The U.S. tax system has many distortions, but two triumph them all. The first is debt-over-equity. Under the current corporate double taxation mechanism, C corporations are incentivized to borrow rather than issue equity, because interest is deductible, and dividends are not. The second is...

Stanley Surrey (1910-1984) was arguably the most important tax scholar of his generation. Surrey was a rare combination of an academic (Berkeley and Harvard law schools, 1947-1961 and 1969-1981) and a government official (Tax Legislative Counsel, 1942-1947; Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy,...

This essay examines the extent of Surrey’s influence on developments in tax law after his death. It argues that his ideas clearly impacted the tax reform of 1986, but can even be seen in later enactments like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and contemporary developments in international...