The United States tax classification of a “foundation” created under the laws of a foreign jurisdiction is a complicated matter. “Foundations” are not creatures of common law, but are derived from civil law. The United States follows common law and this body of jurisprudence is more...

This is the General Report for the United States on the theme of “Surcharges and Penalties in Tax Law” for the 2015 meeting of the European Association of Tax Law Professors in Milan, Italy. The Report addresses questions relating to the treatment of civil penalties, criminal penalties and...

In both Australia and the U.S., the tax anti-avoidance law has evolved to include two common doctrinal components. One component requires evidence of taxpayers' tax avoidance purpose. The other component protects transactions clearly contemplated by the tax statute against charges of tax...

There is no doubt that the tax laws of many countries are complex and difficult to comply with administratively. In particular, Australia, New Zealand and the United States have tax systems that are generally recognized as complex especially for small businesses. They also have the distinction...

Sharia law impacts the US tax analysis of transactions arising in any Muslim-majority country or in any country when Muslim persons are involved in the transaction. Neither the US courts nor the Internal Revenue Service have provided guidance as to how the matter should be resolved when US tax...

The terms “enterprise,” “business” and “business profits” are ubiquitous in U.S. and international tax law yet they are often ill-defined and under-theorized, especially in their interaction with other regulatory areas. This U.S. Report, commissioned for a comparative volume on the...

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...

I study the spill-over effects of legislated discretionary tax changes in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom to 11 Eurozone countries for the period 1980Q1-2018Q4 employing Local Projections (Jordà, 2005). In general, I find spillovers from US tax legislation to have the...