"When attorney effort is unobservable and certain other simplifying assumptions (such as risk neutrality) hold, it is efficient for an attorney to purchase the rights to a client's legal claim. However, the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit this arrangement....

As governors and state legislators across the country search for ways to address the budgetary imbalances that many of their states face following the Great Recession, reductions in individual income tax credits and deductions are being considered. Unfortunately, the casualties of that process...

In this article, Viard explains that PPL Corp. v. Commissioner highlights the lack of a sound policy reason for the foreign tax credit's favorable treatment of foreign income taxes relative to other foreign taxes and nontax costs of earning foreign income. He argues that relief from excessive...

Shifting the tax burden from younger workers to older workers would ease the crushing fiscal burden confronting future generations, give the young access to funds that they might otherwise be forced to borrow at high rates, and improve work incentives. One way to implement such a policy would be...

Democratic presidential candidates and members of Congress are vying with one another to raise marginal tax rates for high-income earners, particularly the top 1 or 2 percent of taxpayers. A careful review of economic theory and evidence suggests that raising tax rates at the top is an...

Some people have hailed the alternative minimum tax (AMT) as a flat, low-rate, broad-based tax that would be a good replacement for the regular income tax. A closer look at the AMT dispels this rosy view

Politicians of both parties hail small business as the engine of job creation and economic growth. President Barack Obama recently voiced his support for small businesses, calling them "the heart of the American economy." In the same speech, he claimed, "they're responsible for half of all...

Congress is considering allowing the Bush tax cuts' rate reductions for high-income households to expire at the end of 2010 while providing a deficit-financed extension of the middle-class portion of the tax cuts. This combination would damage economic growth by hiking marginal tax rates on...

In an article in State Tax Notes, Viard critiques the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kentucky Dept. of Revenue v. Davis, which upheld state income tax exemptions for residents' holdings of home-state municipal bonds. He argues that the decision rested on a flawed understanding of...