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Jonathan Choi (Minnesota; Google Scholar) presents Past Purposivism In Tax Regulation at Boston Faculty right now as a part of its Tax Coverage Collaborative hosted by Jim Repetti, Diane Ring & Shu-Yi Oei:

Standard knowledge holds that purposivist theories of statutory interpretation clear up the issue of tax shelters, as a result of shelters adjust to the textual content however not the aim of tax statutes. However the predominant type of purposivism in tax scholarship, which mixes particular statutory functions with basic structural ideas of tax legislation, can not separate shelters from bizarre tax planning. Though tax shelters declare advantages that exceed particular functions and don’t align with goal basic ideas, so do some broadly accepted tax methods.

This Article subsequently proposes a brand new framework to transcend purposivism in tax legislation, complementing purposivist methods with pragmatism or doctrinalism. Pragmatism applies specific coverage judgments when statutory functions run out; doctrinalism applies guidelines, like canons of development, that present determinate solutions when statutory goal is ambiguous. Pragmatism usually results in higher ends in any specific case, whereas doctrinalism offers taxpayers certainty in planning respectable transactions.

This Article lays out how the pragmatic and doctrinalist approaches ought to use, and when. The perfect compromise is a hybrid: companies ought to primarily apply pragmatic purposivism in ex ante steering, whereas companies and courts ought to primarily apply doctrinalist purposivism in ex put up adjudication. The ex ante/ex put up break up comports with current administrative and customary legislation, and it fits the relative strengths of companies and courts. Finally, it offers interpreters the pliability to take care of pernicious, subtle fashionable tax shelters.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2022/02/choi-presents-beyond-purposivism-in-tax-law-today-at-boston-college.html