The Criminality of Tax Planning

In recent years, the federal government has adopted an aggressive prosecution policy that targets tax advisors who help their clients evade taxes. Increased prosecutions coupled with the present-day sophistication of tax practice call for a critical examination of the willfulness standard applied to tax advisors who use the Code and Treasury regulations as part of their regular practices. This is something no previous legal scholarship has done. To establish willfulness, the government must show that a person accused of a tax crime intentionally violated a known legal duty. Because knowledge of illegality is an element of the government\u27s tax evasion case, prosecutors must negate a defendant\u27s claim of ignorance or misunderstanding of the law, which is evaluated subjectively. The mistake of tax law defense and the knowledge of illegality standard are anomalies since ignorance of the law usually is not an excuse. The Supreme Court, however, has said that tax law is special due to the need to protect average citizens from prosecution for innocent mistakes made due to the complexity of the tax laws. The same high standard of willfulness that applies to average citizens also applies to tax professionals. This Article aims to do two primary things. First, it demonstrates that consideration should be given to broadening the current willfulness standard as it is applied to tax advisors. Second, it evaluates the suitability of Samuel Buell and Lisa Kern Griffin\u27s work on consciousness of wrongdoing as one possible approach to consider. Beyond tax scholars and practitioners, this Article may resonate with those interested in criminal law generally and white collar crime in particular, as well as those interested in issues of professional responsibility

Custom-Tailored Law: When Statutory Interpretation Meets the Internal Revenue Code

When it comes to statutory interpretation, the traditional approaches fail to consider how the laws being interpreted by the courts were actually made. Instead, they tend to presume a uniform lawmaking process. In reality, the lawmaking process tends to be highly variable, both among, and even within, different areas of law. Traditional interpretive approaches also fail to consider the actual institutional capabilities of Congress or the courts. Textualist approaches give primacy to the words that Congress chose. By doing so, they implicitly assume that legislators accurately constructed the statutory text but pay no attention to whether the actual lawmaking process was reliable or trustworthy. By contrast, purposivist approaches idealize the role of judges by assuming they have the capacity to uncover the purposes that motivated lawmakers to enact what they did. But whether judges indeed have the capacity to discern Congress’s intent might be influenced by whether the interpreters are subject-matter specialists or generalists. In short, the traditional approaches are unsuccessful to the extent they fail to account for the quality of statutory texts or the quality of courts interpreting those texts. One-size-fits-all approaches might cause judges to fall short in fulfilling their role to accurately interpret statutory text as faithful agents of Congress. The faithful-agent model assumes that the role of courts, as agents of Congress, is to interpret statutory text to reflect congressional intent. This model gives lawmaking deference to Congress consistent with the Constitution’s separation of powers. Failing to place what Congress said into the context of what it actually did could hinder judges from accurately interpreting laws consistent with Congress’s intent. Likewise, ignoring the expertise of courts considering the meaning of statutory texts might result in imprecise or incomplete interpretations. Although scholars have recognized that ready-made interpretative approaches, like ready-made clothing, might be a poor fit, this Article is the first to apply these insights to tax law by exploring the suitability of a custom-tailored interpretive doctrine specifically for the Internal Revenue Code, arguably the mother of all statutory regimes. In so doing, this Article finds that tax seems to be especially well-suited to a bespoke statutory interpretive approach, with experts involved in conceptualizing and writing tax laws as well as a specialized Tax Court with national jurisdiction interpreting the laws. This Article contends that when courts interpret federal tax laws, they should explicitly and consistently take account of these unique characteristics. I. Introduction II. The Current Environment ... A. Traditional Off-the-Rack Interpretive Theories ... B. Customized Interpretive Approaches: A Review of the Literature III. Urging a Tax-Specific Interpretive Doctrine ... A. Tax Is a Mature Area of Law ... 1. Tax-Specific Substantive Canons ... a. Income ... b. Deductions, Exemptions, and Credits ... 2. Common Law Anti-Abuse Doctrines ... 3. Whole-Code Structural Canon ... 4. Tax Logic ... B. Anatomy of Tax Legislative Process ... C. Role and Influence of the Tax Court ... 1. Specialist and Generalist Judges’ Differing Approaches to Statutory Interpretation ... 2. Tax Court’s Independence: Marching to Its Own Beat ... a. Tax Court Is a National Trial Court ... b. Effect of Tax Court’s Expertise on Its Independence ... 3. Informal Influence and Downward Deference ... 4. Duty to the Tax System IV. Conclusio

Critical review of behaviour change techniques applied in intervention studies to improve cooking skills and food skills among adults

BACKGROUND: Cooking and food skills interventions have grown in popularity; however, there is a lack of transparency as to how these interventions were designed, highlighting a need to identify and understand the mechanisms of behavior change so that effective components may be introduced in future work. This study critiques cooking and food skills interventions in relation to their design, behavior change techniques (BCTs), theoretical underpinnings, and outcomes. METHODS: A 40-item CALO-RE taxonomy was used to examine the components of 59 cooking and food skills interventions identified by two systematic reviews. Studies were coded by three independent coders. RESULTS: The three most frequently occurring BCTs identified were #1 Provide information on consequences of behavior in general; #21 Provide instruction on how to perform the behavior; and #26 Prompt Practice. Fifty-six interventions reported positive short-term outcomes. Only 14 interventions reported long-term outcomes containing BCTs relating to information provision. CONCLUSION: This study reviewed cooking and food skills interventions highlighting the most commonly used BCTs, and those associated with long-term positive outcomes for cooking skills and diet. This study indicates the potential for using the BCT CALO-RE taxonomy to inform the design, planning, delivery and evaluation of future interventions

Data Assimilation Enhancements to Air Force Weathers Land Information System

The United States Air Force (USAF) has a proud and storied tradition of enabling significant advancements in the area of characterizing and modeling land state information. 557th Weather Wing (557 WW; DoDs Executive Agent for Land Information) provides routine geospatial intelligence information to warfighters, planners, and decision makers at all echelons and services of the U.S. military, government and intelligence community. 557 WW and its predecessors have been home to the DoDs only operational regional and global land data analysis systems since January 1958. As a trusted partner since 2005, Air Force Weather (AFW) has relied on the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA/GSFC to lead the interagency scientific collaboration known as the Land Information System (LIS). LIS is an advanced software framework for high performance land surface modeling and data assimilation of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) information

The genomes of two key bumblebee species with primitive eusocial organization

Background: The shift from solitary to social behavior is one of the major evolutionary transitions. Primitively eusocial bumblebees are uniquely placed to illuminate the evolution of highly eusocial insect societies. Bumblebees are also invaluable natural and agricultural pollinators, and there is widespread concern over recent population declines in some species. High-quality genomic data will inform key aspects of bumblebee biology, including susceptibility to implicated population viability threats. Results: We report the high quality draft genome sequences of Bombus terrestris and Bombus impatiens, two ecologically dominant bumblebees and widely utilized study species. Comparing these new genomes to those of the highly eusocial honeybee Apis mellifera and other Hymenoptera, we identify deeply conserved similarities, as well as novelties key to the biology of these organisms. Some honeybee genome features thought to underpin advanced eusociality are also present in bumblebees, indicating an earlier evolution in the bee lineage. Xenobiotic detoxification and immune genes are similarly depauperate in bumblebees and honeybees, and multiple categories of genes linked to social organization, including development and behavior, show high conservation. Key differences identified include a bias in bumblebee chemoreception towards gustation from olfaction, and striking differences in microRNAs, potentially responsible for gene regulation underlying social and other traits. Conclusions: These two bumblebee genomes provide a foundation for post-genomic research on these key pollinators and insect societies. Overall, gene repertoires suggest that the route to advanced eusociality in bees was mediated by many small changes in many genes and processes, and not by notable expansion or depauperation

Can We Detect Chronic Pancreatitis With Low Serum Pancreatic Enzyme Levels?

Objectives: The aims of this study were to evaluate whether serum pancreatic enzyme levels could be used to aid screening for chronic pancreatitis (CP). Methods: 170 healthy volunteers were screened and prospectively enrolled in the control group. 150 patients who were diagnosed with calcific CP were enrolled in the patient group by retrospective review. Serum amylase and lipase levels were compared between the 2 groups. Results: The mean values ± SD of the control group were compared with those of the patient group for serum amylase level (48.1 ± 13.2 vs 34.8 ± 17.2 U/L, P < 0.001) and serum lipase level (26.4 ± 11.3 vs 16.3 ± 11.2 U/L, P < 0.001). On the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for amylase level, area under the curve was 0.740 (95% confidence interval), and sensitivity and specificity were 38.7% and 94.1%, respectively, with a cutoff value of 27.5 U/L. On the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for lipase level, area under the curve was 0.748 (95% confidence interval), and sensitivity and specificity were 33.3% and 95.9%, respectively, with a cutoff value of 10.5 U/L. Conclusions: Our results suggest that low serum pancreatic enzyme levels can be used to aid in detection of CP

Specific loss of adipocyte CD248 improves metabolic health via reduced white adipose tissue hypoxia, fibrosis and inflammation

Background: A positive energy balance promotes white adipose tissue (WAT) expansion which is characterized by activation of a repertoire of events including hypoxia, inflammation and extracellular matrix remodelling. The transmembrane glycoprotein CD248 has been implicated in all these processes in different malignant and inflammatory diseases but its potential impact in WAT and metabolic disease has not been explored.Methods: The role of CD248 in adipocyte function and glucose metabolism was evaluated by omits analyses in human WAT, gene knockdowns in human in vitro differentiated adipocytes and by adipocyte-specific and inducible Cd248 gene knockout studies in mice.Findings: CD248 is upregulated in white but not brown adipose tissue of obese and insulin-resistant individuals. Gene ontology analyses showed that CD248 expression associated positively with pro-inflammatory/pro-fibrotic pathways. By combining data from several human cohorts with gene knockdown experiments in human adipocytes, our results indicate that CD248 acts as a microenvironmental sensor which mediates part of the adipose tissue response to hypoxia and is specifically perturbed in white adipocytes in the obese state. Adipocytespecific and inducible Cd248 knockouts in mice, both before and after diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance/glucose intolerance, resulted in increased microvascular density as well as attenuated hypoxia, inflammation and fibrosis without affecting fat cell volume. This was accompanied by significant improvements in insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.Interpretation: CD248 exerts detrimental effects on WAT phenotype and systemic glucose homeostasis which may be reversed by suppression of adipocyte CD248. Therefore, CD248 may constitute a target to treat obesity-associated co-morbidities. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.</p

Glutamate Induces the Elongation of Early Dendritic Protrusions via mGluRs in Wild Type Mice, but Not in Fragile X Mice

Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common inherited from of autism and mental impairment, is caused by transcriptional silencing of the Fmr1 gene, resulting in the loss of the RNA-binding protein FMRP. Dendritic spines of cortical pyramidal neurons in affected individuals are abnormally immature and in Fmr1 knockout (KO) mice they are also abnormally unstable. This could result in defects in synaptogenesis, because spine dynamics are critical for synapse formation. We have previously shown that the earliest dendritic protrusions, which are highly dynamic and might serve an exploratory role to reach out for axons, elongate in response to glutamate. Here, we tested the hypothesis that this process is mediated by metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) and that it is defective in Fmr1 KO mice. Using time-lapse imaging with two-photon microscopy in acute brain slices from early postnatal mice, we find that early dendritic protrusions in layer 2/3 neurons become longer in response to application of glutamate or DHPG, a Group 1 mGluR agonist. Blockade of mGluR5 signaling, which reverses some adult phenotypes of KO mice, prevented the glutamate-mediated elongation of early protrusions. In contrast, dendritic protrusions from KO mice failed to respond to glutamate. Thus, absence of FMRP may impair the ability of cortical pyramidal neurons to respond to glutamate released from nearby pre-synaptic terminals, which may be a critical step to initiate synaptogenesis and stabilize spines

A shared role for RBF1 and dCAP-D3 in the regulation of transcription with consequences for innate immunity

Previously, we discovered a conserved interaction between RB proteins and the Condensin II protein CAP-D3 that is important for ensuring uniform chromatin condensation during mitotic prophase. The Drosophila melanogaster homologs RBF1 and dCAP-D3 co-localize on non-dividing polytene chromatin, suggesting the existence of a shared, non-mitotic role for these two proteins. Here, we show that the absence of RBF1 and dCAP-D3 alters the expression of many of the same genes in larvae and adult flies. Strikingly, most of the genes affected by the loss of RBF1 and dCAP-D3 are not classic cell cycle genes but are developmentally regulated genes with tissue-specific functions and these genes tend to be located in gene clusters. Our data reveal that RBF1 and dCAP-D3 are needed in fat body cells to activate transcription of clusters of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes. AMPs are important for innate immunity, and loss of either dCAP-D3 or RBF1 regulation results in a decrease in the ability to clear bacteria. Interestingly, in the adult fat body, RBF1 and dCAP-D3 bind to regions flanking an AMP gene cluster both prior to and following bacterial infection. These results describe a novel, non-mitotic role for the RBF1 and dCAP-D3 proteins in activation of the Drosophila immune system and suggest dCAP-D3 has an important role at specific subsets of RBF1-dependent genes

Distinct Roles for Dectin-1 and TLR4 in the Pathogenesis of Aspergillus fumigatus Keratitis

Aspergillus species are a major worldwide cause of corneal ulcers, resulting in visual impairment and blindness in immunocompetent individuals. To enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of Aspergillus keratitis, we developed a murine model in which red fluorescent protein (RFP)-expressing A. fumigatus (Af293.1RFP) conidia are injected into the corneal stroma, and disease progression and fungal survival are tracked over time. Using Mafia mice in which c-fms expressing macrophages and dendritic cells can be induced to undergo apoptosis, we demonstrated that the presence of resident corneal macrophages is essential for production of IL-1β and CXCL1/KC, and for recruitment of neutrophils and mononuclear cells into the corneal stroma. We found that β-glucan was highly expressed on germinating conidia and hyphae in the cornea stroma, and that both Dectin-1 and phospho-Syk were up-regulated in infected corneas. Additionally, we show that infected Dectin-1−/− corneas have impaired IL-1β and CXCL1/KC production, resulting in diminished cellular infiltration and fungal clearance compared with control mice, especially during infection with clinical isolates expressing high β-glucan. In contrast to Dectin 1−/− mice, cellular infiltration into infected TLR2−/−, TLR4−/−, and MD-2−/− mice corneas was unimpaired, indicating no role for these receptors in cell recruitment; however, fungal killing was significantly reduced in TLR4−/− mice, but not TLR2−/− or MD-2−/− mice. We also found that TRIF−/− and TIRAP−/− mice exhibited no fungal-killing defects, but that MyD88−/− and IL-1R1−/− mice were unable to regulate fungal growth. In conclusion, these data are consistent with a model in which β-glucan on A.fumigatus germinating conidia activates Dectin-1 on corneal macrophages to produce IL-1β, and CXCL1, which together with IL-1R1/MyD88-dependent activation, results in recruitment of neutrophils to the corneal stroma and TLR4-dependent fungal killing