The Tax Debts of Small Business Owners in Bankruptcy

Tax burden on small business owners in the United States is significant and regressive in nature. Some studies have linked the tax burden on small business owners to lower profitability, lower rate of entrepreneurial growth, and business closures. The tax burden also appears to cause some small business owners to resort to bankruptcy protection. The objective of this study is to investigate the burden tax obligations impose on small business owners at the time of their bankruptcy filing. Specifically, using a national sample, this study ascertains the pervasiveness of tax debts among small business owner bankruptcy petitioners. The findings from this study suggest that the tax burden is pervasive to a much greater extent among small business owners in bankruptcy as compared to consumer petitioners. This study also suggests that individual small business owners, who are encumbered with high tax debts, are significantly worse off financially as compared to the small business owners who have low tax debts or no tax debts. This study indicates that the tax burden is also significant in total amount outstanding. Not only did a sizeable number of small business owners in bankruptcy sample report significant tax debts as part of their bankruptcy schedules, tax debts appear to impair the ability of some small business owners from obtaining a financial fresh start

The Case for Limited Enforceability of a Pre-Petition Waiver of the Automatic Stay

This Article explores whether a pre-petition waiver of the automatic stay in a bankruptcy proceeding is enforceable. Courts that analyze the enforceability of such waivers address the question of whether a debtor and its creditors should be allowed to opt out of this provision of the Bankruptcy Code. Based on conflict within the bankruptcy courts, the author explores the rationale for such conflict among the courts. He then proposes an approach for resolving this conflict consistent with the various statutory and public policy considerations. He concludes that courts should enforce pre-petition waivers of the automatic stay under limited circumstances

Tax Policy and the Obesity Epidemic

This Article begins with a brief summary of the growing obesity epidemic in the U.S. It then explores some of the central contributing factors to the mounting obesity problem among U.S. children and adults. It also examines the adverse impact and costs associated with the obesity problem. Next, this Article discusses the justification for government intervention, as well as the benefits and disadvantages of using the tax system as a way of shaping consumption and physical activity patterns. It then summarizes recent efforts by various levels of government in the U.S. to use the tax system to affect eating and physical activity levels. Lastly, this Article reviews the research on the impact that current tax legislations have on healthy eating and physical activity. This Article concludes with suggested future research on tax legislations that may offer promising future pathways to address the problem

The Tax Debts of Small Business Owners in Bankruptcy

Tax burden on small business owners in the United States is significant and regressive in nature. Some studies have linked the tax burden on small business owners to lower profitability, lower rate of entrepreneurial growth, and business closures. The tax burden also appears to cause some small business owners to resort to bankruptcy protection. The objective of this study is to investigate the burden tax obligations impose on small business owners at the time of their bankruptcy filing. Specifically, using a national sample, this study ascertains the pervasiveness of tax debts among small business owner bankruptcy petitioners. The findings from this study suggest that the tax burden is pervasive to a much greater extent among small business owners in bankruptcy as compared to consumer petitioners. This study also suggests that individual small business owners, who are encumbered with high tax debts, are significantly worse off financially as compared to the small business owners who have low tax debts or no tax debts. This study indicates that the tax burden is also significant in total amount outstanding. Not only did a sizeable number of small business owners in bankruptcy sample report significant tax debts as part of their bankruptcy schedules, tax debts appear to impair the ability of some small business owners from obtaining a financial fresh start

The Evolution of the Fresh-Start Policy in Israeli Bankruptcy Law

A fresh-start policy in bankruptcy provides the honest but financially troubled individual some form of financial relief in an attempt to provide him with an opportunity to productively reintegrate into the economy and society. While some countries today provide broad financial relief to individuals who resort to bankruptcy protection, many countries have retained a largely limited as well as punitive fresh-start policy. This Article explores the evolution of the fresh-start policy in Israel. While it briefly examines the attitudes and practices adopted towards financially troubled individuals historically in the Jewish tradition, it focuses on tracing those attitudes and practices to the modem day State of Israel. It demonstrates that the attitudes and practices historically held by Jewish communities towards financially troubled individuals have progressively evolved from an obsession with protecting the dignity and freedom rights of the individual debtor to preoccupation with preserving morality in the credit market and neutralizing perceived opportunistic behavior on the part of debtors. However, most recently, bold legislative and judicial steps suggest that a new philosophy towards financially troubled individuals may be emerging in Israel

Reading tea leaves worldwide: decoupled drivers of initial litter decomposition mass‐loss rate and stabilization

The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large‐scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial mass‐loss rates and stabilization factors of plant‐derived carbon, using the Tea Bag Index (TBI). The stabilization factor quantifies the degree to which easy‐to‐degrade components accumulate during early‐stage decomposition (e.g. by environmental limitations). However, agriculture and an interaction between moisture and temperature led to a decoupling between initial mass‐loss rates and stabilization, notably in colder locations. Using TBI improved mass‐loss estimates of natural litter compared to models that ignored stabilization. Ignoring the transformation of dead plant material to more recalcitrant substances during early‐stage decomposition, and the environmental control of this transformation, could overestimate carbon losses during early decomposition in carbon cycle models