Author: Sloan Speck
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Tax Foundation: Fact Checking the Trump Administration
Americans are asking: When will people see lower taxes from the OBBBA, and how big will those spring refund checks be? And what’s the story with those $2,000 tariff refund checks? The Tax Foundation has some fact-checking on both points, with related commentary below the fold.
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Endean Reviews Zhang’s The Other Taxation
This week, Jon Endean (Brooklyn) reviews a new work by Alex Zhang (Emory), The Other Taxation: Tribes, Territories, and Fiscal Autonomy, 126 Colum. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2026). In his article about the taxation of Native American tribes and U.S. territories, Alex Zhang makes several important contributions to the literature. Native American tribes and U.S.…
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TaxProf Op-Ed: Stephens on LL.M. Degrees and Student Loan Limits
This TaxProf Blog Op-Ed is by John Stephens, Director, Graduate Tax Program at NYU School of Law: On Thursday, November 6, 2025, the US Department of Education (DoE) concluded negotiated rulemaking on new student loan limitations under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which will impact graduate and professional programs. In the new year…
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Williamson & Bearer-Friend: Thomas Paine and Taxing Billionaires
Vanessa Williamson (Brookings) & Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington), The Case for Taxing Billionaires Is Older Than You Think, MSNBC (Nov. 12, 2025): The “overgrown influence” of extreme wealth, wrote Thomas Paine in 1792, was “one of the principal sources of corruption at elections.” More than 200 years later, billionaires line up behind the president at his inauguration and the…
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NYT & WSJ: Two Views on CAMT after the OBBBA
Two stories in flagship newspapers. Same topics, same day. Very different conclusions. In alphabetical order by author’s last name:
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Speck Reviews Silver’s The Tax Insurance Trap
This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado) reviews a new work by Benjamin Silver, The Tax Insurance Trap, 2026 Wis. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming). Since the early 2000s, the tax insurance industry has boomed. Today, tax insurance is commonplace, covering risks from tax status violations to adverse transactional treatment with policy limits into the billions. In a…
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Chronicle of Higher Ed: Tax Revolts and the Colorado Paradox
Why does the State of Colorado simultaneously have high levels of educational attainment among all adults but low rates of higher education enrollment among recent high school graduates? This “Colorado Paradox” stems in part from the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), which voters added to the state constitution in 1992 after failed amendment attempts…
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Saturday’s Law Panels at the 118th Annual National Tax Association Meeting
Law panels on Saturday, November 8, at the National Tax Association‘s 118th Annual Conference on Taxation include:
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Elkins & Eyal: Presentations of Toward AI Tax Personhood
On Friday, November 7, David Elkins presented Toward AI Tax Personhood (with Mirit Eyal) at the University of Cincinnati College of Law faculty workshop.
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Updates: State-Level Efforts to Tax the Wealthy
States’ efforts to tax wealthy residents have accelerated since 2020—as has thought leadership about the structure and effects of these taxes. Items follow on (1) piggyback taxes on § 1411’s net investment income tax (NIIT) and (2) Illinois lawmakers’ (unsuccessful) efforts to revive a mark-to-market tax on billionaires.
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Saito Reviews Walker’s The Durability of Tax Laws and Their Objectives
This week, Blaine Saito (Ohio State, Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Alexandra Ferrara Walker (NYU), The Durability of Tax Laws and Their Objectives, 80 Tax L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2026). What makes a law obsolete? Alexandra Ferrara Walker’s piece The Durability of Tax Laws and Their Objectives offers a compelling framework for understanding…
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Virtual Open House: Georgetown Tax LL.M. Program
Georgetown’s Tax LL.M. program will host a virtual open house for prospective students on November 7: Georgetown University Law Center will host an information session on Friday, November 7, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm Eastern Time for students interested in pursuing a Tax LL.M. degree.
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Forbes: Shohei Ohtani’s $700M Tax-Advantaged Contract
In advance of tonight’s highly anticipated game seven between Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays, it’s worth revisiting the economic and tax implications of baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani’s massive contract. Will Ohtani (and his highly structured deal) be the difference-maker tonight?
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MarketWatch: A Frothy Season for Tax-Loss Harvesting
Although market indicies currently are near record highs, MarketWatch notes that “about half of the [Russell 3000]’s constituents are still down year to date.” Coupled with significant market volatility during 2026, this landscape foreshadows the potential for a greater volume of tax-loss harvesting as year-end approaches. Jamie Chisholm, History Shows This Year’s Stock-Market Losers Are…
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NY Times: Will Trump’s Tariffs Survive Supreme Court’s ‘Major Questions’ Test?
Adam Liptak, Will Trump’s Tariffs Survive Supreme Court’s ‘Major Questions’ Test?, N.Y. Times (Oct. 27, 2025): The Supreme Court used the “major questions doctrine” to reject much of the Biden administration’s agenda, including its efforts to address climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and student debt. The court’s commitment to the doctrine will be tested next week when it hears arguments…
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Shutdown Day 32: Side Hustles for IRS Lawyers
During the ongoing government shutdown, IRS lawyer Isaac Stein’s Washington, D.C., hot dog stand went from a from weekend pursuit to a full-time gig—and has been featured prominently in media reports and on social media. But what does Stein’s stand say about tax law, policy, and practice?
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SSRN Review & Roundup: Harpaz Reviews Bearer-Friend & Polcz’s Sharing the Algorithm
This week, Assaf Harpaz (Georgia, Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Jeremy Bearer-Friend and Sarah Polcz, Sharing the Algorithm: The Tax Solution to Generative AI, 17 Colum. J. Tax L. __ (forthcoming 2025). The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) threatens to destabilize labor patterns and develop market monopolies with extreme concentrations of wealth.…
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LSA Conference Submissions Extended
The deadline for submissions for the 2026 Law and Society Association Annual Meeting has been extended to Wednesday, October 29, at 5 pm ET. The Annual Meeting will be in San Francisco, California, from May 28 to 31, 2026.
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WSJ Op-Ed and Letters: Business Tax Reform and Tariffs
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, AEI fellows Paul Ryan and Kyle Pomerleau revive House Republicans’ 2016 proposal for a destination-based cash flow tax (DBCFT) as an alternative to tariffs and a way to “finish the job” on tax reform initated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—”the ultimate made-in-America policy.” Letters from Adam Michel…
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Law Prof Amicus Briefs in the Tariff Cases
In Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, No. 24-1287 (Sup. Ct.) and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc., No. 25-250 (Sup. Ct.), the Supreme Court is considering the Trump Administration’s authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Oral arguments are Wednesday, November 5, at 10 a.m. Eastern. Law school faculty and affiliates…
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Endean: Tariffs as Taxes: A Framework for Understanding Delegation of the Taxing Power
Jon Endean (Brooklyn), Tariffs as Taxes: A Framework for Understanding Delegation of the Taxing Power, 63 San Diego L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2026): While perhaps not obvious to the casual observer, tariffs are taxes, and, as such, they fall within the Constitution’s Article I enumerated powers, raising important questions regarding delegations of that power to…
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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews Hasen’s Pricing Low-Income Resource Volatility
This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by David Hasen (Florida), Pricing Low-Income Resource Volatility. Economists and policymakers historically have approached households as static constructs, governed by rhetorics of persistent poverty or a linear trajectory of upward mobility. This perspective is complicated by current research that emphasizes contingency and precarity as…
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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews Taxing Electronic Agency By Elkins & Eyal
This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by David Elkins (Netanya) & Mirit Eyal (Alabama; Google Scholar), Taxing Electronic Agency. A defining feature of large language models and other advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems is their opacity. Humans establish an AI’s basic framework, but enormous quantities of data drive iterative processes…
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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews The Past And Future Of Taxing “Incomes” By Wallace & Wells
This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Clint Wallace (South Carolina; Google Scholar) & Bret Wells (Houston; Google Scholar), The Past and Future of Taxing "Incomes", 104 N.C. L. Rev. ___ (2025). The Supreme Court’s recent consideration of Moore v. United States has sparked a broad and deep academic interest in the…
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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews Hatfield’s Tax In Law Schools
This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Michael Hatfield (Washington; Google Scholar), Tax in Law Schools, 78 Tax Law. 71 (2024). The 2025 law school application cycle promises the largest—and perhaps the deepest—pool of potential law students since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This welcome news, however, has unclear…