We are thrilled to announce the launch of the new Tax Law Center at NYU. And we could not be more fortunate to have the incomparable @dashching at the helm as founding Executive Director. If you don’t follow her already, you are missing out! 1/

https://twitter.com/nyulaw/status/1354115655772098561

Tax is one of the most heavily lobbied areas of the law, and overwhelmingly by private interests, which often employ technically complex legal arguments in litigation, and in lobbying on regulations and legislation. opensecrets.org/federal-lobbyi… 2/

My new paper on shifting from our estate and gift taxes to an inheritance tax—where heirs would pay income and payroll taxes on inheritances they receive above a large lifetime exemption—was just released by @hamiltonproj. Here’s a quick summary. 1/15 hamiltonproject.org/assets/files/B… @hamiltonproj Inherited income is currently taxed at less than 1/7 the rate on income from work and savings. This is because heirs don’t have to pay income or payroll taxes on their inheritances. The estate and gift tax is essentially the only tax burdening inherited income. 2/15

Great article on the extremely generous international tax regulations the Administration has been issuing. A few quick thoughts. 1/

https://twitter.com/JesseDrucker/status/1211641316049854466

I have heard anecdotally that Mnuchin has been far more involved in the tax reg process than prior Secretaries. When the Secretary and lobbyists are pushing for unreasonably generous interpretations of the law, it’s hard for nonpartisan career staff to stand their ground. 2/

Just posted my new paper with @davidckamin, Taxing the Rich: Issues and Options. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…. Abstract below and quick summary follows. 1/ @davidckamin US has one of highest levels of income and wealth inequality among high-income countries. Has one of lowest levels of intergenerational economic mobility. Means economic disparities btwn individuals reflect luck of one’s birth, not hard work, to especially large extent in US. 2/

My takeaways on the latest explosive @nytimes story on the Trumps’ taxes, with a quick summary by tweet. 1/ nytimes.com/2019/05/09/opi… (1) Trump is a terrible businessman. Despite inheriting more than $400 million and being bailed out by his father at critical junctures, he managed to lose (or at least claim tax losses) of more than $1 billion over a decade. That’s quite a feat! 2/

A few responses to questions about Warren’s wealth tax proposal, which is well summarized here. 1/7

https://twitter.com/jimtankersley/status/1088566273158582272

Yes, there would undoubtedly be evasion. But the question is whether other taxes can tax the uber-wealthy with less evasion and lower administrative and compliance costs. It’s not clear they would be all that different. 2/6

Great story. Kushner’s arrangements described have all the hallmarks of tax shelters I teach in my classes (leverage + interest deductions + accelerated depreciation + nonrecognition). TCJA generally maintained or expanded such real estate tax shelters in 6 ways. (1/6)

https://twitter.com/JesseDrucker/status/1051114697582362624

First, TCJA cut top rate from 39.6% to 37%. Second, it cut top rate on pass-through income to 29.5%. While there are provisions meant to limit this deduction for higher-income taxpayers, they effectively do *not* apply to real estate. (2/6) washingtonpost.com/business/econo…

Looks to me like the new 1040 “postcard” is going to make tax filing more complex and expensive for many taxpayers. More will have to file schedules, which typically means tax preparers will charge them higher fees. 1/7

https://twitter.com/RichardRubinDC/status/1012678298047057921

Take a couple who has 3 kids, claims the child care credit, health premium credit, and student loan interest deduction, and owes some tax on excess advanced premium credits and early withdrawals from their 401(k). 2/7

Some have asked how tax plan can permanently cut taxes on corporations on net if Senate rules require no increase in deficits after 10 years. It does so through two permanent stealth tax increases on individuals: slower inflation indexing and repealing individual mandate. 1/5 JCT has said that slower inflation indexing in tax plan raises at least 3 times as much in second decade as first. So about $400B in 2nd decade. This is largely how bill pays for permanent net corporate tax cut. 2/5 wsj.com/public/resourc…

A big under-discussed issue in tax bills: Most provisions go into effect 1/1/18. This is insane. Final bill will require multi-year reg projects on many provisions to clarify what they are doing. Congress needs to take these implementation issues seriously. 1/6 Some provisions are simple and there is no need for delay from implementation perspective. E.g., Rate changes. Delay could even create strategic behavior (see example below). 2/6 danshaviro.blogspot.com/2017/11/perver…

Appears corporate AMT provision probably raises >$300B, not $40B JCT estimated under duress Fri night. This means Rs have to take Senate bill to conference and can’t just have House pass it, unless they want to *really* piss off bus community. 1/5 I’m getting >$300B from fact that provision appears to repeal R&D credit, which costs ~$113B, and participation exemption, which costs $216B. See JCT estimates at jct.gov/publications.h… and jct.gov/publications.h…. 2/5

This Ryan interview is a doozy. Here’s an abridged list of outright falsehoods and misleading statements: npr.org/2017/12/01/567… 1/6 Ryan says married couple w/ 2 kids currently owes no fed income tax if income <$12K, with threshold rising to $24K under bill. He shamelessly ignores personal exemptions, to which every TP is currently entitled and both bills repeal. Current threshold is *higher* at $28.9K. 2/6

Trump wants to lower corporate income tax rate to 15%. I'm mystified how thinks he can pay for even a 28% rate. politico.com/story/2017/09/… 1/11 In 2011 JCT estimated if repeal all tax benefits, revenue raised from C corps can only pay to lower CIT rate to 28%. democrats-waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/democrat…