Corporate Tax: The Agony and the Ecstasy

For many years I have been teaching Corporate Tax to law students. To enjoy a course in a subject matter (and law school for that matter), there needs to be more for the professor than just doing a job and more for the students than just preparing for a job. And, in Corporate Tax, usually there is. Most of us, professors and students, enjoy the challenge of attempting to master, analyze, resolve, apply, and, sometimes, just comprehend complex statutory systems and factual problems. Otherwise, Corporate Tax would be drudgery. For us, it is not. Corporate tax law comprises a group of mini-systems. Some of these regimes are things of beauty; we can call this our “ecstasy.” Contrarily, other parts of Corporate Tax leave us shaking our heads. The rules might not make much sense, or at the very least, be more complex than is really necessary. We can call this our “agony.” In this article, I explain some of the causes for the bad rules in corporate tax. Then I provide an example of some ecstasy—logical and well-drafted rules. Next, I point out the sources of our agony—the diabolical and stupid rules that I have encountered in teaching this course. Finally, I recommend changes for improving corporate tax law