Loyola University Chicago, School of Law LAW eCommons Faculty Publications & Other Works 2011 Grown-Up Income Shifting: Yesterday's Kiddie Tax Is Not Enough. Samuel Brunson Loyola University Chicago,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://lawecommons.luc.edu/facpubs Part of the Tax Law Commons Recommended Citation Brunson, Samuel, Grown-Up Income Shifting: Yesterday's Kiddie Tax Is Not Enough, 59 U. Kan. L. Rev. 457 (2011). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by LAW eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications & Other Works by an authorized administrator of LAW eCommons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Grown-Up Income Shifting: Yesterday's Kiddie Tax Is Not Enough Samuel D. Brunson I. INTRODUCTION As part of its ongoing war against tax evasion, Congress changed the tax law in 1986 to make income shifting' less viable and less attractive.2 Congress assaulted income shifting on two fronts. First, it passed provisions that closed perceived loopholes in the tax law that permitted income shifting. Second, it passed provisions that, while not aimed directly at income shifting, resulted in its being less attractive. In the latter category were the changes to tax brackets made by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (the Act).3 The Act reduced both the number of tax brackets and their rates. Before the Act, there were fourteen tax brackets; after the Act, there were just two.4 At the same time, the Act reduced the highest marginal rate from fifty percent to twenty-eight percent.5 This compression of tax brackets, combined with the reduction in marginal rates, significantly decreased the amount by which income shifting could reduce a taxpayer's tax liability.