Richard L. Schmalbeck | Scholars@Duke

Richard L. Schmalbeck
Simpson Thacher and Bartlett Distinguished Professor of Law

Richard Schmalbeck is Professor of Law at Duke University. He has also served as dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, and as a visiting professor on the University of Michigan and Northwestern University law faculties. His recent scholarly work has focused on issues involving non-profit organizations, and the federal estate and gift taxes. He has also served as an adviser to the Russian Federation in connection with its tax reform efforts. The third edition of his federal income tax casebook, co-authored with Lawrence Zelenak, was released by Aspen Publishers in 2011.

He graduated from the University of Chicago, and later from its Law School, where he served as associate editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. Prior to beginning his teaching career, he practiced tax law in Washington, D.C.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Simpson Thacher and Bartlett Distinguished Professor of Law, Law School, Duke University 2009
Professor of Law, Law School, Duke University 1993

Contact Information

Duke Law School 210 Science Dr, Duke Box 90362, Durham, NC 27708
Duke Law School Room 4188, Duke Box 90362, Durham, NC 27708-0360
schmalbeck@law.duke.edu (919) 613-7078
See the Duke Law profile page
View this faculty member's publications on the Duke Law web site

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- J.D., The University of Chicago 1975
- B.A., The University of Chicago 1970
Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor with Tenure, Law School, Duke University 1984 - 1990
- Associate Professor, Law School, Duke University 1980 - 1984
Recognition
In the News
- JUN 30, 2016 PolitiFact
  
  Richard Schmalbeck explains GOP tax proposal
- SEP 29, 2015 The Guardian
  
  Rich Schmalbeck comments: Donald Trump unveils tax plan with cuts for poorest and richest Americans
- MAY 11, 2015 Religion Dispatches
  
  Richard Schmalbeck comments: The panic over churches’ tax-exempt status in a gay-married world
- APR 16, 2015 WUNC
  
  Richard Schmalbeck: Winners and losers on Tax Day in North Carolina
- DEC 16, 2014 Bloomberg Radio
  
  Richard Schmalbeck discusses Supreme Court review of Colorado tax law
- MAY 17, 2013
  
  Duke Law Professor Helps Media Untangle IRS Scandal
Expertise
Global Scholarship
- Expertise
  - Russian Federation (Country)
  - United States of America (Country)
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Schmalbeck, R., L. Zelenak, and S. Lawsky. Federal Income Taxation. Aspen Publishing, 2018.
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  - Schmalbeck, R., G. Auten, and C. Clodfelter. Taxes and Philanthropy Among the Wealthy. Joel Slemrod ed., 1998.
  - Schmalbeck, R. Report of the Illinois Supreme Court Special Commission on the Administration of Justice, 1993.
  - Schmalbeck, R. Illinois Housing Needs, 1970-1980. Illinois Housing Development Authority, 1972.
- Academic Articles
  - Schmalbeck, R., and J. Soled. “Substance Over Form in Transfer Tax Adjudication.” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 55, no. 2 (2022): 609–43.
  - Schmalbeck, R., J. Soled, and J. Alm. “Reassessing the Costs of the Stepped-Up Tax Basis Rule.” Tax Notes 162 (2019): 769–75.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and L. Zelenak. “The NCAA and the IRS: Life at the Intersection of College Sports and the Federal Income Tax.” Southern California Law Review 92, no. 5 (2019): 1087–1153.
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  - Schmalbeck, R., and S. Gary. “The Private Foundation Excise Taxes: A Largely Successful Tax Reform Effort (In preparation),” 2019.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and J. Soled. “Determining an Asset's Tax Basis in the Absence of a Meaningful Transfer Tax Regime.” Columbia Journal of Tax Law 10, no. 1 (2018): 49–75.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “An Exempt Status Sorting Hat.” New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy 21, no. 2 (2018): 603–7.
  - Schmalbeck, R., J. Soled, and K. Thomas. “Advocating A Carryover Tax Basis Regime.” Notre Dame Law Review 93, no. 1 (2017): 109–54.
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  - Schmalbeck, R., L. Faulk, S. Alaimo, K. Gronbjerg, J. Colombo, D. Mason, T. Dearing, et al. “Ask the Experts.” Wallethub, 2015.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and J. Soled. “Unifying Depreciation Recapture.” Connecticut Law Review 48 (2015): 531–59.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Ending the Sweetheart Deal Between Big-Time College Sports and the Tax System,” 2014.
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  - Schmalbeck, R., J. Soled, P. Caron, and C. Davenport. “Rethinking the Penalty for the Failure to File Gift Tax Returns.” Tax Notes 141 (2013): 757–61.
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  - Schmalbeck, R., and J. Soled. “Estate Tax Relief and the Erosion of Capital Gains Tax Revenues.” Tax Notes 133 (2011): 733.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “Gifts and the Income Tax - An Enduring Puzzle.” Law & Contemporary Problems 73 (2010): 63–93.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Financing the American Newspaper in the Twenty-First Century.” Vermont Law Review 35, no. 1 (2010): 251–71.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and J. Soled. “Elimination of the Deduction for Business Entertainment Expenses.” Tax Notes 123 (2009): 757–64.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Sarkozy Proposal is Worth a Try; and A Reply to Professor McIntyre.” News Quarterly 27 (2007): 1.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and E. Aprill. “Post-disaster Tax Legislation: A Series of Unfortunate Events.” Duke Law Journal 56 (2006): 51–100.
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  - “The Impact of Tax-Exempt Status: The Supply-Side Subsidies.” Law & Contemporary Problems 69 (2006): 121–38.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Reconsidering Private Foundation Investment Limitations.” Tax Law Review 58 (2005): 59–110.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Tax Protest Movement: Vernice Kuglin and Voluntary Compliance.” News Quarterly 23 (2004): 14–16.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Death of the Efficiency-Equity Tradeoff? A Commentary on McMahon's The Matthew Effect and Federal Taxation.” Boston College Law Review 45 (2004): 1143–56.
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  - Schmalbeck, R., and J. Soled. “Many Unhappy Returns: Estate Tax Returns of Married Decedents.” Virginia Tax Review 21 (2002): 373.
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  - Schmalbeck, R., and J. Soled. “Unnecessary Estate Tax Returns: Removing the Residue of the Widow's Tax.” Tax Notes 94 (2002): 235.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “Does the Death Tax Deserve the Death Penalty?” Cleveland State Law Review 48 (2000): 749.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Durability of Law School Reputation.” Journal of Legal Education 48 (1999): 568.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Race and the Federal Income Tax: Has a Disparate Impact Case been Made?” North Carolina Law Review 76 (1998): 1817.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Is the Flat Tax Reform or Rip-Off?” Duke Dialogue 1996 (1996).
  - Schmalbeck, R. “We Already Have A Flat Tax System.” St. Louis Post Dispatch 1996 (1996): 15.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “L. Lindsey.” Contemporary Sociology 20 (1991): 398.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Uneasy Case for a Lower Capital Gains Tax: Why Not the Second Best?” Tax Notes 1990 (1990): 195.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Trouble with Statistical Evidence.” Law & Contemporary Problems 49, no. 3 (1986): 221–36.
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  - Schmalbeck, R., and R. Myers. “A Policy Analysis of Fee-Shifting Rules under the Internal Revenue Code.” Duke Law Journal 1986 (1986): 970.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Foreword: Tax Legislation in the Reagan Era.” Law & Contemporary Problems 48, no. 4 (1985): 1–6.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Income Averaging After Twenty Years: A Failed Experiment in Horizontal Equity.” Duke Law Journal 1984 (1984): 509.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Book Review.” Journal of Legal Education 33, no. 4 (1983): 734–37.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Justice of Economics: An Analysis of Wealth Maximization as a Normative Goal.” Columbia Law Review 83, no. 2 (1983): 488–525.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Retired Lives Reserves.” Implementing Compensation Plans After the Revenue Act Of, 1980.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and I. Salem. “Group-Term Life Insurance: IRS Creates New Solutions, Questions, and Challenges.” Journal of Taxation, 1979.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Validity of Grant-Back Clauses in Patent Licensing Agreements.” University of Chicago Law Review 42 (1975): 733.
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- Book Sections
  - Schmalbeck, R. “Class War and the Estate Tax: Have the Troops Gone AWOL?” In Law and Class in America: Trends Since the Cold War, 191–216, 2006.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “Avoiding Federal Wealth Transfer Taxes.” In Rethinking Estate and Gift Taxation (W. Gale, J. Hines, J. Slemrod, Eds., 2001.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Impact of Fundamental Tax Reform on Charitable Organizations.” In The Economic Effects of Fundamental Tax Reform, 1996.
- Other Articles
  - Schmalbeck, R. “End the Alternative Minimum Tax, Don't Mend It.” The Wall Street Journal, 2017.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and J. Soled. “Throw Out Skybox Tax Subsidies.” New York Times, 2010.
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  - Schmalbeck, R. “Nader 2004?, Thanks, but..., Op-ed on Ralph Nader.” News & Observer, 2003.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Late, Great, Now-You-See-It, Now-You-Don't Estate Tax Repeal of 2001.” Duke Law Magazine, 2001.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “What'd He Say I Said?” National Law Journal, 1998.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “Bill's Big Breakfast.” National Law Journal, 1998.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “Flat Tax, VAT Tax, Anything But That Tax.” Duke Law Magazine, 1996.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Income Tax is Better Than the Alternatives.” Philadelphia Inquirer, 1995.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “The Tax Reform Act of 1986: The Impact on Support of Public Goods and Services.” Duke Law Magazine, 1987.
  - Schmalbeck, R. “Case Law Substitutes for Constitutional Structures in Computing Taxable Income in the United States.” Duke Law Magazine, 1986.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and R. Lewis. “Important Changes in Wage-Price Guidelines.” Legal Times, 1978.
  - Schmalbeck, R., and R. Lewis. “Wage-Price Program Goes to Compliance State.” Legal Times, 1978.
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
- LAW 222L: Taxation of Cross-Border Transactions 2022
- LAW 255: Federal Income Taxation 2022
- LAW 360: International Taxation 2022
- LAW 640: Independent Research 2022
- LAW 222L: Taxation of Cross-Border Transactions 2021
- LAW 255: Federal Income Taxation 2021
- LAW 222L: Taxation of Cross-Border Transactions 2020
- LAW 255: Federal Income Taxation 2020
- LAW 541: Non-Profit Organizations 2020
- LAW 561: Tax Policy 2020
- LAW 640: Independent Research 2020

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Previous Appointments & Affiliations

In the News

Global Scholarship

Expertise

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Other Articles

Recent Courses