Leandra Lederman (Indiana; Google Scholar) & Sarah B. Lawsky (Northwestern; Google Scholar), Decoding Deductions:

This Article provides new insights into the federal income tax deductions available to individuals. First, after organizing individuals' deductions into the familiar categories of expenses versus losses and three types of activities that individuals engage in, the Article shows the advantages of bifurcating the standard losses category. Second, it focuses on limitations that the Internal Revenue Code (Code) imposes on deductions. It identifies two distinct types of "separate limitations" the Code uses, and it uncovers important patterns in how the Code treats disallowed amounts. Third, although the federal income tax is generally described as using annual accounting, the Article shows that the categories that individuals' deductions fall into map neatly onto annual, transactional, and lifetime-esque accounting, with limited and revealing exceptions. 

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