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Paul L. Caron
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Sloan Speck

May 22, 2026

SSRN Review & Roundup: Harpaz Reviews Pratt’s Aligning Reparations and Taxation

This week, Assaf Harpaz (Georgia; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Katherine Pratt (Loyola LA; Google Scholar), Aligning Reparations and Taxation, Wm. & Mary J. Race, Gender & Soc. Just. (forthcoming).

In Aligning Reparations and Taxation, the author makes an exceptional contribution to the tax literature by examining the nontaxation of reparation remedies. Absent a statutory exclusion, current tax law generally treats reparation remedies as taxable income to the recipient. The author argues that this tax treatment undermines the rehabilitative and restorative objectives of reparations. The author proposes a new statutory tax exclusion for reparation remedies, grounded in critical normative frameworks and procedural fairness in tax administration.
Read more

Tax, Tax Scholarship, Weekly SSRN Roundup
Shuyi Oei

May 22, 2026

Liscow (NY Times): The Simple Answer to Taxing the Rich Is the Best Answer

Zachary Liscow, The Simple Answer to Taxing the Rich Is the Best Answer (New York Times, May 22, 2026)

The United States is seeing an increasing concentration of wealth at the very top and a worsening national debt. For many Americans, taxing the rich more is an obvious move.

Ask tax policy experts how to do this, and you will often hear novel proposals to curb the many intricate ways the rich make and hide their money: A wealth tax. A tax on unrealized gains. A tax on the loans that billionaires take against their stock. These ideas, now common in progressive tax thinking, come with serious catches, legal or arithmetical. The tax code has structural flaws, and many of the ideas would be good in theory. But pursuing them could result in little or no new revenue for the government.

The boring truth is that Congress can accomplish a lot simply by raising the rates of the taxes already on the books.

…

Tax, Tax News, Tax Profs
Jeremy Paul

May 22, 2026

Book of the Week

It’s not every day that a 94 year-old releases a new book. But I can’t wait to read this insider account of how judges make decisions from the judge I admired most from my time clerking at the Second Circuit in 1982-83. Early in my tenure I helped the judge for whom I clerked draft an opinion. The attorneys in the case had relied on a precedent case from our circuit, which I didn’t think fit. I replaced it in my communications with the judge with a footnote citation to a district court opinion, but my judge preferred the original cite. I put it back and delivered our draft to Judge Newman In person at roughly 7 pm.. HIs clerks had already gone home and so he personally opened his chambers in stocking feet and welcomed me. When I arrived the next morning a 7:30 a.m. He had returned the draft with only one point of disagreement. He found the footnote citation to the circuit case I had put back to be inapposite and could we please remove it. They don’t make them like they used to.

Version 1.0.0

Books, Legal Education
Shuyi Oei

May 22, 2026

Tax Notes: Shakira Shimmies Out of Spanish Tax Assessments for Fiscal 2011

William Hoke, Shakira Shimmies Out of Spanish Tax Assessments for Fiscal 2011 (Tax Notes Today, International, 2026 TNTI 96-9)

Spain’s National High Court has annulled tax assessments issued to pop sensation Shakira for fiscal 2011 after finding that the singer was not a tax resident of the country during that year.

In 2018 the Colombian-born singer, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, reached a settlement for the 2011 tax year. While the initial reports of the settlement indicated that Shakira had paid over €20 million to resolve the dispute, the high court said in a May 18 release that it had annulled personal income tax and wealth tax assessments and penalties totaling over €55 million for the year.

The high court said the tax agency had failed to prove that Shakira had been in Spain for more than the 183 days required to establish tax domicile. “On the contrary, the Chamber finds that Shakira’s stay in our country amounted to 163 days and that the administration has therefore failed to prove that the singer maintained her center of economic interests in Spain — as well as family ties with residents in our country,” it said.

…

Tax, Tax Analysts, Tax News, Uncategorized
Jeremy Paul

May 22, 2026

Why Commercial Law

On behalf of the ABA’s Commercial Law Education Task Force, Professors Anthony Palermo (Stetson), Kara Bruce (Univ. of North Carolina) and Laura Coordes (Arizona State) have posted to SSRN an open letter written to deans of U.S. Law Schools urgin them to make it a priority to offer commercial law courses, including those covering secured transactions, sales and leases of goods, payment systems, bankruptcy, or some combination of these, plus additional courses in transactional skills, cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, international trade, consumer finance, and the like. Of these classes, retaining and promoting Secured Transactions is their priority. You can find the letter here.

Palermo, Anthony and Bruce, Kara J. and Coordes, Laura, An Open Letter to Law School Deans About the Importance of Commercial Law Education (April 20, 2026). Stetson University College of Law Research Paper Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6615598

Law School, Legal Education
Shuyi Oei

May 22, 2026

WSJ: Trump’s Deal With His Administration Also Ends His Tax Audits

Richard Rubin, Trump’s Deal With His Administration Also Ends His Tax Audits (Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2026)

President Trump’s extraordinary agreement with the federal government expanded Tuesday to end all pending tax audits of him and his businesses, according to a document posted by the Justice Department.

In the document, signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the government said it would be “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from pursuing certain claims against Trump, his businesses and family members. The agreement specifically blocks the government from taking any action regarding tax returns that already have been filed.

That agreement extends the settlement announced Monday, in which the government agreed to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim to have been victims of so-called weaponization by the government, a move that could lead to payouts to Trump allies.

Trump, in exchange, withdrew a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns by an IRS contractor and ended administrative claims related to other investigations. The government had valid defenses against the IRS lawsuit but never defended it; in other similar cases, the government has argued that the fact that a contractor made such disclosures meant that the U.S. couldn’t be sued.

…

Tax, Tax News
Jeremy Paul

May 22, 2026

Human Rights Here at Home

This year’s Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers Network Symposium: Human Rights and Local Resistance: From Criminalization of Civic Spaces to Action, will be held on June 4, 2026, at the University of Pennsylvania, jointly sponsored by NUSL’s Center for Global Law & Justice and the Gittis Legal Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

.Event information and Registration is available here. .

https://penncareylaw.cventevents.com/event/c8a5fccc-7160-496e-93e5-29a60cae8865/summary

The program is free (and includes coffee, lunch, and a reception) unless you need CLE credit. There is also a virtual option available for those not seeking CLE credit.

Conferences, Legal Education
Deanna Newton

May 21, 2026

Bloomberg: “Oregon Voters Reject Gasoline Tax Increase as Pump Prices Soar”

Bloomberg, Oregon Voters Reject Gasoline Tax Increase as Pump Prices Soar:

Oregon voters repealed a 6-cent per gallon fuel tax increase enacted last year to shore up the state’s transportation budget, throwing long-term funding into uncertainty.

About 83% of voters rejected the tax increase, which was passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature in a special session last September, according to AP results of Tuesday’s primary. Had it passed, the gasoline levy would have climbed to 46 cents a gallon.

The voter referendum also turned away a higher payroll tax for transit projects, and significant increases in vehicle registration and title fees authorized in the transportation law (HB 3991).
(more…)

Scholarship, Tax, Tax Scholarship
Deanna Newton

May 21, 2026

Legal Scholarship Network Publishes New Issue of Tax Law & Policy eJournal
Volume 26, Number 44 (May 2026) of the eJournal of Tax Law and Policy, published by The Social Science Research Network (SSRN), and edited by Paul L. Caron:
Alejandro Diaz Silva (Independent Researcher), The Constitutional and Economic Case Against Recurrent Property Taxation on Primary Residences: A Critical Analysis of Chile’s Impuesto Territorial in Comparative Perspective

Chelsea Xiaoqing Chen (Independent Researcher), Balancing Settlor Control and Trustee Fiduciary Duty: Structural Approaches for Business-Holding Trusts in Switzerland

Mark Turner (Independent Researcher), The Bot Tax: Why AI Systems Should Pay Social Security on the Wages They Replace — A Labor Displacement Levy Proposal with Empirical Case Study

Comrade Kalu Nnanna Nwonyuku (Federal Inland Revenue Service), The Evolution of Corporate Sustainability: From Peripheral Stewardship to Systemic Financial Integration-The Ledger as a Sentinel for National Resource Sovereignty

István Simon (Eötvös Loránd University), Constitutional foundations of Hungarian tax law

Daniel J. Hemel (New York University), Taxation and Animals

Manoj Viswanathan (UC Law, San Francisco), Toward Issuer-Based Certification Of Qualified Small Business Stock
Scholarship, Tax, Tax Scholarship
Michael Hunter Schwartz

May 21, 2026

Edutopia: 28 Ways to Quickly Check for Understanding

Daniel Leonard, 28 Ways to Quickly Check for Understanding (May 19, 2024)

The subheading offers a preview of the great ideas to follow:

From sketching comics to drafting tweets, these fun—and fast—ways to check for understanding are creative and flexible.

My four favorites are: asking students to write a six-word headline, create quiz questions, write a tweet/x post, and 3-2-1 (three things they learned, two they find interesting, and one question they have).

Law School, Legal Education, Teaching

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TaxProf Blog

SSRN Review & Roundup: Harpaz Reviews Pratt’s Aligning Reparations and Taxation

Liscow (NY Times): The Simple Answer to Taxing the Rich Is the Best Answer

Book of the Week

Tax Notes: Shakira Shimmies Out of Spanish Tax Assessments for Fiscal 2011

Why Commercial Law

WSJ: Trump’s Deal With His Administration Also Ends His Tax Audits

Human Rights Here at Home

Bloomberg: “Oregon Voters Reject Gasoline Tax Increase as Pump Prices Soar”

Legal Scholarship Network Publishes New Issue of Tax Law & Policy eJournal

Edutopia: 28 Ways to Quickly Check for Understanding

Bloomberg: Varian Owes $7 Million After Tax Court Sunk Dividend Deductions

Legal Scholarship Network Publishes New Issue of Tax Law & Policy eJournal

WSJ: Jalen Brunson’s Tax Wisdom