In this article the authors discuss the alleged gift tax deficiency case against media mogul Sumner Redstone. The IRS argues that Mr. Redstone made a taxable gift in 1972 when, in connection with the settlement of an intrafamily dispute, he transferred shares of a family-owned business to trusts...

In this article, Professor Crawford discusses the United States Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in the estate tax case of United States v. Windsor. The cases involves the constitutionality of the provision of Defense of Marriage Act which defines marriage for federal purposes as a union...

This essay endeavors to document and to preserve the story of the origins of the book Taxing America (NYU Press 1997) edited by Karen B. Brown and Mary Louise Fellows. The publication of that text was a key milestone in the development of critical tax theory as an intellectual discipline. By...

This article provides an introduction to section 2038, which provides that a decedent’s estate includes the value of all interests in property transferred by the decedent over which the decedent has a power to revoke, alter, amend, or terminate beneficial interests. After a discussion of the...

At a time of monumental economic inequality in the United States, wealthy individuals and their tax-motivated behavior have come under significant scrutiny from all corners. In 2019, the Supreme Court issued its first major ruling in over sixty years on the state income taxation of trusts. In...

In this essay, the authors discuss the intellectual foundations for their co-edited book, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Tax Opinions (2017), the first in a series of subject-matter specific volumes published in the U.S. Feminist Judgments Series by Cambridge University Press. Using only the...

This article addresses the specific question of who -- as between the beneficiaries of the estate and the lifetime donees -- will bear responsibility for estate tax generated with respect to gift tax included in the decedent’s gross estate, absent a specific provision to the contrary. Although...

In this article, the authors review the income tax treatment of prizes and awards in the context of Dr. Ralph Steinman who died in 2011 before being named a Nobel Laureate in Medicine. The Nobel Committee has announced that it intends to pay the prize money to Dr. Steinman's estate. Should this...

Could a feminist perspective change the shape of the tax law? Most people understand that feminist reasoning has tremendous potential to affect, for example, the law of employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and reproductive rights. Few people may be aware, however, that feminist analysis...

This short essay introduces a special issue of the ACTEC Law Journal devoted to the estate planning jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the United States. The issue includes two invited essays on the role of the court in developing the law in this area, as well as commentaries on seventeen of...