Applying Sustainability to Tax

Abstract

This Article argues that sustainability can and should be applied to taxation to ameliorate the effects of industrialization on society and the planet. In making the case for a sustainability approach to taxation, we suggest that prior approaches to tax policy analysis have been insufficiently interdisciplinary and have failed to fully embrace challenging normative questions that underpin tax. Using sustainability literature from other disciplines, we show how sustainability can provide a superior approach. Specifically, sustainability requires an examination of foundational, normative questions, integration of interdisciplinary collaboration, embrace of long-term solutions, and adaptation to an ever-evolving technological society. Using these attributes as a guide, we introduce a series of questions to prompt tax scholars to consider how tax policy can support the society that we wish to sustain.

Cybersecurity carrots and sticks

“…223 By making this election, taxpayers can lower their tax liability in the early 196 See Tax Expenditures: Opportunities Exist to Use Budgeting and Agency Performance and experimental stages of research. 224 Coinciding with such benefit, Congress also introduced section 1235 as a backend inducement, enabling inventors to sell patents at lower, long-term capital gains rates in lieu of ordinary income tax rates. 225 Following a period of waning R&D expenditures in the 1960s and 1970s, Congress refocused its attention on fueling domestic economic progress through additional R&D tax measures.…”

“…225 Following a period of waning R&D expenditures in the 1960s and 1970s, Congress refocused its attention on fueling domestic economic progress through additional R&D tax measures. 226 Whereas Section 174 provides a R&D experimental expenditure deduction, as part of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 ("ERTA"), Section 41 was introduced as a provisional research credit. 227 Section 41, made permanent in 2015, allows for an incremental credit of up to 20% of qualified research expenses (QREs) over a historic "base amount."…”