This paper will discuss the creation of a system-wide quality service agenda for tax preparation for low-income families, with the chief focus on the Earned Income Tax Credit (“EITC”). The EITC is an important anti-poverty measure for low-income families. Therefore its administration will...

In this article, the author examines, through numerical examples, the effects would EU Member States subject taxpayers – both residents and non-residents – deriving income from domestic sources, to unlimited income taxation whilst granting double tax relief for foreign income under a...

This article considers two unrelated tax provisions – healthcare Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and the charitable deduction. FSAs permit eligible taxpayers to set income aside tax-free to use for medical expenses. However, these accounts have a “use-it-or-lose-it” feature that...

This Estate and Gift Tax Rap column for Tax Notes is an extended discussion of the United States District Court (W.D. Pa.) decision in Estate of Palumbo v. U.S.. In that case, the court upheld a claimed estate tax charitable deduction for amounts passing to charity pursuant to a settlement of a...

This paper examines the pre- and post-tax returns to Canadian and US executives who receive backdated stock options (that appear to be at-the-money options) compared to currently-dated in-the-money options. We begin by comparing the Black-Scholes value of backdated at-the-money options to...

Section 104 of the Income Tax Act 1976 sets out the test for deductibility from assessable income. The article focuses on the issue of time in the test. First, at what stage can an item of “expenditure” be said to have been “incurred” by the taxpayer? Can expenses be estimated or spread...

Section 156 of the Income Tax Act 1976 permits exporters to make certain deductions when calculating their assessable income. In order to qualify for an export incentive deduction the court in Preece v Commissioner of Inland Revenue (1981) 4 TRNZ 379 held that the applicant must be the owner of...

In its 2008 decision in Department of Revenue v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Commerce Clause objections to the states' widespread practice of exempting interest from in-state - but not out-of-state - municipal bonds. However, it left "for another day" consideration of "any claim that...

In 1981, Congress enacted the qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) provisions that allow an estate and gift tax marital deduction for the full value of the underlying property where a spouse receives only a qualifying income interest for life and where the executor of the estate or the...