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Five Key Things Non-Lawyers Should Know about Tax Law and Its Policy Implications

Five Key Things Non-Lawyers Should Know about Tax Law and Its Policy Implications. National Tax Association September 29, 2006 Pamela Olson. Caveat. We have to assume the lawyers we have, not the lawyers we wish we had. Overview. It’s a Code, not an aspiration.

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Five Key Things Non-Lawyers Should Know about Tax Law and Its Policy Implications

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  1. Five Key Things Non-Lawyers Should Know about Tax Law and Its Policy Implications National Tax AssociationSeptember 29, 2006 Pamela Olson

  2. Caveat • We have to assume the lawyers we have, not the lawyers we wish we had.

  3. Overview • It’s a Code, not an aspiration. • Literalism and hyperlexis are inevitable. • Lawyers ask: “how do we do that?” – not “why do you want to do that?” • Law is “applied behavioral economics.” • It’s all material.

  4. Code or aspiration • Whether the law is a code of conduct or sets aspirational standards varies from country to country. • United States laws tend to be codes of conduct. • Prescribe minimum standards of behavior. • Provide sanctions for those who fall below. • Not aspirational standards. • That is particularly true of tax laws: • “There is no duty, not even a patriotic one, to increase one’s taxes.”

  5. Literalism and hyperlexis • Words define the intent and scope of a law. • Laws are line-drawing exercises. • Detailed lines capturing all contingencies may reduce leaks, but add complexity. • Conservation of ambiguity. • Bright vs. fuzzy lines. • The role of serendipity and motive.

  6. How do we do that? • Confusion of ends and perfection of means seem to characterize this age. • Lawyers focus on questions of administration, implementation, and compliance rather than purpose.

  7. Law as “applied behavioral economics” • Consequences – intended and unintended • Examples • QFOBI • Expensing

  8. It’s all material • You have to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going because you might not get there. • The effects of a focus on complying, administering, and enforcing words. • It’s not relative. • Losing sight of the bottom line. • Even footfaults are material.

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