Author: Sloan Speck
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Tax Profs at the ABA Tax Section May Meeting
This year’s ABA Tax Section May Tax Meeting was May 7 through 9 in Washington, D.C. Tax profs and academic affiliates on panels at this year’s meeting include:
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Building a Law School from Scratch: The Creation of UCI Law
From the Orange County Bar Association’s podcast Raising the OC Bar, an hour of oral history about the founding of UC Irvine School of Law. Guests are former Dean Erwin Chemerinsky (UC Berkeley) and retired Judge Andrew Guilford; topics include vision and politics, curricular innovations, and memorable moments. Links and a synopsis, below the fold.
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Burke: Active Limited Partners Flunk Functional Test
Karen C. Burke (Florida), Active Limited Partners Flunk Functional Test, Tax Law. (2026):
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Updates on Efforts to Improve Nonprofit Transparency
Two related items on administrative efforts to improve disclosure by nonprofits. One involves proposed regulations and planned revisions to Form 990; the other, litigation over the First Amendment viability of statutory requirements to disclose donors. Links and excerpts, below the fold.
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Speck Reviews Galle’s Consumption Taxes and the Constitution
This week, Sloan Speck (Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Brian D. Galle (UC Berkeley, Google Scholar), Consumption Taxes and the Constitution, 103 Wash. U. L. Rev. _ (forthcoming 2026). The Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. United States breathed new life into long-dormant constitutional questions about tax law’s realization doctrine. These questions not
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Tax Foundation: Is America Financially Illiterate?
In celebration of Financial Literacy Month, Kyle Hulehan and Zoe Callaway revisit the Tax Foundation’s 2024 National Tax Literacy Poll in a new episode of The Deduction. The second half of the episode’s title says it all: “The Numbers Are Alarming.” Links, and a few reasons not to worry, below the fold.
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Pre-Law Pathways After Students for Fair Admissions
As the spring semester ends and summer begins, pre-law pathway programs across the country are preparing to welcome new cohorts of prospective law students. These programs have faced recent challenges, from tectonic shifts in the legal landscape to increasingly competitive admissions cycles that favor well-resourced applicants. Since 2024, I’ve been piloting a grant-funded, data-driven pre-law
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Love: Where in the World Does Partnership Income Go?
Michael Love (Columbia), Where in the World Does Partnership Income Go? Evidence of a Growing Use of Tax Havens, 79 Nat’l Tax J. 7 (2026):
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Tax Notes Investigates States’ Use of AI in Audit Selection
Paul Jones & Emily Hollingsworth, Unwatched: How State Audit Selection Systems Bypass Oversight, Tax Notes (Apr. 14, 2026) (quoting Jacob Goldin (Chicago) and Bob Probasco (Texas A&M)):
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Gordon Reviews Hemel & Kern’s Separation of Bases and the Fiscal Constitution
This week, Jeff Gordon (Vanderbilt, Google Scholar) reviews Daniel Hemel (NYU, Google Scholar) and Adam Kern (University of San Diego, Google Scholar), Separation of Bases and the Fiscal Constitution, 105 Tex. L. Rev. _ (forthcoming 2027). Daniel Hemel and Adam Kern have written an ambitious article that aims to reshape our understanding of the relationship
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Brazil Asks for Its Own Side-by-Side Exemption
In January, U.S-based multinationals won an exemption from Pillar 2’s global minimum tax under the OECD’s “side-by-side” package. At the time, this exemption was framed as both a concession to American exceptionalism and a harbinger of further fragmentation in the OECD’s multilateral BEPS project. Well, the other shoe has dropped. Brazil has requested its own
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Vibe Coding for Lawyers and Law Students
Much of the conversation about generative AI in legal practice has revolved around (1) infrastructure costs, (2) changes in billing models, and (3) the ethical considerations and reputational risks of relying on AI output—which, as we’ve seen this week, can occur at the very highest levels. In a Kennedy-esque framing, these concerns revolve more around
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Jensen & Weigel: No Taxation Without Administration
Anders D. Jensen (Harvard, Kennedy Sch.) & Jonathan L. Weigel (UC Berkeley, Haas Sch. Bus.), No Taxation Without Administration: Bringing the State Back into the Public Finance of Developing Countries, 64 J. Econ. Lit. 246 (2026): The empirical economics literature on taxation in developing countries has centered on the importance of third-party information for enforcement. Yet,
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Blue J Offers Complimentary Academic Licenses
Blue J is offering complimentary access to its AI tax research platform to every full-time tax professor in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Almost 200 tax professors have now activated their academic access. Email Ben Alarie directly at ben@bluej.com with a subject line “Blue J for me please” to receive complimentary access!
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Eyal Reviews Bank’s High Rates and Low Taxes
This week, Mirit Eyal (Alabama; Google Scholar) reviews Steven A. Bank (UCLA; SSRN), Introduction, High Rates and Low Taxes: Tax Dodging in Mid-Century America (Cambridge University Press 2026). A word of full disclosure before we begin. Steven Bank was my doctoral advisor and mentor, and it is entirely possible, indeed more than likely, that I
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Reconciliation 2.0, Meet the Smaller IRS
Two tax stories collided in Washington this week. House Speaker Mike Johnson set a “skinny” scope for Reconciliation 2.0, the potential partisan legislative package that would help end what’s now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.* And, on Tax Day, Senators grilled IRS CEO Frank Bisignano about the Trump Administration’s proposed $1.4 billion cut
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The Democratization of Major Gifts to Law Schools
In the first part of 2026, donors made more than $54 million in major gifts to law schools across the rankings spectrum. Cincinnati (#82) received a $43.2 million naming gift, New Mexico (#117) received $4.5 million in the largest gift in school history, Roger Williams (#171) received $4 million for a trial advocacy center, South
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JOTWELL: Showdown or Balancing Act: Reconciling Our Commitments to the Tax System and the Legal System
Diane Ring, Showdown or Balancing Act: Reconciling Our Commitments to the Tax System and the Legal System, JOTWELL (Apr. 14, 2026) (reviewing Siddesh Rao (Copenhagen Bus. Sch.), Client-Attorney Privilege: The Last Barrier to Tax Transparency, 18 World Tax J. 1 (2026)): In a world in which information vital to effective tax enforcement is frequently hidden from view, who
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WSJ: America’s New Tax Mantra: “The IRS Isn’t Going to Catch Me”
In advance of Tax Day, Richard Rubin has a long read on enforcement dynamics in today’s leaner IRS. Lots on evolving taxpayer attitudes, the IRS’s plans for AI, and practitioners’ frustrations. Most notable is that these issues appear cross-cutting and pervasive. They stretch from low-income households to the most sophisticated businesses, from the EITC to
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Elkins Reviews Brauner’s Income and Territoriality
This week, David Elkins (Netanya; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Yariv Brauner (Florida; Google Scholar), Income and Territoriality: A Purpose-Based Reform of Income Sourcing Rules, _ Can. Tax J. _ (forthcoming 2026): It is commonly noted in the literature on international taxation that the international tax regime instituted in the wake of the
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McCormick-Unilever and the Next Wave of Reverse Morris Trust Deals
On March 31, 2026, Unilever PLC announced the combination of its foods division (Foods) with McCormick & Company. The deal would unite brands such as Knorr (bouillon), Hellmann’s (mayonnaise), and Marmite (yeast extract) with McCormick’s popular spice and condiment lines—a “global flavor powerhouse.” Although food company mega-mergers have a checkered history, some prognosticators are bullish
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Bloomberg: Why Polsinelli Lawyers Won’t Get Billing Credit for AI Training
The chair of Polsinelli, Chase Simmons, gives an eighteen-minute interview on Bloomberg Law’s On the Merits podcast. The headline is all AI, but the conversation goes much deeper, touching on Polsinelli’s explosive growth, the new economics of legal practice, and the Trump Administration’s pressure campaign on law firms. A headline quote from Simmons and a
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Becher & Alarie: Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Samuel I. Becher (Victoria U. Wellington) and Benjamin Alarie (Toronto), Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (forthcoming 2026): Justice delayed is justice denied — yet today’s legal systems are failing at an unprecedented scale. Courts are backlogged, legal services remain unaffordable, and rigid laws struggle to keep pace with the complexities of modern
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Ramamurti on the Democrats’ Ambitious, Controversial New Tax Proposals
Perry Bacon (The New Republic) interviews Bharat Ramamurti on “all this tax news on the Democratic side—big tax plans, federal, state, wealth taxes, tax cuts” (transcript). Ramamurti is a former advisor to Elizabeth Warren and was Deputy Director for the National Economic Council in the Biden Administration. Ramamurti’s interview covers a lot of ground, with
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Marks Reviews Georgakopoulos, Tarkington & Crawford’s Spousal Economic Abuse: Tax Complicity and Solutions
This week, Noah H. Marks (UNC) reviews a new article by Nicholas L. Georgakopoulos (Indiana), Margaret Tarkington (Indiana), and Bridget Crawford (Pace), Spousal Economic Abuse: Tax Complicity and Solutions (Feb. 11, 2026). The fact that the income tax system allows—and, indeed, encourages—married couples to file a joint tax return reporting pooled income is too often