Invoking allusions to Caligula and Roman tax law, the Sixth Circuit, in Summa Holdings, reversed the Tax Court and held that the Commissioner could not use the substance-over-form doctrine to prevent taxpayers from combining the tax savings effects of a domestic international sales corporation...

This article advances an exogenous-endogenous distinction for purposes of determining and calculating quid pro quos under section 170. This test holds that exogenous benefits — benefits that arise independently of, or arise outside of, the taxing authority — are properly considered quid pro...

This article reviews some federal and state constitutional law challenges to tax legislation in the US and considers how taxing and other revenue raising legislation tends to withstand constitutional challenge.Part I of this article examines instances in which the Supreme Court reviewed state...

New Zealand lawyers are dealing increasingly with Japan, and with its big corporations. This article discusses points of interest which arise, e.g. Cross-cultural overview, the status of the merchant, the development and use of law, Japanese strength of tradition and how Japan and its business...

Legislative drafting mistakes can upset statutory schemes. The Affordable Care Act was nearly undone by such mistakes. The recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is rife with them. Traditional legal scholarship has examined whether courts should help resolve Congress's mistakes. But courts have remained...

Tax protesters offer uncommonly silly arguments in support of their positions -- so silly, in fact, that courts commonly refuse to address them, lest those arguments be given any credence. Yet the wave of tax protester arguments has not ebbed, and tax protesters continue to challenge, for...

THE RIGHT OF PUBLICITY: PRIVACY REIMAGINED FOR A PUBLIC WORLD (Harvard University Press 2018), 256 pages, considers the opportunities and risks that today’s right of publicity laws pose. The right of publicity has become a negative force ― suppressing speech, blocking otherwise lawful uses...

In this essay, the author provides a brief overview of the history of the flagship publication of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, including its past leadership, focus and multiple name changes. The author reflects on her service as editor of the ACTEC Law Journal and the...

This Article examines property law’s effect on economic inequality, particularly centered on Thomas Piketty’s findings in Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Piketty finds that when the rate of return on capital is greater than economic growth, capital concentrates among the wealthy,...

This Symposium Essay compares current patterns and practices surrounding IRS utilization of IRB guidance (revenue rulings, revenue procedures, and notices) with administrative law doctrine concerning informal agency guidance documents. In administrative law jurisprudence, the distinction between...