Today's sixth Law, Society, and Taxation panel at the Law & Society Association Annual Meeting in Denver is on Tax Rules and Social Outcomes:
Several classic doctrines in tax law respond to recurring problems in the lives of taxpayers. Interactions between accidents, insurance, unexpected reversals, and tax consequences have created uniquely difficult questions of tax law. Scholars on this panel will discuss several proposed changes to the way the tax system treats unexpected and extreme events in the lives of individuals and communities.
Reginald Mombrun (North Carolina Central) (Chair/Discussant)
- Aviva Abramovsky (Syracuse) & Charlene Luke (Florida), Managing the Deluge: Insurance and Taxes:
Our project will focus on casualty losses arising from floods and will recommend insurance and tax reforms with the goal of developing a better integrated and more comprehensive approach to managing this risk.
- Bobby Lewis Dexter (Chapman), Rethinking "Insurance" and Reserves after AIG, and Lehman, and Merrill, and [Insert Others]:
The paper discusses the evolution and status of the classic definition of “insurance” for federal income tax purposes (i.e., an arrangement in which risk shifting and risk distributing are present) and the Service’s aggressive efforts to prevent companies from taking “premium” deductions for what the Service views as mere contributions to the company’s own contingency reserves. I question whether the current standard has served us well over time, whether a limited contingency reserve system would, in fact, reflect better tax/economic policy, and the potential forms such a contingency reserve framework might take.
- Francine Lipman (Chapman), Taxing Private Ryan:
This paper will present and analyze tax provisions that are targeted to assist members of the armed forces. The paper will critically review these provisions to determine if they are serving their purpose and if not propose improvements.
