Suppose Congress were to change Social Security just before you retired? Or repeal income tax deductions for homeowners? Or institute a flat tax? Should those changes be retroactive? Or should you retain the gains or accept the losses resulting from the new enactments? What kinds of policies might governments adopt in order to mitigate the transitional effects of changing legal rules? Daniel Shaviro tackles these tough questions, bringing legal, economic, and political perspectives to bear on a persistent problem not often given serious attention. When Rules Change: An Economic and Political Analysis of Transition Relief and Retroactivity focuses on tax law changes to develop an in-depth understanding of the transitional issues inherent in any substantive rule change and also to advance a set of normative policy guidelines applicable to any such circumstance. Shaviro reframes traditional approaches to the problem of retroactivity and offers new insights into both the theory and policy of legislative transitions.

Time is a crucial dimension in the application of any law. In tax law, however, where an environment characterized by rapid change on the national, European, and international levels complicates the provision of accurate legal advice, timing is particularly sensitive. This book is the first to analyse the relationship between time and three key areas of tax: treaties, EU law, and constitutional law issues, such as legal certainty and individual rights. Among the numerous timing issues arising out of applying tax rules, the book addresses the following: – time limits within which relief must be requested; – statutes of limitation for claiming a tax refund; – transitional issues relating to changes in tax treaties; – attribution of profits and expenses to a moving or closed-down business; – effect of tax-related CJEU decisions and EU directives; – compliance of exit tax regimes with free movement; – limits of retroactivity under principles protected by the EU Charter and the ECHR; and – conflict between efficiency of taxation and individual rights. Derived from a recent conference organized by the prestigious ATOZ Chair for European and International Taxation at the University of Luxembourg, the book brings together contributions from leading tax experts from various areas of tax practice, academia, and the judiciary. Among other issues, the book notably expands on how economic theory can inform a constitutional analysis of the timing of taxation. There is no other work that concentrates so usefully on the difficulties associated with applying tax rules – whether arising from treaties, jurisprudence, or policy – to changing circumstances over time. This book will quickly prove itself to be an indispensable resource for European tax lawyers, policymakers, company counsels, and academics.

Discusses the legal issues surrounding retroactive tax increases.

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When Congress retroactively extends a temporary tax rule, the effect on earnings is complex because financial reporting standards require firms to apply the integral method using enacted tax law to determine quarterly income tax expense. We model this effect and examine earnings announcements following retroactive extensions of the federal R&D tax credit to test how investors incorporate the effect into stock prices. We find that investors respond when earnings are announced, even though the effect could have been determined several weeks earlier. We also show that, in recent years, the effects of retroactive extensions of the credit are a substantial part of the average decrease in effective tax rates (ETRs) from the third to fourth quarter for calendar-year firms. Our results have implications for investors and researchers examining earnings and ETRs around retroactive extensions of temporary tax rules and suggest that Congressional delays and GAAP interact to produce unintended consequences.