The Supreme Court’s Federal Tax Jurisprudence: An Analysis of Fact Finding Methods and Statutory Interpretation from the Court’s Tax Opinions, 1801-Present

In this substantially revised edition of The Supreme Court’s Federal Tax Jurisprudence, the author, Jack Cummings, continues his in-depth analysis of United States Supreme Court tax opinions using an approach not attempted by any other writer in the area of tax publishing. With the federal tax opinions of the Supreme Court as its primary guide, this book explores how the Supreme Court applies the federal tax laws, with special emphasis on statutory interpretation and fact finding. Mr. Cummings demonstrates how the body of Supreme Court tax opinions is sufficiently large (nearly 1,000 opinions) to provide an authoritative guide to many of the most difficult questions of Code application, including Chevron deference, economic substance, substance over form, step transactions, interpretive presumptions and maxims, tax avoidance, equity in the tax law, and many more. This new edition cites to at least 100 more opinions that provide views on the interpretive principles covered in the book, and discusses the important Mayo decision and a number of other federal tax opinions issued by the Court since 2010. Mr. Cummings places in context the most widely cited Supreme Court tax decisions – Gregory, Frank Lyon, Knetsch, Cottage Savings, Court Holding – and brings to light many more sometimes overlooked opinions of the Court.