In this paper, I talk about Section 965, also known as the transition tax, enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). First, I examine loopholes under the old tax regime that allowed for the accumulation of offshore earnings and how the TCJA closes those loopholes. After detailing the legislation of the transition tax and a comparison with Section 965 included in the American Jobs Creation Act in 2004, I compare firms’ recorded provisions of the transition tax with an estimation based on the past disclosures of firms’ permanently reinvested earnings and finds that the transition tax will generate an estimated $308 billion in tax revenue. Lastly, I propose three alternate scenarios to the transition tax: taxing all offshore earnings under the GILTI regime, treating offshore cash as eligible for the 21% corporate rate, and a ratable payment plan compared to the current phase-in payment plan.

On Nov. 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. The purpose of this legislation is evident in its name as it encompasses funding for “roads, bridges, railroads, airports, public transportation, access to broadband internet, and clean water” (Stradling, 2021). The revenue to support the $1.2 trillion Act will mainly result from “repurposing COVID-19 relief funds and unused unemployment benefits, delaying a Medicare rebate, and enacting stronger cryptocurrency reporting requirements" (Stradling, 2021). Although there are few provisions in this Act that will affect the average taxpayer, there are some that tax preparers should note.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act contained the largest federal initiative for place-based investment in over half a century. Opportunity Zones (“OZs”) are expected to cost the US government over $15 billion in forgone tax revenue through 2026, exceeding both the Clinton Era Empowerment Zones and the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson. Have OZs increased neighborhood investment and, if so, what types of projects and neighborhoods have benefitted? This dissertation presents three baseline evaluations of OZ. The first essay discusses the findings from 76 interviews with community and government officials, program managers, developers, businesses, and fund managers about OZ outcomes in West Baltimore. The second essay uses a difference-in-differences (DID) event study framework, an adjusted interrupted time series analysis, and census tract matching techniques to compare small business and residential lending outcomes in OZs with areas that were eligible but not designated. The final essay combines an online search for OZ supported affordable housing projects, a DID design that examines Low-Income Housing Tax Credit outcomes, and 16 interviews with community development experts to evaluate whether and how OZ is having an impact on affordable housing production. These three analyses show that OZ is a missed opportunity. OZ is stimulating investment conversations and local government capacity, but it is failing at oversight and community engagement and not changing outcomes for distressed community development or affordable housing. OZ is failing because it provides weak incentives for capital gains investors seeking market rate returns, because it does not support investors and developers already active in distressed neighborhoods, and because of several related design flaws that inhibit mission driven development. The essays propose specific policy changes necessary for OZ to encourage investment in highly distressed neighborhoods and to support affordable housing production.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-05-16T12:41:19Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) tesefinal-versaodigital+fichacatalografica-folhaaprovacao-18062016.pdf: 1114800 bytes, checksum: b2507a8668fc2d4b3298aac9fd5d6c04 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-16T12:41:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) tesefinal-versaodigital+fichacatalografica-folhaaprovacao-18062016.pdf: 1114800 bytes, checksum: b2507a8668fc2d4b3298aac9fd5d6c04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-16 / A tese apresenta três ensaios com o objetivo de avaliar políticas públicas e seus efeitos sobre mudanças de lei envolvendo pequenas empresas (Lei JOBS e Simples Nacional) e acidentes em rodovias federais, conectados por meio da abordagem de Desenho de Regressao Descontinua. O primeiro ensaio pretende explorar os efeitos da lei JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups, JOBS), que promoveu o financiamento aos projetos ao aliviar regulamentos de valores mobiliários, sobre a arrecadação e financiadores no mercado de financiamento coletivo. Os resultados, indicam que a lei afetou os níveis de arrecadação em 75% para projetos de start’ups, em especial aos relativos a tecnologia e Design, e, de forma semelhante, em 59% os financiadores dos projetos. O segundo ensaio tem por objetivo avaliar os efeitos da política do horário de verão sobre acidentes nas rodovias federais brasileiras. Os resultados apontam que nos Estados onde a política do horário de verão foi utilizada como tratamento, os acidentes sofreram redução de 14%. O terceiro ensaio busca avaliar os efeitos da desoneração da carga tributária e geração de empregos para as pequenas empresas da indústria brasileira. Através da adoção ao programa Simples Nacional como estratégia de identificação, implementado no Brasil em 2007, aumentou a faixa de faturamento para até R$ 2.400 milhões e a adesão de empresas elegíveis. Ao trazer benefícios de redução do custo operacional industrial e proporcionar folga financeira às empresas, possibilitou a geração de empregos. Os resultados apontam que as empresas que realizaram a adoção ao programa obtiveram benefícios de redução do custo operacional industrial em 23%, o que possibilitou um aumento positivo na geração de emprego de 21.5% a 23.85% para pessoal ocupado total e ligado à produção, respectivamente. De forma semelhante, apresentou evidências de que houve consequente aumento na folha de salários de 25.18% a 26.98%, contribuindo para a manutenção do programa do Simples Nacional. / The thesis has three essays to evaluate public policies and their effects on law changes involving small businesses (JOBS Act and Simples Nacional) and accidents on federal highways connected through Regression discontinuous design approach. The first essay aims to explore the effects of the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups, JOBS), which promoted the funding to projects to alleviate securities regulations on the raised and financiers in the collective crowdfunding market. The results indicate that the law affected the raised levels by 75 % to start’ups projects, especially those relating to technology and design, and, similarly, in 59% funders of projects. The second essay is to evaluate the effects of DST’s policy on accidents in Brazilian federal highways. The results show that in the states where the DST policy has been used as a treatment, accidents were reduced by 14 %. The third essay aims to evaluate the effects of the National Simple Act implemented in Brazil in 2007, by reducing the tax burden, promoted benefits such as job creation and wage increases of small businesses in the Brazilian industry. The results show that companies that have undertaken to adopt the program obtained concessions that enabled positive increase in the generation of employment 21.5 % to 23.85 %. Similarly, it presented evidence that there was a consequent increase in wages of 25.18 % and 26.98 % for staff salaries, contributing to maintenance of the National Simple program.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to assess the post-crisis development of the hedge fund regulation both in the EU and in the United States as well as to outline the regulátory trends in this area. The fist part of the thesis is dedicated to the explanation of the term hedge fund by comparing it with a mutual fund, venture capital fund and a private equity fund. In the second part of the thesis I captured an overview of hedge fund strategies and their classification. The third chapter deals with various possible regulatory approaches including their impact. In this part I also describe in detail the development of the hedge fund regulation in the United States since the thirties of the last centure up to now. Part of the thesis dedicated to the EU focuses on understanding the requirements set by Alternative Investment Fund Directive and its implementation in the individual national legislations. Finally, a comparison of the individual requirements is provided and supplemented with my own findings.

La presente ricerca intende affrontare due questioni tra loro interconnesse. La prima potrebbe definirsi, ormai, un esercizio ineludibile per tutti coloro che intendono confrontarsi con le categorie fondamentali del diritto del lavoro: alludiamo, quindi, alla nota questione della collocazione sistematica e, prima ancora, del modo d’essere delle collaborazioni organizzate dal committente. Si tratta, infatti, di un tema che ha visto cimentarsi l’intera “accademia” del diritto del lavoro e, tuttavia, sembra adesso possibile svolgere una sintesi ragionata sulle opinioni presentate dalla dottrina, grazie alla visuale privilegiata di chi si approccia a tale esercizio “a valle” dell’intervento di interpretazione “autentica” dell’art. 15 del d.lgs. 81 del 2017 nonché dei primi pronunciamenti giurisprudenziali. Il secondo quesito che si intende affrontare è ben espresso dall’ultimo spunto ricostruttivo offerto in merito alla vicenda delle collaborazioni etero organizzate, e cioè se la nuova disciplina offra «maggiore tutele alle nuove fattispecie di lavoro che, a seguito della evoluzione e della relativa introduzione sempre più accelerata delle recenti tecnologie, si stanno sviluppando». L’art. 2 del d.lgs. 81/2015, disponendo che “si applica” la disciplina del rapporto di lavoro subordinato “anche” ai rapporti di collaborazione che si concretano in prestazioni di lavoro esclusivamente personali e continuative, a condizione che le modalità di esecuzione siano organizzate dal committente anche in relazione ai tempi ed al luogo di lavoro, è destinato ad operare nell’area assai controversa del lavoro personale continuativo prestato nell’altrui interesse. E ciò, allo scopo di mettere ordine al noto problema delle prestazioni di lavoro sulla frontiera tra subordinazione e autonomia, al quale il lavoro a progetto non aveva saputo dare una risposta adeguata. Nel presente elaborato, si procederà, anzitutto, alla ricostruzione dello summa divisio che caratterizza la nostra materia e con la quale devono, sempre, confrontarsi tutte le “nozioni” che intercettano e descrivono un modo d’essere di una prestazione di lavoro. 4 In secondo luogo, ripercorreremo, sinteticamente, le vicende del lavoro coordinato che hanno preceduto l’introduzione della figura delle collaborazioni organizzate dal committente e ciò, per un duplice ordine di considerazioni: da un lato, è la formulazione della norma dell’art. 2 del d.lgs. 81 del 2015 a richiamare elementi di fattispecie delle collaborazioni “autonome” ex art. 409 c.p.c., per cui è ineludibile riferirsi al modello genetico per chiarire il significato e le divergenze della nuova disciplina; dall’altro, da un punto di vista certamente “cronologico” e, come si vedrà, anche “logico”, la disciplina delle collaborazioni organizzate dal committente eredita l’ingrata funzione anti elusiva del lavoro a progetto. Allo scopo di comprendere il terreno elettivo delle collaborazioni etero organizzate, e quindi la “zona grigia”, sarà opportuno spiegare, brevemente, i mutamenti avvenuti nei paradigmi economico – produttivi che hanno contribuito allo scollamento del modo di prestare lavoro rispetto al binomio oppositivo accolto nel nostro codice civile. Allo stesso tempo, si dovrà dare conto delle diverse “stagioni della giurisprudenza” nazionale sulla subordinazione perché, in un sistema a «categorie mutualmente esclusive e complessivamente esaustive», le flessioni di un polo comportano ripercussioni complementari all’altro capo. A questo punto, si affronterà in dettaglio la prima questione del presente elaborato. Si tenterà di delineare i tratti fisionomici delle collaborazioni organizzate dal committente e, conseguentemente, si analizzeranno partitamente i requisiti costitutivi della fattispecie fotografata dal primo comma dell’art. 2 del d.lgs. 81 del 2015: esclusiva personalità della prestazione; continuità ed etero-organizzazione “anche” dei tempi e del luogo della prestazione. Dopo aver qualificato il modo d’essere collaboratori etero organizzati, si potrà affrontare con maggiore consapevolezza la questione dell’inquadramento teorico, non prima però di aver svolto qualche considerazione sulla tecnica legislativa impiegata dal Legislatore. La questione dell’inquadramento teorico delle collaborazioni organizzate dal committente è stata ed è tuttora al centro del dibattito segnalato in apertura, anche a seguito della prima applicazione giurisprudenziale della disposizione. 5 Conseguentemente, non si potrà fare a meno di fornire e incasellare le principali letture proposte dagli operatori del diritto, osservando come le stesse si risolvono, in ultima analisi, nella riconduzione delle collaborazioni ex art. 2 del d.lgs. 81 del 2015 ora all’area del lavoro subordinato ora a quella del lavoro autonomo. A prima vista, siffatta diatriba potrebbe sembrare prima di risvolti pratici posto che, a prescindere da qualsivoglia ricostruzione dogmatica si scelga, alle collaborazioni organizzate dal committente si applicherà, comunque, la disciplina del rapporto di lavoro subordinato come stabilito espressamente dall’art. 2, d.lgs. 81/2015. E, tuttavia, è bene sin d’ora ricordare che secondo alcuni orientamenti, di cui si darà conto, la scelta esegetica inciderebbe in ordine alla selezione delle norme dello statuto del lavoro subordinato concretamente estendibili alle collaborazioni organizzate dal committente. Una volta fornita l’interpretazione “autentica” delle collaborazioni etero organizzate e chiarito il quantum di disciplina della subordinazione che si applica a mente dell’art. 2, si potrà procedere all’indagine sulla seconda questione oggetto del presente elaborato: si metterà l’interpretazione raggiunta alla prova del mondo del lavoro digitale. Specificatamente, si analizzerà il modello operativo ed organizzativo del lavoro prestato nelle piattaforme digitali, identificandone elementi comuni e tratti differenziali sia rispetto al tradizionale lavoro “sconnesso” e sia tra le differenti ed eterogenee realtà che lo “rappresentano”. Si procederà, quindi, a verificare se le tradizionali categorie dell’autonomia e della subordinazione siano in grado di “intercettare” tale fenomeno lavorativo e di produrre un sistema di tutela soddisfacente, sperimentando altresì la nuova disposizione delle collaborazioni organizzate dal committente. Da ultimo, anticipando gli esiti deludenti della verifica sopra tratteggiata, si prenderà posizione sulle tecniche di regolazione del lavoro digitale e sulle modalità di imputazione delle tutele al prestatore di lavoro nella piattaforma. / This thesis aims to address two interrelated research questions. The first one has now become an inescapable intellectual exercise for anybody dealing with the fundamental categories of labor law. Specifically, we allude to the well-known topic of the systematic effects and, before that, of the way of being of the collaborations hetero-organized by the client introduced by art. 2, Legislative Decree n. 81/2015. Indeed, the entire "academy of labor law” has been offering multiple interpretations since the introduction of this legal category without coming to an agreed solution. However, it is now possible to carry out a final synthesis of the doctrine thanks to the privileged view of whom investigates this research question after the "authentic" interpretation provided by art. 15 of Legislative Decree 81 of 2017 and the first rulings. The second research question that we will address concerns the analysis of the provisions governing the hetero-organized work and, specifically, if this new category offers a better (or, at least, sufficient) protection on the new digital work scenarios in comparison with the traditional rights of subordinate work. Article. 2 of Legislative Decree 81/2015, by establishing that "subordinate work protective statute" also "applies" to collaborative work performed continuously and exclusively by an individual worker, providing that the methods of execution are hetero-organized by the client “also in relation to time and place of work”, will intercept the activities falling in the very controversial area of continuous personal work in the interest of a second party. By doing this, this new legal category should address the “ancestral” question of the qualification of the workers performing on the frontier between subordination and autonomy, to which the so called “project work” category had proven not to be able to give an adequate solution. Consequently, we will proceed first to a brief historical analysis of the traditional labor law categories of subordinate work and autonomy against which any new legal category has to be compared. Secondly, we will review the main stages and regulations of the work carried out under a coordinate way with the client that precede the legal category of the collaborations hetero-organized by the client for the following purposes: on the one hand, the legal words used by the art. 2 of Legislative Decree 81 of 2015 inevitably recall requirements of the “old” category of the autonomous collaborations pursuant to art. 409 c.p.c. Therefore, it is mandatory to investigate the “genetic model” to clarify the meaning of the new discipline. On the other hand, both from a "chronological" and "logical" point of view, the provisions for the collaborations hetero-organized by the client “inherit” the anti-elusive spirit and goal of the “project work”. In order to understand the targeted work performances of the hetero-organized collaborations, it will be useful to explain the changes that have taken place in the economic-productive paradigms that have contributed to the detachment of the way of working with respect to the binary system model between subordinate work and autonomy accepted in our civil code. At the same time, we will analyze and categorize the main historical stages of the Italian Jurisprudence on qualification of works since in a system of "mutually exclusive and overall exhaustive categories", the decline of a legal category generates a complementary effect on the other. At this point, the first research question will be discussed in details. We will attempt to outline the key “features” of the collaborations hetero-organized by the client and, consequently, we will analyze the requirements of the work scenario “portrayed” by the first paragraph of art. 2 of Legislative Decree 81 of 2015: an exclusively personal work; continuity and hetero-organization "also" of the time and place of the collaboration. Once identified the key features of the new category, it will be possible to challenge the research question concerning the theoretical framework where the collaborations hetero-organized by the client should fall. To address this question, we will first provide the principal interpretations proposed by the legal practitioners which, eventually, link the new category of the collaborations pursuant to art. 2 of Legislative Decree 81 of 2015 to one of the traditional binary categories of subordinate work or self-employment. At first glance, such radical opposition does not seem to yield any practical implications given that, the collaborations hetero-organized by the client will be ruled according to the provisions set for subordinate work as established expressly by the art. 2, Legislative Decree 81/2015. Nevertheless, it has to be acknowledged that according to some doctrines the theoretical framework choice affects the provisions that can be concretely extended to the collaborations hetero-organized by the client. Once provided the "authentic" interpretation of the new legal category and clarified the “quantum” of discipline of the subordination work that applies to hetero-organized works as per art. 2, it will be possible to proceed with the second research question: we will test the new category against the digital work scenario. Specifically, we will analyze the operational and organizational model of the work performed within a “digital work platform”, identifying common elements and differential traits with respect to both traditional "offline-work” and all the multiple forms in which the digital works take place. We will therefore proceed to verify if the traditional binary categories of autonomy and subordination are able to "intercept" and “qualify” this recent work phenomenon and contribute to a fair protection of digital workers. Finally, anticipating the disappointing outcomes of the above mentioned investigation, we will take a position on digital job regulation techniques thus suggesting a possible way to protect the employee in the working platforms.

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