Brauner Presents Mobility, Territory And Exclusive Source Taxation Today In Austria

Yariv Brauner (Florida; Google Scholar) presents You Play, You Pay! Mobility, Territory and Exclusive Source Taxation in the 21st Century at the Institute of Austrian and International Tax Law today as part of its Colloquium on Current Developments in European and International Tax Law: 

The demise of residence as an appropriate basis for taxation in the 21st century requires a rethinking of the international tax regime. This article continues the exploration of (both individual and corporate tax) reform based on exclusive source taxation. Demonstrating that such reform is possible and desirable for the survival of the international tax regime is the primary contribution of this article. The other main contributions are an explanation of the benefits of a single rather than dual basis for income taxation, and a detailed analysis of the existing source rules and their potential reforms. The latter have come under criticism as ineffective and incompatible for the realities of the 21st century. The article explains that the critique of the content of the existing source rules should not automatically count against the principle of source taxation.

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AALS Tax Section Program Today: Teaching Tax — Textbooks, Tools, And Techniques

Section on Taxation, Teaching Tax: Textbooks, Tools, and Techniques 
2:40 - 5:10 pm Moscone Center, Level Two South (Room 205)

This panel, designed for new law teachers as well as more experienced teachers, will explore the opportunities and challenges of selecting and developing course materials in tax courses. How do you choose the right textbook for the way you want to teach your class? Should you consider authoring a textbook or signing on to co-author an existing textbook? What supplemental materials should you consider?

• Bridget Crawford (Pace)
• Tessa Davis (South Carolina)
• Roberta Mann (Oregon) (moderator)
• Shu-Yi Oei (Duke)
• Alex Zhang (Emory)

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Please Join Us: Pepperdine Caruso Law AALS Reception TODAY (6:00-8:00 PM)

Pepperdine Caruso Law School invites law professors and deans to a reception
hosted by Dean Paul Caron at the 2025 AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Friday, Jan. 10, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Feinstein's Theater/Kanpai Lounge (Lobby Level) | Hotel Nikko
Please join us for wine & beer and hors d'oeuvres

AALS Tax Section Program Today: The Expiration Of The TCJA And The Future Of Tax Policy

Section on Taxation, The Expiration of the TCJA and the Future of Tax Policy
4:30 - 6:00 pm Moscone Center, Level Two South (Room 212)

As the expiration of several provisions of the TCJA looms and as a new administration takes over, there is a potential for significant tax policy changes in the coming years. The experts on this panel will bring their experience in government, studying the history of tax law, and their years of work as scholars of tax to help us think through what might be coming in the world of federal tax policy.

• Kimberly Clausing (UCLA)
• Christopher Hanna (SMU)
• Ajay Mehrotra (Northwestern)
• Phyllis Taite (Oklahoma) (moderator)

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Please Join Us: Pepperdine Caruso Law AALS Reception (Friday, Jan. 10)

Pepperdine Caruso Law School invites law professors and deans to a reception
hosted by Dean Paul Caron at the 2025 AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Friday, Jan. 10, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Feinstein's Theater/Kanpai Lounge (Lobby Level) | Hotel Nikko
Please join us for wine & beer and hors d'oeuvres

Call For Papers: UCLA Business And Tax Roundtable For Aspiring Law Professors

Call for Papers:

The Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law is pleased to announce its first annual Business and Tax Roundtable for Upcoming Professors (“BATRUP”). This in-person Roundtable will take place at UCLA from Friday evening June 13th through Sunday June 15th.  The program will feature commentary by invited senior scholars as well as an opportunity to meet fellow aspiring scholars while enjoying Los Angeles.  We warmly invite scholars preparing for the academic job market to participate.

Roundtable Purpose and Eligibility

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Call For Papers: Cambridge Conference On Legal Perspectives On The Development And Enactment Of Tax Policy

Call for Papers: 

The Centre for Tax Law at the University of Cambridge is delighted to invite proposals for papers to be presented at our Tax Policy Conference on Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 July 2025.

The topic of the conference is 'Legal perspectives on the development and enactment of tax policy'. We have prepared a brief paper explaining this theme and setting out possible areas in which proposals could be made.

The CTL is a small centre with a particular focus on legal, philosophical and historical aspects of taxation. We welcome abstracts from all relevant academic fields but have a particular preference for papers from early career researchers, interested practitioners, legal scholars and researchers in other fields who are willing to comment on law from their own perspective.

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Tax Panel At The United Nations On Global Tax Reform To Produce Financing For Development

Steven Dean (Boston University; Google Scholar) moderates a panel on Global Tax Reform to Produce Financing for Development at the United Nations today as part of its Financing for Development Dialogues: From Evidence to Action:

The OECD promoted its 2021 global tax reform proposal with a brochure that featured a sun-drenched island overflowing with coconut trees, cash and gold. Although that publication falsely indicated that small island developing states should be blamed for the failure of the global tax system, that illustration hints at a different possibility. Global tax reform designed to serve rather than demonize developing states could unlock the revenues small island developing states and others need for climate resilience, health, and education.

In the 1950s, the United Nations served as the forum for ambitious efforts to tax multinational to deliver the resources developing states needed. The rise of the OECD in the 1960s served as a rebuke to those efforts, curbing the power of poor states to tax multinationals. Despite innovations such as the controlled foreign corporation rules—essentially early versions of today’s global minimum taxes—designed to promote the taxation of multinationals by wealthy states over time multinationals exploited the OECD's rules to avoid taxation everywhere.

Recent efforts to shift the center of global tax policymaking back to the United Nations could reverse that decades-long trend. Innovations such as the digital services taxes the United States and the OECD have fought hard against highlight the relatively simple ways in which UN-led reform could generate meaningful resources for developing countries.

Panelists: 

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Yale Budget Lab Examines The Coming Tax Debate

Yale Law School Today, Budget Lab Panel Examines the Coming Tax Debate:

Next year, many provisions of President-elect Trump’s signature tax law from his first term, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), will expire. Because of this, tax policy is expected to be a key focus for the new Congress.

On Nov. 20, The Budget Lab at Yale, a policy research center at the Law School, hosted a panel discussion on what the tax policy debate next year may look like. Moderated by Budget Lab Executive Director Martha Gimbel, the panel featured Rachel Snyderman, managing director of the economic policy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center; Kyle Pomerleau, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Michael Linden, senior policy fellow at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. ...

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National Tax Association 117th Annual Conference On Taxation

Highlights of this week's National Tax Association 117th Annual Conference on Taxation (full program here):

Thursday:

• Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Building the Gateway: Why the Two Pillars Need Each Other
• Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan) & Ariel Siman (Michigan), Taxation and Corporate Governance
• Lily Batchelder (NYU), Naomi Feldman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), James Hines (Michigan),  Pam Olson (PwC) & Cara Griffith (Tax Analysts) (Moderator), Fiscal Policy in the Upcoming Administration Plenary
• Conor Clarke (Washington University) &  Wojciech Kopczuk (Columbia), Inequality and the Corporate Sector
• Brian Galle (Georgetown), Tax-Free Dynasties and the Case for a Withholding Tax on Trust Wealth
• Andrew Hayashi (Virginia), The Federal Architecture of Income Inequality
• Zachary Liscow (Yale), Will Nober (Columbia) & Cailin Slattery (UC-Berkeley), Procurement and Infrastructure Costs
• Alex Raskolnikov (Columbia), A New View of Formal Equality
• Daniel Schaffa (Richmond), The Regressivity of Complexity

Friday:

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Florida Symposium: Moore, Loper Bright, Corner Post, And The Future Of The Federal Tax System

The University of Florida Levin College of Law hosts the Florida Tax Review Symposium on Moore, Loper Bright, Corner Post, and the Future of the Federal Tax System today and tomorrow (agenda): 

Friday, November 1:

9:15 - 11:15 AM (zoom) 

• Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan; Google Scholar) & Muskan Sharma (Michigan), Containing the Blast Radius: Can Congress Save the Code from Realization? (with Elise Hocking (Michigan))
  • Commentator: Tamir Shanan (Haim Striks; Google Scholar) 
• Calvin Johnson (Texas), Charles and Kathleen Moore and the Coming Tax Armageddon 
  • Commentator: Tracey Roberts (Cumberland; Google Scholar)

11:30 - 12:30 PM 

• Tracey Roberts (Cumberland; Google Scholar), The Tax Trench Deepens
  • Commentator: Blaine Saito (Ohio State; Google Scholar) 

1:30 - 2:30 PM: The Future of the Federal Tax System (zoom) 

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NYU & ATPI Host Virtual Event Today On What Loper Bright And Moore Mean For Tax

The Tax Law Center and the American Tax Policy Institute host a virtual event today on What Loper Bright & Moore Mean for Tax (recording): 

The Tax Law Center and the American Tax Policy Institute are hosting a virtual event on Thursday, October 31 from 9:30-11 am EDT on the impact of the Moore andLoper Bright decisions on the tax system, including reflection on underappreciated aspects of these otherwise much-discussed cases. Following a panel on each case, the event will close with reflections from former Assistant Treasury Secretaries for Tax Policy Lily Batchelder and Eric Solomon....

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Call For Papers: The Law And Economics Of Wealth Management And Transmission

Call For Papers: 

The Global Wealth Management Project at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School is delighted to announce the receipt of a grant from the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) Foundation to host a one-day academic symposium on Friday September 26, 2025, on the theme "The Law and Economics of Wealth Management and Transmission." Here is the symposium description:

The symposium theme is "The Law and Economics of Wealth Management and Transmission."  The theme is deliberately broad. First, law and economics refers to the economic analysis of law in its widest sense. It embraces positive and normative approaches as well as rational-choice and behavioral approaches. 

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Critical Approaches To Taxation & Society Hosts Conference On Taxation Without Borders

Critical Approaches to Taxation and Society hosts a conference on Taxation without Borders: Contemporary and Future Challenges for the Power to Tax (program): 

Keynote Addresses: 

• Allison Christians (McGill; Google Scholar), International Tax At A Critical Moment: Where Are We, How Did We Get Here, And Where Are We Going?
• Steven Dean (Boston University; Google Scholar), Fear of a Black Planet: Global Jim Crow and the Birth of the OECD
• Tsilly Dagan (Oxford; Google Scholar), The GLoBE Minimum Tax — What Can We Learn From LDCs Consent?

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ATPI Symposium: Hidden Gender Bias In Tax Law And Policy

The American Tax Policy Institute hosts a gender and tax symposium today and tomorrow: It’s a Man’s World: Revealing and Addressing Hidden Gender Bias in Tax Law and Policy:

Thursday, October 17 

4:30 PM: Academic Roundtable 

• Irina Ewing (IRS), The Price of Inequality: The Impact of U.S. Tax Policy on Gender Economic Disparities
  • Commentator: Phyllis Taite (Oklahoma)
• Ashley R. Hilliard (North Carolina Central), Unattached and Taxed
  • Commentator: Emily Satterthwaite (Georgetown; Google Scholar)
• Diane Kemker (Pepperdine, LMU; Google Scholar), Exploring the Co-Constitutive Nature of Gender and Disability Through the Hidden Sexism and Ableism in the Medical Expense Deduction
  • Commentator: Tessa Davis (South Carolina; Google Scholar)
• Lauren Shores Pelikan (Missouri-Columbia), Tax Reform to Solve the Childcare Crisis in Two Parts: Affordability and Availability
  • Commentator: Michelle Drumbl (Washington & Lee)
• Natasha Varyani (Roger Williams), Finding Her Place: A Comparative Analysis of Incentive Opportunities in Preferential Rates of Municipal Tax in India and the United States
  • Commentator: Jennifer Bird-Pollan (Wayne State; Google Scholar)

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Jones: Stochastic Terrorism, Speech Incantations, And Federal Tax Exemption

Darryll Keith Jones (Florida A&M), Stochastic Terrorism, Speech Incantations, and Federal Tax Exemption, 54 N.M. L. Rev. 69 (2024):

Stochastic terrorists demonize and dehumanize groups of people through propaganda to incite “lone wolf” violence against those groups. Their demonization and dehumanization is explicit, but their solicitation of murder is implicit and sufficiently ambiguous that most listeners will not perceive their call. But a few will perceive, fewer still will act. The resulting murder, legally attributable to the killer but not the hate group, is random and unpredictable by time, place, or manner. Researchers theorize that stochastic terrorism is nevertheless capable of statistical analysis the results of which positively correlates violence to hate speech; murders increase even if it cannot be determined when, where or how a particular murder will occur. Stochastic terrorism is the raison d’etre of hate groups.

Stochastic terrorism is protected speech so far; it does not constitute fighting words, incite imminent lawlessness, or provoke a stampede to the exits. The law is not yet enlightened. I accept but do not rely on the inevitability of murder in my analysis. Whether stochastic terrorists are successful is not essential to my conclusion. Nevertheless, we should be explicit about what hate groups seek and the murders they incite before discussing their claim to tax exemption under IRC 501(c)(3).

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UF Tax Incubator: Complexities, Discontinuities, And Unintended Consequences Of U.S. International Tax Rules

UF Tax Incubator: Complexities, Discontinuities, and Unintended Consequences of US International Tax Rules: Options for Change (American Enterprise Institute Symposium (June 17-18, 2024):

• Forward (p. 1)
• Potential Changes to Section 367 and the Associated Treasury Regulations (p. 11)
• Considerations for Reforming the U.S. Source of Income Rules (p. 27)
• U.S. Subsidiaries of Foreign-Based MNEs — BEAT and Section 163 (p. 43)
• Considerations Relating to CFC Stock Ownership and Allocation of Subpart F Income (p. 65)
• Taxation of Foreign Branches (p. 73)
• Considerations for Reforming the U.S. Transfer Pricing Rules (p. 91)
• U.S. Ownership of Foreign Stock: Dividends and Gains on Sale (p. 111)
• Taxation of Foreign-Derived Intangible Income (p. 127)
• Subpart F and GILTI Recommendations (p. 145)
• Taxation of Foreign Income Earned by Individuals and Minority Shareholders of Passive Foreign Corporations (p. 161)
• FTC Proposals, Part I: Creditable Foreign Taxes (p. 179)
• FTC Proposals, Part II: TCJA White Paper (p. 201)

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ABA Tax Section Virtual Fall Meeting

The ABA Tax Section 2024 Virtual Fall Meeting (program) continues all week. A highlight is the Teaching Taxation program today on Tax Policy and Housing Affordability: 

Tax laws like the mortgage interest deduction, capital gains tax exemptions and the low-income housing tax credit have long been used to subsidize housing markets. These tax-based subsidies sit alongside nontax interventions, such as mortgage guarantees, government loan programs, housing vouchers, and public housing. Nevertheless, many Americans struggle to keep up with rising housing costs, and they are experiencing rent burdens or are unable to afford to buy a home. For this reason and others, President Biden and members of Congress have proposed various tax-based interventions to further subsidize housing markets, including assistance for renters and homebuyers. This panel will (i) provide context on current federal housing policy landscape; (ii) describe recent tax proposals affecting homeowners and renters, (iii) identify legal and practical issues raised by such proposals, and (iv) reflect upon the potential and limitations of the tax-based approach.

• Michelle Layser (San Diego; Google Scholar) (moderator) 
• Michael Santos (RESULTS Education Fund) 
• Deanna Newton (Pepperdine)

Other Tax Profs with speaking roles include: 

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UC-San Francisco Hosts Conference On U.S. International Tax Rules: Options For Change

UC-San Francisco hosts a conference on Complexities, Discontinuities, and Unintended Consequences of U.S. International Tax Rules: Options for Change today (registration): 

An east coast version of this conference was organized by the American Enterprise Institute and the University of Florida and was held in June 17-18, 2024 in Washington, D.C. More information about that conference can be found here. This west coast version of the conference will focus on the international tax provisions most relevant to technology- and intangibles-based enterprises.

Welcome 

• Mindy Herzfeld (Florida) 
• Heather Field (UC-San Francisco; Google Scholar) 

Session #1: Taxing of CFC Earnings – GILTI and Subpart F

The panelists will explore design issues of Subpart F income and GILTI, their differences, and opportunities for harmonization post TCJA.

• Kara Mungovan (Davis Polk), Subpart F and GILTI Recommendations, 115 Tax Notes Int'l 729 (July 29, 2024) 
• Gretchen Sierra (Deloitte) (commentator)
• Brian Jenn (McDermott) (commentator) 

Session #2: Foreign Tax Credit

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Fellowship Opportunities For The 117th National Tax Association Conference

The National Tax Association offers three fellowship opportunities for the 117th Annual Conference:

The NTA is pleased to offer three fellowship/funding opportunities for the 117th Annual Conference, the NTA Equity and Inclusion Travel Fellowship, the NTA Pre-Conference Mentoring Dinner for Women/Non-Binary Persons, and the NTA Climate Tax Fellowship. See below for the specifics for each fellowship.

NTA Equity and Inclusion Travel Fellowship

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Oxford Hosts Conference Today On Reimagining Global Tax Governance

The Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation hosts a conference on Reimagining Global Tax Governance today: 

Session #1: Goals of Global Tax Organisations 

• John Vella (Oxford) (chair)
• Mindy Herzfeld (Florida), Global Tax Governance: Models for International Tax Coordination
• Alice Pirlot (Geneva Graduate Institute), International Organisations & Tax Law Making
• Ivan Ozai (York University; Google Scholar) (discussant)

Session #2: Decision Making in Global Tax Organization

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Tax Presentations At Society Of Legal Scholars Annual Conference

U.S. Tax Prof presentations at the Society of Legal Scholars' Annual Conference at the University of Bristol:

Alex Zhang (Emory; Google Scholar), Fiscal Autonomy and the Legacy of Imperialism:

Within the United States, two subnational governments have distinctive powers to tax: Native tribes and U.S. territories. Native tribes can tax their own members and the commercial activities of non-Indian actors on reservations. The Supreme Court has grounded this power in both tribal sovereignty and the federal objective of fostering tribal self-governance. But its jurisprudence—in the form of preemption, plenary power, and tax doctrine—has hollowed out the Native tax base, forcing tribes to compete fiercely with Congress, states, and localities for revenue. By contrast, the U.S. territories face no tax competition. Their residents are generally exempt from federal income and estate taxes, and Congress has even delegated to some territories the authority to deviate from federal income-tax rules. Pursuant to this delegation, Puerto Rico has enacted a host of tax incentives to attract the ultra-wealthy to migrate from the mainland, fueling accusations of tax shelter and settler colonialism. The divergent tax treatment of Native and territorial communities paradoxically rests on the same rationale: fiscal autonomy.

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Call For Tax Papers And Panels: Law & Society Annual Meeting

Neil Buchanan has issued his annual call for tax papers and panels for next year's annual meeting of the Law & Society Association in Chicago, Illinois (May 22 - 25, 2025):

The Law & Society Association (LSA) will host its next annual meeting from May 22 - 25, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois.  For the 21st year in a row (so we're now of legal drinking age in the US), I am organizing sessions for the "Law, Society, and Taxation" group (Collaborative Research Network 31).  And for what is now the ninth year in a row, I am delighted to be working with Professors Jennifer Bird-Pollan and Mirit Eyal-Cohen as co-organizers of our conference-within-a-conference.

Under our signatures below, I've copied the Call for Papers email that LSA sent earlier this week.  Note that all sessions in Chicago will again be entirely live.

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Update: Florida Tax Review Symposium On Moore v. United States

Following up on my previous post, Florida Tax Review Call For Papers: Symposium On Moore v. United States:  From David Hasen (Florida; Google Scholar):

I bring you a brief update on our upcoming symposium on Moore v. U.S.

The symposium will take place on Friday, Nov. 1, and Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. We will also have an informal conference dinner on Thursday, Oct. 31. Kindly note the following:

1. The deadline for paper submissions has been extended to September 15.
2. We have expanded the scope of the symposium to include papers on Loper Bright and Corner Post, two decisions also handed down last term that have significant implications for the federal tax system. Papers focusing on either (or both) of these cases may be on any topic as long as it bears on some aspect of the federal tax system.

Submissions need not be in final form, but they should be well developed. They should not exceed 20,000 words in length (though we may make exceptions); 12,000 to 15,000 words preferred.

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Call For Papers: Conference On Tax Law, The Environment, And Climate Change

The American Tax Policy Institute (ATPI) and the Pace Environmental Law Review (PELR) are pleased to announce a Call for Contributions for a Conference on Tax Law, the Environment, and Climate Change. The conference is co-sponsored by the Elisabeth Haub School of Law and its Sustainable Business Law Hub, as well as Pace | Haub Environmental Law. The event will take place on March 21-22, 2025, at Pace University’s Downtown Campus in Lower Manhattan.

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Netanya Hosts 8th International Roundtable On Taxation And Tax Policy

Netanya hosts the 8th International Roundtable on Taxation and Tax Policy (program) today:

Session I: Jurisprudence and Enforcement 

Chair: Assaf Harpaz (Georgia; Google Scholar) 

Viva Hammer (Australian National University), Tax Law as Political Gesture: U.S. Internal Revenue Service Through the Lens of Walter Benjamin’s Readings of Franz Kafka’s Allegories:

The Internal Revenue Code of the United States is known for its length and complexity, and virtually every change in the law has made it longer and more complex. Scholars continue to evaluate and propose changes to the law based on norms of equity, efficiency, simplicity and administrability, from which successive legislative changes consistently depart. This paper proposes that enacted laws are not failed attempts to implement good policies. Rather, each enacted tax law is a record of the outcome of conflict and cooperation between individuals with diverse motivations coming together in the lawmaking process. Every tax law contains the imprint from an individual’s political “gesture,” a term adapted here from Walter Benjamin's readings of Franz Kafka’s political allegories.

Tamir Shanan (College of Management; Google Scholar), Reevaluating Tax Amnesty Programs (Voluntary Disclosure Programs) in the 21st Century (with Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar)):

The current income tax rules for taxing cross-border income were largely shaped a century ago, a time when the income tax was itself a “work in progress,” when the economic reality was very different, and when capital (both human and physical) was relatively static. Over the years, it has become clear that physical capital is becoming more mobile than ever, and every year, governments from all over the world forgo considerable sums in lost revenues. Following Becker’s seminal research, the literature on the public enforcement of law acknowledged that information about violations could only be obtained by investing significant resources in improving policing power and in obtaining information on such violations. Over the years, more and more countries realized the advantages of obtaining information mainly on offshore tax violations from the violators themselves using voluntary compliance/disclosure programs (VDPs). Generally, VDPs offer non-compliant taxpayers an opportunity to declare unpaid income and wealth that were concealed in the past in return for defined concessions over civil or criminal penalties, while some countries even offered concessions over the amount of tax or interest payable. In 2010 and 2015, the OECD issued two comparative, analysis, and policy reports on VDPs, and proposed a recommended general VDP framework for countries. Our paper critically examines the OECD general framework for VDPs, its impact on compliant taxpayers, and governments’ tax revenues and questions to what extent such programs are still relevant or effective following the recent collapse of bank secrecy, the ratification of over 130 countries of the multilateral instrument and the integration of AI and data mining technologies in sophisticated tax audits that turn concealed information instantly more transparent in a feasible manner. 

Mirit Eyal-Cohen (Alabama; Google Scholar) & David Elkins (Netanya), Taxing Artificial Entrepreneurs:

 

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Harpaz Presents Global Tax Wars And The Shift To Cross-Border Taxation At UC-Davis

Assaf Harpaz (Georgia; Google Scholar) presented Global Tax Wars in the New Era of Cross-Border Taxation at UC-Davis last week as part of the 2024 National Business Law Scholars Conference: 

International taxation is at a crossroads. In a rapidly evolving digital economy, intergovernmental organizations are competing to shape the cross-border tax agenda. Global North economies have dominated this regime through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which has drawn backlash due to its undemocratic procedure and unfavorable outcomes for developing countries. Meanwhile, the United Nations has occupied a relatively peripheral role in global tax governance. Nonetheless, in 2023, developing countries overwhelmingly supported the establishment of a new Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation within the UN. The unprecedented initiative marks a novel challenge to the Global North’s hegemony in international tax policymaking.

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19th Annual Junior Tax Scholars Workshop Concludes Today At Wisconsin

• Luis Calderon Gomez (Cardozo; Google Scholar), Charity's Limits
  Discussant: Nyamagaga Gondwe
• Conor Clarke (Washington University; Google Scholar), The Practice of Apportioned Direct Taxation
  Discussant: Alex Zhang
• Jon Endean (Brooklyn; Google Scholar), Rethinking Valuation
  Discussant: Conor Clarke
• Hilary Escajeda (Mississippi College; Google Scholar), Generative AI as Property
  Discussant: Luke Maher
• Nyamagaga Gondwe (Wisconsin;* Google Scholar), Tax-Based Welfare Policy & Feminized Poverty in the U.S.
  Discussant: Jeesoo Nam 
• Assaf Harpaz (Georgia; Google Scholar), Global Tax Wars and the Shift to Source-Based Taxation
  Discussant: Hilary Escajeda
• Michael Love (Columbia), How Much Wealth Is Held in U.S. Trusts?
  Discussant: Daniel Schaffa

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Florida Tax Review Call For Papers: Symposium On Moore v. United States

The University of Florida Levin College of Law (UF) and the Florida Tax Review (FTR) are excited to announce a call for papers and for attendance at a symposium to be held at the University of Florida this coming fall on Moore v. United States. Accepted papers will be published in the Spring 2025 issue of the FTR devoted to the symposium. The symposium is tentatively scheduled for a Friday and Saturday in early November of 2024. Details on dates will be provided shortly.

Attendance is open to all interested persons. UF can cover the costs of conference meals for attendees whose papers are accepted. UF may also be able to offer a reduced hotel rate to these individuals. We are not able to cover travel expenses.

If you would like to submit a draft for consideration, kindly do so by August 15, 2024. Drafts should be not more than 20,000 words in length (12,000 to 15,000 words preferred). Drafts must not have been submitted to, published in, or accepted for publication with any other journal, and authors must agree that if their submission is accepted for the symposium, their paper will be published exclusively in the FTR as described above.

A (non-exclusive) list of potential topics includes:

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Law, Society, And Taxation Panels

Law, Society, and Taxation panels at last week's 2024 Law & Society Association Annual Meeting in Denver:

Thursday:  

Tax, Ethics, and Charity (Neil Buchanan (Florida; Google Scholar), Chair/Discussant):

While tax law often seems to operate in something like a vacuum, occasionally front page news stories draw attention to questions about the law, its enforcement, and the effects of the law on taxpayers. When the affected taxpayers are notable public figures like Supreme Court Justices or the beneficiaries of tax exemptions like public charities, then the response is often more outraged. The papers on this panel explore some of the questions around the ethical bounds of tax law, with a particular focus on charitable entities and their expectations.

Richard Schmalbeck (Duke), Defining Charity: Declaratory Judgments of Exempt Status:

Until 1976, it was very difficult for an organization whose application for recognition of exempt status had been denied (or revoked) by the IRS to obtain judicial review of that determination. In most cases, such organizations would have no net income, and hence no income tax liability. Without such liability, they could not generate a case or controversy that would be ripe for adjudication. In addition, the anti-injunction act generally precluded an action for a declaratory judgment to the effect that the organization was entitled to exempt status. The only means routinely available would be to have a donor make a donation, and seek to deduct it. The validity of the deduction would depend on the exempt status of the recipient organization, which would then become an issue ripe for adjudication. But that route was usually unattractive. The IRS might not audit the donor's return. If it did audit the return, every issue that might be raised by that return would be on the table, and few donors would welcome that sort of scrutiny.

 

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Conference For Tax Profs Tenured 1-15 Years At Northwestern

The two-day combined AMT (Association of Mid-Level Tax Scholars Conference, for those tenured for 1-10 years) and EITC (Experienced in Tax Conference, for those tenured for 11-15 years) conferences concludes today at Northwestern:

Panel #1: 

• Zachary Liscow (Yale; Google Scholar), Is the Realization Rule the Achilles Heel of the Income Tax? and The Income Tax and Taxation of the Top 1%
• Edward Fox (Michigan; Google Scholar), Buy, Borrow, Die? Understanding the Role of Borrowing and Consumption in How the Rich Are Taxed
• Clint Wallace (South Carolina; Google Scholar), Moore, “Incomes,” and the Limits of Time

Panel #2: 

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9th Annual Texas Tax Faculty Workshop

SMU hosted the 9th Annual Texas Tax Faculty Workshop on Monday:

Christopher Hanna (SMU), Taxing Carried Interest: A Reappraisal (with David Elkins (Netanya; Google Scholar)
Commenter: Susan Morse (Texas; Google Scholar)

Gary Lucas (Texas A&M; Google Scholar), Shaping Preferences with Pigouvian Taxes
Commenter: Johnny Buckles (Houston; Google Scholar)

Orly Mazur (SMU; Google Scholar), Beyond ChatGPT: Responsible AI and Government Innovation, 92 Tenn. L. Rev. __ (2025) (with Adam Thimmesch (Nebraska; Google Scholar))
Commenter: William Byrnes (Texas A&M; Google Scholar) 

Susan Morse (Texas; Google Scholar), The Truth About Safe Harbors, 92 Tenn. L. Rev. __ (2025)
Commenter: Dennis Drapkin (SMU)

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27th Annual Critical Tax Conference At Florida

Florida hosts the 27th Annual Critical Tax Conference today and tomorrow. If you would like to attend via Zoom, contact David Hasen. 

Friday 

9:00 AM: Welcome 

9:10 AM: First Morning Session 

• Ted Afield (Georgia State), A Catholic Social Teaching Approach to Tax Administration and Enforcement 
• Emily Cauble (Wisconsin; Google Scholar), The Impact of Informal Tax Guidance

10:25 AM: Second Morning Session  

• Rebecca Morrow (Wake Forest; Google Scholar), The Income Tax As a Market Correction 
• Daniel Schaffa (Richmond; Google Scholar), The Regressivity of Complexity 

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Columbia Tax Workshop (Day 2)

Today's Columbia Tax Workshop is being held at its Manhattanville Campus: 

Katarzyna Bilicka (Utah State; Google Scholar), The Role of Intellectual Property in Tax Planning (with Paul Organ (U.S. Treasury Department; Google Scholar) & İrem Güçeri (Oxford; Google Scholar)) 
Discussant: Michael Love (Columbia)

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) that invest in research and development (R&D) and innovation find it easier to shift profits between their subsidiaries located in jurisdictions with different tax rates. While MNEs invest in R&D and develop intellectual property (IP) across multiple jurisdictions, they can also strategically move profits arising from that IP from high- to low-tax jurisdictions to reduce their overall tax bill. In this paper, we analyze and quantify the importance of two different strategies that MNEs use to move their IP to low-tax jurisdictions: selling a patent developed in a high-tax jurisdiction to a low-tax jurisdiction directly, or signing a cost-sharing arrangement (CSA) between those two jurisdictions to cover the costs of developing further IP. Combining administrative data on CSAs, patent applications and transactions, and US tax returns, we provide novel stylized facts on the use of both those strategies by MNEs. We then show that CSAs increase jurisdiction-level patenting activity, royalty payments, profits, and profitability, especially the CSAs signed with low-tax jurisdictions. At the MNE level, a new CSA significantly increases firm sales, profitability, and R&D investment, without affecting the MNE’s effective tax rates. Private firms are the only ones that experience the significant MNE-level effects on sales, profitability, and intangible assets after they sign their first CSA.

Ari Glogower (Northwestern; Google Scholar), Closing the Life Insurance Tax Loophole (with Andrew Granato (J.D.-Ph.D. Candidate, Yale))
Discussant: John Vella (Oxford) 

Permanent life insurance contracts enjoy an unparalleled combination of tax benefits. In a permanent or “cash value” contract, a portion of the premium paid is allocated to an internal savings account or “cash value reserve,” which over time reduces the amount of insured risk in the contract. The cash value reserve enables the policyholder’s beneficiary to ultimately receive a guaranteed “death benefit” that includes the policyholder’s accumulated savings upon the death of the insured person, resulting in an arrangement that resembles an investment account, rather than financial protection in the event of an untimely death.

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Columbia Tax Workshop (Day 1)

Today's Columbia Tax Workshop is being held at its Manhattanville Campus: 

Kimberly Clausing (UCLA; Google Scholar), Capital Taxation and Market Power
Discussant: Wojciech Kopczuk (Columbia; Google Scholar)

In recent decades, market power has increased substantially, according to multiple measures that describe industry concentration, mark-ups, and business profitability. While market power can generate benefits, it also raises vexing policy concerns, including the potential for adverse effects on labor markets, income inequality, and the dynamism of market competition. The concept of market power also has implications for how we conceptualize capital income, making it important to distinguish between normal and above-normal returns to capital. The tax system taxes both types of returns to capital, but often imperfectly and incompletely. Full consideration of the relationship between market power and capital income suggests important implications for optimal capital taxation design, including the role of entity taxation, the use of graduated business tax rates, and international tax reform.

Conor Clarke (Washington University; Google Scholar) & Wojciech Kopczuk (Columbia; Google Scholar), Income Inequality and the Corporate Sector
Discussant: Yair Listokin (Yale; Google Scholar)

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Akron Hosts International Tax Symposium

Akron hosted an International Tax Symposium yesterday: 

• Federico Bertocchi (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Bergamo), Tax Arbitration and the Rule of Law: Issues in International and EU Tax Law
• Yariv Brauner (Florida; Google Scholar), The Foundation of International Taxation: Knocked from Post to Pillars 
• Henry Ordower (St. Louis; Google Scholar), Tax Hybridity and the Globalization of Taxation: Convergence, Borrowing, Culture 
• Tamir Shanan (College of Management, Israel; Google Scholar), Reevaluating Tax Amnesty Programs In The 21st Century

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Pittsburgh Tax Review Call For Papers: Combatting Poverty Through Federal Tax Policy

Pittsburgh Tax Review Call for Papers: Combatting Poverty Through Federal Tax Policy

According to the U.S. Census, in 2022 there were over 37 million people in the United States in poverty. Though, at one time, perhaps the tax code had little to do with relieving poverty, at least since 1975, with the enactment of the Earned Income Tax Credit, Congress has increasingly used tax law as a means of relieving poverty. In light of the important role that tax law and policy now plays in addressing poverty as well as income and wealth inequality in the United States, the Pittsburgh Tax Review invites contributions to a curated issue on the theme of “Combatting Poverty Through Federal Tax Policy.” Contributions will be published in the Fall 2024 issue of the journal’s twenty-second volume.

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UC-Irvine Hosts Symposium Today On Moore And The Future Of The Realization Doctrine

UC-Irvine hosts a symposium today on The Moore Case and the Future of the Realization Doctrine today (program): 

The Graduate Tax Program at the University of California, Irvine School of Law will host its sixth annual UCI Law|Taylor Nelson Amitrano LLP Tax Symposium on April 18, 2024. Sponsored by the Law Offices of Taylor Nelson Amitrano LLP, the theme of this year’s symposium is The Moore Case and the Future of the Realization Doctrine.

This virtual event will feature keynote speaker, David Kamin. Kamin’s scholarship focuses on tax and budget policy, and he served in the White House under President Biden and President Obama. 

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Roosevelt Institute Hosts Tax Policy As Competition Policy Today

The Roosevelt Institute hosts Tax Policy as Competition Policy: Reimagining How the US Tax Code Can Foster a More Equitable and Participatory Economy today at 12:00 PM EST (RSVP): 

Excessive market power by dominant corporations is widely decried across the political divide. Federal and state antitrust agencies have begun to reclaim their rightful roles in checking the power of a few firms to control so much of the economy. Historically, tax policy complemented these antitrust enforcers by leveling the economic playing field. Yet today, taxation remains overlooked both as a driver of current levels of market concentration and as a tool to remedy the problem.

Roosevelt’s Taxing Monopolies series explores how a rewriting of the tax code can work alongside other antimonopoly tools to curb the excessive economic and political power of large corporations and their owners.

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Symposium: The Federal Income Tax—Racially Blind But Not Racially Neutral

Symposium, The Federal Income Tax: Racially Blind but Not Racially Neutral, 21 Pitt. Tax Rev. 1-151 (2023):

• Alice G. Abreu (Temple), Foreword, Ilusion of Neutrality: There's More Than Math and Money in Tax, 21 Pitt. Tax Rev. 1 (2023)
• Leo P. Martinez (UC-San Francisco), You’ve Got to Speak Out Against the Madness: The Myth of Tax Neutrality, 21 Pitt. Tax Rev. 11 (2023)
• Alice Martin Thomas (Howard), The HBCU Tax Pipeline Creating Charles Hamilton Houston Social Justice Tax Warriors: How to Build, Maintain, and Sustain an HBCU Tax Pipeline, 21 Pitt. Tax Rev. 21 (2023)
• Richard Winchester (Seton Hall; Google Scholar), A Simple Tax Case Complicated by Race, 21 Pitt. Tax Rev. 37 (2023)
• David A. Brennen (Kentucky), Race Conscious Affirmative Action by Tax Exempt 501(c)(3) Institutions After Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC, 21 Pitt. Tax Rev. 49 (2023) 
• Samuel D. Brunson (Loyola- Chicago; Google Scholar), Black Charity: Rethinking the Subsidy of Black Charitable Donations, 21 Pitt. Tax Rev. 61 (2023)

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National Tax Association 117th Annual Conference Call for Papers: April 19th Deadline

National Tax Association 117th Annual Conference Call for Papers: 

The 117th Annual Conference on Taxation will cover a broad range of topics in tax policy and public finance. We welcome submissions from the fields of accounting, economics, law, and public policy and administration, as well as research from other fields or by practitioners that relates to these topics.

We especially welcome submissions that can speak to current challenges facing policymakers such as the effect of digitalization/e-commerce/remote work on public finances, minimum taxes and international tax law, the child tax credit and other family policies, and global challenges to government finances.

You are invited to submit the following: individual papers to be integrated into sessions, proposals for complete sessions of papers, and proposals for panel discussions (roundtable format, just speakers, no papers). Please note that full session proposals are mere suggestions of groupings. The conference committee reserves the right to consider and accept individual papers from a complete session rather than accepting the complete session, break apart complete sessions or otherwise change the full session.

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Festschrift To Honor Ellen Aprill

Festschrift to Honor Ellen Aprill, 56 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1135-1354 (2023):

• Samuel D. Brunson (Loyola-Chicago; Google Scholar) & Philip Hackney (Pittsburgh; Google Scholar), A More Capacious Conception of Church, 56 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1135 (2023) (Commentator: Michael Helfand (Pepperdine; Google Scholar))
• Roger Paul Colinvaux (Catholic), Strings Are Attached: Placing a Spotlight on the Hidden Subsidy for Gift Restrictions, 56 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1169 (2023) (Commentator: Edward J. McCaffery (USC; Google Scholar))
• Richard L. Hasen (UCLA; Google Scholar), Nonprofit Law as the Tool to Kill What Remains of Campaign Finance Law: Reluctant Lessons from Ellen Aprill, 56 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1233 (2023) (Commentator: Justin Levitt (Loyola-L.A.))
• Michelle D. Layser (San Diego; Google Scholar), The Uncertain Equity Impacts of Place-Based Tax Incentives, 56 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1261 (2023) (Commentator: Deanna Newton (Pepperdine))

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Florida Hosts 14th Annual Tax Policy Symposium Today: AI, Tax, And Society

Florida hosts the 2024 Ellen Bellet Gelberg Tax Policy Symposium on AI, Tax, and Society today at 9:30 AM EST (registration): 

Speakers: 

• William G. Gale (Brookings Institution; Google Scholar) 
• Jacob Goldin (Chicago; Google Scholar) 
• Omri Marian (UC-Irvine; Google Scholar) 
• Nicol E. Turner-Lee (Brookings Institution) 

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Committee For A Responsible Federal Budget Hosts A Tax Policy Summit Today

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget hosts When the TCJA Expires: A Tax Policy Summit today at 2:30 PM EST (RSVP): 

Please join the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget on March 28 for a summit focusing on the 2025 tax cut expirations and future tax policy.

With large parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set to expire, policymakers will soon face important decisions regarding the tax code’s future. These choices could add trillions of dollars to the national debt, or they could put us on a path toward genuine tax reform.

We are pleased to invite you to a gathering of the tax and budget communities to discuss how best to handle the challenges and opportunities offered by this moment.

Agenda

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Virginia Hosts Tax Study Group Meeting Today

Update: Virginia Tax Study Group To Convene in Three-Decade Tradition

The Virginia Center for Tax Law hosts a Virginia Tax Study Group Meeting today (registration): 

D.C. Panel 

• Jamie Cummins (Senior Tax Counsel, Senate Finance Committee) 
• Kathleen Kerrigan (Chief Judge, U.S. Tax Court)
• Ji Prichard (Tax Counsel, House Ways & Means Committee) 
• Cecily Rock (Senior Legislation Counsel, Joint Committee on Taxation) (moderator) 
• Mark Warren (former Chief Tax Counsel, Senate Finance Committee) 

Moore and Beyond 

• Alice Abreu (Temple) 
• Harry Franks (Virginia) 
• Itai Grinberg (Georgetown)
• Gil Rothenberg (Former Chief, Appellate Section, Tax Division, U.S. Department of Justice) 
• Eric Solomon (Former Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, U.S. Treasury Department) (moderator) 
• Isaac Wood (Attorney-Adviser, Office of Tax Policy, U.S. Treasury Department)

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Houston Hosts Energy Tax Conference Today

The University of Houston Law Center hosts the 6th Annual Denney L. Wright International Energy Tax Conference and 24th Annual Houston Business and Tax Law Journal Symposium today on Lessons Learned from International Energy Investments:

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Blank & Osofsky Present Democratizing Administrative Law Today At Duke

Joshua D. Blank (UC-Irvine; Google Scholar) & Leigh Osofsky (North Carolina; Google Scholar) present Democratizing Administrative Law at Duke today as part of its 54th Annual Administrative Law Symposium: 

When agencies make statements about the law, people listen. This insight yields a fundamental tension. According to one set of views, such agency statements, and their ability to influence public behavior, are critical not only for a well-functioning bureaucracy, but also for our entire system of government. According to another set of views, this agency power, if left unchecked, could border on tyranny.

Administrative law responds to this tension through an extensive, purportedly comprehensive, framework that attempts to police agency statements. The framework places different types of agency statements into different legal categories. 

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Panel Discussion Today On Bearer-Friend's Paying For Reparations

Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington; Google Scholar) joins a panel on Reparations: How To Fund Them & Avoid A Wall Street Takeover hosted by Take On Wall Street and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund today at 2:00 PM ET (registration): 

Reparations: How to Fund Them & Avoid a Wall Street Takeover is a fireside chat with Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington University Law) and Alvin Velazquez, (SEIU) moderated by Ericka Taylor (Take On Wall Street and Americans for Financial Reform). Bearer-Friend authored a novel proposal for how to pay for reparations [Paying for Reparations: How to Capitalize a Multi-Trillion Reparations Fund, 67 How. L.J. __ (2024) (reviewed by Blaine Saito (Ohio State) here)]. His approach proposes capitalizing a multi-trillion dollar reparations fund with corporate equity in lieu of cash payments.

Join us as we explore the important questions Bearer-Friend’s proposal raises about how to actually design the governance of the proposed reparations fund to maximize its benefits to its intended beneficiaries and prevent the fund from being co-opted by the financial industry to further its own interests. Velazquez will discuss experiences labor unions have had with pension funds, and what lessons can be drawn from them to inform the design of a reparations fund’s governance.

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Call For Proposals: Association For Mid-Career Tax Law Professors Annual Conference At Northwestern

The Association for Mid-Career Tax Law Professors (“AMT”) has issued a Call for Proposals:

The 2024 Association of Mid-Career Tax Scholars/Experienced in Tax Scholars Conference will be held on Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31 at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, IL. This is a recurring conference intended to bring together relatively recently and not-so-recently tenured professors of tax law from around the country to discuss ideas and works-in-progress in an informal setting.

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Call For Papers: 115th Annual Society Of Legal Scholars Conference

Call for Papers for the Tax Section of the 115th Annual Society of Legal Scholars Conference (Sept. 3-5, 2024): 

The theme of the conference is “Learning from Others: Lessons for Legal Scholars?”
As scholars, we interact with others – students; fellow academics; legal practitioners; the wider public – and the 2024 conference will reflect on the gains we can achieve from such interaction in a global academic environment. The conference will examine this theme in two ways. First, as scholars attending the SLS conference, we benefit greatly from meeting colleagues from different backgrounds and disciplines and, notably, from other legal jurisdictions (both within and outside the common law world). What can we gain from taking an international or comparative perspective to our work? To what extent do different perspectives, such as socio-legal, interdisciplinary or historical viewpoints, assist our research? Secondly, one of the significant elements of the conference is the inclusion of papers from both junior and senior scholars. What lessons can we gain from each other, both in terms of mentoring and in recognising the need to promote the interests of early career legal scholars and offering support for those entering the academy? No scholar is an island. The SLS provides a positive inclusive environment for legal academics at whatever stage of their career to engage with each other and learn valuable lessons from a diverse and inclusive community of legal scholars. Doctoral students are very welcome and are encouraged to submit papers for consideration in the Subject Sections Programme.

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