We use machine-learning models to analyze and anticipate the outcome of the IRS’s appeal of the Tax Court's decision in Cross Refined Coal LLC v. Commissioner, No. 19502-17 (2019) (bench op.). We predict that the D.C. Circuit will hold that the taxpayer had been carrying on a partnership...

This article considers the judgment of the D.C. Circuit in Cross Refined Coal, which addressed whether a business venture that was guaranteed to be unprofitable pretax could still be considered a bona fide partnership for federal income tax purposes. In previous work, we analyzed the Tax...

The debt-versus-equity question is largely relegated to the common law. The central inquiry is the “extent to which the transaction complies with arm's length standards and normal business practice.” The courts have established a list of recurring factors to determine whether a transfer...

Several months ago, we examined the Tax Court’s decision in Reserve Mechanical and predicted with 77 percent confidence that the taxpayer’s appeal would be dismissed and the Tax Court’s decision affirmed. The Tenth Circuit has now made that prediction accurate. In its decision, the Tenth...

This study examines the issue of tax neutrality of the income tax treatment of credit swaps in Canada in domestic context. It analyzes the applicable tax regime consisting of rules on tax characterization, timing and tax rates through the lenses of symmetry, consistency and certainty approaches....

Canadian provincial governments have broad authority to impose direct taxes by passing enabling legislation in their respective legislatures. Governments may also use regulation to set fees, for example, to recover the cost of services they provide, but cannot use regulation to impose taxes that...