Author: Alice Abreu

Income Tax

Extreme Makeover: Tax Edition

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Tax gets a bad rap. For many people, including law students, tax is often thought of as: too boring, too complicated, too mathematical, too volatile, and too arcane. It is also thought to be too much like accounting, relevant only for the rich and their advisors who help them keep as much of their money as possible. What’s more, the suggestion that there might be an interesting tax lawyer is an oxymoron, and popular media depictions of tax lawyers are limited to white men: Tom Cruise in The Firm, Michael Tucker in L.A. Law and Paul Newman in The Young Philadelphians. Viola Davis plays a lawyer on TV and Julia Roberts has played one on film, but neither has been a tax lawyer. That tax can be complex is undeniable, but the rest of the stereotype misses the breadth of the tax law and the ways in which it can be a concrete and succinct expression of social policy. Indeed, the tax system is now a cornerstone of the contemporary social safety net. For nearly …

Tax Forms

Ten Reasons You Should Consider the ABA’s Law Student Tax Law Challenge

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Every year, The Law Student Tax Law Challenge, a competition sponsored by the Young Lawyer’s Forum of ABA Tax Section, draws teams of JD and LLM participants from over 60 law schools for a competition that includes drafting and submitting two documents – one a memorandum to a partner and the other a letter to the client – providing tax advice raised by transactions that the client has been involved in. The competition is intensely transactional – it’s not about writing a brief and arguing to a court but rather doing what most tax lawyers do in practice, which is to advise clients on the likely tax consequences of transactions they have engaged in or are considering engaging in. Students work in teams of two – final submissions are due November 6, 2015, and further information, including how to get the problem and the Competition rules, are below. First, however, are the top ten reasons Temple Law students should consider participating in the Law Student Tax Law Challenge. 10. Semi-finalists get a free trip to …

Tax

The Rule of Law as a Law of Standards: Interpreting the Internal Revenue Code

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In a recent essay on what he identifies as “customary deviations” from the dictates of the Internal Revenue Code, Professor Larry Zelenak asserts that the Internal Revenue Service has regularly created administrative deviations from the Code that produce taxpayer-favorable results that cannot be challenged in the courts because taxpayers lack standing to bring such challenges.[1] He worries that “the lack of any judicial check on unauthorized giveaways by tax administrators threatens rule-of-law values,” [2] and he concludes by proposing “legislation aimed at retaining the practical advantages of customary deviations while assuaging rule-of-law concerns.” [3] To illustrate the customary deviations that he identifies, Professor Zelenak analyzes the IRS’s announced decision not to take the position that employee-retained frequent flyer miles earned on employer-funded or business travel produce income when used for personal travel by employees, but observes that other examples abound. As Professor Zelenak notes, we have devoted some effort to exploring the gap between the expansive literal meaning of various statutory and judicial definitions of income and the narrower meaning that emerges from IRS policies …