This article discusses the prospects for long-term deficit reduction given the strenuous opposition to higher taxes by influential Republican adviser Grover Norquist, who has gotten virtually every Republican in Congress to sign his no-new-taxes pledge

This article examines an array of new tax questions that have arisen, or are about to arise, as a result of changes in market practice and the legal rules governing over-the-counter derivative financial instruments (“swaps”). The changes to the regulatory laws governing swaps are still a...

This article considers recent proposals to replace subchapters K and S with a unified passthrough system. It argues that resistance to a unified approach may pave the way for further expansion of subchapter S and discusses proposed fixes to the section 1374 tax on built-in gains. The article...

This article criticizes a proposal recently put forward by the co-chairmen of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to abolish all tax expenditures and sharply reduce statutory tax rates. The author believes that abolishing all tax expenditures without regard to merit or a...

Under current law, a taxpayer may generally take a tax return position without penalty or disclosure if there is substantial authority that the position will be sustained if challenged. Taxpayers can therefore take positions that they believe are unlikely to be right, but might be. The...

There have been a number of proposals lately to impose a new tax on securities or financial transactions, both as a revenue measure and a way of disciplining Wall Street speculation. This article argues that such a tax would be a bad idea and that it makes more sense to tax financial activities...

This article reviews the impact of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 after 25 years. While there are many ways that TRA 1986 has permanently altered the structure of federal taxation, it is hard to find ways in which it changed anything real in terms of economic growth, employment, or productivity....

Republicans frequently criticize Democrats for "class warfare" when they suggest raising taxes on the rich. But Republicans also engage in class warfare by regularly attacking the close to half of all federal income tax filers with no tax liability. They imply that this is a major source of the...

Given the strenuous resistance of Republicans to any tax increase, it would seem that voluntary taxation is the only kind they will accept. This being the case, this article examines the theory and history of voluntary taxation. While it may be viable in certain cases in small, cohesive...