A History of Tax Regulation Prior to the Administrative Procedure Act

The relationship of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to tax administration has been the subject of increasing scrutiny from scholars and courts. Some of this scrutiny has critiqued the long-held view of the Department of Treasury that tax regulations issued under the general grant of authority in I.R.C. § 7805(a) are interpretative regulations within the meaning of the APA. This Article reviews the almost 150–year history of tax administration before the enactment of the APA to show the origins and basis for this long-held view. The Article also argues that the application of the general terms of the APA to tax administration must be informed by this pre–APA history of tax regulation

Where the Dead Remain

Where the Dead Remain is a murder mystery set in a Post-Katrina New Orleans where the gods, magic and monsters of various world mythologies actually exist. The story follows a week in the life of Jude Duboisson, a once magician who is struggling with the loss of his magic and the life he had known in the wake of the storm, as he is pulled out of his torpor and into the affairs of the mighty once again. He is tasked with discovering who murdered Dodge Renaud, the fortune god of New Orleans. What he discovers, though, are some surprising truths about the fundamental nature of things: about loss, about New Orleans, and about himself

Taxation of Electronic Gaming

At a doctrinal level, the subject of this Article is timely. During this time of the coronavirus pandemic, casinos have been closed and large populations have been subject to stay-home orders from local and state authorities. One can reasonably expect a large increase in electronic gaming and thus an increased need for proper consideration of its taxation. This Article argues for a cash-out rule of taxation. At a deeper level, the subject of this Article is timeless. Tax law is wickedly complex for a reason. This Article explores that complexity using the example of electronic gaming. It grapples with the source of that complexity: an inherent and unresolvable tension between economic theories of income and the practical needs of administering a system of taxation to a large population in a democracy. That tension led some scholars to argue for a standards-based approach to taxation. This Article considers and rejects that argument. Legal rules are necessary to mediate between theory and practice. Hence, this Article demonstrates the continued relevance and importance of doctrinal analysis in legal scholarship

Bound by the BAP: The Stare Decisis Effects of BAP Decisions

Bankruptcy Appellate Panels (BAPs) are used as an intermediate review of bankruptcy final orders, judgments and decrees, between the district court and circuit court of appeals. The precedential value of BAP decisions, however, has long been in dispute. This article examines the history of BAPs and analyzes the doctrine of stare decisis in relation to these courts. The author argues that BAP decisions should bind both bankruptcy and district courts within a circuit. A secondary theme argues again disbanding BAPs, a proposal put forward by the National Bankruptcy Review Commission

The Play\u27s the Thing: A Theory of Taxing Virtual Worlds

This Article looks at the potential tax issues arising from a new life activity: online role-playing games in virtual worlds. Currently, some thirty million people regularly play such games and the number is growing. Exploring the reach of the Tax Code into virtual world transactions not only responds to the potentially practical needs of millions of U.S. taxpayers, it also permits a reevaluation of core principles of income tax as they interplay with life activities in the context of twenty-first century American culture. This Article\u27s central thesis is that while player activity in virtual worlds undoubtedly produces measurable economic value to the player, player activity that occurs solely within the online virtual world is not gross income under the law. The Article argues for a cash out rule. Players whose added wealth consists solely in units of play should not be taxed unless and until they convert those units into cash or property that is something other than a unit of play. Conversely, when the play ceases, taxation begins. The resulting line-drawing difficulties have nothing to do with player intent nor with fun and games. Instead, the issue presented is as old as the Tax Code itself: at what point does economic gain become legal gain? The new context of virtual worlds allows for a renewed exploration of how and why the legal concept of income differs, and indeed must differ, from the economic concept

GENERALIZED LINEAR MIXED MODEL ESTIMATION USING PROC GLIMMIX: RESULTS FROM SIMULATIONS WHEN THE DATA AND MODEL MATCH, AND WHEN THE MODEL IS MISSPECIFIED

A simulation study was conducted to determine how well SAS® PROC GLIMMIX (SAS Institute, Cary, NC), statistical software to fit generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs), performed for a simple GLMM, using its default settings, as a naïve user would do. Data were generated from a wide variety of distributions with the same sets of linear predictors, and under several conditions. Then, the data sets were analyzed by using the correct model (the generating model and estimating model were the same) and, subsequently, by misspecifying the estimating model, all using default settings. The data generation model was a randomized complete block design where the model parameters and sample sizes were adjusted to yield 80% power for the F-test on treatment means given a 30 block experiment with block-by-treatment interaction and with additional treatment replications within each block. Convergence rates were low for the exponential and Poisson distributions, even when the generating and estimating models matched. The normal and lognormal distributions converged 100% of the time; convergence rates for other distributions varied. As expected, reducing the number of blocks from 30 to five and increasing replications within blocks to keep total N the same reduced power to 40% or less. Except for the exponential distribution, estimates of treatment means and variance parameters were accurate with only slight biases. Misspecifying the estimating model by omitting the block-by-treatment random effect made F-tests too liberal. Since omitting that term from the model, effectively ignoring a process involved in giving rise to the data, produces symptoms of over-dispersion, several potential remedies were investigated. For all distributions, the historically recommended variance stabilizing transformation was applied, and then the transformed data were fit using a linear mixed model. For one-parameter members of the exponential family an over-dispersion parameter was included in the estimating model. The negative binomial distribution was also examined as the estimating model distribution. None of these remedial steps corrected the over-dispersion problem created by misspecifying the linear predictor, although using a variance stabilizing transformation did improve convergence rates on most distributions investigated

Patterns of Growth and Decline in Lung Function in Persistent Childhood Asthma

BACKGROUND: Tracking longitudinal measurements of growth and decline in lung function in patients with persistent childhood asthma may reveal links between asthma and subsequent chronic airflow obstruction. METHODS: We classified children with asthma according to four characteristic patterns of lung-function growth and decline on the basis of graphs showing forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), representing spirometric measurements performed from childhood into adulthood. Risk factors associated with abnormal patterns were also examined. To define normal values, we used FEV1 values from participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey who did not have asthma. RESULTS: Of the 684 study participants, 170 (25%) had a normal pattern of lung-function growth without early decline, and 514 (75%) had abnormal patterns: 176 (26%) had reduced growth and an early decline, 160 (23%) had reduced growth only, and 178 (26%) had normal growth and an early decline. Lower baseline values for FEV1, smaller bronchodilator response, airway hyperresponsiveness at baseline, and male sex were associated with reduced growth (P \u3c 0.001 for all comparisons). At the last spirometric measurement (mean [+/-SD] age, 26.0+/-1.8 years), 73 participants (11%) met Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease spirometric criteria for lung-function impairment that was consistent with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); these participants were more likely to have a reduced pattern of growth than a normal pattern (18% vs. 3%, P \u3c 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Childhood impairment of lung function and male sex were the most significant predictors of abnormal longitudinal patterns of lung-function growth and decline. Children with persistent asthma and reduced growth of lung function are at increased risk for fixed airflow obstruction and possibly COPD in early adulthood. (Funded by the Parker B. Francis Foundation and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00000575.)

Effect of the overflows on the circulation in the Subpolar North Atlantic: A regional model study

An ocean circulation model for process studies of the Subpolar North Atlantic is developed based on the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) Modular Ocean Model (MOM) code. The basic model configuration is identical with that of the high-resolution model (with a grid size of 1/3° × 2/5°) of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Community Modeling Effort (CME), except that the domain of integration is confined to the area from 43° to 65°N. Open boundary conditions are used for the inflows and outflows across the northern and southern boundaries. A comparison with the CME model covering the whole North Atlantic (from 15°S to 65°N) shows that the regional model, with inflow conditions at 43°N from a CME solution, is able to reproduce the CME results for the subpolar area. Thus the potential of a regional model lies in its use as an efficient tool for numerical experiments aiming at an identification of the key physical processes that determine the circulation and water mass transformations in the subpolar gyre. This study deals primarily with the representation and role of the overflow waters that enter the domain at the northern boundary. Sensitivity experiments show the effect of closed versus open boundaries, of different hydrographic conditions at inflow points, and of the representation of the narrow Faeroe Bank Channel. The representation of overflow processes in the Denmark Strait is the main controlling mechanism for the net transport of the deep boundary current along the Greenland continental slope and further downstream. Changes in the Faeroe Bank Channel throughflow conditions have a comparatively smaller effect on the deep transport in the western basin but strongly affect the water mass characteristics in the eastern North Atlantic. The deep water transport at Cape Farewell and further downstream is enhanced compared to the combined Denmark Strait and Iceland-Scotland overflows. This enhancement can be attributed to a barotropic recirculation in the Irminger Basin which is very sensitive to the outflow conditions in the Denmark Strait. The representation of both overflow regions determine the upper layer circulation in the Irminger and Iceland Basins, in particular the path of the North Atlantic Current