We present an argument from micro-economic foundations suggesting that the federal Alternative Minimum Tax has potentially salutary – and heretofore unrecognized – effects that counteract pathologies of state budgets over the business cycle. AMT liability increases with income, and acts to...

This Article presents an original empirical analysis demonstrating that low-income families experience far greater income fluctuations than higher-income families and, as a result, taxation of annual income disproportionately burdens low-income families. The author proposes two simple income...

We present an argument from micro-economic foundations suggesting that the federal Alternative Minimum Tax has potentially salutary – and heretofore unrecognized – effects that counteract pathologies of state budgets over the business cycle. AMT liability increases with income, and acts to...

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...

Optimal policy rules - including those regarding income taxation, commodity taxation, public goods, and externalities - are typically derived in models with homogeneous preferences. This article reconsiders many central results for the case in which preferences for commodities, public goods, and...

In this article, the authors examine the present administrative system for the earned income tax credit (EITC) especially the refinements resulting from enactment of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA). After describing the problems created by the complexities of the new EITC,...

In this article Professors McMahon and Abreu examine data on changes in the distribution of income and show that those changes increasingly reflect a winner-take-all pattern in which economic rewards are increasingly skewed toward those at the top 1% of the income distribution. These changes in...

In two recent articles, I explore the conceptual question of how human capital would be treated under a pure, comprehensive, accrual income tax, pursuing the analogy to accrual treatment of physical and financial capital, which has received much academic attention. My central conclusion is that...

This update explains several developments in the substantive federal income, estate and gift tax laws affecting individual taxpayers and small businesses. It contains summaries of significant cases, rulings, regulations, legislation and other matters from August, 2006, through September, 2007....

The deduction for qualified residence interest (QRI) is the second largest individual tax expenditure, after the exclusion for employer provided health insurance. While homeownership has long been viewed as a social good, the QRI deduction has faced criticism. Commentators have argued that it is...