Lawrence A. Zelenak

Pamela B. Gann Distinguished Professor of Law

School of Law

zelenak@law.duke.edu

Duke Law School Room 4185, Duke Box 90362, Durham, NC 27708

Duke Law School 210 Science Dr, Duke Box 90362, Durham, NC 27708

More About This Person

At a Glance

Credentials
1. Education

Academic Experience
1. Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations

Global Scholarship

Keywords

Research
1. External Relationships

Scholarly Works

Teaching & Mentoring
1. Recent Courses

Recognition
1. News Items

Professional Activities

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

'Form Is of Some Consequence’: How the Peculiar Style of Amendments Has Shaped American Constitutional Law

Journal article Florida Law Review · 2026 Link to item Cite

"What We Pay for Civilized Society”: Words Etched in Stone

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2026 Cite

Moral Duty or “Mere Cant”? Tax Protesting Through the Looking Glass

Journal article Michigan State Law Review · 2024 Cite

Why Nix a Tip Tax Now?

Journal article Tax Notes Federal · 2024 Cite

Reading the Taxpayers' Brief in Moore

Journal article Tax Notes International · 2023 Cite

What We Talk About When We Talk About Tax Shelters

Journal article Iowa Law Review Online · 2023 Link to item Cite

Stanley Surrey and Taxing Unrealized Appreciation

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2023 Link to item Cite

Foreword: The Legacy of Stanley S. Surrey

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2023 Link to item Cite

The Income Tax, the Constitution, and the Unrealized Importance of Helvering v. Griffiths

Journal article Virginia Tax Review · 2023 Link to item Cite

Designing a Billionaire's Tax

Journal article Florida Tax Review · 2023 Link to item Cite

The Two "Two Americas" of Trump and Romney

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2022 Link to item Cite

Stanley S. Surrey: A Life in Taxes

Journal article Tax Notes Federal · 2022 Cite

The Deductibility of Capital Losses in a Mark-to-Market Regime

Journal article Tax Notes Federal · 2021 Cite

The American Families Plan and the Future of the Mass Income Tax

Journal article Tax Notes Federal · 2021 Cite

1924, 2021: Taxes of the Ultrarich, and Mark-to-Market Reforms

Journal article Tax Notes Federal · 2021 Cite

“We Will See That You Are Troubled Right Along”: Women and the Politics of the Early Federal Income Tax

Journal article Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy · 2020 Link to item Cite

Giving Credits Where Credits Are (Arguably) Due: A Half Century's Evolution in the Design of Personal Tax Expenditures

Journal article Florida Tax Review · 2020 Link to item Cite

Examining the Internal Revenue Code for Disparate Racial Impacts

Journal article Tax Notes Federal · 2020 Cite

Seven-Plus Decades of the Federal Income Tax in Sitcoms: An Update

Journal article Tax Notes Federal · 2020 Cite

The NCAA and the IRS: Life at the Intersection of College Sports and the Federal Income Tax

Journal article Southern California Law Review · 2019 Link to item Cite

Tax in History: The Federal Income Tax Goes to War

Journal article Intertax · 2019 Cite

Foreword: The Past, Present, and Future of the Federal Tax Legislative Process

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2018 Link to item Cite

Leaving it up to Treasury: Congressional Abdication on Major Policy Issues in the Early Years of the Income Tax

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2018 Link to item Cite

Comments on Proposed Regulations: 'Contributions in Exchange for State or Local Tax Credits' (Reg-112176-18)

Journal article · 2018 Link to item Cite

SALT Ceiling Workarounds and Tax Shelters

Journal article Tax Notes · 2018 Cite

The Body in Question: The Income Tax and Human Body Materials

Journal article Law & Contemporary Problems · 2017 Link to item Cite

For Better and Worse: The Differing Income Tax Treatments of Marriage at Different Income Levels

Journal article North Carolina Law Review · 2015 Link to item Cite

In Memoriam: Marvin and Zeno

Journal article Tax Notes · 2015 Cite

Tearing Out the Income Tax by the (Grass)Roots

Journal article Florida Tax Review · 2014 Link to item Cite

Maybe Just a Little Bit Special, After All?

Journal article Duke Law Journal · 2014 Link to item Cite

The Almost-Restatement of Income Tax of 1954: When Tax Giants Roamed the Earth

Journal article Brooklyn Law Review · 2014 Link to item Cite

Will the Federal Income Tax Have a Bicentennial?

Journal article Florida State University Law Review · 2014 Link to item Cite

Up in the Air Over Taxing Frequent Flyer Benefits: The American, Canadian, and Australian Experiences

Journal article Capital Markets Law Journal · 2014 Link to item Cite

The Federal Income Tax in Situation Comedies

Journal article Proceedings 104th Annual Conference on Taxation · 2013 Cite

Choosing Between Tax and Nontax Delivery Mechanisms for Health Insurance Subsidies

Journal article Tax Law Review · 2012 Link to item Cite

The Great American Tax Novel

Journal article Michigan Law Review · 2012 Link to item Cite

Custom and the Rule of Law in the Administration of the Income Tax

Journal article Duke Law Journal · 2012 Link to item Cite

The Loophole that Would Not Die: A Case Study in the Difficulty of Greening the Internal Revenue Code

Journal article Lewis & Clark Law Review · 2011 Link to item Cite

Tax Scholarship: Useful and Useless

Journal article Tax Notes · 2011 Cite

Intergenerational Justice.

Journal article ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES · June 2010 Link to item Cite

Debt-Financed Consumption and a Hybrid Income-Consumption Tax

Journal article Tax Law Review · 2010 Link to item Cite

Complex Tax Legislation in the Turbotax Era

Journal article Columbia Journal of Tax Law · 2010 Link to item Cite

Tax Increases, Revenue Effects, Efficiency, and Income Inequality

Journal article Tax Notes · 2010 Cite

Of Punitive Damages, Tax Deductions, and Tax-aware Juries: A Response to Polsky and Markel

Journal article Virginia Law Review In Brief · 2010 Link to item Cite

The Federal Retail Sales Tax that Wasn't: An Actual History and an Alternative History

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2010 Link to item Cite

Foreword: The Fabulous Invalid Nears 100

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2010 Link to item Cite

The Conscientious Legislator and Public Opinion on Taxes

Journal article Loyola University of Chicago Law Journal · 2009 Link to item Cite

Can Obama's IRS Retroactively Revoke Massive Bank Giveaway?

Journal article Tax Notes · 2009 Cite

Tax Expenditures and the Carbon Audit

Journal article Tax Notes · 2009 Link to item Cite

Codification of General Disallowance of Artificial Losses

Journal article Tax Notes · 2009 Cite

Tax Policy and Personal Identity Over Time

Journal article Tax Law Review · 2009 Link to item Cite

Tax Enforcement for Gamers: High Penalties or Strict Disclosure Rules?

Journal article Columbia Law Review Sidebar · 2009 Link to item Cite

Cancellation-of-Indebtedness Income and Transactional Accounting

Journal article Virginia Tax Review · 2009 Link to item Cite

The Court and the Code: A Response to 'The Warp and Woof of Statutory Interpretation'

Journal article Duke Law Journal · 2009 Link to item Cite

Does Intergenerational Justice Require Rising Standards of Living?

Journal article George Washington Law Review · 2009 Link to item Cite

Justice Holmes, Ralph Kramden, and the Civic Virtues of a Tax Return Filing Requirement

Journal article Tax Law Review · 2007 Link to item Cite

Six Decades of the Federal Income Tax in Sitcoms

Journal article Tax Notes · 2007 Cite

The Theory and Practice of Tax Reform

Journal article Michigan Law Review · 2007 Link to item Cite

The Sometimes-Taxation of the Returns to Risk-Bearing Under a Progressive Income Tax

Journal article SMU Law Review · 2006 Link to item Cite

Taxing Endowment

Journal article Duke Law Journal · 2006 Link to item Cite

Of Head Taxes, Income Taxes, and Distributive Justice in American Health Care

Journal article Law and Contemporary Problems · 2006 Link to item Cite

Of Prius Buyers, Blue States, Consumer Energy Credits, and the Alternative Minimum Tax

Journal article Tax Notes · 2005 Cite

Tax or Welfare? The Administration of the Earned Income Credit

Journal article UCLA Law Review · 2005 Link to item Cite

Tax Shelters and the Search For the Silver Bullet

Journal article Columbia Law Review · 2005 Link to item Cite

Framing the Distributional Effects of the Bush Tax Cuts

Journal article Tax Notes · 2004 Cite

Redesigning the Earned Income Tax Credit as a Family-Size Adjustment to the Minimum Wage

Journal article Tax Law Review · 2004 Link to item Cite

The Myth of Pretax Income

Journal article Michigan Law Review · 2003 Link to item Cite

Capitalization of Benefits Beyond the Tax Year

Journal article Tax Notes · 2002 Cite

The Income Tax and the Costs of Earning a Living

Journal article Tax Law Review · 2002 Link to item Cite

A Whirlwind Tour of the Internal Reveune Code's At-Risk and Passive Activity Loss Rules

Journal article Real Property, Probate & Trust Journal · 2002 Link to item Cite

Codifying Anti-avoidance Doctrines and Controlling Corporate Tax Shelters

Journal article SMU Law Review · 2001 Link to item Cite

A Health Insurance Tax Credit for Uninsured Workers

Journal article Inquiry · 2001 Link to item Cite

Doing Something about Marriage Penalties: a Guide for the Perplexed

Journal article Tax Law Review · 2000 Link to item Cite

The Puzzling Case of the Revenue-maximizing Lottery

Journal article North Carolina Law Review · 2000 Link to item Cite

Can the Graduated Income Tax Survive Optimal Tax Analysis?

Journal article Tax Law Review · 1999 Link to item Cite

The Selling of the Flat Tax: the Dubious Link Between Rate and Base

Journal article Tax Notes · 1999 Link to item Cite

Taxing Baseballs and Other Found Property

Journal article Tax Notes · 1999 Cite

Radical Tax Reform, the Constitution, and the Conscientious Legislator

Journal article Columbia Law Review · 1999 Link to item Cite

Feminism and "Safe Subjects Like the Tax Code"

Journal article Southern California Review of Law & Women's Studies · 1998 Link to item Cite

Taking Critical Tax Theory Seriously

Journal article North Carolina Law Review · 1998 Link to item Cite

Taxing women - McCaffery,EJ

Journal article SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW · May 1997 Link to item Cite

Children and the Income Tax

Journal article Tax Law Review · 1997 Link to item Cite

Thinking about Nonliteral Interpretations of the Internal Revenue Code

Journal article North Carolina Law Review · 1997 Link to item Cite

Tax and the Married Woman

Journal article Southern California Law Review · 1997 Link to item Cite

Do Anti-Tax Shelter Rules Make Sense? A Reply to Professor Johnson

Journal article Texas Law Review · 1997 Link to item Cite

The Reasons for a Consumption Tax and the Tax Treatment of Gifts and Bequests

Journal article Tax Law Review · 1996 Link to item Cite

I Can Sit on It, but Is it Art?

Journal article Tax Notes · 1996 Cite

Flat Tax vs. VAT: Progressivity and Family Allowances

Journal article Tax Notes · 1995 Cite

The Reification of Metaphor: Income Taxes, Consumption Taxes and Human Capital

Journal article Tax Law Review · 1995 Link to item Cite

Marriage and the Income Tax

Journal article Southern California Law Review · 1994 Link to item Cite

Taxing Gains at Death

Journal article Tax Notes · 1993 Link to item Cite

Does Treasury Have Authority to Index Basis for Inflation?

Journal article Tax Notes · 1992 Link to item Cite

Reforming Penalty Reform: Congress Should Eliminate the Profusion of Accuracy Standards

Journal article Tax Notes · 1991 Cite

The Taxation of Tax Indemnity Payments: Recovery of Capital and the Contours of Gross Income

Journal article Tax Law Review · 1991 Link to item Cite

Are Rifle Shot Transition Rules and Other Ad Hoc Tax Legislation Constitutional

Journal article Tax Law Review · 1989 Link to item Cite

When Good Preferences Go Bad: A Critical Analysis of the Anti-Tax Shelter Provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1986

Journal article Texas Law Review · 1989 Link to item Cite

Should Courts Require the Internal Revenue Service to be Consistent?

Journal article Tax Law Review · 1985 Link to item Cite

The Tax Exempt Status of Communitarian Religious Organizations: An Unnecessary Controversy?

Journal article Fordham Law Review · 1985 Link to item Cite

Serving Two Masters: Commercial Hues and Tax Exempt Organizations

Journal article University of Puget Sound Law Review · 1984 Link to item Cite