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Author: Jonathan H. Choi Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 79
Book Description
A substantial academic literature considers how agencies should interpret statutes. But few studies have considered how agencies actually do interpret statutes, and none has empirically compared the methodologies of agencies and courts in practice. This Article conducts such a comparison, using a newly created dataset of all Internal Revenue Service (IRS) publications ever released, along with an existing dataset of court decisions. It applies natural language processing, machine learning, and regression analysis to map methodological trends and to test whether particular authorities have developed unique cultures of statutory interpretation.It finds that, over time, the IRS has increasingly made rules on normative policy grounds (like fairness and efficiency) rather than merely producing rules based on the “best reading” of the relevant statute (under any interpretive theory, like purposivism or textualism). Moreover, when the IRS does focus on the statute, it has grown much more purposivist over time. In contrast, the Tax Court has not grown more normative and has followed the same trend toward textualism as most other courts. But although the Tax Court has become more broadly textualist, it prioritizes different interpretive tools than other courts, like Chevron deference and holistic-textual canons of interpretation. This suggests that each authority adopts its own flavor of textualism or purposivism.These findings complicate the literature on tax exceptionalism and the judicial nature of the Tax Court. They also inform ongoing debates about judicial deference and the future of doctrines like Chevron and Skidmore deference. Most broadly, they provide an empirical counterpoint to the existing theoretical literature on statutory interpretation by agencies.
Author: Jonathan H. Choi Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 79
Book Description
A substantial academic literature considers how agencies should interpret statutes. But few studies have considered how agencies actually do interpret statutes, and none has empirically compared the methodologies of agencies and courts in practice. This Article conducts such a comparison, using a newly created dataset of all Internal Revenue Service (IRS) publications ever released, along with an existing dataset of court decisions. It applies natural language processing, machine learning, and regression analysis to map methodological trends and to test whether particular authorities have developed unique cultures of statutory interpretation.It finds that, over time, the IRS has increasingly made rules on normative policy grounds (like fairness and efficiency) rather than merely producing rules based on the “best reading” of the relevant statute (under any interpretive theory, like purposivism or textualism). Moreover, when the IRS does focus on the statute, it has grown much more purposivist over time. In contrast, the Tax Court has not grown more normative and has followed the same trend toward textualism as most other courts. But although the Tax Court has become more broadly textualist, it prioritizes different interpretive tools than other courts, like Chevron deference and holistic-textual canons of interpretation. This suggests that each authority adopts its own flavor of textualism or purposivism.These findings complicate the literature on tax exceptionalism and the judicial nature of the Tax Court. They also inform ongoing debates about judicial deference and the future of doctrines like Chevron and Skidmore deference. Most broadly, they provide an empirical counterpoint to the existing theoretical literature on statutory interpretation by agencies.
Author: Dr. K.N. Chaturvedi Publisher: Taxmann Publications Private Limited ISBN: 9357786031 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 30
Book Description
This book enables the reader to understand the complex world of statutory interpretation, especially in the context of taxation laws. This book analyses the intricate relationship between legislation and its interpretation by the judiciary, underscoring the critical role that statutory law plays in contemporary society. It highlights the challenges judges face in deciphering the often opaque language used in statutes. The book stresses the importance of understanding legislative intent and the various approaches to interpretation, such as the literal rule, golden rule, and mischief rule, while also introducing the reader to more modern methodologies like the plain meaning approach and purposive approach. This book is tailored for a broad audience, including tax practitioners, lawyers, judges, academicians, and policymakers. Its comprehensive coverage of both foundational principles and contemporary developments in tax law interpretation makes it an invaluable resource for those engaged in the legal, academic, and practical aspects of taxation. The Present Publication is the 2nd Edition, authored by Dr. K.N. Chaturvedi, with the following noteworthy features: • [Highlights of the 2nd Edition] are as follows: o [Updates] Discusses the developments in tax policy and interpretation since 2008, including the implementation of the GST regime in India and global tax law alignments like GAAR and MLI o [Judicial Decisions] Discusses recent Supreme Court decisions on key aspects of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and analyses the judicial stance on tax exemptions and deductions o [New Content] Introduces chapters on Tax exemptions and DTAA, updates on customs tariff classifications, and discussions on the simplification and rationalization of direct taxes o [Legislative Changes] Notes the enactment of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 2023, which updates the 1931 Act, reflecting ongoing legislative evolution • [Judicial Scrutiny and the Art of Drafting] It presents examples from judicial pronouncements that critique legislative drafting, illustrating this with case laws, and discusses the resulting judicial efforts to interpret ambiguous statutes • [Legislative Language and Public Understanding] The debate on whether laws should be written in plain English is addressed, with opinions suggesting that simplifying legal language may not necessarily benefit the general public due to the complexities of legal interpretation and context • [Evolving Principles of Judicial Interpretation] The book notes a shift from traditional rules of statutory interpretation (literal, golden, and mischief rules) towards more nuanced approaches like plain meaning, contextual, and purposive interpretations, reflecting a broader and more flexible understanding of legislative texts • [Comparative Analysis of Statutory Interpretation] This book discusses interpretation practices across common law countries (the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the United States, and India), highlighting differences and commonalities in approaches • [Structural Overview of Tax Law] Early chapters provide an in-depth look at India's tax system, the constitutional framework of taxation, the legislative process for tax statutes, and the structural anatomy of an Act, laying a foundation for understanding statutory interpretation in the context of taxation The detailed contents of the book are as follows: • Tax System in India o The book begins with an exploration of the principles of rule of law and governance as they relate to taxation o It discusses the complexities of statutory interpretation, specifically within the realm of taxation laws o An in-depth look at the various tax systems in India, including service tax, income tax, and other significant taxes o Attention is given to state taxes and the introduction of new tax laws, illustrating the evolving nature of tax legislation • Constitutional Provisions Relating to Taxation o Delivers a foundational understanding of what constitutes a tax and the necessity of legal authority for its levy and collection o Examines constitutional remedies in tax matters and differentiates between tax, fee, and cess o Details the distribution of legislative powers between Parliament and State Legislature, including competence to tax and specific taxes like income tax, sales tax, and excise duty on liquor o Addresses the interpretation of legislative entries, the concept of pith and substance, and the limits of taxing power, including instances where statutes have been held constitutional or unconstitutional • Various Stages of Law-Making and Their Relevance as an Aid to Interpretation o Offers insight into the law-making process, the relationship between policy and drafting, and the introduction and types of bills o Discusses the significance of presidential recommendations, accompanying documents for taxation bills, and various memorandums and notes that provide clarity to legislative intent o Explores how statutory interpretation is influenced by law commission reports, taxation committees, parliamentary committees, and speeches by legislators • Structure of a Taxing Statute o Provides a comprehensive guide to drafting taxing statutes, including the importance of the title, preamble, and definition clauses o Explains the roles of legal fiction, headings, marginal notes, explanations, provisos, schedules, and the power to remove difficulties in tax legislation • Tax Interpretation of Exemption Provisions o Discusses the preliminary aspects, constitutional provisions, and complexity of tax exemption provisions o Emphasizes procedural safeguards, judicial review, flexibility in designing exemption provisions, and interpretation of these provisions o Covers tax incentives and the concept of legitimate expectation in tax law • DTAA and International Taxation o Introduces Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) and their role in international taxation, including Supreme Court rulings on the matter o Details the new scheme of international taxation, amendments to the Income-tax Act, and specific sections pertinent to international agreements o Explores the interpretation of DTAA and the Multilateral Instrument (MLI), as well as significant judgments related to international tax law • Different Approaches to Interpretation o Expounds on the basic principles of statutory interpretation and compares the approaches taken by various jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and India • Tax Evasion, Tax Avoidance, and Tax Mitigation o Addresses the distinctions between tax evasion, tax avoidance, and tax mitigation o Details the statutory framework on tax avoidance, including General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) and transfer pricing provisions • Aids to Interpretation o Discusses general, internal, and external aids to the interpretation of tax statutes o Outlines general presumptions relevant to the interpretation of tax laws, including presumptions about constitutionality, retrospective effect, exemption provisions, and implied repeal o Includes a discussion on the use of Latin maxims and the significance of popular, ordinary, and technical meanings in statutory interpretation • Simplification and Rationalisation of Direct Taxes o Covers efforts towards simplifying and rationalizing direct taxes, including the roles of various committees, commissions, and reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) o Reviews the Direct Tax Code Bill 2010 and outlines key concepts for the future of tax law simplification
Author: Robert F. van Brederode Publisher: ISBN: 9789041184733 Category : Corporations Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Legal Interpretation of Tax Law' is a comprehensive multi-jurisdiction survey of the interpretation of the corporate income tax and VAT and GST or other general sales tax laws. As a result of the globalization of trade and business, tax departments and their external advisors are increasingly required to deal with the tax law of foreign jurisdictions. Effective consulting, whether internal or external, requires not only knowledge of tax law per se but also of how tax law is explained and interpreted by the courts of foreign jurisdictions. This book is the first to deal comparatively with tax law interpretation in economies engaged in cross-border investment at a global level.00The introduction outlines the theoretical approaches to legal interpretation in general and gives an overview of issues and topics relevant to taxation ? designed to help readers understand the jurisdictional chapters that follow. Each author pays detailed attention to such documentary elements as explanatory memoranda, administrative rulings, judicial precedents, judgments of foreign courts, legislative debates, and OECD guidelines.
Author: Robert A. Katzmann Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199362149 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
In an ideal world, the laws of Congress--known as federal statutes--would always be clearly worded and easily understood by the judges tasked with interpreting them. But many laws feature ambiguous or even contradictory wording. How, then, should judges divine their meaning? Should they stick only to the text? To what degree, if any, should they consult aids beyond the statutes themselves? Are the purposes of lawmakers in writing law relevant? Some judges, such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, believe courts should look to the language of the statute and virtually nothing else. Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit respectfully disagrees. In Judging Statutes, Katzmann, who is a trained political scientist as well as a judge, argues that our constitutional system charges Congress with enacting laws; therefore, how Congress makes its purposes known through both the laws themselves and reliable accompanying materials should be respected. He looks at how the American government works, including how laws come to be and how various agencies construe legislation. He then explains the judicial process of interpreting and applying these laws through the demonstration of two interpretative approaches, purposivism (focusing on the purpose of a law) and textualism (focusing solely on the text of the written law). Katzmann draws from his experience to show how this process plays out in the real world, and concludes with some suggestions to promote understanding between the courts and Congress. When courts interpret the laws of Congress, they should be mindful of how Congress actually functions, how lawmakers signal the meaning of statutes, and what those legislators expect of courts construing their laws. The legislative record behind a law is in truth part of its foundation, and therefore merits consideration.
Author: Joan Youngman Publisher: ISBN: 9781558443426 Category : Local finance Languages : en Pages : 260
Book Description
In A Good Tax, tax expert Joan Youngman skillfully considers how to improve the operation of the property tax and supply the information that is often missing in public debate. She analyzes the legal, administrative, and political challenges to the property tax in the United States and offers recommendations for its improvement. The book is accessibly written for policy analysts and public officials who are dealing with specific property tax issues and for those concerned with property tax issues in general.
Author: William N. Eskridge Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 9780674218789 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 460
Book Description
Contrary to traditional theories of statutory interpretation, which ground statutes in the original legislative text or intent, legal scholar William Eskridge argues that statutory interpretation changes in response to new political alignments, new interpreters, and new ideologies. It does so, first of all, because it involves richer authoritative texts than does either common law or constitutional interpretation: statutes are often complex and have a detailed legislative history. Second, Congress can, and often does, rewrite statutes when it disagrees with their interpretations; and agencies and courts attend to current as well as historical congressional preferences when they interpret statutes. Third, since statutory interpretation is as much agency-centered as judgecentered and since agency executives see their creativity as more legitimate than judges see theirs, statutory interpretation in the modern regulatory state is particularly dynamic. Eskridge also considers how different normative theories of jurisprudence--liberal, legal process, and antiliberal--inform debates about statutory interpretation. He explores what theory of statutory interpretation--if any--is required by the rule of law or by democratic theory. Finally, he provides an analytical and jurisprudential history of important debates on statutory interpretation.
Author: Antonin Scalia Publisher: West Publishing Company ISBN: 9780314275554 Category : Judicial process Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Scalia and Garner systematically explain all the most important principles of constitutional, statutory, and contractual interpretation in an engaging and informative style with hundreds of illustrations from actual cases. Is a burrito a sandwich? Is a corporation entitled to personal privacy? If you trade a gun for drugs, are you using a gun in a drug transaction? The authors grapple with these and dozens of equally curious questions while explaining the most principled, lucid, and reliable techniques for deriving meaning from authoritative texts. Meanwhile, the book takes up some of the most controversial issues in modern jurisprudence. What, exactly, is textualism? Why is strict construction a bad thing? What is the true doctrine of originalism? And which is more important: the spirit of the law, or the letter? The authors write with a well-argued point of view that is definitive yet nuanced, straightforward yet sophisticated.
Author: William N. Eskridge (Jr.) Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 0300120885 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 591
Book Description
William Eskridge and John Ferejohn propose an original theory of constitutional law whereby, while the Constitution provides a vision, our democracy advances by means of statutes that supplement or even supplant the written Constitution.
Author: John Manning Publisher: ISBN: 9781609302177 Category : Administrative procedure Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
The updated casebook, Manning and Stephenson's Legislation and Regulation, 2d, is designed for a first-year class on Legislation & Regulation, and provides a proven, ready-to-use set of materials for those interested in introducing such a class to their 1L curriculum. The book focuses on the tools and methods of interpreting legal texts, using Supreme Court and other appellate decisions as the primary texts, yet the note material gently introduces students to applicable insights from political science, history, economics, and philosophy. The book aims to familiarize students with tools and techniques that lawyers and judges use when crafting legal arguments in statutory or regulatory contexts, and to give students a sense of the larger questions of institutional design implicated by these interpretive questions.
Author: Jonathan H. Choi
Author: Jonathan H. Choi
Author: Dr. K.N. Chaturvedi
Author: Robert F. van Brederode
Author: Robert A. Katzmann
Author: Joan Youngman
Author: William N. Eskridge
Author: Antonin Scalia
Author: William N. Eskridge (Jr.)
Author: John Manning
Author: William Eskridge