A new constitutional design is emerging in Mexico to address investment and expropriation disputes. Assurance of the rule of law, understood as independent legal process to resolve disputes, is a key element. Although the rule of law assumed growing importance as Mexico's historical...

The federal income tax adjusts many but not all of its dollar components automatically to account for inflation. In this article I analyze the benefits and burdens this process confers on some taxpayers and the political logic behind them. I discuss the choice of the proper index for making the...

This article analyzes the Federal income tax treatment of state incentive tax credits. It considers whether and when refundable credits should be included in income and discusses their appropriate character as capital gain or as ordinary income

Most fiduciary relationships determine with specificity the beneficiaries of the fiduciary's activities. Not-for-profit entities, however, serve a class of unspecified beneficiaries and can exercise discretion in determining who to serve and how to serve them. This paper explores the limits of...

Charitable contributions of "conservation easements" have since 1980 allowed high-income taxpayers to shelter income from taxation through overvalued deductions. Overvaluation has increased dramatically in the past 20 years: a 2016 study of all easement decisions since 1980 reported that while...

A recent temporary addition to the standard deduction distributes a limited tax benefit to a subset of nonitemizing taxpayers based on real property tax payments. The provision sacrifices some of the standard deduction’s simplicity, costs more than a billion dollars annually and makes...

The Constitution places control of the federal government's funds in the hands of Congress. This article examines Congress' exercise of discretion in connection with expenditures, impoundments, debt and taxation. It concludes that its actual control over the government's funds has become limited...