How to Minimize the Risk of Collusion in the Wake of the CMS Hospital Price Publication Mandate
Lily V. Barrett 93 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 701 In 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) finalized a rule... Read More
Holding Influencers Accountable: When Election Disinformation Turns Criminal
Regina Postrekhina 93 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 669 The harm that social media influencers and their election disinformation pose to American democracy... Read More
A Revival of Nondomination in Antitrust Law
Sandeep Vaheesan 93 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 610 For decades, the theme of nondomination has been largely absent from federal antitrust law.... Read More
Student Privacy’s Student Neglect: Toward a Student-Centric Paradigm
Elana Zeide 93 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 535 Student privacy law does not meaningfully protect students’ privacy. As federal statutes such as... Read More
Taxing Litigation Finance
The emerging litigation finance industry has the capacity to expand access to justice but also raises important legal and ethical questions. The problem arises in classifying litigation finance contracts as either a nonrecourse loan, immediate sale, or variable prepaid forward contract, all of which discretely impact the timing and character of income. The consequences are tax uncertainty and an opportunity for taxpayers to engage in aggressive tax planning by structuring transactions to obtain favorable tax treatment without altering their economic position. This Article proposes a customized, multifactor analysis to identify the true nature of litigation finance transactions and impose proper tax treatment.
The bedrock of the proposal is the concept of tax ownership, which in the litigation finance context can be streamlined into two key factors: economic risk and legal control of the claim.