This perennially popular book offers the most intellectual depth of any tax casebook. Regarded as the most insightful, policy-oriented, and coherent treatment of the field, Basic Federal Income Taxation includes more of the classic, foundational cases than most other tax casebooks and provides the best available coverage of capital gains. This eighth edition, the first since the death of original author William D. Andrews in 2017, aims to update a classic while preserving its distinctive attributes. The style of the book has been retained, with its focus on cases and tax policy. New to the 8th Edition: A comprehensively revised Chapter 1, designed to equip students with the conceptual framework and policy themes they can deploy to structure thinking and assist understanding throughout the course. A reworked organization, with return of capital timing issues now addressed immediately before capital appreciation (realization and recognition); gifts, taxation of the family, and assignment of income issues have been grouped together to highlight common themes; losses and tax shelter limitations have been folded into one chapter, and the leverage and leasing materials trimmed. Numerous changes to reflect new developments—legislative, administrative, and judicial—since the publication of the last edition. The pervasive influence of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is reflected throughout the book. Starting with Chapter 1, this edition emphasizes the distribution of individual income tax burdens across the income spectrum, from the earned income tax credit and child tax credits to the impact of capital gain rates on high-end progressivity. Benefits for professors and students: The book was developed and refined by Professor William D. Andrews, whose work initiated serious policy analysis of progressive consumption taxes and brought to light the hybrid nature of the existing federal income tax system, which is replete with compromises between accessions and consumption tax features. When law students come to appreciate that tax is concerned with fundamental issues of distributive justice—addressing who should be required to contribute to the support of our society, and in what proportions—many become engaged by the subject in a way that would have shocked their former selves. Detailed knowledge of current tax law rules is frequently rendered obsolete (sometimes before law students can graduate) by Congress’s penchant for regular extensive amendment of the Internal Revenue Code. The book gives students a conceptual foundation that is durable rather than evanescent. Understanding tensions between the tax policy criteria and partisan differences in their evaluation makes each new round of tax Code re-jiggering, if not predictable, at least readily comprehensible. Teasing meaning out of an inordinately complex statute demands more than careful reading assisted by application of default norms of construction—it requires an appreciation of objectives. The book’s exploration of history and purposes gives students the tools necessary to inform statutory interpretation, equipping them to supply valuable practical guidance to clients and courts.

Since the federal income tax was significantly expanded in 1940, several dozen major tax bills have been enacted. Inevitably, discussions (and disagreements) have arisen concerning the relative size of the bills effects on federal revenues.This paper uses revenue estimates from Treasury and the Joint Committee on Taxation to compare the relative size of the revenue effect of the major tax bills enacted after 1939 using four different measures. An appendix provides a short list of the major provisions in the bills.

The story of men who are hurting—and hurting America by their absence Man Out describes the millions of men on the sidelines of life in the United States. Many of them have been pushed out of the mainstream because of an economy and society where the odds are stacked against them; others have chosen to be on the outskirts of twenty-first-century America. These men are disconnected from work, personal relationships, family and children, and civic and community life. They may be angry at government, employers, women, and "the system" in general—and millions of them have done time in prison and have cast aside many social norms. Sadly, too many of these men are unsure what it means to be a man in contemporary society. Wives or partners reject them; children are estranged from them; and family, friends, and neighbors are embarrassed by them. Many have disappeared into a netherworld of drugs, alcohol, poor health, loneliness, misogyny, economic insecurity, online gaming, pornography, other off-the-grid corners of the internet, and a fantasy world of starting their own business or even writing the Great American novel. Most of the men described in this book are poorly educated, with low incomes and often with very few prospects for rewarding employment. They are also disproportionately found among millennials, those over 50, and African American men. Increasingly, however, these lost men are discovered even in tony suburbs and throughout the nation. It is a myth that men on the outer corners of society are only lower-middle-class white men dislocated by technology and globalization. Unlike those who primarily blame an unjust economy, government policies, or a culture sanctioning "laziness," Man Out explores the complex interplay between economics and culture. It rejects the politically charged dichotomy of seeing such men as either victims or culprits. These men are hurting, and in turn they are hurting families and hurting America. It is essential to address their problems. Man Out draws on a wide range of data and existing research as well as interviews with several hundred men, women, and a wide variety of economists and other social scientists, social service providers and physicians, and with employers, through a national online survey and in-depth fieldwork in several communities.

This law school casebook contains changes made by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. Includes recent and significant cases, rulings, and regulations that break new ground or expand on existing law. Covers the history of and constitutional framework for the federal income tax and gross income, including benefit received, definition, exclusions, and tax-free fringe benefits. Also covers travel, entertainment, and other limitations on deductions. Looks at capitalization requirements, personal deductions, tax consequences of interest, assignment of income, advanced property, and capital asset transactions plus advanced timing issues.