Clarke: The Overlooked Excise Power In Moore

Conor Clarke (Washington University; Google Scholar), Moore: The Overlooked Excise Power, 181 Tax Notes Fed. 1759 (Dec. 4, 2023):

Moore v. United States, a constitutional challenge to the mandatory repatriation tax in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, has been litigated almost entirely as a case about the scope of the Sixteenth Amendment. I present an alternative theory: The repatriation tax doesn’t need to flow from the Sixteenth Amendment power to tax “incomes,” because it flows from Congress’s Article I power to lay and collect “excises.” The Supreme Court has long upheld Congress’s power to tax business earnings and activities as a valid exercise of the excise power, and the mandatory repatriation tax fits within that framework. 

The repatriation tax also has early and important historical antecedents, including an 1813 federal licensing fee on all retailers of foreign merchandise and a 1794 fee for retailers of foreign alcohol. At the same time, I highlight ways in which the scope of the excise power remains fraught and is likely to remain fraught regardless of what the Court says in Moore.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Christopher Cox (Former Rep. (1989-2005) & SEC Chair (2005-2009)) & Hank Adler (Chapman), The Ninth Circuit Upholds A Wealth Tax (Jan. 30, 2023)
• Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan), If Moore Is Reversed, 179 Tax Notes Fed. 2215 (June 26, 2023)
• John Brooks (Fordham) & David Gamage (Indiana), Moore v. United States and the Original Meaning of Income (June 27, 2023) (reviewed by Michelle Layser (San Diego) here) (presented at Columbia workshop)
• Daniel Hemel (NYU), The Low And High Stakes Of Moore, 180 Tax Notes Fed. 563 (July 24, 2023) (reviewed by Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo) here)
• Alex Zhang (Emory), Moore, Eisner v. Macomber, and the Future of Structural Tax Reform, 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. __ (2024) (Aug. 29, 2023)
• Joseph J. Thorndike (Tax Analysts), Moores Lean On 1916 Tax Expert To Argue No Realization Means No Income
• Thomas Lee (BYU), Lawrence Solum (Virginia), James Cleith Phillips (Chapman) & Jesse Egbert (Northern Arizona), Moore, Corpus Linguistics, And The Original Public Meaning Of The Sixteenth Amendment (Sept. 14, 2023)
• Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Moore Questions Than Answers, 180 Tax Notes Fed. 2256 (Sept. 25, 2023)
• Christopher Hanna (SMU), Moore, The 16th Amendment, And The Underpinnings Of The TCJA’s Deemed Repatriation Provision (Sept. 28, 2023) (reviewed by Mirit Eyal-Cohen (Alabama) here)
• Joint Committee on Taxation, Tax Code Provisions Implicated In Moore (Oct. 3, 2023)
• Natasha Sarin (Yale), The Supreme Court Tax Case That Could Blow A Hole In The Federal Budget (Oct. 7, 2023)
• John Brooks (Fordham) & David Gamage (Indiana), “From Whatever Source Derived”: The Sixteenth Amendment and Congress’s Income Tax Power (Oct. 9, 2023) (reviewed by David Elkins (Netanya) here and Blaine Saito (Ohio State) here) (presented at Loyola-L.A. workshop and San Diego workshop)
• Steven Rosenthal (Tax Policy Center), Moore Could Invalidate Decades Of Tax Rules, 181 Tax Notes Fed. 285 (Oct. 9, 2023)
• Lawrence Zelenak (Duke), Reading The Taxpayers’ Brief In Moore (Oct. 18, 2023)
• NYU Tax Law Center, Guide To Moore (Oct. 25, 2023)
• Blaine Saito (Ohio State), Review Of  “From Whatever Source Derived”: The Sixteenth Amendment and Congress’s Income Tax Power, by John Brooks (Fordham) & David Gamage (Indiana) (Oct. 27, 2023)
• Tax Prof Amicus Briefs In Moore v. United States, 23 For Government, 1 For Taxpayer (Oct. 31, 2023)
• Steven Calabresi (Northwestern), Moore: Taxes On Wealth And Unrealized Capital Gains Are Unconstitutional (Nov. 1, 2023)
• Michael Graetz (Columbia), To Avoid The Moore Morass, The Court Should DIG It (Dismiss As Improvidently Granted), 181 Tax Notes Fed. 1253 (Nov. 13, 2023)
• Taxpayer's Reply Brief In Moore v. United States, 'Macomber Decided The Question Of Realization, Decided It Correctly, And That Holding Remains Good Law' (Nov. 17, 2023)
• Steven Calabresi (Northwestern), Amar Brothers' Moore Amicus Brief Ignores Constitution's Plain Meaning To Justify Taxing Unrealized Gains (Nov. 25, 2023)
• Listen To Moore v. United States Supreme Court Oral Argument Today At 10:00 AM ET (Dec. 5, 2023)
• Hot Takes On Yesterday's Moore v. United States Supreme Court Oral Argument (Dec. 6, 2023)
• More Reaction To The Supreme Court Oral Argument In Moore v. United States (Dec. 8, 2023)
• Joseph Fishkin (UCLA) & William E. Forbath (Texas), Moore, The Rich, And The Supreme Court (New York Times Op-Ed) (Dec. 12, 2023)
• Conor Clarke (Washington University), What Issues Are Fair Game In Moore v. United States?, 40 Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (Dec. 16, 2023)
• Seven Tax Experts, The Biggest Implications Of Moore v. United States, 181 Tax Notes Fed. 2147 (Dec. 18, 2023)
• Marie Sapirie, 2023 Persons Of The Year: Kathleen And Charles Moore, 181 Tax Notes Fed. 2091 (Dec. 18, 2023)
• Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan), More On Moore (Jan. 22, 2024)
• Ari Glogower (Northwestern), David Kamin (NYU), Rebecca Kysar (Fordham), Darien Shanske (UC-Davis), & Thalia  Spinrad (NYU), Moore v. United States: Avoiding a Damaging Limiting Principle in the Sixteenth Amendment (Jan. 25, 2024)