Vanderbilt University Law School Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 2003 How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Double Taxation Herwig J. Schlunk Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Herwig J. Schlunk, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Double Taxation, 79 Notre Dame Law Review. 127 (2003) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/441 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE DOUBLE TAXATION HerwigJ Schlunk* INTRODUCTION In the current U.S. federal income tax regime, some of the in- come generated by economic activity conducted in corporate form is taxed twice: first when it is earned by the corporation and again when it is distributed to the owner of an interest in such corporation. This "double taxation" has long been the subject of scorn, and numerous proposals have been put forward to end it.' Most recently, President George W. Bush loudly joined the chorus of double taxation's detrac- tors. He proclaimed that such taxation is "unfair" and "doesn't make any sense," and proposed legislation-centered on an exclusion of dividends from individual income taxation-that would have been its death knell. 2 I have no particular quarrel with the President's assessment of double taxation as such taxation is currently practiced in the United States.