Document Type
Article
Publication Date
January 2003
Keywords
Economic substance, substance over form, Tax shelter, Tax planning, Textualism, Taxation, Tax law
Disciplines
Law | Taxation-Federal | Tax Law
Abstract
This article discusses the tension that exists between the recent textualist approach taken in the U.S. Supreme Court and the judicially developed substance-over-form doctrines that pervade tax law. It sets forth Justice Antonin Scalia’s textualist approach, provides an overview of the substance-over-form doctrines, and then analyzes whether the current Supreme Court would uphold a case that overrode the literal text of the Internal Revenue Code on the basis of one of the doctrines. The article concludes that the current Supreme Court would reject any of these doctrines if faced with the issue.
Publication Title
Santa Clara Law Review
Volume
43
Recommended Citation
Allen Madison. The Tension Between Textualism and Substance-Over-Form Doctrines in Tax Law, 43 Santa Clara Law Review 699 (2003).