Daniel Halperin (Harvard) passed away on May 12, 2026, peacefully and surrounded by family. Halperin’s obituary is here, and his in memoriam page at Harvard Law School is here (and reproduced below).

Halperin was a prolific scholar across many areas of tax law, including timing and deferral, individual income tax, nonprofit taxation, and employee benefits. Among Halperin’s many publications are Business Deduction for Personal Living Expenses: A Uniform Approach to an Unsolved Problem, 122 U. Pa. L. Rev. 859 (1974), and Interest in Disguise: Taxing the “Time Value of Money,” 95 Yale L.J. 506 (1986), which in 2019 was ranked thirteenth among the most cited tax law journal articles.

At Harvard, Halperin was the Stanley S. Surrey Professor of Law. Like Surrey, Halperin combined distinction in academia with substantial government and public service. Halperin was a Life Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. He also delivered the American College of Tax Counsel’s 2009 Griswold Lecture on Tax Policy. On Halperin’s retirement in 2015, Harvard published this tribute.

From Harvard’s in memoriam profile of Halperin:

Daniel Halperin was a law professor for nearly 40 years and held the Stanley S. Surrey Professor at Harvard Law School since 1996. Halperin began his career in private practice in New York City and twice served in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department (from 1967 through 1970 and from 1977 through 1980). He was Deputy Assistant Secretary from 1978-80. Halperin began his academic career at Pennsylvania Law School (1970-1977) and taught for 15 years at Georgetown Law School from 1981-1996. Halperin was an Affiliated Scholar with the Urban Institute, a member of the advisory board for the Urban Institute‘s “Project on Tax Policy and Charities” and Vice Chairman of the Board of the Pension Rights Center. He authored numerous law review articles specializing in the areas of qualified pension plans and retirement savings, nonprofit organizations, and the timing of income and deductions under the Internal Revenue Code.

TaxProf Blog would like to publish remembrances of Halperin from tax professors, colleagues, and former students. If you are interested in contributing, please send your remembrance to taxprofblogeditors@pepperdine.edu.