Forty Years of Change, One Constant: Tax Analysts

Forty Years of Change, One Constant: Tax Analysts
Jeffery L. Yablon
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Washington
Over the last 35 years, American tax laws have
changed to reflect a citizenry that has generally
become more individualistic, less honest, more
sophisticated, less honorable, more worshipful
of wealth, and less caring about the opinions of
others. Most obvious are three related trends:
• tax laws have increasingly been used by politicians
to grant financial benefits to favored
parties in a manner that is harder to discern
and easier to enact than direct appropriations;
• tax laws are now always subject to effectively
capricious revision or repeal — the institutional
reluctance to change important things without
good reason that was generally present in
earlier times has been severely eroded; and
• largely in response to aggressive behavior by
tax professionals, broad principles have been
replaced with or supplemented by a multitude
of very specific rules, exceptions to rules, and
exceptions to the exceptions.
The overall result is a level of complexity that
would be regarded as unquestionably insane if it
had occurred all at once rather than accumulating
over decades.
Ralph Zerbonia
UHY LLP
Southfield, Mich.
One of the most significant changes I have
seen involves the enormous number of tax changes
enacted by Congress over the past few years.
I began my career in 1973. There was one tax
change from 1973 to 1981. From 1981 to around
2005, there were annual changes in tax law.
However, within the past few years it seems there
have been numerous tax changes in numerous bills
throughout the year. Each change now is often for
only a limited period of time, and each change has
different effective dates — some many years in the
future.
It has been extremely difficult to properly keep
track of these numerous and continual changes to
allow proper tax planning for our clients. Even
after 37 years of experience, I find it is impossible
to know even the simplest tax provisions without
looking them up.
George K. Yin
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Va.
Important societal developments during the past
40 years have gradually affected the legal and tax
professions. Many of the changes occurring during
this period in professional firms, corporate practices,
government, and academia can be attributed to the
wider variety of backgrounds and experiences of
the persons involved in the profession.
The challenge over the next 40 years will be
to promote this increased heterogeneity while
preserving within it a common tax culture of
which we can all be proud. Tax Analysts has
played a commendable role in these developments;
as the profession has slowly moved away from
the “club” model, Tax Analysts has facilitated a
broader dissemination of information beyond the
select few and also provided an open forum for the
widespread sharing of views.
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