"Shelf Project" Speaker Lunch on Friday, October 26, 2012

Calvin Johnson, Andrews & Kurth Centennial Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law, will be on campus Friday, October 26 to talk with students about the Shelf Project.  The following description was posted on the TaxProf Blog on February 24 of this year:

"Since 2007, the Shelf Project has generated sixty-three proposals, many of which focus on protecting the tax base by reducing or eliminating exemptions, loopholes and shelters-collectively known as tax expenditures. Much of Johnson's scholarship over the years has examined how these tax expenditures introduce inefficiencies. Professor Johnson describes his project as follows:

 

We should be able to raise at least a trillion dollars a year more revenue within the current income tax system, without a rate hike or a Value Added Tax, largely by making our tax accounting better reflect economic income. Our current system has too many tax pits, which absorb revenue and distort investment decisions. We allow deductions for fictitious losses. 'Taxable income' under our tax accounting does not reach and describe high-class consumption as well as it needs to. Moving toward a more comprehensive income tax base to make it less easily avoided would improve both the fairness and efficiency of the income tax.

 

Please plan to attend this wonderful presentation.  Lunch will be provided.  Once we have the room confirmed, I will post it.  Please let me know if you are able to attend.