TJSL Professor Richard Winchester appeared on a panel of professors at Penn State's Dickinson School of Law on October 10th to discuss various issues involving the Obama Tax Policy. His portion of the discussion, titled “Obama’s Incomplete Opus: A Progressive Tax Plan That Will Defeat Its Purpose,” demonstrated how the President will fall short of achieving a progressive tax agenda.
Professor Winchester pointed out in his presentation that President Obama's proposed tax policy allows high income individuals who are employee-owners of low income corporations to avoid paying taxes that other self-employed individuals are required to pay. The combination of proposed rules, Professor Winchester says, may work against the President’s goal of ensuring that the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.
Well-known for his scholarly work on tax policy, Professor Winchester is the only legal scholar whose reform proposals have been considered as a policy option by Congress. One of his articles was published in 2009 by the Stanford Law and Policy Review, and it was cited in a Congressional Committee report that described the provisions of pending tax legislation passed by the House of Representatives. The legislation eventually failed to pass in the Senate and did not become law.
The panel discussion was hosted by the Dickinson School of Law's Center for the Study of Mergers and Acquisitions, and it included two other speakers, William Barker and Samuel C. Thompson, Jr., both professors at Penn State Dickinson School of Law.