No abstract

With a wave of recent tax inversion and corporate reorganization discussions, corporate tax strategy has begun to move to the forefront of media, public and Congressional attention. These high-profile inversion strategies have gained momentum and achieved heightened attention, becoming a matter of public policy matter in 2014. While corporate international tax strategies have existed since the dawn of the U.S. federal income tax, inversions in their current form have been active only since the 1980s. Using three predominate inversion cases as a lens; this research intends to fill a gap in the existing literature relating to corporate inversions. By combining existing case law, tax legislation, and Treasury regulations, this paper develops a framework for supporting strategic global tax initiatives. The conclusions and recommendations reached are generalizable and appropriate for use in developing best practice solutions.

The United States Supreme Court recently considered challenges to two state laws regarding direct shipment of wine and spirits from out-of-state. Michigan law banned these direct shipments completely, requiring sales from out-of-state to be made through a Michigan wholesaler, even though it permitted direct shipments from within the state. New York law similarly banned direct shipments, although it created a narrow exception for out-of-state wine producers who maintained a place of business within New York. In Granholm v. Heald, the United States Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of these laws in light of the constitutional prohibition against state laws that unreasonably burden interstate commerce. The Court held that these laws did in fact impermissibly discriminate against interstate commerce, and were unconstitutional. It held that a state may permit direct shipments or prohibit them, but it could not create a discriminatory system where in-state direct shipment were permitted but out-of-state shipments were prohibited or burdened with additional costs. This decision left it to the individual state governments to fashion whatever direct shipment laws they wished, as long as the laws did not treat shipments from out of state differently from shipments within the state. As the individual states respond to this mandate, we can see how these new laws will impact wine tourism, actual and Internet travel for the purpose of experiencing and purchasing regional wines.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 34.2pt 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Choice of entity has long been one of the central issues in applied business planning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The family business often has special characteristics and needs that may differ from other businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>These different characteristics and needs will affect the determination of which entity is best for a particular business enterprise. To give some examples, the owners of a family business may want to maintain long-term control in the hands of one or two family members while still providing fairness for minority owners, may need to deal with attribution rules and other statutory provisions that make income tax planning more complicated, and may have the desire to take estate taxes into account as well as income taxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Tax legislation enacted in the years 2003 through 2006, as well as evolving case law, have made choice of entity for the family business more complicated than before, warranting a new look at this special topic.</span></span></p>

Domestic U. S. businesses forming a joint venture with a commonly-controlled foreign affiliates need always to take into account transfer pricing rules, whereby any income, deductions, or credits or one may be reallocated from one of the businesses to the other. This problem provides special concerns with regards to compensation for executive services, where calculation of an arms length amount is more difficult, and where other contractual rights may have an impact on the determination of the arms length amount. The concept of transfer pricing rules with regard to services was first addressed in 1968 regulations, after which there were temporary regulations in 2003 that were finalized in 2009. However, there are still many issues that have not been addressed, that will need to be resolved in a future set of regulations.