If a taxpayer borrows money, the borrowed funds are not included in the taxpayer's gross income. That treatment is proper even though the taxpayer has increased his assets by the amount he borrowed since he has also has created a corresponding liability to pay back the loan. The taxpayer's net...

One of the most active disputes in tax law today is the question of the proper tax consequences for a successful plaintiff, a portion of whose taxable damage award is paid to his or her attorney pursuant to a contingent fee arrangement. At issue is whether the plaintiff is taxable on the portion...

This testimony before the House Committee on Ways and Means explains why it is difficult to eliminate marriage penalties in the EITC. The testimony discusses policy options including a two-earner deduction or credit

In order to preserve a nonprofit's tax-exempt status, counsel for the organization should stay current on how to appropriately file the IRS Form 990. Many American nonprofit organizations are at risk of losing their tax-exempt status due to changes in the tax code and filing deadlines. The...

R&D tax incentives have become a widely used policy tool to promote business R&D. How do they shape firms’ incentives to invest in R&D? This paper contributes a methodology to construct forward-looking effective tax rates for an R&D investment that reflect the value of expenditure-based R&D...

This paper analyzes the role of Tax Incentives in promoting investment, their effectiveness and their revenue and other costs and political economy. The paper consolidates econometric work on the topic done by the authors covering the Caribbean, Francophone Africa and India; surveys of Investors...

This study explores corporate responses to 1993 legislation, implemented as section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code, that capped the corporate tax deductibility of top management compensation at $1 million per executive unless it qualified as substantially "performance-based." We detail the...

The Internal Revenue Code Section (“Code Sec.”) 41 research and experimentation tax credit was enacted in 1981 to provide a significant tax incentive to encourage taxpayers to increase domestic research and experimentation spending. However, recent IRS audit initiatives and procedures...

Tax reform is a permanent topic of the economic policy debate in Germany. The paper presents a radical reform proposal (as well as a survey of other proposals) and describes some steps towards the realization of the proposal. The tax system proposed mainly consists of a value added tax, a flat...