Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
The James Hausman Tax Law & Policy Workshop Series
presents
Sagit Leviner
Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law
An overview: A new era of tax enforcement – from “big stick”
to responsive regulation
Wednesday, October 29,2008
12:30 – 2:00
Solarium (Room FA2) – Falconer Hall
84 Queen’s Park
Recent developments in regulation and tax administration inspired this article on tax compliance and responsive regulation. This article analyzes the economics of crime and compliance as the dominant approach to tax enforcement of the past three and a half decades. It evaluates the key advantages and disadvantages of the economic approach as well as its application to tax. The article then explores responsive regulation as an alternative method that draws on the economic paradigm but also supplements this approach with other theories, particularly those involving identity, conflict escalation, and procedural justice. Building on this analysis and a case study of Australian investors in mass marketed tax schemes, the article suggests that the broader, more balanced, and closely tailored method of regulating responsively may enable regulators to draw on the advantages of the economic model while alleviating some of its drawbacks. Responsive regulation may therefore constitute a superior method for regulating compliance.
Sagit Leviner is an academic fellow with the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law. Ms. Leviner served as senior researcher with the Internal Revenue Service National Headquarters Office of Research/ Office of Chief Counsel from 2007 to 2008. She is a graduate of the Doctor of the Science of Laws (S.J.D., 2007) and the Master of Laws (LL.M., 2002) programs of the University of Michigan Law School, where she also co-taught the 2006-07 Tax Policy Workshop with Professors Reuven Avi-Yonah and Jim Hines and the 2005-06 S.J.D. Colloquium. Her scholarship addresses issues within contemporary tax policymaking, particularly with regard to tax enforcement and the tax burden distribution. Ms. Leviner received various distinguished honors and awards for her research and papers. She presented her work on several occasions and she is published with venues such as the Virginia Tax Review and the Journal on Regulation and Governance. Her articles appeared on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) Top Ten Download List(s) for several areas, including: (1) Public Economics: Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue; (2) Tax Law & Policy; (3) Regulation; (3) Comparative law; (4) Law Enforcement and Correction; (5) and Law – General. Based on her accomplishments, Sagit was selected to appear in the 2004-05, 2005-06, and the 2006-07 editions of the National Dean’s List, recognizing her as being in the top 1% of graduate students in the United States for these three consecutive years. Ms. Leviner earned her first degree in law (LL.B) cum laude from the Haifa University Law School in Israel in 2000, ranked fifth in her class. Sagit held a post graduate internship position with the Fiscal Department of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, from 2000 to 2001, and she served in the Israeli Defense Force from 1994 to 1996.
A light lunch will be served.
For more workshop information, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca.
