By Adam Thimmesch
For a few years now, I’ve gently pushed the idea of Use Tax Tuesday to follow Cyber Monday. Why not follow one of the biggest tax-avoidance days of the year with a day dedicated to undoing that damage? As much as this makes sense to me, it appears that I have lost out to Giving Tuesday, and probably rightfully so. Nevertheless, I want to suggest that Use Tax Tuesday can easily be folded within the more general ambit of Giving Tuesday. Maybe all is not lost.
*Attribution, respect and applause to #CriptheVote Disability Visibility Project community organizers and activists.
“[W]ork is a valued activity, both for individuals and society; and fulfills the need of an individual to be productive, promotes independence, enhances self-esteem, and allows for participation in the mainstream of life in America.” Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Continue reading “Crip the Code*”
Senate & House dueling Tax Bills are now (more or less) out. Experts have determined the regressive nature of both tax bills, that is, overall tax increases on middle, low, lower, and the lowest income working families as compared to generous tax cuts for high, higher, and the highest income taxpayers. (Pet peeve here, please media et al. stop using “middle class” in lieu of “middle income” because if there is one lesson from 2017 that is that income level and class are not correlated).
Below is one of many compelling graphs from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities evidencing that every group with income levels below $75,000 suffers a tax increase as compared to their higher income counterparts tax decrease in 2027. Many of these lower income taxpayers, including those with incomes below $30,000, suffer tax increases much earlier and most lower and middle income groups suffer tax increases by 2025, when the individual tax cuts phase out.
Continue reading “Repeal of Child Tax Credit For Taxpayers Without a Voice, Is A Great Way to Defund the Success of America’s Kids”
Tax reform is, in many ways, a product of its time. So I guess it shouldn’t surprise anybody that the late-2017 tax reform effort would somehow intersect with the post-Weinstein revelations of rampant sexual harassment and assault by powerful men.
And yesterday it happened: Senator Ken Buck introduced an amendment to H.R. 1. Under his proposed amendment, businesses would no longer be permitted to deduct payments for legal settlements, costs, fines, and fees associated with sexual harassment or sexual assault. Continue reading “Tax Reform in an Age of Sexual Harassment”
Professor Cary Martin Shelby (DePaul) is presenting “Closing the Hedge Fund Loophole: The SEC as the Primary Regulator of Systemic Risk” at BC Law School’s Regulation and Markets Workshop today. The abstract:
The 2008 financial crisis sparked a flurry of regulatory activity and enforcement in an attempt to reign in activity by banks, but other institutions have also been identified as potentially threatening to the stability of the financial markets. In particular, several empirical studies have revealed that systemic risk can be created and transmitted by hedge funds. In response to the risk created by hedge funds, Congress granted the Financial Stability Oversight Council (“FSOC”) authority under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 to designate hedge funds as Systemically Important Financial Institutions (“SIFIs”). Such a designation would automatically result in stringent capital constraints and limitations on liquidity risk on these non-bank institutions. Yet in over six years since FSOC has been granted this authority, it has failed to identify even one hedge fund as a SIFI. In the face of massive resistance and deregulatory initiatives introduced under the Trump administration, it is highly unlikely to do so in the near future. The inability of FSOC to regulate systemically harmful funds is particularly troubling because several post-financial crisis studies have revealed that systemic risk can still be created and transmitted by hedge funds. Given FSOC’s inability to close this hedge fund loophole, this Article argues that Congress should explore appointing the SEC as the primary regulator of hedge funds because: (1) hedge funds can still pose a systemic threat to the economy; (2) the transparency framework inherent in the federal securities laws can supply a more effective means for mitigating systemic risk than the prudential framework currently mandated for SIFIs; and (3) appointing the SEC in this regard would reduce the fragmentation of the current regulatory structure which has been extended and complicated by the creation of FSOC. Although the federal securities laws are typically used to promote investor protection, this Article posits that enhancing transparency to hedge fund counterparties and investors can decrease systemic risk by empowering such market participants to better protect themselves against risk. Enhancing protection in this manner could in-turn weed out systemically harmful funds from the marketplace, without imposing the severe capital constraints that would be mandated under FSOC’s model.
If you’re an academic in the Boston area and would like to join us, please send me an email.
Patrick W. Thomas
Professor of the Practice, Notre Dame Law School
Following up on my post on the taxation of graduate student tuition waivers in the GOP tax bill, there have been a few new developments. (By the way, my fellow Hoosier from the opposite end of the state, Michael Austin, along with Sam Brunson, have a great post on the proposed repeal of section 117(d) as it affects university employees and their dependents.)
First, it’s been confirmed that the intent of the House bill (if not necessarily the effect, per my post) is to tax graduate student tuition waivers, for those graduate students who work in a research or teaching assistant role. According to an article in The Verge, a spokesperson from the Ways and Means Committee explicitly indicated as much in an email. While Congressman Brady did release an amendment to the bill Monday (text here) and a subsequent amendment on Thursday (text here), none of the education provisions were affected. Additionally, the bill (incorporating Congressman Brady’s amendments) was reported out of Ways and Means on a party line vote on Thursday. Continue reading “Update on the GOP Bill’s Tax on Graduate Tuition Waivers”
By: Diane Ring
Shu-Yi Oei and I have been tracking the recent tax reform developments as well as a couple of proposed tax bills that deal with worker classification, information reporting, and tax withholding. Based on a description prepared by the Joint Committee on Taxation, it looks like the Senate Tax Bill is going to include a new safe harbor provision guaranteeing worker classification as an independent contractor and will make changes to independent contractor withholding and information reporting. We posted our analysis of this proposal and its potentially serious implications on TaxProf Blog: The Senate Bill and the Battles Over Worker Classification.
Our main points:
1. Not just tax: This worker classification safe harbor is not just about tax, it will likely have impacts on employment/labor law outcomes and protections as well.
2. Not just gig workers: Based on the Joint Committee description, the proposal is not limited to gig economy workers —anyone who meets the safe harbor requirements (which are pretty easy to satisfy in many cases) can be classified as an independent contractor. This may have the effect of encouraging employers to push workers into work relationships that come within the safe harbor. Or, in certain cases, it may facilitate the strategic movement of higher-income workers into independent contractor status — see point 4 below.
By Michael Austin and Sam Brunson
“Before any great things are accomplished, a memorable change must be made in the system of education and knowledge must become so general as to raise the lower ranks of society nearer to the higher. The education of a nation instead of being confined to a few schools and universities for the instruction of the few, must become the national care and expense for the formation of the many.”—John Adams
There has been much ado recently (including on Surly) about the fact that the current version of tax reform before the House of Representatives repeals Section 117(d) of the Internal Revenue Code. As a general rule, you have to pay taxes on anything of value your employer gives you. Section 117(d) is an exception to this rule; among other things, it exempts graduate students from paying taxes on tuition waivers. With that subsection excised from the Code, graduate students would be taxed on tuition waivers that they receive (usually in addition to a very modest stipend) when they worked as teaching and research assistants as part of their program.
If this repeal were to become law, students without personal or family resources would have a very difficult time pursuing graduate education. But while the plight of graduate students has gotten huge amounts of attention, it is not the worst thing about the repeal of Section 117(d). Continue reading “Tax Reform, Tuition Waivers, and Economic Mobility”
By Jennifer Bird-Pollan
I woke up this morning to a viral video of Rep. DelBene of Washington State questioning economist Thomas Barthold, Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Tax (who incidentally became Chief of Staff of the nonpartisan organization in 2009, when Democrat Charles Rangel, then chair of House Ways and Means Committee, praised him heartily).
The optics are a progressive’s dream come true: whip-smart Congresswoman shows up white-haired, straight-laced, white man by revealing how the proposed tax bill screws over individuals while protecting corporations. And all across social media sites progressives are eating it up. The thing is, while I share my friends’ progressive values, and I love a good younger-woman-shows-up-an-older-man video, the line of questioning in this exchange is entirely misguided and misleading, and all of the students in my basic income tax course can explain why.
Continue reading “Why We Need Rational Tax Discourse: A Progressive’s Lament”
By Manoj Viswanathan, Associate Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of the Law
The current version of the GOP tax bill dramatically limits the deductibility of state and local taxes. For individuals, the deduction for state and local income taxes is eliminated entirely and the deduction for state and local property taxes is limited to the first $10,000. [fn.1] Though much has been said about the proposal, there has been little discussion about how eliminating the state and local tax deduction dramatically incentivizes (1) states to solicit charitable contributions in exchange for state tax credits and (2) taxpayers to make these charitable contributions.
Consider a taxpayer donating $500 to a tax-exempt private school in Arizona. Assuming the taxpayer itemizes, this reduces the taxpayer’s federal taxable income by $500 as per Sections 170(c) and 67(b)(4). Under Arizona’s School Tax Credits for Individuals program, this donation also entitles the taxpayer to a dollar-for-dollar $500 credit against state income tax liability. By donating the $500, the taxpayer has both saved $500 in state tax liability and obtained a federal charitable contribution deduction of $500. Continue reading “How SALT Deduction Repeal Promotes State Capture of Federal Charitable Contributions”
By Adam Thimmesch
The treatment of the state and local tax deduction under the GOP’s tax bill has gotten a lot of attention since the bill’s roll out last week. All else being equal, the proposed changes would disproportionately impact high-income taxpayers in blue states, and that issue is front and center in discussions about the bill. The TCJA is also noteworthy, however, in that it does not propose completely eliminating the SALT deduction as had been previously discussed. Instead, it contains a partial repeal for some taxpayers. That creates some noteworthy distortions that might escape the attention of the average person following these discussions.
Continue reading “The Distortive Effects of Partially Repealing the SALT Deduction”
By: Diane Ring
The most recent big financial data leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, is now in full swing in the media. On Monday, Shu-Yi Oei blogged the initial release and its immediate takeaways (including the revelation that U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross continued to hold investments in a shipping business that had business connections to key Russian figures). But each passing hour brings new information and individuals into the public spotlight – and in the process sheds light on how such information is likely to be used and what the media and the public seem to find most noteworthy.
So what did Day 2 bring? . . .
Shu-Yi Oei
Another data leak broke on Sunday, November 5, while I was on a plane home from Bergen, Norway. Coincidentally, Diane Ring and I were in Bergen presenting our Leak-Driven Law paper at a tax conference organized by Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, Norwegian Centre for Taxation, and Notre Dame University.
This new “Paradise Papers” leak involves a set of 13.4 million records from 1950 to 2016.
“The new files come from two offshore services firms as well as from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in jurisdictions that serve as waystations in the global shadow economy. The leaks were obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a network of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries.”
The two offshore services firms in question are the offshore law firm Appleby and Asiaciti Trust, an offshore specialist headquartered in Singapore. Over 7 million of the records came from Appleby and affiliates.
Diane and I argued in Leak-Driven Law that (1) the high-salience and shocking nature of tax and other leaks and (2) the interventions of the press and other actors in processing, framing, and generating publicity about these leaks are important features that can affect how legal responses and reactions occur in the aftermath of a leak. We’ll be keeping track of how events unfold in the aftermath of this latest leak and how it fits or doesn’t fit with the observations in our paper:
Some initial notes and reactions:
This was at Least in Part a Cyber Hack.
Most of the news coverage I’m seeing is focused on the content on the leak, but it’s worth noting that at least with respect to Appleby, this new leak was in part a result of a cyberattack on Appleby that happened last year. I haven’t seen anything to suggest that this was a data theft by an insider (e.g., employee) turned whistleblower. In its response to the leak, Appleby defended itself and noted the challenges of cyber-crime for individuals and businesses.
The Appleby Hack Occurred in 2016.
Continue reading “Some Initial Thoughts on the Paradise Papers Leak”
Patrick W. Thomas
Professor of the Practice, Notre Dame Law School
We’ve all been poring over the GOP tax bill, released last week. On my initial read, I mainly looked at those provisions that affect my own practice in a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic: the expansion/restriction of the Child Tax Credit; the elimination of the dependency exemption; and the lack of any expansion in the Earned Income Tax Credit (paging Paul Ryan…). Selfishly, I also calculated the bill’s effect on my own taxes: a nearly 3% tax cut that I do not need!
Or so I thought. You see, my wife is a Ph.D. student in computer science who, like most students at the University of Notre Dame, receives a full tuition waiver, in addition to a stipend from the university. As I returned home on Friday, ready to put the tax bill out of mind for a couple hours, I saw a tweet from Claus Wilke, professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas:
1. GOP tax bill would tax tuition wavers for grad students. This would be a disaster for US STEM PhD education.https://t.co/4BFPCbkNbQ
— Claus Wilke (@ClausWilke) November 3, 2017
Uh oh. Back to tax policy on a Friday night, it seems. And, perhaps, so long to that tax cut. Continue reading “GOP Raises Taxes on Graduate Students … Or Does It?”
The House GOP Bill is out and tax professionals across the globe are reading and re-reading the 429 pages of details. A few of the many things that jump off of the pages for me are that it doesn’t seem to support working families with kids (it REPEALS the up to $5,000 exclusion from gross income for dependent care assistance that many working parents use to subsidize the skyrocketing costs of child care while they work) or even those who (like my fantastic law students at UNLV) are pursuing and paying for higher education.
The Surly Subgroup 