Monday, May 13, 2019
The 50 Most-Cited Tax Articles of All Time
Jonathan H. Choi (NYU), The Most-Cited Tax Articles of All Time, 36 Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (May 11, 2019):
Summer is nearly here, and for fellow tax nerds in need of beach reads, I’ve assembled a list of the 50 most widely cited tax law journal articles. The list is inspired by (and uses the same methodology as) Fred Shapiro and Michelle Pearse’s essay, The Most-Cited Law Review Articles of All Time [110 Mich. L. Rev. 1483 (2012)]
The list below is ordered by number of citations in other law review articles, according to HeinOnline. For comparison, I also list Google Scholar citation counts, which include cites by certain non-law journals, practice publications, books, and courts.
Most-cited tax articles of all time
| Article | HeinOnline Article Cites | Google Scholar Cites | |
| 1. | William D. Andrews (Harvard), A Consumption-Type or Cash Flow Personal Income Tax, 87 Harv. L. Rev. 1113 (1974) | 437 | 783 |
| 2. | Louis Kaplow (Harvard) & Steven Shavell (Harvard), Why the Legal System Is Less Efficient than the Income Tax in Redistributing Income, 23 J. Legal Stud. 667 (1994) | 305 | 687 |
| 3. | Boris I. Bittker (Yale), A Comprehensive Tax Base as a Goal of Income Tax Reform, 80 Harv. L. Rev. 925 (1967) | 298 | 464 |
| 4. | Boris I. Bittker (Yale), Federal Income Taxation and the Family, 27 Stan. L. Rev. 1389 (1975) | 284 | 438 |
| 5. | Joseph Bankman (Stanford) & Thomas Griffith (USC), Social Welfare and the Rate Structure: A New Look at Progressive Taxation, 75 Cal. L. Rev. 1905 (1987) | 227 | 352 |
| 6. | Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Globalization, Tax Competition, and the Fiscal Crisis of the Welfare State, 113 Harv. L. Rev. 1573 (2000) | 226 | 748 |
| 7. | William T. Plumb, Jr. (Hogan & Hartson, Washington, D.C.), The Federal Income Tax Significance of Corporate Debt: A Critical Analysis and a Proposal, 26 Tax L. Rev. 369 (1971) | 208 | 355 |
| 8. | Walter J. Blum (Chicago) & Harry Kalven, Jr. (Chicago), The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation, 19 U. Chi. L. Rev. 417 (1952) | 200 | 418 |
| 9. | Peter D. Enrich (Northeastern), Saving the States from Themselves: Commerce Clause Constraints on State Tax Incentives for Business, 110 Harv. L. Rev. 377 (1996) | 193 | 371 |
| 10. | Michael J. Graetz (Columbia), To Praise the Estate Tax, Not to Bury It, 93 Yale L.J. 259 (1983) | 185 | 264 |
| 11. | Erwin N. Griswold (Harvard), The Need for a Court of Tax Appeals, 57 Harv. L. Rev. 1153 (1944) | 185 | 240 |
| 12. | Mark G. Kelman (Stanford), Personal Deductions Revisited: Why They Fit Poorly in an Ideal Income Tax and Why They Fit Worse in a Far from Ideal World, 31 Stan. L. Rev. 831 (1979) | 177 | 248 |
| 13. | Daniel I. Halperin (Harvard), Interest in Disguise: Taxing the Time Value of Money, 95 Yale L.J. 506 (1986) | 168 | 259 |
| 14. | Joseph T. Sneed (Stanford), The Criteria of Federal Income Tax Policy, 17 Stan. L. Rev. 567 (1965) | 164 | 211 |
| 15. | Michael J. Graetz (Columbia) & Michael M. O’Hear (Marquette), The “Original Intent” of U.S. International Taxation, 46 Duke L.J. 1021 (1997) | 162 | 345 |
| 16. | Eric A. Posner (Chicago), Law and Social Norms: The Case of Tax Compliance, 86 Va. L. Rev. 1781 (2000) | 155 | 403 |
| 17. | David A. Weisbach (Chicago) & Jacob Nussim (Bar-Ilan), The Integration of Tax and Spending Programs, 113 Yale L.J. 955 (2004) | 150 | 245 |
| 18. | Marjorie E. Kornhauser (Tulane), The Rhetoric of the Anti-Progressive Income Tax Movement: A Typical Male Reaction, 86 Mich. L. Rev. 465 (1987) | 146 | 214 |
| 19. | R.A. Musgrave (Harvard), In Defense of an Income Concept, 81 Harv. L. Rev. 44 (1967) | 140 | 228 |
| 20. | Marjorie E. Kornhauser (Tulane), Love, Money, and the IRS: Family, Income-Sharing, and the Joint Income Tax Return, 45 Hastings L.J. 63 (1993) | 139 | 216 |
| 21. | Paul L. Caron (Pepperdine), Tax Myopia, or Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Tax Lawyers, 13 Va. Tax Rev. 517 (1994) | 137 | 155 |
| 22. | Richard L. Doernberg (Emory) & Fred S. McChesney (Emory), On the Accelerating Rate and Decreasing Durability of Tax Reform, 71 Minn. L. Rev. 913 (1987) | 136 | 183 |
| 23. | Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan), The Structure of International Taxation: A Proposal for Simplification, 74 Tex. L. Rev. 1301 (1996) | 129 | 285 |
| 24. | Anne L. Alstott (Yale), Tax Policy and Feminism: Competing Goals and Institutional Choices, 96 Colum. L. Rev. 2001 (1996) | 129 | 192 |
| 25. | Stanley S. Surrey (Harvard), Federal Taxation of the Family—The Revenue Act of 1948, 61 Harv. L. Rev. 1097 (1948) | 127 | 218 |
For the complete list of the most-cited tax articles of all time, see here.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/05/the-50-most-cited-tax-articles-of-all-time.html
Comments
AMTbuff -- No double tax. Williams' proposal would treat inter vivos gifts as consumption by the transferor and subject to the expenditure tax, but not taxable to the transferee. But the transfers of gifts at death would not be subject to the expenditure tax, but would instead be subject only to the estate and gift tax regimen. I would propose eliminating the estate and gift tax, and instead treat transfers at death as consumption subject to the expenditure tax -- i.e., I would propose treating transfers during life and transfers at death identically. The result would be that a taxpayer's entire lifetime income would be taxed as it is spent.
Posted by: Mike Petrik | May 19, 2019 5:32:29 AM
It tells you something how few of these are recent in nature
Posted by: Mike Livingston | May 15, 2019 2:01:24 AM
Mike, are bequests consumption for both the giver when given and the recipient when spent? If the bequest was already taxed as income, that's triple taxation. Quite a penalty on gifts.
Posted by: AMTbuff | May 14, 2019 6:30:53 PM
I am surprised and pleased that Andrews' proposed graduated rate consumption tax ranks #1. I just wish it had more practical political influence. The only substantial change I would add to it would be to treat non-charitable gifts during lifetime or at death as non-deductible consumption. Doing so would make the tax a true tax on lifetime income as it is consumed. I have never been convinced that bequests are not consumption for purposes of applying principles of horizontal and vertical equity.
Posted by: Mike Petrik | May 13, 2019 8:50:42 AM
John--as you predict, the results based on citations by courts would be very different. Among the 50 in the list I posted, the most cited by courts was Stanley Surrey's "Definitional Problems in Capital Gains Taxation," with 24 cites. But many of the articles were never cited by any court according to HeinOnline, especially the more theoretical and less doctrinal pieces.
Mike--the bias in the list toward older articles is because those articles have had more time to accrue citations. My original posting provides a list of the most-cited articles since 2000 as well, and no doubt many more recent articles will eventually become equally highly cited.
Posted by: Jon Choi | May 26, 2019 7:14:31 AM