Satterthwaite Reviews Penalizing Precarity By Maynard & Wallace

Emily Satterthwaite (Georgetown; Google Scholar), Hardship Withdrawals from 401(k)s: A Trap for the Unwary (JOTWELL) (reviewing Goldburn P. Maynard, Jr. (Indiana-Kelley; Google Scholar) & Clinton Wallace (South Carolina; Google Scholar), Penalizing Precarity, 123 Mich. L. Rev __ (2024))::

Those who are committed to strengthening safety nets for economically precarious workers at modest revenue cost should look no further than Goldburn Maynard and Clint Wallace’s paper on hardship-related early withdrawals by employees from their 401(k)/403(b) qualified retirement plans. Employees who need to make an early withdrawal due to hardship are, by definition, encountering difficulties and have lower ability to pay. Nonetheless, as Maynard and Wallace describe, a subset of hardship distributees may be surprised by a mismatch in the law that can heap further hardship upon them in the form of penalties.

The mismatch occurs between two sets of rules: first, the “hardship distribution” rules addressed to qualified plans under Code subsection 401(k), which allow a plan administrator to permit withdrawals before the employee reaches retirement age and, second, the rules addressed to taxpayers under Code subsection 72(t), which apply a 10 percent “early withdrawal” penalty.

Continue reading

Florida State Seeks To Hire A Tax VAP

Florida State University College of Law, Visiting Assistant Professor:

Florida State University College of Law seeks at least one Visiting Assistant Professor, to begin in the 2025-2026 academic year. ...

The College is seeking scholar-teachers interested in future appointment as tenure-track members of a law faculty. This VAP is an opportunity for individuals coming from clerkships, fellowships, or legal practice to enhance their CV with close faculty mentorship in preparation for entering the academic market.

Subject areas of particular interest include, law & technology, business law (especially tax law), family law, criminal law, environmental law, gender & the law, and race & the law, but individuals with any area of scholarly and teaching interest will be considered.

Continue reading

Harvard: Lessons From The Biggest Business Tax Cut In U.S. History

Harvard Gazette, Raise Corporate Tax Rates! No, Cut Them! Maybe Take a Look First?:

Congress is spoiling for a tax battle in 2025.

Key parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are set to expire. Most urgent to many voters are sunsetting provisions aimed at households, including the more generous Child Tax Credit. But renewing the law’s deep cuts to corporate taxes are also up for debate. Republicans and Democrats have seized on the issues in campaign speeches, with Kamala Harris endorsing a higher top corporate rate to pay for other initiatives and Donald Trump arguing that lowering rates further will foster growth.

In a new analysis of the TCJA, published last month in the Journal of Economic Perspectives [Lessons from the Biggest Business Tax Cut in US History], Harvard macroeconomist Gabriel Chodorow-Reich charts the real-world impacts of the 2017 law’s various corporate tax cuts. His paper, co-written with Princeton’s Owen M. Zidar and the University of Chicago’s Eric Zwick, M.A. ’12, Ph.D. ’14, describes modest increases in wages and business investments, with some expired and expiring provisions proving most cost-effective. But these gains were hardly large enough to offset the big hit to tax revenue.

Continue reading

Raskolnikov Presents A New View Of Formal Equality Today At Columbia

Alex Raskolnikov (Columbia) presents A New View of Formal Equality at Columbia today as part of its Faculty Workshop Series: 

When it comes to equality under the law, the contemporary focus is decidedly on substance rather than form. This is especially so when economic inequality is concerned. Formal equality of law—understood as the absence of formal legal distinctions based on the material resources of individuals—has few defenders. At least since Rawls, formal equality has been viewed as a cause of material inequality, a foundation of laissez-faire capitalism, a fig leaf of sorts designed to give a veneer of justice to the unjust exploitation of the weak in a market economy. Whatever equality under the law means in contemporary view, formal equality is not it.

This Essay argues that the contemporary view is mistaken. Legal reforms consistent with formal equality of law may, indeed, lead to more inequality, but they may also lead to less. In fact, a commitment to formally equal law offers a counterweight to the key neoliberal maxim that regulation of a market economy should aim only at maximizing economic efficiency.

Continue reading

WSJ: Rich Americans Prep Fail-Safe Estate Plans Ahead Of Election

Wall Street Journal, Rich Americans Prep Fail-Safe Estate Plans Ahead of Election:

With the presidential race in a dead heat, rich Americans are calling estate lawyers.

The wealthy want to know if they should take steps to protect their fortunes from higher estate taxes. Should a change under the 2017 tax cuts expire as scheduled after 2025—considered more likely with Vice President Kamala Harris in the White House and Democrats gaining the majority in Congress—the minimum wealth subject to the estate tax would be halved to roughly $7 million per person.

At that level, nearly 9,000 estates would owe estate tax in 2026, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. That is compared with roughly 4,000 estates estimated to owe the tax in 2025.

Whether it pays to draft a fail-safe estate plan for tax policies that haven’t been decided is up for debate. 

Continue reading

Does The End Of Chevron Deference Mean A Weaker IRS?

Mitchell M. Gans (Hofstra), Does the End of Chevron Deference Mean a Weaker IRS?, 184 Tax Notes Fed. 1503 (Aug. 19, 2024):

The IRS was a powerful adversary when agencies enjoyed deference. Armed with Chevron deference, the IRS could resolve ambiguity in a code section by regulation. The courts deferred to that regulation — giving it “force of law” effect — if found to be reasonable, even if it was not the best interpretation. And even when there was prior inconsistent agency guidance or the regulation was adopted long after enactment of the underlying statute, Chevron nonetheless required deference.

Continue reading

Weil Gotshal & Manges Tax Associate's Funny Departure Memo Includes A Clever ‘Rickroll’

Above the Law, Biglaw Farewell Memo Is A Classic Of The Genre:

Subject: Veni, Vidi, Arrivederci

Dearest Weil Fam,

I’m emailing to notify you that henceforward, any inappropriate communications from me will be reportable to the local authorities, not HR, because today is my last day at the firm.

My two and a half years here have far surpassed the professional experience I’d dreamt of. That’s partly because I don’t have an active social life, and I’m rarely let out in public. But that’s also thanks to the incredible people that I’ve met and worked with along the way. Thank you for all your support, guidance, friendship, and tolerance of my eccentricities (however successful you may have been at hiding your annoyance). There are so many people that I want to single out for their positive impact on my Weil career that I had to list them all in a separate document attached hereto.

Continue reading

Gómez Presents Taxation’s Limits Today At Boston College

Luís C. Calderón Gómez (Cardozo; Google Scholar) presents Taxation’s Limits, 119 Nw. U. L. Rev. __ (2024), at Boston College today as part of its Tax Policy Collaborative hosted by Diane Ring:

Countless pages have been devoted to the question of why should everyone pay tax, yet its obverse has gone largely unnoticed: why should some people and organizations not pay tax? Our tax system exempts from ordinary income taxation a wide and diverse array of people and organizations engaged in significant economic activity—from parents providing childcare services for their family, to consular activities and charities operating animal shelters—seemingly without a convincing explanation. Perhaps as a result of the dizzying diversity of activities that have been exempted from tax, scholars and policymakers have eluded comprehensively or coherently justifying our exemption regimes.

This Article develops a novel normative theory that rationalizes and justifies our current tax exemption regime. Rather than conceiving exemptions as subsidies or individual deviations from a normative base explainable by ordinary politics, the Article argues that exemptions are best understood as mapping the “limits” of tax. These limits are neither arbitrary nor merely a collection of individual subsidies to favored activities; rather, they are best seen as being reflective of deeper collective socio-political judgments about the scope of the State and the public sphere.

Continue reading

Denver Seeks To Hire An Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Prof

University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Faculty Posting: 

The University of Denver Sturm College of Law seeks applications from entry-level and lateral candidates for full-time, tenure-track faculty positions at the rank of Assistant, Associate, or full Professor of Law. Although we welcome candidates across all subject matter areas and methodological perspectives, we are particularly interested in candidates capable of teaching Torts, Civil Procedure, or Tax. We seek candidates with J.D. degrees (or their equivalents), outstanding academic records, relevant professional experience, a commitment to inclusive pedagogy, and the capacity to make future outstanding contributions in the realms of scholarship, teaching, and public engagement. The University of Denver and the Sturm College of Law are committed to building a diverse and inclusive educational environment and seek candidates whose research, teaching, service, and professional experiences can contribute to advancing these important institutional commitments. ... 

Continue reading

For-Profit Philanthropy Wins ARNOVA Outstanding Book Award

The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) selected For-Profit Philanthropy: Elite Power and the Threat of Limited Liability Companies, Donor-Advised Funds, and Strategic Corporate Giving, by Dana Brakman Reiser (Brooklyn; Google Scholar) & Steven A. Dean (Boston University), for the Outstanding Book Award in Nonprofit & Voluntary Action Research: 

This book exposes a migration of business practices, players, and norms into philanthropy that strains the regulatory regime sustaining public trust in elite generosity through accountability and transparency and proposes legal reforms and private solutions to restore it.

Practices, players, and norms native to the business sector have migrated into philanthropy, shattering longstanding barriers between commerce and charity. Philanthropies organized as limited liability companies, donor-advised funds sponsored by investment company giants, and strategic corporate philanthropy programs aligning charitable giving by multinationals with their business objectives paint a startling new picture of elite giving.

Continue reading

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• The Biden Administration’s Unconstitutional Student Loan Cancellation Plans & Congress’s Responsibility To Address The Root Cause Of The Student Loan Crisis
• Why Professors Can’t Teach
• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

Sunday:

• The Top Five New Tax Papers
• NY Times Op-Ed: Elite Schools Are Thinking About Black Student Admissions The Wrong Way
• What Is The Difference Between A Church And A Religious Organization?
• Evangelicals In A Diverse Democracy: Is It Time To Let Jesus Take The Wheel?
• What Bluegrass-Loving Friars Taught Me About A Life Of Faith: Put First Things First

What Is The Difference Between A Church And A Religious Organization?

Darryll K. Jones (Florida A&M), What is the Difference Between a Church and a Religious Organization? Amici line up in Support of Catholic Charities:

Friends of the Court are lining up in support of Catholic Charities Bureau's Petition for Certiorari.  Here is a brief recap:

Wisconsin denied a religious exemption from employment taxes to the Wisconsin Catholic Charities Bureau and its charitable sub-agents (independent organizations operating under the CCB umbrella) because they were not operated "primarily for religious purposes." CCB sought exemption from Wisconsin's unemployment tax but the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Catholic Charities Bureau is not churchy enough.  This, even though the Wisconsin Diocese controls and operates the CCB, and all separate organizations under CCB's general supervision are required to comply with CCB guidelines.  Those guidelines don't require adherence to or preaching of Catholic doctrine but merely that sub-agents practice good altruism, such as serving all comers without discrimination.  None of the guidelines require the separate CCB-approved and loosely controlled agents to proselytize.

The lower courts ruled that neither the CCB nor the subagents were operated for "primarily for religious purposes" within the statute's intended meaning because they didn't preach, teach or otherwise proselytize.  The Wisconsin Supreme Court, affirmed explaining that operating "primarily for religious purposes" means organizations federal law considers churches.  Plain old "religious organizations" don't get "church" status for purposes of Wisconsin's unemployment tax exemption.  At best, CCB and the organizations might just be considered "religious organizations" under federal law.  Religious organizations don't get extra special dispensation under federal tax law that churches get.

Continue reading

The Top Five New Tax Papers

There is a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new #1 paper and a new paper debuting on the list at #4.

1. [366 Downloads]  Non-(Fully) Harmonised Excise Taxes and Irrebuttable Presumptions, by Rita de la Feria (Leeds; Google Scholar) 
2. [328 Downloads]  Tax Regulations After Loper Bright, by Andy Grewal (Iowa; Google Scholar)
3. [284 Downloads]  International Tax Scholarship and International Tax Activism, by Wolfgang Schön (Max Planck) (reviewed by Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo; Google Scholar) here)
4. [269 Downloads]  Reforming the Taxation of Life Insurance, by Ari Glogower (Northwestern; Google Scholar) & Andrew Granato (Yale; Google Scholar)
5. [262 Downloads]  Flow-Through Entities and the OECD Pillar Two, by Leopoldo Parada (Kings College; Google Scholar)

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a daily email with links to tax posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.

This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

Legal Education: 

1. Jennifer Kindred Mitchell (Baltimore) & Charlie Amiot, Rethinking Legal Education: Demystifying Neurodiversity And Building An Inclusive Future
2. Harvard Gazette, If You Want To Be Dean, You Probably Won’t Be Good At It
3. AccessLex, Predicting Bar Success — The Mediating Effects Of 1L Law School GPA On Undergraduate GPA And LSAT
4. Steven Calabresi (Northwestern), Academic Tuition And Student Loan Relief
5. Sara Berman (USC) & Chance Meyer (New England), Major Reform Of Legal Education With Minor Risk
6. Chronicle of Higher Education, Conservatives Are Rare In Academe. Does It Matter?
7. Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, Compounding Inequities In Law School Are Not Insurmountable
8. Reuters, Minority Enrollment Holds Steady At Top U.S. Law Schools
9. Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed (Anastasia Berg & Rachel Wiseman), Should You Have Kids In Law School?
10. ABA Legal Rebels Podcast, Tests Into And Out Of Law Schools

Tax:

1. SSRN, The Top Five New Tax Papers
2. Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Tax Policy In The Biden Administration
3. Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Updated 2024 Tax Prof Rankings: Google Scholar H-Index All 
4. Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Updated 2024 Tax Prof Rankings: Google Scholar H-Index Since 2019
5. Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Tax Prof Moves, 2023-25
6. Tax Prof Jobs
   • American 
   • Arkansas
   • Boston College
   • Florida
   • Massachusetts
   • Vermont
7. Lily Batchelder (NYU), Ari Glogower (Northwestern), Chye-Ching Huang (NYU), David Kamin (NYU), Rebecca Kysar (Fordham), Kelsey Merrick (NYU), Darien Shanske (UC-Davis) & Thalia Spinrad (NYU), The Moores Lost Their Claim And Moore
8. Leigh Osofsky (North Carolina), Wellness And The Tax Law
9. Rob Natelson (Montana), Direct Taxes And The Founders’ Originalism
10. ABA Tax Section, 24th Annual Law Student Tax Challenge Problem

Faith:

1. New York Times Op-Ed (Matthew Schmitz), Catholic Converts Like JD Vance Are Reshaping Republican Politics
2. Washington Post Op-Ed (Anne Lamott), Living For The Unremarkable Moments
3. Christianity Today Op-Ed (Anna Broadway), It Is Not Best For Man To Eat Alone
4. Michael Reneau (The Dispatch) & Hannah Anderson, The Unbearable Lightness Of Choosing Children
5. Surf Report, Fall 2024 Pepperdine Law & Religion Workshop Series

Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kern Reviews Deferring Income With Tiered And Circular Partnerships By Sanchirico & Shuldiner

This week, Adam Kern (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews an article by Chris William Sanchirico (Penn; Google Scholar) and Reed Shuldiner (Penn), Deferring Income with Tiered and Circular Partnerships.

Taxes can be deferred when partnerships have different taxable years from their partners. A partnership might take account of its income in, say, January, while a partner might only take account of its income in December. In that case, the partner would defer taxes on its distributive share of partnership income for 11 months.

The academic literature has assumed that this opportunity for deferral is limited. In “Deferring Income with Tiered and Circular Partnerships,” Chris Sanchirico and Reed Shuldiner show that it is not. Taxpayers can achieve a large—indeed, unbounded—extent of deferral with tiered and circular partnerships. Moreover, while the partnership structures described by Sanchirico & Shuldiner are ingenious, they are not so large or complex as to be obviously infeasible. This is a genuine opportunity that taxpayers might well seize.

Continue reading

Tax Policy In The Biden Administration

• The American Prospect, Kamala’s Capital Capitulation
• Americans for Tax Fairness & Color of Change, How Tax Fairness Can Promote Racial Equity
• Bloomberg, Trump Pledges No Taxes on Overtime in Pitch to Blue-Collar Vote
• Tyler Cohen (George Mason), If Harris Taxes Americans’ Wealth, Foreigners Will Benefit
• Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, The Kamala Harris Plan for Taxing Capital Income

Continue reading

Next Week’s Tax Workshops

Monday, September 16: Luís C. Calderón Gómez (Cardozo; Google Scholar) will present Taxation’s Limits, 119 Nw. U. L. Rev. __ (2024), as part of the Boston College Tax Policy Collaborative. If you would like to attend, please contact Diane Ring. 

Tuesday, September 17: Alex Raskolnikov (Columbia) will present A New View of Formal Equality as part of the Columbia Faculty Workshop Series. 

Friday, September 20: Ron Harris (Tel Aviv; Google Scholar) will present a chapter from Empire Ltd.: Law and the Rise of Multinational Companies in the First Era of Globalization (1844-1914) as part of the Oxford-Virginia Legal Dialogs. If you would like to attend, please register here. 

Continue reading

Osofsky: Wellness And The Tax Law

Leigh Osofsky (North Carolina; Google Scholar), Wellness and The Tax Law, 59 Ga. L. Rev. __ (2025):

The tax law has long provided extensive subsidies for "medical care." These subsidies cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars a year. The definition of medical care, which is at the heart of these subsidies, originated many decades ago, at a time when there was little to no conception of wellness. 

Times have changed in the medical world. Medical science now emphasizes that wellness practices, like exercise, meditation, and social connection, have an important impact on physical as well as mental health, including by playing a significant role in preventing and treating disease. Under the tax statute, medical care includes "treatment. .. or prevention of disease." The tax law nonetheless disallows subsidies for wellness expenditures under the theory that they are "merely beneficial to general health." This tension between medical science and tax law demands that we reappraise tax law's medical care subsidy. 

Continue reading

The Impact Of Jarkesy On Civil Tax Fraud Penalties

Bryan Camp (Texas Tech; Google Scholar), The Impact of Jarkesy on Civil Tax Fraud Penalties, 27 Fla. Tax Rev. __ (2024):

On June 27, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy. It held that when the SEC sought a $300,000 civil penalty against Mr. Jarkesy for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitled him to a jury trial in an Article III court.  The week before, the Tax Court, an Article I court, issued a decision upholding the IRS’s imposition of a $6.3 million civil penalty against a taxpayer for tax fraud.  No jury was available. 

This article considers whether Jarkesy now requires adjudication of civil tax fraud penalties in an Article III court with access to a jury. That question is more nuanced than it might first appear. The answer depends on how one balances government administrative needs against individual liberty interests. Jarkesy inverts prior teachings on how courts should perform that balance. 

Continue reading

Tax Prof Moves, 2023-25

Here is a list of (1) visiting assistant professor hires; (2) entry-level hires; (3) lateral moves; (4) promotions, tenures, chairs, and professorships; (5) administrative appointments: (6) visits; and (7) retirements involving tax professors in 2023-25. (Email me any omissions.) 

VAP Hires

• Fernando Loayza Jordán (JSD 2025, Yale) to Drexel (2025)
• Erika Isabella Scuderi (Space Policy Institute) to Florida (2024)
• Alex Ferrara Walker (Wachtell) to NYU (2024)

Entry Level Hires

• Conor Clarke (Department of Justice) to Washington University (2023)
• Jon Endean (VAP, NYU) to Brooklyn (2024)
• Assaf Harpaz (VAP, Drexel) to Georgia (2024)
• Adam Kern (Furman Fellow, NYU) to San Diego (2024)
• Luke Maher (Skadden) to Seattle (2023)
• Deanna Newton (Caruso Family Fellow, Pepperdine) to Pepperdine (2024) 
• Alex Zhang (Law Clerk, Hon. Guido Calabresi, 2nd Circuit) to Emory (2023) 

Lateral Moves

• Jonathan Choi (Minnesota) to USC (2023)
• Steven Dean (Brooklyn) to Boston University (2023)
• Dhammika Dharmapala (Chicago) to UC-Berkeley (2023)
• David Gamage (Indiana-Maurer) to Missouri-Columbia (2024)
• Ariel Jurow Kleiman (Loyola-L.A.) to USC (2024)
• Orli Oren-Kolbinger (Sapir Academic College) to Oregon (2024)
• Victoria Perry (IMF) to Georgetown Graduate Tax Program (2023)
• Gregg Polsky (Georgia) to NYU (2024)
• Kyle Rozema (Washington University) to Northwestern (2023)
• Blaine Saito (Northeastern) to Ohio State (2023)
• Phyllis Taite (Oklahoma City) to Oklahoma (2023)
• Del Wright (UMKC) to Louisiana State (2024)
• Richard Winchester (Seton Hall) to Brooklyn (2024)
• Patrice Wylly (Jane Street Group) to Georgetown Graduate Tax Program (2023)

Promotions, Tenures, Chairs, and Professorships

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

Natelson: Direct Taxes And The Founders’ Originalism

Rob Natelson (Montana), Direct Taxes and the Founders’ Originalism:

Professor Donald Drakeman’s response to my essay on direct and indirect taxes presents an opportunity to offer some background on constitutional originalism.

My thesis was that the longstanding uncertainty over the Constitution’s distinction between direct and indirect taxes persists because probative Founding-era evidence continues to be overlooked. In addition to references in eighteenth-century literature, that evidence consists of (1) uncontradicted comments by participants in the ratification debates which mesh well with (2) a plethora of eighteenth-century British and American direct tax statutes. (Detailed citations can be found here and here.)

These sources tell us that direct taxes include capitations and levies on real and personal property (i.e., wealth), income, and occupations. Indirect taxes (duties) include levies on consumption of domestically-sold goods (excises), customs (exactions on imports and exports), and levies on certain other transactions and events.

Professor Drakeman’s response cited his 2013 co-authored article on the 1796 Supreme Court case of Hylton v. United States.

Continue reading

Boston College Seeks To Hire An Estate Planning Fellow

Boston College, Estate Planning Fellow:  

The Estate Planning Fellow for the Initiative will report to Professor Thomas W. Mitchell, who serves as the Director of the Initiative as well as to the Senior Associate Director of Operations once that staff person is hired and comes onboard. The Fellow also will work quite closely and in a collaborative way with the Special Projects Manager, David Price, the Initiative’s point person for the Harvard University-funded project described below.

The Estate Planning Fellow will play a leading role in the Initiative’s work under the Homeownership Estate Planning Project (the Project) funded by the Reparative Partnership Grant Program of the Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery (H&LS) Initiative. The Project will provide disadvantaged homeowners and homebuyers in Boston and Cambridge, and elsewhere in Massachusetts over time, with estate planning classes combined with legal assistance to create estate plans.

Continue reading

American And Arkansas Seek To Hire A Clinical Tax Prof

American, Faculty Posting: 

American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL) seeks applications for the 2025-2026 academic year for six entry-level or lateral tenure-line positions, with interest in torts, environmental law, criminal law, criminal justice clinic, data privacy, law and government, international law, and tax law. We have particular interest in entry-level or lateral candidates who would teach in and administer the Janet R. Spragens Federal Tax Clinic. We are especially interested in candidates who will contribute to our vibrant and diverse community. ... 

If you have general questions regarding the application process, please contact Erica Devine, Faculty Affairs Manager. Please contact Andrew Ferguson, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee with any other questions. Although there is no formal deadline, we will begin interviewing candidates as early as August 2024, so interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Arkansas (Little Rock), Assistant Professor of Clinical Education: 

Continue reading

Updated 2024 Tax Prof Rankings: Google Scholar H-Index Since 2019

Yesterday, I posted Google Scholar H-Index All rankings of the Top 129 tax professors with Google Scholar pages (data collected on September 3). The Google Scholar H-Index Since 2019 rankings are below. If you are a full-time law school tax professor with a Google Scholar page and we missed including you, please contact me.

Rank	Name	School	Google Scholar H-Index (Since 2019)
1	Joel Slemrod	Michigan	56
2	Alan Auerbach	UC-Berkeley	43
3	James Hines	Michigan	33
4	Reuven Avi-Yonah	Michigan	29
5	Kimberly Clausing	UCLA	25
5	Dhammika Dharmapala	UC-Berkeley	25
7	Jacob Goldin	Chicago	23
8	David Weisbach	Chicago	22
9	Daniel Hemel	NYU	21
10	Kristin Hickman	Minnesota	20
11	Edward McCaffery	USC	18
11	Dan Shaviro	NYU	18
11	Robert Sitkoff	Harvard	18
14	Brian Galle	Georgetown	17
14	Leandra Lederman	Indiana (Maurer)	17
14	Eric Zolt	UCLA	17
17	Kyle Logue	Michigan	16
18	Yariv Brauner	Florida	15
18	Zachary Liscow	Yale	15
18	Kyle Rozema	Northwestern	15
21	Bridget Crawford	Pace	14
21	Nancy Knauer	Temple	14
21	Diane Ring	Boston College	14
24	David Gamage	Missouri (Columbia)	13
24	Andrew Hayashi	Virginia	13
24	Ruth Mason	Virginia	13
24	Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer	Notre Dame	13
24	Lawrence Zelenak	Duke	13
29	Hugh Ault	Boston College	12
29	Dorothy Brown	Georgetown	12
29	Jonathan Choi	USC	12
29	Rebecca Kysar	Fordham	12
29	Sarah Lawsky	Northwestern	12
29	Omri Marian	UC-Irvine	12
29	Shu-Yi Oei	Duke	12
29	Chris Sanchirico	Penn	12
29	Darien Shanske	UC-Davis	12
29	Michael Simkovic	USC	12
29	David Walker	Boston Univ.	12
40	Steven Bank	UCLA	11
40	Joshua Blank	UC-Irvine	11
40	Clifton Fleming	BYU	11
40	Ajay Mehrotra	Northwestern	11
40	Susan Morse	Texas	11
40	Stephen Shay	Boston College	11
46	John Brooks	Fordham	10
46	Samuel Brunson	Loyola-Chicago	10
46	Kathleen Delaney Thomas	North Carolina	10
46	Victor Fleischer	UC-Irvine	10
46	Nancy McLaughlin	Utah	10
46	Leigh Osofsky	North Carolina	10
46	James Repetti	Boston College	10
46	Linda Sugin	Fordham	10
54	Ellen Aprill	Loyola-L.A.	9
54	Jordan Barry	USC	9
54	Leslie Book	Villanova	9
54	Miranda Perry Fleischer	San Diego	9
54	Ari Glogower	Northwestern	9
54	Christine Hurt	SMU	9
54	Jay Soled	Rutgers	9

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

Derenoncourt Presents Wealth Of Two Nations: The US Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020 Today At NYU

Ellora Derenoncourt (Princeton; Google Scholar) presents Wealth of Two Nations: The US Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020 (online appendix) (with Chi Hyun Kim (University of Bonn), Moritz Kuhn (University of Mannheim; Google Scholar) & Moritz Schularick (Kiel Institute, Sciences Po Paris; Google Scholar)) at NYU today as part of its Tax Policy and Public Finance Colloquium hosted by Daniel Shaviro:

The racial wealth gap is the largest of the economic disparities between Black and white Americans, with a white-to-Black per capita wealth ratio of 6 to 1. It is also among the most persistent. In this article, we construct the first continuous series on white-to-Black per capita wealth ratios from 1860 to 2020, drawing on historical census data, early state tax records, and historical waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances, among other sources. Incorporating these data into a parsimonious model of wealth accumulation for each racial group, we document the role played by initial conditions, income growth, savings behavior, and capital returns in the evolution of the gap. Given vastly different starting conditions under slavery, racial wealth convergence would remain a distant scenario, even if wealth-accumulating conditions had been equal across the two groups since Emancipation. Relative to this equal-conditions benchmark, we find that observed convergence has followed an even slower path over the past 150 years, with convergence stalling after 1950. 

Continue reading

Vermont Seeks To Hire A Lateral Tax Prof

Vermont Law, Tenure-Track Faculty: 

Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS), a national leader in environmental law and restorative justice, invites applications for multiple tenure-track faculty positions for required JD and upper-level JD courses including Income Tax, Estates, and Environmental Law, broadly defined. Candidates with expertise in water law, land use, sustainability, private governance, and environmental justice are strongly encouraged to apply. Appointments are for July 2025; precise start dates are flexible. This search is part of a multi-year strategic hiring plan, and entry-level, junior, and senior lateral candidates will be considered. The school’s curricular needs include both residential and online courses.  Candidates should demonstrate evidence of, or potential for, outstanding scholarly achievement and strong, innovative, and engaged residential and/or online teaching. ... 

Continue reading

Updated 2024 Tax Prof Rankings: Google Scholar H-Index All

Below are the updated Google Scholar H-Index All rankings of the Top 114 U.S. tax professors with Google Scholar pages (data collected on September 3). If you are a full-time law school tax professor with a Google Scholar page and we missed including you, please contact me.

Rank	Name	School	Google Scholar H-Index (All)
1	Joel Slemrod	Michigan	99
2	Alan Auerbach	UC-Berkeley	96
3	James Hines	Michigan	66
4	Reuven Avi-Yonah	Michigan	39
5	David Weisbach	Chicago	38
6	Dan Shaviro	NYU	35
7	Dhammika Dharmapala	UC-Berkeley	33
8	Edward McCaffery	USC	31
9	Kimberly Clausing	UCLA	30
10	Brian Galle	Georgetown	28
10	Eric Zolt	UCLA	28
12	Kristin Hickman	Minnesota	27
12	Kyle Logue	Michigan	27
12	Lawrence Zelenak	Duke	27
15	Jacob Goldin	Chicago	26
15	Chris Sanchirico	Penn	26
15	Robert Sitkoff	Harvard	26
18	Daniel Hemel	NYU	25
18	Nancy Knauer	Temple	25
20	Steven Bank	UCLA	23
20	Leandra Lederman	Indiana (Maurer)	23
22	Dorothy Brown	Georgetown	21
22	Diane Ring	Boston College	21
24	Richard Kaplan	Illinois	20
24	Nancy McLaughlin	Utah	20
24	David Walker	Boston Univ.	20
27	Yariv Brauner	Florida	19
28	Ellen Aprill	Loyola-L.A.	18
28	Bridget Crawford	Pace	18
28	Clifton Fleming	BYU	18
28	David Gamage	Missouri (Columbia)	18
28	Ruth Mason	Virginia	18
33	Paul Caron	Pepperdine	17
33	Anthony Infanti	Pittsburgh	17
33	Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer	Notre Dame	17
33	Richard Pomp	Connecticut	17
33	Darien Shanske	UC-Davis	17
33	Jay Soled	Rutgers	17
39	Hugh Ault	Boston College	16
39	John Coverdale	Seton Hall	16
39	Victor Fleischer	UC-Irvine	16
39	Ajay Mehrotra	Northwestern	16
39	Shu-Yi Oei	Duke	16
39	Gregg Polsky	Georgia	16
39	James Repetti	Boston College	16
46	Sarah Lawsky	Northwestern	15
46	Zachary Liscow	Yale	15
46	Omri Marian	UC-Irvine	15
46	Kyle Rozema	Northwestern	15
46	Stephen Shay	Boston College	15
46	Linda Sugin	Fordham	15
52	Joshua Blank	UC-Irvine	14
52	Bradley Borden	Brooklyn	14
52	Andrew Hayashi	Virginia	14
52	Christine Hurt	SMU	14
52	Linda Jellum	Idaho	14
52	Henry Ordower	St. Louis	14
52	Michael Simkovic	USC	14

Continue reading

ABA Tax Section Releases 24th Annual Law Student Tax Challenge Problem

The ABA Tax Section has released the J.D. Problem (rules) and LL.M. Problem (rules) for the 24th Annual Law Student Tax Challenge:

An alternative to traditional moot court competitions, the Law Student Tax Challenge (LSTC) is organized by the Section’s Young Lawyers Forum. The LSTC asks two-person teams of students to solve a complex business problem that might arise in everyday tax practice. Teams are initially evaluated on two criteria: a memorandum to a senior partner and a letter to a client explaining the result. Based on the written work product, six teams from the J.D. Division and four teams from the LL.M. Division receive a free trip to the Tax Section’s Midyear Meeting, where each team presents its submission before a panel of judges consisting of the country’s top tax practitioners and government officials, including tax court judges. The competition is a great way for law students to showcase their knowledge in a real-world setting and gain valuable exposure to the tax law community. 

2024-2025 Law Student Tax Challenge: Important Dates

Continue reading

The Moores Lost Their Claim And Moore

Lily Batchelder (NYU), Ari Glogower (Northwestern; Google Scholar), Chye-Ching Huang (NYU), David Kamin (NYU), Rebecca Kysar (Fordham; Google Scholar), Kelsey Merrick (NYU), Darien Shanske (UC-Davis; Google Scholar) & Thalia Spinrad (NYU), The Moores Lost Their Claim and Moore, 184 Tax Notes Fed. 1509 (Aug. 19, 2024): 

In this article, the authors analyze the logic of Moore and argue that in many important ways, the decision undercuts attempts to sharply limit Congress’s taxing power.

Conclusion
The Moores’ counsel and some of their amici are urging that the opinion be read to tacitly rule out wealth taxes, mark-to-market taxes, and perhaps even impose a constitutional realization requirement, despite the fact the opinion explicitly disclaims doing any of those things. After all, that would turn their loss into a win. But the Court expressly declined to decide these questions.

Continue reading

Florida And Massachusetts Seek To Hire Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Profs

University of Florida Law, Faculty Posting

University of Florida Levin College of Law seeks to hire several professors, across a variety of fields, as part of the College’s pursuit of excellence in legal education and scholarship. The University of Florida, located in Gainesville, FL, is among the nation’s leading public research institutions and the flagship university of the third largest state. The Levin College of Law seeks highly qualified candidates for tenure-track positions.

The Appointments Committee welcomes applications from entry-level and pre-tenure lateral candidates writing in all areas of law. Successful candidates will have publication records, strong scholarly potential, commitment to excellence in teaching, and enthusiasm for creating a welcoming environment for all students. Candidates must also have a JD or equivalent academic degree. In reviewing applications, the Appointments Committee will consider long-term teaching needs in required and large enrollment classes, including but not limited to antitrust law, civil procedure, environmental law, health law, taxation (corporate, partnership, and/or international), torts, and voting rights.

To apply for a position or to request further information, applicants should contact the Appointments Committee’s co-chairs Jane Bambauer or Yariv Brauner.

University of Massachusetts Law, Assistant/Associate Professor of Law: 

Continue reading

Morriss: The Impact Of International Financial Centers

Andrew P. Morriss (Texas A&M; Google Scholar), The Impact of International Financial Centers (Aug. 27, 2024), in Defending Globalization: Economics (Cato Institute):

Just as there is a global market for cell phones and wheat, there is also a global market for law. That may seem strange to many people, since they don’t think about buying law the same way they think about buying goods and other types of services, but law is as much the subject of a global market as those are. Indeed, many things we do in day-to-day life include laws from outside the communities where we live and work. If you have a credit card, you’ve likely agreed that the law of a state other than the one you live in governs any disputes that you have with the bank that issued it (often South Dakota). If you own stock in a Fortune 500 company, your rights as a shareholder are likely governed by Delaware law, where most large US public companies are incorporated. If your 401(k) plan includes a fund that invests in corporate bonds, the fund’s rights (and so yours) are likely governed by New York law.

Foreign legal systems probably affect your life as well. Many hospitals in the United States are insured through insurance companies incorporated in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean that is better known to most people for its beaches and scuba diving than for providing insurance to health care providers. The extended warranty you bought on an appliance could be funded through a Turks & Caicos Islands company, another British Overseas Territory. And any insurance policy you buy from a US insurer is likely reinsured through a Bermuda-based (yet another British Overseas Territory!) reinsurer.

All of these are examples of the results of jurisdictional competition, which is the competition among jurisdictions to persuade people to bring legal business to them. The international version of this competition is little different from the domestic American version. In our federal system, states compete for economic activities by offering legal and business environments to attract entrepreneurs. Attractions include business courts (to speed resolution of disputes), business entities laws that cut the transaction costs of creating new businesses, low taxes, better infrastructure, and dozens more features of a business climate that are calculated to appeal to entrepreneurs. The main difference between the international competition for business and the domestic one is that in the former case, jurisdictions are primarily competing through their legal systems for the legal residence of businesses, while in the latter, states are trying to secure a physical presence of employers.

Many of the jurisdictions that are internationally successful in this the law market are small ones with some affiliation (past or present) with the United Kingdom. These jurisdictions are variously called “tax havens” (a term that was originally meant to conjure up a refuge from taxes, but became a slur intended to suggest they were cheating other places out of tax revenue); “offshore financial centers” (since many are islands); and, now, “international financial centers.” Depending on how you count, there are two to four dozen successful IFCs around the world, including independent countries such as the Bahamas, Liechtenstein, Malta, and Mauritius; territories affiliated with Britain, such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man; and the Cook Islands, which are in free association with New Zealand. As this partial list suggests, IFCs are present around the globe. What exactly do they do?

Continue reading

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• Temple And Tulsa Seek To Hire Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Profs
• If You Want To Be Dean, You Probably Won’t Be Good At It
• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

Sunday:

• The Top Five New Tax Papers
• Should You Have Kids In Law School?
• The Unbearable Lightness Of Choosing Children
• It Is Not Best For Man To Eat Alone
• WaPo Op-Ed: Living For The Unremarkable Moments

The Top Five New Tax Papers

There is a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new paper debuting on the list at #2.

1. [1470 Downloads]  Of Losing Citizenship, Tropes, and Missed Opportunity, by Laura Snyder (Association of Americans Resident Overseas)
2. [325 Downloads]  Non-(Fully) Harmonised Excise Taxes and Irrebuttable Presumptions, by Rita de la Feria (Leeds; Google Scholar) 
3. [295 Downloads]  Tax Regulations After Loper Bright, by Andy Grewal (Iowa; Google Scholar)
4. [267 Downloads]  International Tax Scholarship and International Tax Activism, by Wolfgang Schön (Max Planck) (reviewed by Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo; Google Scholar) here)
5. [240 Downloads]  Flow-Through Entities and the OECD Pillar Two, by Leopoldo Parada (Kings College; Google Scholar)

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a daily email with links to tax posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.

This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

Legal Education: 

1. Patrick Lynch (Law & Liberty), Yale Law School's Keith Whittington: ‘A Conservative Free-Speech Rock Star’
2. ABA Journal, St. Thomas College of Law Reinstates Fired Tenured Professor, Will Start Termination Hearings
3. Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed (Noah Feldman, Harvard), Radical Legal Academics May Regret Their Attacks On The Constitution 
4. Steven Chung (Tax Attorney, Los Angeles), Closing Of Golden Gate Law School Leaves Students And Alumni In A Bind
5. Alabama Symposium, Legal Education — Our History, Our Future
6. Nikita Aggarwal (Miami), Survey Of Law Fellowships And VAPs (2022-23 & 2023-24)
7. Law360, Chicago Bears Settle Hiring Bias Suit From White Male Law Student 
8. Washington University Symposium, Advancing DEI In Legal Education And The Legal Profession
9. ABA Journal, Moneybor Lawyers: Should ‘Relative Performance Measure’ Replace Billed Hours In Determining Attorney Productivity?
10. NCBE, July Multistate Bar Exam Mean Score Is Highest Since 2013 

Tax:

1. Bryan Camp (Texas Tech), Lesson From The Tax Court: Form Trumps Substance On Phantom S Corp Income 
2. Tax Prof Jobs
   • George Washington
   • Illinois
   • Louisville 
   • Memphis
   • Minnesota
   • New England
   • North Carolina 
   • Ohio State
   • Rutgers
   • Temple
   • St. Thomas-FL
   • Tulsa
3. Stephanie Hoffer (Indiana-McKinney), Disaster! Tax Legislation In Crises
4. SSRN, The Top Five New Tax Papers
5. Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo), Presentation Of Algorithmic Tax Ownership At Vanderbilt
6. Steven Bank (UCLA), Presentation Of The Golden Age Of Tax Dodging: Celebrities, Hollywood, And The Publicity Effect Today At Temple
7. Michael Simkovic (USC) & Meirav Furth-Matzkin (Tel-Aviv University), Taxing Contractual Complexity
8. Call For Tax Papers And Panels, Law & Society Annual Meeting
9. Society Of Legal Scholars, Tax Presentations At The Annual Conference
10. Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, Conference On Reimagining Global Tax Governance

Faith:

1. Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk’s Walk With Jesus 
2. Washington Post Op-Ed (Allison Raskin), Why Don't I Have Any Close Friends? I Live In Los Angeles.
3. New York Times Op-Ed (Matthew Schmitz), Catholic Converts Like JD Vance Are Reshaping Republican Politics
4. Christianity Today, The Olympics’ Most Iconic Photo Has A Christian Message
5. Zach Rausch (NYU), Religious Teens Are Happier Than Their Secular Peers — Dramatically So For Religious Conservatives

Temple And Tulsa Seek To Hire Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Profs

Temple Law, Faculty Posting: 

Temple University Beasley School of Law seeks to fill several faculty positions beginning in Fall 2025. We welcome applications from both entry-level and lateral candidates, and we will consider applicants in all subject areas. Areas of particular interest include: legal writing, health law, tax, trust & estates, labor/employment law, torts, and business law. Candidates should submit materials at https://law.temple.edu/engage/prospective-faculty-application and may also direct inquiries to Tom Lin, Chair of the Faculty Selection Committee.

Tulsa Law, Faculty Posting: 

Continue reading

Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Narotzki Reviews Escajeda's Bad Tax Policy Breeds Bad Blood Between Songwriters And Poets

This week, Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar) reviews an article by Hilary G. Escajeda (Mississippi College; Google Scholar), Bad Tax Policy Breeds Bad Blood Between Songwriters and Poets 183 Tax Notes Fed. 1625 (May 27, 2024).

Escajeda offers a compelling and thought-provoking critique of the U.S. tax system's treatment of artists, an area that is not often discussed. With a lively and accessible writing style, Escajeda highlights an important but often overlooked disparity in how tax policy favors songwriters over poets. Using popular cultural references, such as Taylor Swift’s music, the article skillfully engages readers while discussing the more technical aspects of tax law which makes the topic relatable and easier to digest.

Escajeda’s main argument is clear and very persuasive: current U.S. tax laws offer preferential capital gains treatment to songwriters but at the same time subject poets and other non-musical artists to ordinary income tax rates. 

Continue reading

Tax Policy In The Biden Administration

• Bloomberg, Harris to Expand Small Business Tax Relief to Boost Startups
• Bloomberg, Harris Pushes 28% Capital Gains Tax Rate on $1 Million Earners
• Bloomberg, Trump Vows 15% Corporate Tax
• Inequality.org, If We Want Better Care, We Need a Better Tax Code
• New York Times, Can Democrats Stop the ‘Tax Doom Loop’?
• New York Times, Harris, Proposing a Tax Break, Makes a Play for Small-Business Owners

Continue reading

Next Week’s Tax Workshop

Tuesday, September 10: Ellora Derenoncourt (Princeton; Google Scholar) will present Wealth of Two Nations: The US Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020 (online appendix) (with Chi Hyun Kim (University of Bonn), Moritz Kuhn (University of Mannheim; Google Scholar) & Moritz Schularick (Kiel Institute, Sciences Po Paris; Google Scholar)) as part of the NYU Tax Policy and Public Finance Colloquium. If you would like to attend, please contact Daniel Shaviro. 

Continue reading

Satterthwaite Presents Taxing Nannies Today At Florida

Emily Satterthwaite (Georgetown; Google Scholar) presents Taxing Nannies (with Ariel Jurow Kleiman (USC; Google Scholar) & Shayak Sarkar (UC-Davis; Google Scholar)) (reviewed by Michelle Layser (San Diego; Google Scholar) here and by Susan Morse (Texas; Google Scholar) here) at Florida today as part of its Tax Colloquium hosted by Yariv Brauner:

Nannies in the U.S. work long hours for low wages and risk retaliation if they complain. Informal, or “off the books,” work exacerbates their precarity, keeping it secret from state and federal tax agencies, as well as employment and labor agencies. Yet we have little understanding of how nannies navigate the tax reporting that renders them formal or informal.

This Article investigates nannies’ preferences for or against formal employment and tax reporting, the reasons behind such preferences, and how such preferences inform nannies’ relationships with their employers and legal institutions more broadly. The Article employs a multi-method research approach that includes an original and innovative survey of nannies and an analysis of nannies’ tax-related posts on the online forum Reddit. To supplement this research, the Article also discusses interviews with fifteen subject-matter experts regarding industry norms, common challenges nannies face, and policy reforms.

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

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.

Continue reading

Rutgers And St. Thomas Seek To Hire Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Profs

Rutgers Law, Assistant/Associate Professor: 

The Camden location seeks qualified candidates for the position of Assistant or Associate Professor across a broad curricular spectrum, with particular emphasis on candidates who can teach Tax, Business Organization’s, Constitutional Law and Contracts. Other areas of interest include Legal, Analysis, Writing and Research. All applicants should have a distinguished academic background and either demonstrate great promise or a record of excellence in scholarship and teaching. The position involves responsibilities for teaching, scholarship, and service.  All candidates must have a doctorate (JD or PhD) in law or equivalent. ...

Questions and references can be addressed to: Ellen Goodman, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee. 

St. Thomas University Law, Faculty Posting: 

Continue reading

ABA Tax Section Accepting Nominations for 2025-2027 Public Service Fellowships

The ABA Tax Section is accepting applications for Christine A. Brunswick Public Service Fellowships for 2025-2027:

The application period for the 2025-2027 class of Christine A. Brunswick Public Service Fellows is now open. The deadline for applications is Friday, November 8, 2024.

The ABA Tax Section has operated this fellowship since 2008 with impressive impact on communities throughout the country. In addition to representing low-income taxpayers and completing a public service project, prior fellows have gone on to careers in public interest tax, clerkships, private tax practice, academia, and government and have held leadership positions throughout the Tax Section. The fellowship provides two years of funding to practice public interest tax law at a qualifying host organization and free travel, lodging, and registration to the main Tax Section meetings. To learn more about the opportunity and to access the application materials please see the ABA Tax Section website here.

The ABA Tax Section will be hosting two virtual information sessions regarding this fellowship and the application process:

Continue reading

Bank Presents The Golden Age Of Tax Dodging: Celebrities, Hollywood, And The Publicity Effect Today At Temple

Steven A. Bank (UCLA) presents The Golden Age of Tax Dodging: Celebrities, Hollywood, and the Publicity Effect at Temple today as part of its Faculty Colloquium Series:

In the 1950s, as one columnist recently pointed out, “the wealthiest people in the U.S. were not corporate executives or baseball players. . . . Rather, they were entertainers.” At a time when Roger Blough, the head of U.S. Steel, was making approximately $300,000, Frank Sinatra made nearly $4 million. Celebrities were income, rather than asset, rich, though, making them vulnerable to the sky-high marginal tax rates of the time, which exceeded 90 percent. Since they were already surrounded by teams of financial and tax advisors, it should not be surprising that when it came to tax dodging during this period, entertainers were on the cutting edge. Indeed, it is not a stretch to say that members of the entertainment industry either developed or were early adopters of many of the most common tax minimization techniques of the 20th century. Perhaps more significantly, celebrities helped to drive the demand for them by publicizing and normalizing them through the force of their celebrity status. 

Continue reading

North Carolina And Ohio State Seek To Hire Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Profs

North Carolina Law, Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor of Law: 

The University of North Carolina School of Law invites applications for full-time faculty positions beginning Fall 2025. The school may fill up to four tenured or tenure-track positions this year. The school intends to hire up to three positions with expertise in tax, business, Civil Procedure, or Constitutional Law and one faculty member in any area of law. Beginning and experienced teachers may apply to all positions. ... 

Confidential inquiries are welcome. Inquiries from lateral candidates should be sent to Carissa Byrne Hessick by email and inquiries from entry level candidates should be sent to Bill Marshall by email.

Ohio State Law, Faculty Posting: 

Continue reading

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.

Continue reading

Minnesota And New England Seek To Hire Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Profs

Minnesota Law, Law Professor / Associate Professor: 

The University of Minnesota Law School plans to fill several tenure-track or tenured faculty positions, to begin in the 2025-26 academic year. Applicants should hold a J.D. or degree of equivalent rank and should demonstrate outstanding accomplishment and/or potential in scholarship and teaching. We encourage applicants who work in any area of law, as we have a range of curricular needs. These include: civil procedure; criminal procedure/policing; health law; immigration; international law; Native American law; race & law; and tax. ...

Direct applications should include a cover letter and CV. The cover letter should mention 3-4 courses that the applicant would be interested in teaching. Please send questions to the Appointments Committee.

New England, Assistant Professor: 

Continue reading

Maynard Presents Penalizing Precarity Today At UC-San Francisco

Goldburn P. Maynard, Jr. (Indiana-Kelley; Google Scholar) presents Penalizing Precarity, 123 Mich. L. Rev __ (2024) (with Clinton Wallace (South Carolina; Google Scholar)), at UC-San Francisco today as part of its Tax Speaker Series hosted by Heather Field:

Retirement policy in America is oriented around 401(k) plans and other employer-sponsored savings plans, which together will receive a whopping $1.5 trillion in tax subsidies over the next decade. This Article uncovers a harmful flaw in the policy governing withdrawals made prior to reaching retirement age: an unnoticed gap between the rules governing plan distributions and the rules imposing penalties on employees in certain situations. Employees are generally required to seek approval from their plan administrator to receive a “hardship distribution.” These requests are granted for employees who face an “immediate and heavy financial need,” such as eviction or an unexpected medical expense. However, even with this approval, these distributions are frequently subject to an “early withdrawal penalty,” under a separate regime that is not coordinated with the hardship distribution rules.

Continue reading