We Are Better Than This fundamentally reframes budget debates in the United States. Author Edward D. Kleinbard explains how the public's preoccupation with tax policy alone has obscured any understanding of government's ability to complement the private sector through investment and insurance programs that enhance the general welfare and prosperity of our society at large. He argues that when we choose how government should spend and tax, we open a window into our "fiscal soul," because those choices are the means by which we express the values we cherish and the regard in which we hold our fellow citizens. Though these values are being diminished by short-sighted decisions to starve government, strategic government spending can directly make citizens happier, healthier, and even wealthier. Expertly combining the latest economic research with his insider knowledge of the budget process into a simple yet compelling narrative, he unmasks the tax mythologies and false arguments that too often dominate contemporary discourse about budget policies. Large quantities of comparative data are succinctly distilled to situate the United States among its peer countries, so that readers can judge for themselves whether contemporary budget choices really reflect our aspirational fiscal soul. Kleinbard's presentation takes a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on economics, finance, law, political science and moral philosophy. He uniquely weaves economic research and moral philosophy together by emphasizing our welfare, not just our national income, and by contrasting the actual beliefs of Adam Smith, a great moral philosopher, with the cartoon version of the man presented by proponents of the most extreme forms of private market triumphalism.

The American dream of equal opportunity is in peril. America's economic inequality is shocking, poverty threatens to become a heritable condition, and our healthcare system is crumbling despite ever increasing costs. In this thought-provoking book, Edward D. Kleinbard demonstrates how the failure to acknowledge the force of brute luck in our material lives exacerbates these crises leading to warped policy choices that impede genuine equality of opportunity for many Americans. What's Luck Got to Do with It? combines insights from economics, philosophy, and social psychology to argue for government's proper role in addressing the inequity of brute luck. Kleinbard shows how well-designed public investment can blunt the worst effects of existential bad luck that private insurance cannot reach and mitigate inequality by sharing the costs across the entire risk pool, which is to say, all of us. The benefits, as Kleinbard shares in a wealth of data, are economic as well as social a more inclusive economy, higher national income, and greater life satisfaction for millions of Americans. Like it or not, our lives and opportunities are determined largely by luck. Kleinbard shows that while we can't undo every instance of misfortune, we can offer a path to not just a fairer America, but greater economic growth, more broadly shared.

Buy anew versionof this Connected Casebook and receiveaccessto theonline e-book, practice questionsfrom your favorite study aids, and anoutline toolon CasebookConnect, the all in one learning solution for law school students. CasebookConnect offers you what you need most to be successful in your law school classes - portability, meaningful feedback, and greater efficiency. Building on and adding to the strengths of its predecessors, the new 17th Edition of Federal Income Taxation continues the legacy of its original authors, Boris Bittker, Lawrence M. Stone and William A. Klein, in presenting complex material in an easy to understand way. With leading tax scholars Bankman, Shaviro, Stark and now Kleinbard at the helm of this widely popular book, the book continues to offer an accessible format, bridging the gap between theory and practice, and presenting a variety of perspectives: historical, economic, political, and international. New cases have been added, including more recent older cases (such as Cesarini v. United States), and new chapters have been included on Public and Private Sphere, Debt, Economic Substance, and Law and Poverty. Key Features: Great pedigree and authorship; Original authors Boris Bittker and William A. Klein were eminent authorities (with beautiful writing styles). Bankman, Shaviro, Stark, and Kleinbard are among today's leading tax scholars. The book has always offered the highest integration of economics and policy analysis Notes, problems, and graphs make challenging material accessible Even with all the new material, it is still one of the shortest books around - making it easy to teach from Terrific teacher's manual with teaching notes on every case and concept New chapters have been added on: Public and Private Sphere to help clarify conceptual and administrative issues Debt, which included charts to help student navigate this tricky area Law and Poverty which provides policy analysis and brief explanation of Earned Income Tax Credit CasebookConnectfeatures: ONLINE E-BOOK Law school comes with a lot of reading, so access your enhanced e-book anytime, anywhere to keep up with your coursework. Highlight, take notes in the margins, and search the full text to quickly find coverage of legal topics. PRACTICE QUESTIONS Quiz yourself before class and prep for your exam in the Study Center. Practice questions fromExamples & Explanations, Emanuel Law Outlines, Emanuel Law in a Flashflashcards, and other best-selling study aid series help you study for exams while tracking your strengths and weaknesses to help optimize your study time. OUTLINE TOOL Most professors will tell you that starting your outline early is key to being successful in your law school classes. The Outline Tool automatically populates your notes and highlights from the e-book into an editable format to accelerate your outline creation and increase study time later in the semester.

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on CasebookConnect, including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities; practice questions from your favorite study aids; an outline tool and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes. Learn more about Connected eBooks Integrating theory and policy in an accessible format, the sterling author team of Federal Income Taxation, Eighteenth Edition imbues its subject with historical, economic, policy, and international perspective. Problems integrated throughout the text bridge the gap between theory and practice. Each edition of this renowned text builds on and adds to the strengths of its predecessors. New to the Eighteenth Edition: Fully updated to reflect changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 Professors and students will benefit from: Notes, problems, and graphs that make challenging material accessible The highest integration of economics and policy analysis Great pedigree and authorship: Original authors Boris Bittker and William A. Klein were eminent authorities (with beautiful writing styles). Bankman, Shaviro, Stark, and Kleinbard are among today's leading tax scholars. A manageable length: Even with the new material, Federal Income Taxation is still one of the shortest books around.

The taxation of equity derivatives and structured products is analyzed in detail by Tony Rumble and his contributors, Mohammed Amin and Ed Kleinbard. The book covers the financial and tax technical analysis of issues relating to equity derivatives and structured products. Part 1 examines the derivatives building blocks and financial market/corporate finance drivers of the equity derivatives and financial products market, and includes case studies of typical and landmark transactions. Part 2 looks at the tax technical rules in each of the target countries - the US, UK and Australia - and examines the specific products highlighted in the first part of the book. Case studies of significant transactions are included where necessary.

Edward D. Kleinbard is chief of staff and Patrick Driessen is a senior economist for the Joint Committee on Taxation.The repatriation exemption contained in the 2004 Jobs Act (section 965) offers an opportunity to consider important aspects of the revenue estimating process. The process involved in the estimate of the exemption, the availability of tax and financial data, and recent evaluations of section 965 are factors making this estimate a good example for reviewing the limits of the estimating process, including ex post evaluations of accuracy.This report discusses JCT staff revenue estimating methodology as it applies generally and as it pertained to section 965, what some recent data indicate about the accuracy of the estimate, and ways in which the public dialogue about revenue estimating could be improved. Our findings are that some choices made in preparing the 2004 estimate seem valid in hindsight, while others seem to have missed the mark. Overall, the data available so far do not confirm nor rebut the accuracy of the JCT staff's 2004 estimate. Any ultimate judgment on that accuracy (and the rationale for section 965) requires rigorous evaluation of a wide range of tax data, not all of which are presently available.Some recent public interpretations of the data that has become available in recent months are inaccurate both with respect to the estimate and the provision's policy implications. The public dialogue about revenue estimating could be improved through a clearer understanding of the distinction between revenue estimates and government budget receipts.The views expressed in this report are solely those of the authors, and do not represent the views of the JCT staff as a whole or of any Member of Congress.

Many policymakers, practitioners, and politicians have argued the case for fundamental tax reform. Reform advocates often point to the recent wave of corporate tax shelter controversies as emblematic of the Internal Revenue Code's complexity and economic inefficiency and conclude that our current income tax is a system gone irredeemably awry. Most tax reform advocates urge that our income tax system be replaced or supplemented by a consumption tax (most often, a value added tax). This paper, by contrast, urges a genuine reformation of the income tax applicable to business enterprises. The paper's central thesis is that, in our decades-old quest for a perfect business income tax, we have failed to design a very good one. Kleinbard proposes a new business enterprise income tax that would comprise four related revisions to our current system for taxing business income: - First, a broadening of the business tax base to impose entity-level tax on all business enterprises, whatever their form. Thus, partnerships, for example, would become taxable entities. - Second, a comprehensive new approach to the taxation of financial capital invested in business enterprises, the cost of capital allowance system, which would eliminate current law distinctions between debt and equity, and subject all investors to current tax on their implicit returns, regardless of whether they receive current cash distributions. - Third, the repeal of our tax-free incorporation and reorganization rules, and their replacement with a uniform asset-acquisition tax model, coupled with new tax-neutral tax rates on the disposition of business assets. - Fourth, the replacement of our current schizophrenic consolidated return rules with comprehensive true consolidation principles.Kleinbard argues that the resulting system would be fairer, more efficient, and simpler than current law. Most important, the business enterprise income tax should reduce greatly the role of tax considerations in business thinking.

This report considers the tax policy implications of the phenomenon of stateless income. Stateless income is income that is derived for tax purposes by a multinational group from business activities in a country other than the domicile of the group's ultimate parent company but that is subject to tax only in a jurisdiction that is neither the source of the production factors through which it was derived nor the domicile of the group's parent company. Google Inc.'s "Double Irish Dutch Sandwich" structure is one familiar example. Part 1 of this report, available at Tax Notes, Sept. 5, 2011, p. 1021, Doc 2011-14206, 2011 TNT 172-5, showed that the U.S. tax rules governing income from foreign direct investments often are misapprehended: In practice they do not operate as a worldwide system of taxation, but as an ersatz variant on territorial systems, with hidden benefits and costs when compared with standard territorial regimes. That claim holds whether one analyzes these rules as a cash tax matter or through the lens of financial accounting standards. Part 1 of this report rejected as inconsistent with the data any suggestion that current U.S. law renders U.S. multinational firms less competitive when compared with their territorial-based competitors. Stateless income privileges multinational corporations over domestic ones by offering the former the prospect of capturing "tax rents" -- low-risk inframarginal returns derived by moving income from high-tax foreign countries to low-tax ones. Other important implications of stateless income include reduced coherence in the concept of geographic source; the systematic bias toward offshore rather than domestic investment; the more surprising bias in favor of investment in high-tax foreign countries to provide the feedstock for the generation of low-tax foreign income in other countries; erosion of the U.S. domestic tax base through debt-financed tax arbitrage; many instances of deadweight loss; and, essentially uniquely to the United States, the exacerbation of the lockout phenomenon, under which the price that U.S. corporations pay to enjoy the benefits of dramatically low foreign tax rates is the accumulation of extraordinary amounts of earnings ($1.4 trillion or more, by the most recent estimates) and cash outside the United States. Part 2 of this report picks up at this point. It is adapted and condensed from Edward D. Kleinbard, "The Lessons of Stateless Income," 65 Tax L. Rev. 99 (2011). Part 2 demonstrates that policy conclusions that are useful in a world without stateless income do not follow once its presence is considered. The report identifies and develops the significance of implicit taxation as an underappreciated assumption in the capital ownership neutrality model that has been advanced as an argument for why the United States should adopt a territorial tax system, and it shows how stateless income tax planning undermines this critical assumption. The report concludes that policymakers face a Hobson's choice between the highly implausible (a territorial tax system with teeth) and the manifestly imperfect (worldwide tax consolidation). Because the former is so unrealistic, while the latter's imperfections can be reduced through the choice of tax rate, the report ultimately recommends a worldwide tax consolidation solution.

This short overview and accompanying term sheet summarize the key features of a proposed comprehensive business tax environment termed the Dual Business Enterprise Income Tax (the Dual BEIT). The term sheet format is a useful mode of presentation for capturing in one accessible document the major policy recommendations of the Dual BEIT (or any other comprehensive tax reform proposal).This paper makes the case that the Dual BEIT satisfies the objectives of policymakers from both parties for comprehensive business tax reform that can serve as the platform for economic growth while collecting appropriate levels of tax revenue. The arguments are developed further in two more detailed papers: Capital Taxation in an Age of Inequality, 90 So. Cal. L. Rev. 593 (2017), and The Right Tax at the Right Time, Fla. Tax Rev. (forthcoming). Revisions since the first posting of this paper relate primarily to: (i) Significant refinements to the taxation of Participating Controlling Owners to better coordinate sales and distributions, and to better ensure that returns to a PCO's actual capital investment are treated consistently with capital invested by a passive investor. (ii) Suggestions for an optional Entrepreneurship Allowance, to reflect policymakers' preferences for lower tax rates on “entrepreneurs” or “small business.” (iii) Transition rules.