Today SEAT is launching its Working Paper Series.
The series will feature scholarly research on topics relating to the U.S. extraterritorial tax system.
The series is being launched with an initial sixteen papers. These papers draw upon a trilogy of law review articles by SEAT co-founder Laura Snyder. The articles either have been or will be published by the Southern Illinois University Law Journal, The Tax Lawyer, and the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.
The papers were prepared having in mind those who would prefer not to read something as lengthy and complex as a law review article, but maintaining their scholarly approach. The first eleven papers in the series break down the material in the articles into (slightly) smaller, easier to digest pieces. The twelve to fifteenth papers in the series build on the material in the three law review articles. The sixteenth and final paper in the series contains concurrent timelines detailing the step-by-step expansion of U.S. extraterritorial taxation together with citizenship and equal protection
A full list of the papers in the series, together with a link to each paper, is available here.
I applaud Laura Snyder’s heavy work in exposing CBT wrongs. These papers are one of a kind and should be read by all involved in international taxation.
There is one caveat I would submit on article 15. The major comparative difference between the US and the referenced countries is the US is the only country that sustained a large slave population. The US is the only country that cites slavery within its Constitution and founding documents. Slavery was so important to the Founders, one of the first laws they enacted in congress was the capture of runaway slaves.
Part of the rationale for the Second Amendment was to hunt escaped slaves at gunpoint. Ironically, this amendment gets the strongest support.
Southern state legislatures saw the writing on the wall before the civil war and enacted laws stating they would rather cede from the Union than give up their slaves. A terrible war ensued over human ownership and it ended on paper but not in reality.
Racist Dems gained power over time and were constantly howling about govt spending beyond its means. Once the racists captured the White House and Congress in 1913 they lied about who would be liable for taxation under the 16th Amendment.
Starting in the early 1960’s, the Dems began to refocus attention on expat taxation but accelerated in the 1990s. The concept of escaped “slaves” was on the minds of several Dem legislatures and expats needed to be punished. Sure, some Republicans followed along but the heavy lifting were the Dems.
Making a long story short, it is important to understand the uniquely American slave history and expat taxation. No other country fought so fiercely to sustain human enslavement to the degree the US has. Escaping from the plantation has always been viewed as an unlawful act to be met with severe consequences.