The philanthropic sector is highly consequential, particularly in the United States, and the most important policies directed toward this sector are tax policies. Yet most economic analysis of the optimal tax treatment of charitable giving is ad hoc, treating it as a subject unto itself. This...

This Comment evaluates four recent proposals to reform tax laws affecting the financial industry. After introducing the proposals, the author provides a theoretical framework for evaluating them and then relies on this framework to explore the benefits and drawbacks of each. Ultimately, the...

This paper suggests a new tax system without multiple taxes, tax laws, tax returns, tax collection departments, tax tribunals and tax enforcement agencies. In this new tax system, citizens need not maintain separate account books and submit tax returns annually for paying either Direct taxes on...

This paper argues that there is too great a reliance placed on anti-avoidance provisions, discretions reposed in the revenue, and judicially developed doctrines as a means of countering tax avoidance. In view of the difficulties in defining and countering tax avoidance, it is suggested that...

This working paper is a forthcoming chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics, edited by Francesco Parisi. It provides a brief overview of economic issues in tax law, including distribution and efficiency in general, the role of administrative and political economy concerns in an...

The Internal Revenue Code is riddled with features that allow U.S. taxpayers to reduce their federal tax liability by operating through tax haven companies. Some of these provisions are historic anomalies. Others are better understood as inadvertent loopholes than considered legislative grace....

Tax uncertainty often negatively affects investment. Advance tax rulings (ATRs) are commonly used as a measure to provide tax certainty. Rulings are currently controversially discussed in the context of tax planning activities of multinational firms (Luxembourg Leaks). We analyze ATRs as tax...

Tax uncertainty often negatively affects investment. Advance tax rulings (ATRs) are commonly used to provide tax certainty. We analyze ATRs from the taxpayers' and tax authorities' perspectives. Investors request ATRs if the fee does not exceed a certain threshold. We integrate this finding into...

Politicians and tax practitioners often claim that tax uncertainty negatively affects investment. In many countries, firms can request fee-based Advance Tax Rulings (ATRs) to mitigate tax uncertainty. We analyze theoretically the circumstances under which investors request ATRs, how tax...

This paper provides a general equilibrium model of income tax evasion. As functions of the share of income reported, the paper contributes an analytic derivation of the tax elasticity of taxable income, the welfare cost of the tax, and government revenue as a percent of output. It shows how an...