Far away in the backdrop of the 2012 Presidential election, laid a secondary story that would make for primetime headlines on any other given day. That particular secondary story was none other than the states of Colorado and Washington successfully passing constitutional amendments that legalized recreational use of marijuana. [More]

As the year comes to a close, many people are wondering what will happen to the infamous Bush Tax Cuts. There are three main possibilities for what could happen to the tax cuts: extend them for everyone, let them expire for everyone or let them expire only for the “rich,” while keeping them in place for everyone else. While many people are arguing their views back and forth, chances are whatever happens (or doesn’t happen) to the tax cuts won’t solve our economy’s overall problems. Many will agree that our economy is faulty at its best and utterly failing at its worst. While there is a lot of curiosity about what will happen at the close of the year, in relation to the tax cuts, there is a bigger picture. In order to really work towards improving our economy, it is necessary to look towards more stable and permanent changes. Further, in order to avoid a “two steps forward, one step back” sort of progress, we need to stop fighting each other every step of the way and start working together. [More]

The Creating Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-240, 124 Stat. 2504 (Title II, H.R. 5297) became law on September 27, 2010. The Joint Committee on Taxation (Committee) estimates that the tax provisions will provide $56 billion in relief to small businesses in 2011. However, the act's actual value is questionable. This article will analyze the potential effects of the legislation. [More]

The recent decision by the Illinois Supreme Court regarding tax exemption for hospitals is troubling for the already volatile and uncertain future of many hospitals that are facing increasing difficulties in the current economic market. The Illinois Supreme Court held that Provena Medical Center in Urbana does not provide enough charity care to qualify for the tax exemption provided for hospitals that care for uninsured and poor patients without generating a profit or collecting fees.[1] The decision has generated significant criticism for relying on old precedent, failing to take into account current economic conditions, and for failing to provide clear guidelines for nonprofit hospitals that want to qualify for tax exemption in Illinois.[2] The implications of this decision while not precisely known can have wide ranging consequences for hospital financing and for access to healthcare for low income and uninsured individuals. What are hospitals required to do to quality for tax exemption in Illinois? What financial implications does this have on nonprofit hospitals? What implications does this have on patients? Will this decision effectively end charitable exemptions for nonprofit hospitals? This article will attempt to briefly outline the issue and provide the possible policy implications of this decision. [More]

In 1918, the United States enacted a foreign tax credit (FTC) system for taxing foreign-source business income earned by multinational corporations (MNCs). This system, known as “worldwide” taxation is said to implement “capital export neutrality” by neutralizing a citizen’s decision between investing domestically or abroad. About half of the Organization for Economic Co-operation (OECD) countries have adopted a similar approach. However, as foreign trade agreements and the complexity of U.S. tax treatment continue to increase, a “territorial” taxation system, as implemented by the other half of OECD countries, might be worth considering in the United States.

This article will 1) define some of the underlying principles behind international tax policies, 2) suggest a proposal for a tax-exemption system, 3) explain how the proposal solves problems under the current system, and finally 4) attempt to rationalize potential criticisms surrounding an exemption system. [More]

The Chicago Cubs are the highest drawing baseball team in the Arizona Cactus League and earn nearly $52 million for the state of Arizona annually. The team’s current deal with Mesa, Arizona allows the Cubs to buy out of its agreement to play in Mesa after 2012. As a result, the Cubs have received pitches from groups in both Arizona and Florida trying to persuade them to choose their state for the site of their new spring training facility. Initially, an Arizona House committee proposed legislation that would approve a $1 surcharge on auto rentals in the Phoenix area and an 8 percent surcharge on the tickets to all Cactus League games in order to fund the new facility. This raises two significant issues. First, do stadiums actually have these positive results for local economies or do they benefit another party? And second, in light of recent case law, is a tax incentive for the Cubs to stay in Arizona a constitutional option? [More]

States and cities tax professional athletes in multiple ways. A traditional method, which applies to athletes and non-athletes alike, is income taxation by the state in which an individual resides. A second method, utilized by twenty states, is to tax athletes when they participate in games other than in the state they reside. [1] This second method is commonly referred to as the “jock tax.” Since the inception of the jock tax, inequality from state to state has been a prevalent issue. The combination of the jock tax and differences between how states tax its residents may make some cities in the United States and in Canada more attractive than others. At the same time, but for a few adjustments that are made to a team’s salary cap, the teams in the major sports are limited to the same payroll as the other teams in the sport. Given the salary cap, teams in hockey, football, baseball, and basketball may find it difficult to compete with teams with more attractive tax situations. To further increase parity in the major sports, changes should be made to salary caps in the major sports based on the different tax situations created by different states. [More]

Someone might view the economic crisis times as the best period to broaden one’s business horizons and invest into a new market. The fast growing markets such as China, Brazil, India and to some extent Russia are waiting for new investors. Russia, having more than 140 million inhabitants, i.e. potential consumers, and abundant natural resources remains mostly neglected by investors in many business fields. For decades Russian market was viewed as not a place for those faint-of-heart. Now the growth of political stability and positive developments in legislation make the investment less risky and more attractive. Nevertheless, the still existing differences between local and internationally recognized legislative frameworks and court practices make investors wonder if there is any possibility to opt out of the Russian legal rules.
This article will explore the reasons behind Russian corporate norms that explain the inflexibility of current legislation and court practice and discuss views on future development of the corporate law system of the country. Part II introduces an overview of the policy issues behind the corporate law created specifically for Russia as a developing economy. Part III analyzes the legislation and its drawbacks, provides advice for investors who for various reasons want to opt out of Russian law. Part IV discusses the reasons for the government amending the corporate law, gives a forecast of future developments and provides a general conclusion. [More]

President Obama’s September 11th decision to restrict imports of Chinese tires has sparked a taxing debate both domestically and abroad. On top of the preexisting four percent tariff on all tire imports, the president determined to impose additional duties of 35-30-25 percent ad valorem tapered down over three years, specifically upon certain passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. [1] China responded within days by raising a World Trade Organization ("WTO") challenge to the safeguard, alleging that Obama’s actions are inconsistent with existing international laws. [2] Meanwhile, the proclamation has incited both criticism and praise from a variety of domestic and foreign interests. This article will assess the legality, consequences, and judiciousness of implementing such a tariff and conclude with a word on the free trade versus protectionism debate. [More]

In the months preceding elections in the United States it is difficult to avoid statistical sampling, as polling projections are everywhere. Only a sample is used to make these projections because it would take too much time and be too expensive to determine how every voter will vote. [1] Statistical sampling has many others uses as well, including being used as evidence in a trial [2] or being used to estimate how much a taxpayer owes the government on their tax return. [3] As with elections, to determine the exact result for a tax return, every item in the population would need to be investigated. As a population gets larger, this gets more time consuming and more expensive, especially when the information is collected by experts, lawyers, and accountants. Furthermore, each additional item of the population collected will not result in a proportionate change in the precision of the estimate, because the precision of an estimate varies inversely with the square root of the sample size. [4] Tax deductions and credits may be difficult to calculate, but rather than render them worthless to taxpayers or get rid of them completely, statistical sampling should be encouraged when calculations would otherwise be too difficult to calculate. [More]