Corporate dividend policy has long been a source of concern in both tax and corporate law. From a tax law perspective, retained earnings potentially escape the high marginal rates imposed on shareholders. From a corporate law perspective, retained earnings increase agency costs for shareholders. With the steady drop in dividends in the last decade, concern over dividend policy has arisen once again. Many commentators attribute the disappearance of the dividend to our corporate income tax system, which quot;trapsquot; retained earnings in the corporation by subjecting dividends to two layers of tax. The assumption is that integrating the corporate and shareholders income taxes - either through a dividend exemption or some other technique - will lead corporations to pay out more money as dividends.Missing from this analysis is any historical perspective on the relationship between taxation and corporate dividend policies. The double taxation of corporate income actually emerged between World War I and II in response to a shift in corporate dividend policies, rather than vice versa. Over that period, managers agreed to a higher rate of tax at the corporate level, and, eventually, to the repeal of the dividend exemption at the shareholder level in exchange for Congress' tacit agreement not to interfere with managerial discretion over undistributed profits. This history not only belies the claim that double taxation is responsible for the disappearance of the dividend, but also suggests that integration of the corporate and shareholder income taxes may not have the effect on corporate dividend policies that its proponents claim.

Taxes on the wealthy are a topic sure to incite venomous rants from both right-wing and left-wing ideologues. The topic attracts conflicting interpretations and policy recommendations, and generates proposals for tax reform that consume political debate. All this activity takes place against an opaque backdrop of empirical evidence dealing with the distribution of wealth and income, and tax avoidance and tax evasion by corporations and wealthy individuals. Rethinking Wealth and Taxes explores these problems and considers the possibilities for increasing taxes on wealth to address the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and income.

A rigorous and innovative approach for integrating environmental policies and fiscal reform for the U.S. economy. Energy utilization, especially from fossil fuels, creates hidden costs in the form of pollution and environmental damages. The costs are well documented but are hidden in the sense that they occur outside the market, are not reflected in market prices, and are not taken into account by energy users. Double Dividend presents a novel method for designing environmental taxes that correct market prices so that they reflect the true cost of energy. The resulting revenue can be used in reducing the burden of the overall tax system and improving the performance of the economy, creating the double dividend of the title. The authors simulate the impact of environmental taxes on the U.S. economy using their Intertemporal General Equilibrium Model (IGEM). This highly innovative model incorporates expectations about future prices and policies. The model is estimated econometrically from an extensive 50-year dataset to incorporate the heterogeneity of producers and consumers. This approach generates confidence intervals for the outcomes of changes in economic policies, a new feature for models used in analyzing energy and environmental policies. These outcomes include the welfare impacts on individual households, distinguished by demographic characteristics, and for society as a whole, decomposed between efficiency and equity.

This book demonstrates falsified economic performance of global economies when the environment is not recognised as a capital, and when the ecosystem is overlooked towards sustainable development. Seck begins with an analysis of standard macroeconomic framework and policy practice. He argues, with reference to environmental accounting literature, that environmental capital must form an integral component of economic measurement. This paves the way for an alternative environmental-macroeconomics framework for policy analysis that promotes sustainable development. The book demonstrates how environmental capital can be measured with reference to select OECD countries and provides a methodology for analysing how macroeconomic goals are related to a steady-state economy. Seck then concludes with a summary of the conflict between current economic growth and ecosystem preservation, and outlines possible policy improvements and directions for research. Rethinking Sustainable Development is an invaluable reference for policymakers as well as researchers and students of environmental economics, sustainable development, and macroeconomics.

Clear, concise, and engaging, Fundamentals of Corporate Taxation teaches the fundamentals of a highly complex subject with skillfully drafted problems, explanatory text, and a selective mix of original source materials. The coursebook incorporates all relevant changes from recent acts, including the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. Important new highlights include discussions on the impact of reduced tax rates on qualified dividends, new rules limiting the transfer or importation of built-in-losses, and the response by courts and the Internal Revenue Service to corporate tax shelters. The sixth edition also contains new material on corporate reorganizations and S corporations, rulings on Section 351 control requirements and corporate divisions, and more permissive eligibility requirements and other new statutory rules.