Widening economic inequality is fast becoming the defining social problem of this era. Although there are a number of policy mechanisms available for addressing the problem, taxation is the first and best tool for the job. The federal income tax code is already moderately progressive and thus...

In these times of widening inequality, regressive taxation is about the last thing needed in the United States. Yet that is exactly what we observe in every single state: overall state tax regimes (various combinations of income, property, and sales taxes) impose their highest rates on the poor...

There are powerful fairness and efficiency arguments for making charitable donations to soup kitchens 100% deductible. These arguments have no purchase for donations to fund opulent church organs, yet these too are 100% deductible under the current tax code. And this stark dichotomy is only the...

Today’s record levels of economic inequality are infecting our future as the top 0.01% bequest vast wealth to their descendants. With the death of the Rule Against Perpetuities (RAP), this inequality has the potential to harden social class lines not just for a generation or two but forever....

Trusts are one of the most flexible legal tools in lawyers’ arsenals, deployed for socially desirable used ranging from supporting orphans to structuring complex investments. Trusts, however, are also used for a host of socially undesirable purposes, including restraint of trade, cheating...

There is a widespread belief that the law should, and does, protect windfalls (unexpected gains) every bit as much as it protects property earned by effort and enterprise. This article takes issue with both arms of this assertion. Windfalls present an efficient source of government revenue:...