Biography

A leading scholar in the field of tax law, Joseph Bankman is the author of two widely used casebooks on the subject. His writings on tax policy cover topics such as progressivity, consumption tax, and the role of tax in the structure of Silicon Valley start-ups. He has gained wide attention for his work on how government might control the use of tax shelters and has testified before Congress and other legislative bodies on tax compliance problems posed by the cash economy. He has written and spoken extensively on how we might use technology to simplify filing. He also worked with the State of California to co-author a bill creating ReadyReturn—a completed tax return prepared by the state. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1989, Professor Bankman was a professor at the University of Southern California Law Center and a tax practitioner with the Los Angeles firm of Tuttle & Taylor.

Key Works

• Joseph Bankman and David A. Weisbach The Superiority of an Ideal Consumption Tax Over an Ideal Income Tax, 58 Stanford Law Review 1413 (2006).
• Joseph Bankman and Ian Ayres, Substitutes For Insider Trading, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No.214; Yale Law and Economics Research Paper No. 252 (April 2001). Document available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection.
• Joseph Bankman, The New Market in Corporate Tax Shelters, 83 Tax Notes 1775-1795 (1999)
• Joseph Bankman, The Structure of Silicon Valley Start-Ups, 41 University of California at Los Angeles Law Review 1737-1768 (1994).
• Joseph Bankman and Thomas Griffith, Social Welfare and the Rate Structure: A New Look at Progressive Taxation, 75 California Law Review 1905-1968 (December 1987).

In the News

• Why Can’t The I.R.S. Help Fill In The Blanks?
  The New York Times, January 24, 2010
• Wall Street May Seek To Sway Congress By Hiring Top Lawyer
  Business Week, January 19, 2010
• Winning The Audit Lottery
  Forbes, November 30, 2009
• Accounting: Push On To Extend $8,000 Homebuyer Credit
  North Bay Business Journal, October 26, 2009
• Law Prof. Simplifies Tax Returns
  The Stanford Daily, October 21, 2009

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Corporate Income Taxation
• Legal Studies Workshop
• Tax Policy
• Taxation I

Programs

• John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Ralph M. Parsons Professor of Law and Business

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Joseph Bankman, A Gas Tax Makes the Most Sense for California, San Jose Mercury News, August 11, 2009, pg. A9.
• William A. Klein, Joseph Bankman, Daniel N. Shaviro and Kirk J. Stark, Federal Income Taxation, New York: Wolters Kluwer, 15th ed., 2009.
• Joseph Bankman, Introduction (Symposium: Closing the Tax Gap), 20 Stanford Law & Policy Review 1 (2009).
• Joseph Bankman, Thomas D. Griffith and Katherine Pratt, Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations, New York: Wolters Kluwer, 5th ed., October 2008.
• Joseph Bankman and David Weisbach, Reply: Consumption Taxation is Still Superior to Income Taxation, 60 Stanford Law Review 789 (December 2007).
• Joseph Bankman, An Empirical Examination of Corporate Tax Noncompliance: Comments, in Taxing Corporate Income Tax in the 21st Century, Alan J. Auerbach, James R. Hines and Joel Slemrod, eds., New York: Cambridge University Press, November 2007.
• David A. Weisbach and Joseph Bankman, Consumption Taxation is Still Superior to Income Taxation, University of Chicago Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 358
• Joseph Bankman, State Tax Shelters and State Taxation of Capital, 26 Virginia Tax Review 769 (Spring 2007).
• Joseph Bankman and David A. Weisbach The Superiority of an Ideal Consumption Tax Over an Ideal Income Tax, 58 Stanford Law Review 1413 (2006).
• William A. Klein, Joseph Bankman, and Daniel N. Shaviro, Federal Income Taxation, New York: Aspen Publishers, 14th ed., 2006.