The annual NYU/UCLA Tax Policy Symposium is a joint annual conference focusing on tax policy issues from both a legal and economic perspective. This year's symposium celebrated the 100th anniversary of the income tax in the United States. In a series of panels focusing on business taxation, international taxation, inequality, and taxation and politics, participants discussed the evolution of the U.S. income tax over the past century and considered prospects for tax reform as the income tax begins its second century. All papers from the symposium will be published in the NYU Tax Law Review in 2013.
The day kicked off with an introduction by Deborah Schenk, Ronald and Marilynn Grossman Professor of Taxation and editor-in-chief of the Tax Law Review. It was followed by a panel on business taxation, moderated by Joshua Blank, Professor of Tax Practice and faculty director of the graduate tax program at NYU Law. Kimberly Clausing, Thormund A. Miller and Walter Mintz Professor of Economics at Reed College, discussed the future of the corporate tax. UCLA Law Professor Steven Bank's presentation was entitled "Taxing Bigness." Professor Noël Cunningham gave a talk called "Prescription for Corporate Income Tax Reform: A Corporate Consumption Tax."
Watch the full video of the Introduction and Business Tax Panel (1 h 47 min):
UCLA Law Professor Jason Oh moderated the second panel of the day, which focused on inequality and featured Professor David Kamin; Eric Zolt, Michael H. Schill Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA Law; and Len Burman, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Professor of Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
Watch the full video of Inequality Panel (1 h 39 min):
Following a break for lunch, Daniel Shaviro, Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation, moderated a panel on international taxation. Professor Mitchell Kane presented on "Milking versus Parking: Transfer Pricing and CFC Rules under the Internal Revenue Code"; David Lenter, legislation counsel on the Joint Committee on Taxation, discussed "Continuity and Change in the Present and Possible Future Taxation of Cross-Border Intangible Income"; and Professor John Steines spoke on "The Foreign Tax Credit at 95—Bionic Centenarian."
Watch the full video of International Taxation Panel (1 h 34 min):
The final panel of the day focused on politics, and was moderated by UCLA Law Professor Kirk Stark. George Yin, Edwin S. Cohen Distinguished Professor of Law and Taxation and Thomas F. Bergin Teaching Professor at UVA School of Law presented on "James Couzens, Andrew Mellon, the 'Greatest Tax Suit in the History of the World,' and Creation of the Joint Committee on Taxation and Its Staff"; Anne Alstott, Jacquin D. Bierman Professor of Taxation at Yale Law School, spoke on "Updating the Welfare State: Marriage, the Income Tax, and Social Security in the Age of the New Individualism"; and Joseph Thorndike, director of the Tax History Project, presented on "Soak-the-Rich Republicans? The Puzzling Persistence of High Tax Rates in the 1950s."
Watch the full video of Politics Panel (1 h 30 min):
Posted November 6, 2012