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Virginia Tax Review Publishes New Issue

The Virginia Tax Review has published Vol. 45, No. 1 (Summer 2025): 

  • Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan) & JJ Wang (J.D. 2025, Michigan), Perfect Storm: Executive Orders and Tax Law, 45 Va. Tax Rev. 1 (2025) (Abstract: Since it came into office, the Trump administration has issued a series of executive orders that affect many areas of the government. One such area is taxation. In two orders issued on his first day in office President Trump rejected the participation of the United States in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)`s global minimum corporate tax project and threatened to impose tax countermeasures on countries that adopt “extraterritorial or discriminatory” taxes. Two days later, the Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee introduced legislation to the same effect. A month later, the president issued another executive order aimed at challenging regulations, and this order can have a broad impact on tax regulations that are not backed by a sufficiently clear Congressional delegation of authority. This article examines the executive orders related to taxation and their potential impact, and suggests some ways Congress can mitigate that impact in pending tax legislation.)
  • Doron Narotzki (Akron), A Tax in Form, a Tariff in Function: Reclassifying Digital Services Taxes to Restore Trade Law Coherence, 45 Va. Tax Rev. 53 (2025) (Abstract: The Digital Services Tax (DST) are often described as tax policy responses to the digital economy, but this article introduces a new conceptual category called “intangible tariffs” to more accurately capture their legal and economic function. Although structured as domestic taxes, DSTs de-facto function as trade restrictions by selectively burdening foreign digital service providers and reshaping market access without triggering traditional trade law oversight. This tax–trade ambiguity reflects a deeper institutional failure. International tax law remains anchored in physical presence, while trade law is designed for border measures applied to goods. DSTs fall between these systems, exploiting legal gaps while placing pressure on already fragile coordination mechanisms. Rather than treating DSTs as isolated anomalies, this article develops the concept of the intangible tariff to clarify their function and confront the institutional consequences they generate.
  • Reclassifying DSTs as trade instruments creates an unexpected opportunity. It enables the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reassert authority over cross-border digital commerce, offers the United States a credible multilateral path to challenge discriminatory measures, and gives other countries a principled forum to contest U.S. tariff practices and assert digital taxing rights within a coherent legal framework. The concept of the intangible tariff transforms legal ambiguity into a strategic opportunity to realign trade and tax governance. More broadly, what appears to be a breakdown in the international legal order may hold the key to its renewal. The tensions surrounding DSTs and retaliatory tariffs create shared incentives to restore multilateral cooperation. Recognizing DSTs as trade instruments in tax form allows governments to channel conflict into institutional reform and reinforce the foundations of the global economic system.)
  • Daniel Shaviro (NYU), Right Taxpayers, Wrong Taxpayers, Deduction-Selling, and Proxy Taxation, 45 Va. Tax Rev. 94124 (2025) (Abstract: This paper explores the issues posed by allowing actual or implicit “deduction selling” to be tax-effective.)

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