Professor Rebecca Kysar Co-Authors Widely-Read Paper on Issues in Tax Reform Bill

Professor Rebecca Kysar was one of four primary authors of a paper that is gaining widespread attention for highlighting potential areas of concern in the Republican tax reform legislation currently before the U.S. Congress. The report, “The Games They Will Play: Tax Games, Roadblocks, and Glitches Under the New Legislation,” has been cited by numerous media, including the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Slate, and Law360, and it has been downloaded more than 16,000 times since publishing last week on leading research repository SSRN.

According to the report, “the complex rules proposed in the House and Senate bills will allow new tax games and planning opportunities for well-advised taxpayers, which will result in unanticipated consequences and costs.”

Kysar, who drafted the international section of the report, says: “The international provisions are among the most complex in the legislation. They deserve serious attention and present numerous gaming opportunities, adverse consequences under international law, and undesirable incentives to locate investment and assets abroad. To be sure, the current system also is the subject of considerable tax planning, avoidance, and inefficiency. But, the proposed system will introduce significant new problems.”

Sought frequently for her expertise on tax and federal budget issues, Kysar has previously highlighted what she sees as major flaws in the G.O.P.’s plans to reform the international tax system. She argued in a New York Times op-ed that the efforts to reduce incentives for companies moving operations overseas actually do the opposite. A recent article in The Atlantic cited Kysar on similar concerns about offshoring because of the tax plan.

At the Law School, Kysar teaches and researches in the areas of federal income tax, international tax, and the federal budget and tax legislative processes. She is widely published in top law journals such as Cornell Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Journal of International Law, and sought as a presenter at various forums, including the Columbia Tax Policy Colloquium, the Harvard Law School Seminar on Tax Law, Policy, and Practice, and the NYU Tax Policy Colloquium.

Read the paper here.