Form, Substance, and Section 1041

The article reviews recent cases and rulings dealing with the interplay of section 1041 with both (1) the assignment of income doctrine in the deferred compensation context and (2) the substance over form doctrine in the context of redemptions of closely held stock. The author argues that such doctrines, which attempt to avoid improper shifting of income between taxpayers, are inappropriate in the context of section 1041 transfers in light of the history and goals of that section. She believes that final regulations adopted under section 1041 should ensure that the form of transfers or redemptions negotiated by the parties dictates the resulting tax

Interpreting Tax Legislation: The Role of Purpose

This 1995 article uses tax cases to explore various methods of statutory interpretation

Only Congress Can Create Deductions

A series of recent and controversial cases has raised the issue of how plaintiffs must treat attorneys\u27 fees and costs that are paid out of otherwise includable settlement or litigation awards. Everyone seems to agree that under tax policy and theory plaintiffs should not be saddled with this burden. Many have expressed the desire that Congress amend the Code to correct the problem. The more difficult question, which the author addresses, is whether courts can act to protect these plaintiffs in the absence of Congressional action

Nonlinear response of a linear chain to weak driving

We study the escape of a chain of coupled units over the barrier of a metastable potential. It is demonstrated that a very weak external driving field with suitably chosen frequency suffices to accomplish speedy escape. The latter requires the passage through a transition state the formation of which is triggered by permanent feeding of energy from a phonon background into humps of localised energy and elastic interaction of the arising breather solutions. In fact, cooperativity between the units of the chain entailing coordinated energy transfer is shown to be crucial for enhancing the rate of escape in an extremely effective and low-energy cost way where the effect of entropic localisation and breather coalescence conspire

Point & Counterpoint - Plaintiff\u27s Attorney Fees and Costs

Discusses a series of recent and controversial cases that raised the issue of how plaintiffs must treat attorney fees and costs that are paid out of otherwise includable settlement or litigation awards

Expensing and the Interest Deduction

The difficulty of envisioning an effective provision that would deny interest deductions in this context may be reason enough to advocate for the alternative proposal described at the beginning of this viewpoint. The mixing of consumption tax provisions with the income tax treatment of debt in the U.S. tax system already provides too many opportunities for tax arbitrage. The expensing proposal would exacerbate these problems. The alternative proposal of broadening the base and lowering the rates (especially if coupled with eliminating the capital gains preference and integrating the corporate and individual taxes) would go far toward reducing the unfortunate mixing of consumption and income tax provisions in a single tax system that already provides too many tax arbitrage opportunities