United States multinational companies (“MNCs”) often choose to operate in a foreign country through an entity formed under local law that is treated as a disregarded entity for U.S. federal tax purposes. As a result, the foreign entity's activities are treated in the same manner under U.S....

This article reports that a majority of the judges of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit voted on March 25, 2009 to hear the Textron work-product privilege case en banc. As a result, the court withdrew the panel opinion and the dissent, and vacated the judgment entered on January 21,...

This article analyzes the First Circuit's decision and argues that the court's remand is inconsistent with the intent of the work-product doctrine and renders the decision upholding work-product privilege a hollow victory for taxpayers. The article also provides some practical advice for...

Dividend paying firms tend to manage earnings upward when their earnings would otherwise fall short of expected dividend levels. This behavior is evident only in firms with positive debt and is more aggressive prior to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, subsequent to the 2003 dividend tax cut, in high...

We show that firms with executive bonuses that qualify for deduction under Internal Revenue Code Section 162(m) were less likely to expense stock option compensation (SOC) in 2002. Additionally, the more likely it is that a qualified firm will incur re-contracting costs, the less likely it is...

Independent political organizations have become increasingly active in political advocacy and in their attempts to influence elections. These independent political organizations generally organize as non-profit organizations and are not directly associated with a candidate or political party....

This paper provides additional evidence on earnings management via the deferred tax asset valuation allowance account (VAA). Earlier publications that do not find evidence of earnings management via the VAA examine contractual incentives using broad samples. A more recent publication finds...

This paper uses the Bad News Principle to study how the ability of multinationals to shift profits by transfer pricing affects both the timing of foreign direct investment decisions and government tax policy. A main finding of the paper is that if countries compete to attract foreign direct...

A core problem for enforcement of tax laws is asymmetric information. The taxpayer knows the facts regarding the relevant transactions it engages in during the year-or at least has ready access to that information. The government is forced to play catch-up, obtaining that information either from...

quot;Tax discriminationquot; is an increasingly important legal concept for international trade and cross-border investment. Commentators have observed that the nondiscrimination article found in thousands of tax treaties based on the OECD Model lacks a coherent guiding principle, and in my...