IU Tax Policy Colloquium: Williamson, Filer Voter: An Experiment Testing Voter Registration at Tax Time

Left to right: Pamela Foohey, Leandra Lederman, Vanessa Williamson, David Gamage, Tim Riffle

On February 28, Indiana University Maurer School of Law’s Tax Policy Colloquium, hosted this year by my colleague David Gamage, welcomed Vanessa Williamson from the Brookings Institution. Vanessa presented a report that is due to be released at the end of March on a “Filer Voter” experiment she conducted at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites in Cleveland, Ohio and Dallas, Texas.

For those who may not be familiar with it, VITA is an IRS-run program that offers free tax return preparation (generally federal and state) for taxpayers who made $54,000 in income or less (for 2018) and meet certain other requirements. An IRS web page provides training materials and certification tests for volunteers. The IRS works with local groups in that it provides VITA grants to partner organizations. For example, in Bloomington, the VITA program is run by United Way of Monroe County.

Vanessa’s Filer Voter experiment involved offering some taxpayers who come to VITA sites for tax-return preparation the opportunity to register to vote. The experiment was structured as follows: Each VITA session was divided in half by time, and within each session, the first half or second half was randomly assigned the treatment of offering voter registration, and the other half of the session was the control. The study included collection of demographic information and consent forms from taxpayers in both the treatment and control groups. Continue reading “IU Tax Policy Colloquium: Williamson, Filer Voter: An Experiment Testing Voter Registration at Tax Time” →

Call for Papers: New Voices in Tax Policy and Public Finance (2019 AALS Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA)

The AALS Tax Section committee is pleased to announce the following Call for Papers:

CALL FOR PAPERS
AALS SECTION ON TAXATION WORKS-IN-PROGRESS SESSION
2019 ANNUAL MEETING, JANUARY 2-6, 2019, NEW ORLEANS, LA
NEW VOICES IN TAX POLICY AND PUBLIC FINANCE
(co-sponsored by the Section on Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law and Section on Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation)

The AALS Section on Taxation is pleased to announce the following Call for Papers. Selected papers will be presented at a works-in-progress session at the 2019 AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA from January 2-6, 2019. The works-in-progress session is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, January 5.

Eligibility: Scholars teaching at AALS member schools or non-member fee-paid schools with seven or fewer years of full-time teaching experience as of the submission deadline are eligible to submit papers. For co-authored papers, both authors must satisfy the eligibility criteria.

Due Date: 5 pm, Wednesday, August 8, 2018.

Form and Content of submission: We welcome drafts of academic articles in the areas of taxation, tax policy, public finance, and related fields. We will consider drafts that have not yet been submitted for publication consideration as well as drafts that have been submitted for publication consideration or that have secured publication offers. However, drafts may not have been published at the time of the 2019 AALS Annual Meeting (January 2019). We welcome legal scholarship across a wide variety of methodological approaches, including empirical, doctrinal, socio-legal, critical, comparative, economic, and other approaches.

Submission method: Papers should be submitted electronically as Microsoft Word documents to the following email address: tax.section.cfp@gmail.com by 5 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2018. The subject line should read “AALS Tax Section CFP Submission.” By submitting a paper for consideration, you agree to attend the 2019 AALS Annual Meeting Works-in-Progress Session should your paper be selected for presentation.

Submission review: Papers will be selected after review by the AALS Tax Section Committee and representatives from co-sponsoring committees. Authors whose papers are selected for presentation will be notified by Thursday, September 28, 2018.

Additional information: Call-for-Papers presenters will be responsible for paying their own AALS registration fee, hotel, and travel expenses. Inquiries about the Call for Papers should be submitted to: AALS Tax Section Chair, Professor Shu-Yi Oei, Boston College Law School, oeis@bc.edu.

A Mother’s Holiday Letter to Uncle Sam

Dear Mr. Tax Man, Uncle Sam, Sir:

I am writing this letter in December on my ten-minute break at work. I apologize for my rushed handwriting and the tardiness of this letter. I don’t have access to a computer, except for short periods (only 15 minutes per session) at the library. And the lines have gotten too long for me to wait while my three wiggly kids struggle to sit still (only to be hushed by the library staff and patrons every few minutes). I have been really busy balancing my new jobs with the kids’ schedules, especially with the holidays and all the stress and craziness that they add. Continue reading “A Mother’s Holiday Letter to Uncle Sam” →

Crip the Code*

By Francine J. Lipman

*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*” →

Repeal of Child Tax Credit For Taxpayers Without a Voice, Is A Great Way to Defund the Success of America’s Kids

By: Francine J. Lipman

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” →

What Happened to Family Values?

By: Francine J. Lipman

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.

Continue reading “What Happened to Family Values?” →

The Surly Subgroup Turns One!

Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess. Today is the one-year blogiversary of the Surly Subgroup. What started off as a group-blogging experiment hatched at last year’s Critical Tax Conference at Tulane Law School has provided quite a bit of entertainment for Surly bloggers and our guest bloggers, and hopefully for our readers as well.

It’s obviously been a big year on tax and other fronts. Since our inception, we’ve published 206 blog posts on a variety of topics. And we’ve drawn readers from 140 different countries.

Surly regulars and guest bloggers have covered various tax-related issues surrounding politics and the 2016 election—including disclosure of presidential tax returns, the Emoluments Clause, the Trump Foundation, and the Clinton Foundation. We’ve written about churches, 501(c)(3)s and the IRS treatment of non-profits. We’ve discussed the tax reform proposals of the 2016 presidential candidates and the #DBCFT. We’ve written several administrative law posts about Treasury Regulations and rulemaking.

Politics aside we’ve also covered other important issues in tax policy—including taxation and poverty, healthcare, tax policy and disabilities, tax compliance, and tax aspects of the Puerto Rico fiscal crisis. We’ve discussed several issues in international and cross-border taxes, touching on the EU state aid debate, the CCCTB, taxation and migration, the Panama Papers, tax leaks more generally, and tax evasion in China.

We hosted our first ever online Mini-Symposium on Tax Enforcement and Administration, which featured posts by ten different authors on a variety of tax administration topics. The Mini-Symposium was spearheaded by Leandra Lederman. Leandra had organized and moderated a discussion group on “The Future of Tax Administration and Enforcement” at the 2017 AALS Annual Meeting, and many of the discussion group participants contributed to the online symposium. We hope to organize future online symposia on other topics.

We’ve blogged about various conferences, workshops, and papers, both tax related and not-so-much tax related. We’ve also had lots of fun writing about taxes in popular culture – Surly bloggers and guest bloggers have written about the tax aspects of Pokémon Go, tax fiction, music-related tax issues (Jazz Fest! Prince! “Taxman”!), soccer players, dogs, Harry Potter fan fiction, Star Trek, and John Oliver. Surly bloggers even recorded a few tax podcasts!

In short, it’s been a busy year, and we’ve had a lot of fun with the Surly platform. We hope you have as well. Going forward, we’re going to keep the blog posts coming. We also hope to draw more regular and guest bloggers and to organize other online symposia.

Thanks for reading!

TaxSlayer: Technically Acceptable for VITA Returns?

Adam C. Mansfield
Staff Attorney, Legal Services for Students, University of Kansas

The first time I logged into the TaxSlayer training lab I knew that this tax season was going to be a problem. It became obvious when I typed “1040NR” into the form lookup box in the upper left corner of the TaxSlayer screen and the search came up empty. Next I tried “1042-S” and “8843.” Same result. Now I’m not some old fuddy-duddy that doesn’t like change. I love working with new gadgets, software, or operating systems—as long as it does what it is supposed to do.

I work for Legal Services for Students at the University of Kansas. The main target population for our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) grant is nonresident alien (NRA) students and scholars. Every tax year we help hundreds of international students and researchers determine their residency status, calculate any applicable tax treaty benefits, and prepare their federal and state returns. In the past, TaxWise has worked just fine for this purpose. I had no problem preparing a return for the student from Bangladesh who had income in both Kansas and Missouri or the Chinese student who has multiple 1042-S forms for scholarships and awards but still needs to apply treaty benefits to his or her wages. This year, TaxSlayer is just not up to the task.

I feel bad for Whitley, a member of TaxSlayer’s customer support squad, who is left with the task of informing me that they are aware of the “issue” that prevents their software from properly applying and reporting a tax treaty benefit on a nonresident alien return. She proceeded to tell me that they could only handle “simple” state returns in conjunction with an NRA return. This means that I can’t make any adjustments to the state return in order to properly apportion income. They are “working diligently to iron out the wrinkles.” Not being able to prepare a pretty basic nonresident alien return is a little more than just a wrinkle. Continue reading “TaxSlayer: Technically Acceptable for VITA Returns?” →

ClassCrits IX: The New Corporatocracy and Election 2016

Surly bloggers Sam Brunson, David Herzig and I (and Leslie Book over at Procedurally Taxing) are attending the ClassCrits IX conference hosted by Loyola University Chicago School of Law today and tomorrow. From the call for papers back in March:

As the U.S. presidential election approaches, our 2016 conference will explore the role of corporate power in a political and economic system challenged by inequality and distrust as well as by new energy for transformative reform.

There are some notable tax-related panels happening at the conference, along with other interesting panels relating to corporations and democracy:

Taxation, Social Justice and Development (Friday 10/21/16)

Doron Narotzki, University of Akron Business Administration
Corporate Social Responsibility and Taxation: The Next Step of the Evolution

Rohan Grey, Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity & Nathan Tankus, Modern Money Network
Corporate Taxation in a Modern Monetary Economy: Legal History, Theory, Prospects

Karl Botchway, CUNY Technology & Jamee Moudud, Sarah Lawrence Economics
Capacity Building, Taxation and Corporate power in Africa

Martha T. McCluskey, SUNY Buffalo Law, Corporatocracy and Class in State and Local “Job-Creation” Subsidies

Distributing Wealth, Law and Power (Friday 10/21/16)

Goldburn P. Maynard, Jr., University of Louisville Law
A Plea for Courts to Abolish the Judicially Created Right of the Wealthy to Avoid Estate Taxes

Victoria J. Haneman, Concordia University Law
The Collision of Holographic Wills and the 120-Hour Rule

Doron Narotzki, University of Akron Business Administration
Dark Pools, High-Frequency Trading and the Financial Transaction Tax: A Solution or Complication?

Robert Ashford, Syracuse University Law
Why Working But Poor?

Critical Perspectives on Tax Law (Saturday 10/22/16)

Shu-Yi Oei, Tulane University Law
The Troubling Case of Offshore Tax Enforcement

Les Book, Villanova University Law
Bureaucratic Oppression and the Tax System

Samuel Brunson, Loyola University Chicago Law
Avoiding Progressivity: RICs, Pease, and the AMT

David Herzig, Valparaiso University Law
Let Prophets Be (Non) Profits

Pro Bono Week Free ABA Tax Justice CLE

By: Francine J. Lipman

There are many wonderful reasons to be a member of the ABA – Section of Taxation, including the Tax Section’s commitment to pro bono and outreach especially its education efforts with its people and its purse to work on the front lines with less fortunate and vulnerable neighbors across America. I can say without hesitation the ABA not only talks the talk, but it walks the walk. Indeed we are partnering with the ABA Civil Rights and Social Justice Section to present a free webinar on October 24 during pro bono week 2016. Tax justice at its best. I am a proud ABA tax justice passion warrior, join us in our efforts to help others as it is the gift that keeps on giving … We can, do, and will make a difference in the lives of countless American families.

Continue reading “Pro Bono Week Free ABA Tax Justice CLE” →

I’ve Got ITINs on My Mind

By: Francine J. Lipman

Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) Holders Pay Over $45 Billion Annually in Federal, State, and Local Taxes

Among the many amazing opportunities I have had as a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is continuing my work with immigrants on their tax issues. As I have written about at length unauthorized immigrants pay many tens of billions of dollars a year in taxes including federal (about 4.4 million ITIN tax returns were filed in 2015 paying over $23 billion including $18.1 in federal income taxes and $5.5 in self-employment taxes), state, and local income, property, sales, excise, etc. ($12 billion annually), and payroll taxes (about $12 billion a year in net Social Security and Medicare taxes for which they currently receive no current or future benefit).

ITINs GENERALLY

Nevertheless, Congress continues to challenge this population with respect to their tax compliance. If you do not know what an ITIN is then this issue likely does not directly affect you … however if you want a quick education the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) has a great primer available in English and Spanish here. Since 1996, IRS has issued about 21 million ITINs although only about 5 million are currently being used. Congress had previously enacted legislation causing any ITIN not used for five years to expire. However, that legislation was not given a chance to be enforced, because Congress has been busy enacting more recent ITIN expiration legislation that supersedes the five year law.

THE CURRENT ITIN on my mind ISSUE

ITIN EXPIRATIONS

In the recently enacted PATH Act of 2015 (Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes), among other matters, all ITINs issued before 2013 will be expiring and have to be renewed. An ITIN issued after December 31, 2012, will remain valid unless the person to whom it was issued does not file a tax return—or is not included as a dependent on the return of another taxpayer—for three consecutive years.

Congress has phased-in the expiration of ITINS as follows:

IF THE ITIN WAS ISSUED THE ITIN EXPIRES ON

before January 1, 2008 January 1, 2017
in 2008 January 1, 2018
in 2009 or 2010 January 1, 2019
in 2011 or 2012 January 1, 2020

In an effort to streamline the process, the IRS is identifying the first wave of ITINs expiring on January 1, 2017 as ITINs with the middle digits of 78 or 79. The IRS will identify the respective middle digits for the second, third, and fourth waves of expirations in time.

HOW TO RENEW BEGINNING October 1, 2016

ITINs scheduled to expire as of January 1, 2017 (middle digits 78 or 79 or any ITIN not used on a tax return for the last three consecutive years (e.g., 2013, 2014, and 2015)), can be renewed using the newly revised for this purpose Form W7 (available here) also known as an Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. No tax return is required for a renewal application.

The application including all required original documents (e.g., passport) must be mailed to Internal Revenue Service, ITIN Operation, P.O. Box 149342, Austin, TX 78714-9342. The anticipated time that the IRS will take to renew or issue an ITIN outside of peak processing times (between January and April) has historically been about six weeks. However, in a recent press conference the IRS said that they would be sending 400,000 letters to ITIN holders with expiring ITNs so there could be a much longer waiting period. The National Taxpayer Advocate has written about the ITIN application backlog and bottleneck in her 2015 Report to Congress as Most Serious Problem Number 18.

Any original documents or certified copies submitted in support of an ITIN application are supposed to be returned within 65 days. Taxpayers who do not receive their original and certified documents within 65 days of mailing them to the IRS may call 1-800-908-9982 to check on their documents.

CERTIFIED ACCEPTANCE AGENTS Not surprisingly, many immigrants will not want to send original documents to the IRS. In lieu of sending original documentation, taxpayers may be eligible to use an IRS authorized Certified Acceptance Agent (CAA) or make an appointment at a designated IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center location. CAAs often charge a fee for services rendered although some of the large chains of retail tax preparation companies are advertising free ITIN renewal services. I would advise taxpayers to proceed with caution as there may be ancillary costs, charges, or fees. The Consumer Federation of America, among others including myself, have written about the high cost of tax assistance services for low-income taxpayers and the potential for consumer abuse including price gouging.

FAMILY ITIN APPLICATIONS The IRS will accept a Form W-7 renewal application from each member of a family if at least one of the family members listed on a tax return has an ITIN with the middle digits of 78 or 79. If one family member has middle digits 78 or 79, all family members who have an ITIN may submit a Form W-7 renewal application at the same time.

FINANCIAL CONSEQUENCES IF ITINs Are NOT Renewed

Until ITINs are renewed, returns with expired ITINs will be processed and treated as timely filed, but the returns will be processed without any exemptions and/or credits claimed and no refund will be paid. The taxpayer will receive a notice from the IRS explaining the delay in any refund and that ITINs must be renewed. Once ITINs are renewed, any exemptions and credits will be processed and any allowed refunds will be paid. If ITINs are not renewed, taxpayers may be subject to interest and penalties for any tax owed as a result of disallowed exemptions and credits.

HELP IS AVAILABLE

The more than 130 Low-Income Taxpayer Clinics across the country should be able to answer questions and point you in the right direction to get assistance. To find the contact information for a LITC in your area look at this user-friendly map and list in English and Spanish here.

Moreover, the NILC and other immigrant advocate groups and pro bono lawyers like myself are always here to lend a hand. On November 16th, UNLV will be hosting a Continuing Legal Education program titled “Everything You Need to Know About the NEW Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) Renewal Process” from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. at William S. Boyd School of Law, Moot Court Room. Join us.

2015 Poverty Measures Released: Antipoverty Relief Delivered through the IRC = EITC & CTC

By: Francine J. Lipman

“Few topics in American society have more myths and stereotypes surrounding them than poverty, misconceptions that distort both our politics and our domestic policymaking.” Mark R. Rank

The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce: Economics and Statistics Administration has released the 2015 poverty measures and the news is eye-poppingly good. The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), the most comprehensive poverty measure, dropped one percent from 2014. Down from 15.3% to 14.3% — nevertheless more than Continue reading “2015 Poverty Measures Released: Antipoverty Relief Delivered through the IRC = EITC & CTC” →

Time for the ABA/Tax Times!

By: Francine J. Lipman

Professor Linda Beale and her team of dedicated editors and staff have once again produced an outstanding issue of ABA Section of Taxation Times.

This issue of TT features a farewell from the exceptional outgoing ABA/Tax Section Chair , George C. Howell, III, Hunton & Williams LLP, Richmond, VA and a welcome from the enthusiastic and energetic incoming ABA/Tax Section Chair William H. Caudill, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Houston TX. I personally appreciate the focus and support both of these gentlemen have given, are giving, and will continue to give to the Tax Section’s pro bono and public service efforts as well as their commitment to diversity and inclusion. Thank you ABA – Tax Section for reaching out for a greater good!

Next, Professors Joe Bankman and James E. Maule engage in a thoughtful point-counterpoint discussion on the important issue of tax filing simplification.

The brilliant Jasper L. Cummings, Jr. in “Spending Without Appropriations: Who’s to Complain?” discusses the recent Affordable Care Act (ACA) decision of United States House of Representatives v. Burwell, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62646 (D. D.C. 2016). In the decision, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer ruled that DHHS cannot pay insurance companies the costs they incur in reducing the “cost sharing” for some ACA insurance policy holders. The court enjoined further payments to the insurance companies for those costs, but stayed the injunction pending appeal, which surely will occur. In other words, the House of Representatives won.

On a lighter note, here is a new tax tune, titled OVDP (Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program), by Robert S. Steinberg of Palmetto Bay, FL, sung to the tune of “Tonight,” by Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim, from West Side Story.

Finally, Tax Law Professors take note,

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016, the 16th Annual Law Student Tax Challenge begins so spread the word to your students near and far!

And there are even more treasures in the August issue of the Tax Times, but I will let you dig up those pearls of wisdom yourself! There is something for every tax professional in the ABA-TT.