In this brief commentary, I argue that, now that we have no meaningful estate tax for the vast masses of even wealthy individuals and families, it is time to call for an end to stepped-up basis on death and to start doing something, somehow, to shut down the typical tax planning of the wealthy

Recent legislation has left a gift and estate tax that will apply to far fewer than 1% of all decedents each year. This Article, prepared for a symposium on Tax Advice for the Second Obama Administration, argues that the estate tax has become largely irrelevant, except ironically as a spur to...

Luxury taxes are increasingly used by major sports leagues, such as Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, to raise revenue and affect behavior. This brief article lists three lessons that general tax policy can take from the sport world's taxes, helping to make the case...

This chapter argues that a behavioral law and economics approach to tax is deeply needed for a wider normative analysis of the impacts of law on social welfare. The absence of traditional markets to serve as arbitrage mechanisms in public finance means that suboptimal tax and fiscal systems can...

This Article explains, updates and generalizes Cooper (1979), which had labeled the estate tax a voluntary tax. The tax has remained quot;voluntaryquot; in the sense of being easily avoidable, even by those engaging in activities within the tax's ostensible normative target (i.e., significant...

Following a critical examination of the two predominant approaches to tax policy, formalist and utilitarianism, this Article posits a “political-interpretive” approach that looks to our actual tax-related practices as source material for designing normative reforms. Applying a...

The longstanding coined phrase “feminization of poverty” refers to the fact that many women are poor and many of the poor are women, a phenomenon that stems from social, economic, and legal systems which reinforce an antiquated single-earner family model. In response, this Afterword...

The estate tax, meant to separate large concentrations of wealth, has failed to raise significant revenue due to it having multiple exceptions, exemptions, and exclusions. This Article argues that the estate tax contravenes liberal egalitarian ideals, considers and then rejects a tightened...

This Article is motivated by a puzzle. Lottery play is extremely common. Yet such play is inconsistent with standard economic theories of the consumer, which feature rationality and risk aversion. Faced with the puzzle, theorists have generally tried to save risk aversion at the expense of...

Current tax reform proposals for fighting gender discrimination misguidedly focus on who wins and who loses, suggesting that government simply tax equal-income couples equally or tax single and married individuals at the same rates. This Article provides a fresh perspective by looking at how tax...