This paper, written for a European conference on tax and corporate governance, evaluates two aspects of the U.S. legal response to corporate tax shelters: the civil penalty rules and the disclosure rules. It argues that, while the disclosure rules do not impose undue burdens, their usefulness to...

In the last two decades, the dominant norm in fundamental tax reform has shifted from income taxation to consumption taxation, among academics no less than policymakers. Few have recognized, however, that the case for a consumption tax overlaps substantially with that for lifetime income...

Marginal rates are frequently analyzed based solely on taxes, without regard to benefit phase-outs that have exactly the same incentive and distributional effects as increasing positive taxes. This myopia reflects the notion, rooted in our current fiscal language, that "taxes" and "spending" are...

One of the main advantages of consumption taxation that its advocates, including me, have claimed is simplification. However, the extent to which simplification actually would result from a major consumption-based tax reform would depend not only on the compliance and administrative issues...

Both the supporters and opponents of President Bush's 2001-2003 tax cuts assert that the cuts are steps toward smaller government. That claim appears to misunderstand the notion of the size of government and rests on spending illusion - confusing the amount of the nominal dollar flows between...

Shifting from an income tax to a consumption tax would offer major simplification advantages. Even if Congress created as many preferences and other special rules as under the existing income tax, the massive set of complications that relate to realization and to the taxation of financial...

Amici file this brief to provide the Ninth Circuit with relevant background information on the basics of transfer pricing and cost-sharing agreements, and to advance four key points. First, the 2003 cost-sharing regulation at issue in this case is substantively reasonable under the...

This amicus curiae brief in Altera Corporation v. Commissioner supports the government's position and the view of the majority in a 9th Circuit opinion issued on July 24, 2018 and later withdrawn. Amici are tax law professors who conclude that the stock-based compensation cost sharing...

This paper, published in Tax Notes on July 2, 2018, is the first half of a two-part paper examining and analyzing the three main international provisions in the 2017 tax act. Part 1, contained herein, discusses normative frameworks for international tax policy. Part 2 will focus on the base...

The United States has a huge long-term fiscal gap, perhaps with a present value of around $74 trillion. By contrast, the explicit national debt of the U.S. is only around $6 trillion. The U.S. may thus be unable to continue meeting its current spending commitments without eventually enacting...