Monday, May 3, 2004 Donald Tobin (Ohio State) has posted Investing in Our Children: A Not So Radical Proposal on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The United States is currently under-investing in the human capital of its children. This significant investment deficit threatens both our children’s vitality and the nation’s ability to compete in a

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Saturday, May 1, 2004 Gary Cornia (BYU), David Sjoquist (Georgia State) & Lawrence Walters (George Mason) have posted Sales and Use Tax Simplification and Voluntary Compliance on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Because of difficulties collecting sales taxes on Internet sales, several states have engaged in an effort (the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, SSTP) to

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Saturday, May 1, 2004 Stephen Shay (Ropes & Gray) has posted Exploring Alternatives to Subpart F on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper considers possible changes to the subpart F rules that would be intended to achieve a balance between deferral for a controlled foreign corporation’s active business operations and current taxation in circumstances

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Friday, April 30, 2004 Oliver Houck (Tulane) has posted On the Limits of Charity: Lobbying, Litigation, and Electoral Politics by Charitable Organizations under the Internal Revenue Code and Related Laws on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This is a history and an examination of the policies underlying the three major restrictions on political activity by

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Thursday, April 29, 2004 To mark its 50-year anniversary, the Journal of Taxation is publishing a series of special articles: Philip Jones, Tax Court Discovery and the Stipulation Process: Branerton 30 Years Later (Jan. 2004) Richard Lipton & Steven Dixon, When Is a Partner Not a Partner? When Does a Partnership Exist? (Feb. 2004) David

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Thursday, April 29, 2004 Allan Samansky (Ohio State) has posted Deductibility of Contributions to Religious Institutions on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Hernandez v. Commissioner, 490 U.S. 680 (1989), the Supreme Court held that payments by Scientologists to their local churches for auditing and training, which are required religious practices, were not deductible as

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Wednesday, April 28, 2004 Alvin Lurie has posted That Newtime Religion: Breaking Another False Idol – The COSS on SSRN. Here is the abstract: And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing whereof it is said: “See, this is new? – it hath been already, In the ages which were before

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Wednesday, April 28, 2004 Michael Baillif (Ernst & Young) has posted Sales Price Adjustments: The Continuing Conundrum on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The identification and treatment of sales price adjustments are among the most wide-ranging, and under-analyzed subjects in the tax law. The consequences of such classification can be substantial and far-reaching. Generally speaking,

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Tuesday, April 27, 2004 Joni Larson (Thomas Cooley) has posted Tax Evidence II: A Primer on the Federal Rules of Evidence as Applied by the Tax Court on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The United States Tax Court applies the Federal Rules of Evidence (the “Rules”) during its proceedings. These rules establish the guidelines the

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Monday, April 26, 2004 Susan Kalinka (LSU) has posted Individuals and Passthrough Entities – Fifth Circuit’s Opinion in St. David’s Raises More Questions than it Answers on SSRN. Here is the abstract: On November 7, 2003, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit published its opinion in St. David’s Health Care System,

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Monday, April 26, 2004 Howard Abrams (Emory) has posted The Section 734(b) Basis Adjustment Needs Repair on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The partnership tax provisions – Subchapter K of the Internal Revenue Code – work pretty well. Those provisions have a difficult job of providing a reasonable mechanism for taxing arrangements between parties that

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Saturday, April 24, 2004 Christopher House (Michigan) & Matthew Shapiro (Michigan) have posted Phased-In Tax Cuts and Economic Activity on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Phased-in tax reductions are a common feature of tax legislation. This paper uses a dynamic general equilibrium model to quantify the effects of delaying tax cuts. According to the analysis

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Friday, April 23, 2004 David Mayo (Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher) has posted Restricted Stock Notes on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The 1990s saw an increasing use of equity-based compensation, most notably among dot com and other technology companies where stock options were seen as the path to quick riches at no cash cost to

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Friday, April 23, 2004 Mihir Desai (Harvard) & Dhammika Dharmapala (Connecticut) have posted Corporate Tax Avoidance and High Powered Incentives on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper analyzes the links between corporate tax avoidance, the growth of high-powered incentives for managers, and the structure of corporate governance. We develop and test a simple model

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Thursday, April 22, 2004 David Weisbach (Chicago) & Jacob Nussim (Chicago) have published The Integration of Tax And Spending Programs, 113 Yale L.J. 955 (2004). They posted an earlier draft of the paper on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper provides a theory for deciding when a spending program should be implemented through the

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Thursday, April 22, 2004 Fred Brown (Baltimore) has posted Whither FIPTA? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: It is commonly understood that the tax law is composed of a complicated and interrelated set of statutory provisions. This raises the possibility that changes to one area of the law may necessitate revisions to other areas. While

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Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Non-TaxProfer Gordon Smith (Wisconsin) blogs How Much Tax Do Large Corporations Pay? Estimating the Effective Tax Rates of the Fortune 500, 89 Va. L. Rev. 1793 (2003), by George Yin (on leave at Virginia while serving as Chief of Staff, U.S. Joint Committee on Taxation). Here is the abstract: Three recent

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Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Paul Asofsky (Weil Gotshal & Manges) has posted A Guide to Common Tax Issues Incident to Filing Business Bankruptcy on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Any company considering bankruptcy should be aware of certain routine tax procedural items, and this article addresses a number of those issues. The bankruptcy claims resolution

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Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Karen Burke (San Diego) has posted Exculpatory Liabilities and Nonrecourse Partnership Allocations on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The rise of limited liability companies (LLCs) classified as partnerships for federal income tax purposes challenges traditional assumptions concerning the treatment of recourse and nonrecourse liabilities under Subchapter K. The complex rules of

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Monday, April 19, 2004 Wendy Gerzog (Baltimore) has posted Annuity Tables Versus Factually-Based Estate Tax Valuation: Ithaca Trust Revisited on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article discusses Ithaca Trust and that case’s emphasis on the integrity of actuarial tables for estate tax valuation purposes. The author argues that application of actuarial table values for

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Saturday, April 17, 2004 Douglas Kahn (Michigan) has posted The 2003 Revised Uniform Estate Tax Aportionment Act on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article describes the significant sections of the 2003 Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act (the “2003 Uniform Act”). The Article explains the purpose and operation of the 2003 Uniform Act’s various sections

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Saturday, April 17, 2004 Alvin Warren (Harvard) has posted Taxation of Options on Issuer’s Stock on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper reconsiders the tax policy question of whether gains and losses on options on the issuer’s stock should be excluded from the corporate tax base. The principal conclusions are that nonrecognition provisions of

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Friday, April 16, 2004 Lee Harris has posted “Assessing” Discrimination: The Influence of Race in Residential Property Assessments on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this Article, I document evidence that residential property in majority-minority neighborhoods is assessed at higher effective rates than like property in majority-white neighborhoods. I examine data on sales price and

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