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 worked with the State of California, co-authoring a bill that helps to simplify tax filing by giving low-income taxpayers the option of receiving a ReadyReturn—a completed tax return prepared by the state. Before joining the Stanford 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

• Tax-Shelter Users Get Some Rare Good News
  The Wall Street Journal, June 04, 2008
• At Law School Commencement, Grads Urged to Chart Own Paths
  Stanford Report, May 07, 2008
• Law School Graduation Season Draws A Variety Of Commencement Speakers
  The National Law Journal, April 28, 2008
• Will The Simple Return End April 15 Tax Agony?
  The Christian Science Monitor, April 15, 2008
• At IRS Deadline, Many In City Miss Stimulus
  The New York Sun, April 15, 2008

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
• Stanford Program in Law, Economics & Business, Ralph M. Parsons Professor of Law and Business

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• 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.
• Joseph Bankman, Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations, 4th ed., New York: Aspen Publishers, 2005. (with Thomas D. Griffith and Katherine Pratt)
• Joseph Bankman, Simple Filing for Average Citizens: the California Ready Return, 107 Tax Notes 1431 (2005).
• Joseph Bankman, Tax Enforcement: Tax Shelters, the Cash Economy, and Compliance Costs, 31 Ohio Northern University Law Review 1 (2005).
• Joseph Bankman, The Superiority of An Ideal Consumption Tax Over An Ideal Tax Income Tax, Stanford Law and Economics Olin, Working Paper, no. 310 (2005). (with David A. Weisbach)