failure of Adversarial Process in the Administrative State
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 ...
The Play’s the Thing: A Theory of Taxing Virtual Worlds
Introduction
Taxation is shadow life. As our culture monetizes more and more life activities, the shadow grows. This Article looks at the potential tax issues arising from a new life activity: online role-playing games in virtual worlds. Currently, some thirty million people regularly play such games and the number is growing.[1] ...
Theory and Practice in Tax Administration
Good articles deserve to be read. Great ones deserve to be re-read. What Mortimer Caplin wrote some forty-five years ago deserves our renewed attention for the value it adds to the theory of tax administration. The insights and observations of a subtle intellect about his experience as Commissioner of the ...
Protecting Trust Assets From the Federal Tax Lien
I. INTRODUCTION
One common issue facing those who create trusts is how to protect beneficiaries from creditors. One of the biggest, worst creditors out there is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS or Service), wielding two weapons of mass collection: the federal tax lien and the federal tax levy. These weapons regularly ...
The Never-Ending Battle
In every era and area of law you find a never-ending battle between two groups of legal thinkers: formalists and functionalists. Each is connected to long-standing and honorable traditions in Anglo-American jurisprudence. The formalists tend toward the law side of those traditions the search for order and certainty and the ...
What Good Is The National Taxpayer Advocate?
Bryan Camp and George H. Mahon
Have you read the National Taxpayer Advocate’s 2009 Annual Report? You know, the yearly 800-page compendium listing the 20 most serious taxpayer problems, recommending legislative changes, and reporting the most litigated tax issues? I thought not. Frankly, neither have I. But I will: it’s ...
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Today’s column discusses the Tax Court’s jurisdiction to hear stand-alone petitions from taxpayers who have been denied equitable relief under section 6015(f), one of the three spousal relief provisions contained in section 6015. Congress enacted section 6015 in the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA 98) ...