Temple Law Student Wins International Tax Writing Competition

January 20, 2012 -   Congratulations to Bradford (Brady) Craig '12, whose paper "Congress, Have a Heart: Practical Solutions to Punitive Measures Plaguing the HEART Act's Expatriate Inheritance Tax" won First Prize in the IFA (International Fiscal Association) 2011 International Tax Student Writing Competition.

The prize carries with it a $2,000 cash award and attendance at IFA's Annual Meeting and award ceremony in Washington DC later this winter.

Professor Kathy Mandelbaum, who served as Craig's faculty supervisor, noted that "Brady's achievement is particularly impressive; his paper was considered with both J.D. and LL.M. papers and, in fact, in the past three years, the award was won twice by LL.M. students."  The paper addresses the federal government's novel approach to the problem of expatriates fleeing the United States and abandoning their U.S. citizenship, taking with them abundant tax dollars, focusing in particular on the HEART Act's shift from the normal U.S. treatment of tax on gifts, which would amount to a tax on the transferor, to an inheritance tax, which taxes the recipient of the gift when the donor is a U.S. expatriate.  To remedy this inequity, Craig recommends amendments to the HEART Act that would apply principles already existing in U.S. tax law and in the Internal Revenue Code.

The paper will be published in the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal.