Tax Benefits, Higher Education, and Race: A Gift Tax Proposal for Direct Tuition Payments
By
By
Bridget J. Crawford[1]* & Wendy C. Gerzog[2]**
Higher education is extremely expensive. There are a variety of tax rules designed to make it (somewhat) more affordable. The tax benefits for higher education come in a variety of forms: credits, deductions, and exclusions.[3] Some of these tax items reduce income tax liability; others reduce gift tax liability (which in turn may decrease estate tax liability). Determining one’s eligibility for different educational tax benefits can be a complex and confusing task.[4] For the most part, the highly detailed rules that apply in determining a taxpayer’s eligibility for one particular benefit do not apply to other benefits. For example, a taxpayer who is eligible for a refundable education tax credit may be ineligible for a non-refundable education tax credit under the same Internal Revenue Code provision; a taxpayer who is eligible for a deduction due to a particular tuition payment under one Code section may not be eligible for a similar income exclusion on college savings under another Code section; and so on.[5]
For those who value higher education, it seems difficult to argue that Congress should not provide tax benefits to students. After all, college graduates tend to have higher average incomes and better health than the general population.[6] Societies with more college graduates typically have lower levels of poverty[7] and increased rates of civic engagement.[8] Higher education benefits both individuals and society.[9] Indeed, there is a good case to be made for additional tax benefits to address higher education student debt.[10]
In evaluating tax expenditures for higher education, or indeed any tax law, it is important to understand how the law impacts particular groups or classifications of taxpayers. Standard economic and legal analyses typically invoke efficiency, equity, and administrability as the primary criteria for evaluating any tax rule.[11] “Equity,” according to the conventional understanding, is the notion that income-equivalent taxpayers should be taxed similarly.[12] In contrast, for critical tax scholars, a more expansive approach to “equity” drives the inquiry.[13] Critical tax theorists ask how tax laws impact taxpayers differently along the lines of race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, and a variety of other identity axes.[14] Questions of race took on greater urgency for many Americans in the summer of 2020, after a white police officer killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by kneeling for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds on Floyd’s neck; video shot by a bystander was widely distributed on social media and in the press.[15] With massive public demonstrations in the weeks following Floyd’s death,[16] race became salient in a new way for many whites.[17] Critical tax scholarship can illuminate how tax laws are deeply implicated in racial inequalities and fail to operate in race-neutral ways.
Primarily, critical tax analysis relies on official data published by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). For example, because some tax benefits are contingent on age or disability, it is possible for researchers to ascertain easily the number of taxpayers who claim certain benefits.[18] To a limited extent, data about gender exist as well, but in the income tax context, the data are largely limited to wage-based information.[19] The IRS reports some gift and estate tax data by gender.[20] Because income, gift, and estate tax returns do not ask about the taxpayer’s gender, though, the agency must match tax data with social security data for gender-based reporting.[21] The IRS does not collect information about race or ethnicity, and the agency maintains an official “colorblind” approach to reporting all tax data.[22] Thus, race and ethnicity are uniquely difficult to research by reference to the IRS’s information.
Without official tax data compiled on the basis of race, researchers have turned to other sources to reveal an enormous racial economic inequality in the United States.[23] According to the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, for example, median family net worth was $121,700 for white, non-Hispanics; $18,200 for Black or African-Americans; $21,900 for Hispanics or Latinos; and $68,800 for families of “other” or multiple races.[24] Deeply implicated in racial economic inequality are disparities in education by race. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of individuals twenty-five and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher is 40.2% among non-Hispanic whites, 26.1% among Blacks, 58.1% among Asians, and 18.8% among Hispanics of any race.[25]
Race and ethnicity have always played a role in the history of education in the United States. For example, many states criminalized teaching both slaves and free “persons of colour” to read or write.[26] The continued exclusion of Blacks from institutions of higher learning even after the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 was the impetus for the establishment of historically Black colleges and universities.[27] Although the U.S. Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954,[28] the University of Mississippi did not enroll its first Black student until 1962.[29] Also well into the twentieth century, many private colleges, including Ivy League schools, imposed informal or formal quotas on the number of Jewish students they enrolled.[30] Now in the twenty-first century, some groups argue that elite colleges impose illegal quotas on the number of Asian-American students they admit.[31] On the other side of the college admissions spectrum, at many schools, legacy applicants—who are children of alumni—receive admission preferences.[32] At most schools, the pool of legacy applicants is disproportionately white compared to the general application pool at the same school.[33] This is because most schools’ alumni bases are largely white; over time, the legacy pool may (or may not) come to reflect the demographics of a school’s more recent graduating classes.[34] In these many ways, issues of race and higher education have always been intertwined.
This Article combines three topics—taxes, higher education, and race—to evaluate the tax system’s role in exacerbating racial inequalities. Part II frames the discussion with a brief overview of the economics of higher education: how much it costs, how much debt the average student incurs to afford it, and how that debt burden varies by race. Part III describes the major income and wealth transfer tax benefits for higher education, including I.R.C. § 2503(e)’s exclusion of direct tuition payments from gift tax. Part IV demonstrates how this gift tax exclusion disproportionately benefits white families already more likely to avail themselves of other generous tax benefits for higher education while also noting that the exclusion is inconsistent with the overall purpose of wealth transfer taxes. Additionally, Part IV argues that I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A)’s exclusion is inequitable and should be repealed because it exacerbates the racial wealth gap and creates lifetime benefits for the donee while diminishing the donor’s tax base. Part V evaluates opportunities for future research at the intersection of race and tax benefits for higher education and beyond. Part VI concludes with a call for an expanded definition of “fairness” when evaluating the tax system.
According to data provided by College Board, the average cost of college tuition at public four-year universities during the 2019–2020 academic year was $10,486 for in-state students and $15,873 for out-of-state students.[35] At private schools, the average tuition was $36,880 for the same period.[36] These are tuition prices only; the figures do not include the cost of room, board, transportation, or other fees. These costs average $11,510 for a public four-year institution and $12,610 for a private four-year institution.[37] At elite institutions, the figures can be even higher: for the 2019–2020 academic year, tuition at Yale University was $55,500, with room and board adding an additional $16,600 to the bill.[38] Tuition at Harvard University for the same period was $47,730; room and board cost $17,682.[39]
Admittedly, at both public and private institutions, not all students pay full “sticker price” for their education. At Yale, more than 50% of undergraduates receive need-based aid with an average scholarship of approximately $52,800.[40] At Harvard, approximately 55% of all students receive need-based scholarship aid with an average award of $53,000.[41] Across the United States, “[a]t private, nonprofit four-year colleges . . . 89 percent of students receive some form of financial aid, meaning that almost no one is paying full price.”[42] The average gift-aid package is approximately $9,520 (exclusive of wages from work-study programs).[43] Even so, many students and families substantially borrow to fund higher education expenses.[44]
Students and families who do not receive scholarships or grants to fully cover the cost of college attendance typically work and take out loans to finance their futures.[45] In 2019, an estimated 62% of seniors graduating from public and nonprofit colleges had some student debt; the average student had $28,950 in loans.[46] However, that debt is not distributed equally among all students. Black students graduating with bachelor’s degrees are more likely to have debt (and to have more of it) than their white, Hispanic/Latinx, or Asian counterparts.[47] Eighty-five percent of all Black students had student loan debt, compared to 69% of whites, 66% of Hispanic/Latinxs, and 45% of Asians.[48] The average Black graduate had $34,000 in debt, an amount greater than the average student debt of graduates who are white ($30,100), Hispanic/Latinx ($25,450), or Asian ($25,450).[49]
Upon graduation, there are discernible racial differences in employment outcomes as well. In 2019, the overall unemployment rate for all college graduates was 5.1% with rates that varied by race: 7.7% for Asian American/Pacific Islanders, 6.8% for Blacks, 6.4% for Hispanics, and 4.2% for whites.[50] For those who were employed, average hourly wages also differed by race: $22.97 for Asian American/Pacific Islanders, $20.57 for whites, $19.39 for Hispanics, and $18.07 for Blacks.[51] These wage gaps can be explained in part by occupational segregation,[52] but discrimination likely plays a role as well.[53]
Given that Black college graduates have the highest average debt load,[54] the highest rates of unemployment,[55] and the lowest average wages,[56] it is unsurprising they have the greatest difficulty repaying student loans. For graduates of four-year colleges, the default rate on student loans is relatively low—around 5%.[57] However, in the year following graduation, many borrowers miss payments or apply for deferments or forbearances on loans because of financial difficulty in making loan payments.[58] Among 2016 graduates for example, 40% of Black borrowers missed payments or sought a deferment or forbearance based on low earnings, compared to 29% of Hispanic/Latinx borrowers, 22% of white borrowers, and 19% of Asian borrowers.[59] Ultimately, Black borrowers face greater financial challenges than any other group in repaying student loans.[60]
Another major factor contributing to Black students’ increased indebtedness and difficulty repaying loans is that they are less likely to have family wealth on which to rely for college payment in the first place or to assist with loan repayment after graduation. In addition to disparities in median family net worth,[61] there are striking differences in mean family net worth.[62] For white non-Hispanics, mean family net worth is $983,400.[63] For Hispanic or Latinx families, that figure is $165,500; for Blacks, it is $142,500; for families of “other” or multiple races, it is $657,200.[64] Simply put, Black families are poorer than other families by traditional economic measures.[65]
For all students, lack of family financial resources undoubtedly impacts their likelihood of attending undergraduate, graduate, or professional school. Although some poor and middle-class families can take advantage of certain tax benefits for higher education, which are discussed in the next Part, the greatest tax benefits are reserved for the wealthiest, who are also more likely to attend (and graduate from) college in the first place.[66] Furthermore, students from wealthy families are more likely to attend an elite college and enjoy easier pathways to well-paying jobs.[67]
Mainly, the gift tax exemption for direct tuition payments allows the donee to avoid incurring any debt while obtaining many years of schooling. Unlike debt-ridden students who are burdened by the need to repay hefty loans, tuition-gifted donees are already on their way to accumulating wealth at graduation.[68] In sum, tax benefits for higher education disproportionally accrue to those who can already afford it.
Some of the most well-known federal tax benefits include the American Opportunity Tax Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit;[69] a limited deduction for interest on education loans;[70] an exclusion from gross income for gain on contributions to an education individual retirement account (more commonly known as a Coverdell education savings account);[71] and an exclusion for gain on contributions to qualified tuition programs (more commonly known as 529 plans) as well as the principal—the amounts initially invested—if used for certain educational expenses.[72] Each of these tax benefits has varying income limits, maximums, and particular rules; navigating them can be quite complex.[73] When families are able to avail themselves of tax benefits for higher education, the savings are real. For the 2018 tax year, the number of tax returns filed claiming educational tax benefits (with some eligible for more one benefit) was in the millions: approximately 7.4 million claimed the American Opportunity Tax Credit,[74] 8.7 million claimed the Lifetime Learning Credit,[75] and 12.4 million claimed the deduction for interest on student loans.[76]
Based on official government statistics, it is difficult to know how many taxpayers report (tax-free) income from Coverdell education savings accounts.[77] According to industry reports, in 2018, the aggregate assets under management in Coverdell accounts were approximately $26 billion.[78] In comparison, in June of 2020, there were an estimated 14.6 million separate 529 accounts with approximately $373.5 billion in assets under management.[79] Because 529 plans have no annual contribution or income limitations on taxpayers who may establish them, 529 plans dwarf Coverdell accounts’ importance in the college savings landscape.[80] All of these and other income tax benefits for higher education[81] can work in tandem with estate and gift tax rules, as discussed in the next Section.
At the same time, many tax credits for higher education are nonrefundable and fail to assist students and families with low taxable income.[82] Likewise, for families with little or no discretionary income, 529 and similar savings plans are beyond reach.[83]
The purpose of the gift tax is firstly to protect the estate tax by allowing the decedent to make lifetime gifts that deplete the decedent’s potential estate and secondly to protect the income tax by dividing a large estate.[84] Any benefit provision that ignores or “excludes” a transfer of property from gift tax undermines the decedent’s transfer tax base.
For example, if tuition for one grandchild is $50,000 and a donor grandmother has five grandchildren, her transfer tax base can be depleted to the extent of $250,000 per year. If the donor pays that same tuition for each grandchild’s private school from kindergarten through twelfth grade and then for four years of college, she can reduce her estate tax estate by a total of $4.25
million under current law. With additional law school or medical school tuition added to that sum, this is real money, as they say—a significant reduction in the grandmother’s transfer tax base.[85]
Under current law, an estate tax return is required for a decedent who died in 2017 with combined gross assets and prior taxable gifts exceeding $5.49 million.[86] The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)[87] more than doubled that amount temporarily for decedents dying in years 2018 through 2025—when the 2017 legislation will sunset and the gift and estate tax exemption will return to the pre-TCJA lower exemption levels with adjustments for inflation.[88] In 2021, the wealth transfer tax exemption is $11.7 million.[89]
Given that mean household wealth in the United States is $748,800 and median household wealth is $121,700,[90] most individuals never have to worry about wealth transfer taxes (i.e., federal gift, estate, or generation-skipping transfer taxes). For the wealthiest Americans, though, wealth transfer taxes are important practical considerations with real consequences. For transfers in excess of the exemption threshold, gift and estate tax rates can climb as high as 40%.[91] Thus, many lawyers and other advisors have full-time careers counseling wealthy individuals about how to make tax-advantaged—and even tax-free—transfers to family members.
Two important gift tax carve-outs under I.R.C. § 2503 allow wealthy individuals to make tax-free lifetime transfers that, over time, can both reduce the size of their taxable estate and substantially enrich younger generation family members or other individuals. First are annual exclusion gifts under I.R.C. § 2503(b).[92] Separate and apart from the current $11.7 million exemption amount available to every taxpayer, each individual can make an unlimited number of annual transfers of up to $15,000 per donee.[93] For married couples who agree to gift-split, these annual exclusion gifts can be up to $30,000 per beneficiary per year.[94] There is no limit on the number of annual exclusion gifts that a taxpayer can make to multiple donees in any one year, nor is there a cap on the number of years that a taxpayer may do so.[95]
To be sure, a single annual exclusion gift is unlikely to reduce a large estate meaningfully enough to escape the estate tax at death. But if a taxpayer makes a series of annual exclusion gifts to many donees over a period of years (such as by making transfers outright or in certain trusts for the benefit of children and grandchildren), the donor can shift a substantial amount of tax-free wealth to intended beneficiaries and reduce the size of the gross estate for estate tax purposes. Annual exclusion gifts are powerful estate planning tools in this regard.[96]
The second notable carve out under I.R.C. § 2503 is the gift tax exclusion for “qualified transfers,” which are defined as amounts paid on behalf of an individual as tuition to certain educational organizations or to any person who provides medical care (as defined in § 213(d)) with respect to an individual.[97] Practically speaking, this means that a grandmother, for example, can pay tuition costs for all of her grandchildren from primary through graduate school without any of the transfers being treated as taxable gifts.[98] When a grandmother pays many years’ worth of private, college, and graduate or professional school expenses for all of her grandchildren and others, this benefit likely results in a large, unwarranted reduction in the grandmother’s transfer tax base. The grandmother could also pay for any of her grandchildren’s medical expenses that are not covered by insurance or otherwise, such as paying orthodontists’ bills directly.[99]
These direct payments of educational or medical expenses benefit not only the donor’s grandchildren but also the donor’s children, as parents of the donee students (for educational expenses) or patients (for medical expenses) no longer need to pay out of pocket. Combined with annual exclusion gifts, the hypothetical grandmother can both substantially increase the wealth of younger generations and reduce the size of her own taxable estate. For taxpayers in a position to make regular direct payments of tuition or other qualified expenses, these payments can be an important part of their estate plan.[100]
With each tax benefit for higher education, the government forgoes a certain amount of tax revenue. During the 2020 fiscal year, the estimated total income tax expenditures for education were approximately $32.7 billion, with large expenditures in the form of tax credits and deductions for postsecondary education expenses ($16.4 billion).[101] Deductions for student loan interest ($1.9 billion), Coverdell education savings accounts ($40 million), and 529 plans ($2.2 billion) were sizeable expenditures as well.[102]
For annual exclusion gifts or direct payments of educational or medical expenses, it is difficult to estimate the revenue cost with precision. For gifts made during the calendar year 2009, for example, over 211,000 returns were filed, showing total annual exclusion gifts of almost $9 billion.[103] Most of these gifts probably represent a deduction from larger gifts made to the same beneficiaries that year.[104] IRS data likely underrepresents the number and amount of gifts under I.R.C. § 2503(b) because many taxpayers do not file a gift tax return if they make only annual exclusion gifts.[105] The primary exception would be for stand-alone annual exclusion gifts of assets other than cash or marketable securities if the taxpayer wants to start the statute of limitations.[106] In that case, the taxpayer must adequately disclose the transfer on the gift tax return.[107]
In any event, there is absolutely no available tax data on direct payments of educational or medical expenses under I.R.C. § 2503(e). Again, because these transfers are not subject to the gift tax, most taxpayers do not see any reason to include them on a gift tax return. Furthermore, because qualified transfers under I.R.C. § 2503(e) are almost certainly made in cash, there is no valuation concern that might prompt taxpayers to file a gift tax return.[108] For these reasons, the total tax expenditures associated with I.R.C. § 2503(e) are impossible to estimate. As a practical matter, taxpayers must have a certain level of income or wealth to make annual exclusion gifts or qualified transfers. In the absence of tax data, one cannot accurately know the demographics of taxpayers in this category, but strong inferential evidence suggests they tend to be almost exclusively white.[109]
A staggering wealth gap exists between the rich and poor in the United States. In 2020, according to the Federal Reserve, the wealthiest 1% of all households held more than 30% of the nation’s wealth.[110] Expanding the figure to the top 10% of all households, that group accounted for 69% of all wealth.[111] The bottom 50% of the population, in contrast, owned a mere 1.9% of all household wealth.[112] The United States has not always been such an economically divided nation. In the late 1970s, the top 1% held approximately 22% of all household wealth, and the percentage has been steadily rising ever since.[113]
It is important to understand economic inequality not only in terms of families generically but also with respect to other identity characteristics, such as race. The average white family is seven times wealthier than the average Black family and five times wealthier than the average Hispanic/Latinx family.[114] Of the upper 50% of households by wealth, the percentages of families vary by race: 59% of white families fall into the top 50%, compared to 51% of Asian families, 25% of Hispanic/Latinx families, and 23% of Black families.[115] Wealth inequality between Black and white households in particular has gotten significantly worse—not better—since the pre-Civil Rights era.[116] The aggregate share of household wealth held by Black families is so low that the wealthiest 100 individuals on the Forbes 400 list collectively have as much wealth as all Black families in the entire country.[117] The wealthiest 186 people on that same list have as much wealth as all Hispanic/Latinx families combined.[118]
Broadening the discussion beyond the wealthiest few on a small list, of all households in the United States with a net worth of at least $2 million, the vast majority (76%) are white.[119] Asian and Black/African-Americans represent 8% of these households each, with Hispanic/Latinx families representing 7% and “other” races representing 1%.[120] Along the Black/white axis, white families possess an estimated 85% of the nation’s wealth, with Blacks owning only 4.1%.[121]
By any measure, then, white families overrepresent those who are most likely to take advantage of tax benefits for higher education, such as 529 plans,[122] annual exclusion gifts,[123] and direct tuition payments.[124] Tax benefits for higher education should be better calibrated to assist those with greatest need. Although a complete analysis of all higher education tax benefits is beyond the scope of this Article, the next Section proposes eliminating one particular benefit that is available to taxpayers who need it least: the exclusion from gift tax under I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A) for direct tuition payments.
Taking seriously the notion that tax laws are part of the political choices that represent a collective national “self,” as Professor Anthony Infanti has explained,[125] the function and impact of I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A) merit further examination. In practical terms, this provision allows taxpayers with enough income or wealth (or both) to make unlimited tax-free gifts of preparatory, college, or graduate school tuition if they pay the educational institution directly (as opposed to writing a check to a grandchild, for example, who then writes a check to the school).[126] The taxpayers in this financial category are overwhelmingly white.[127] So are the students who are most likely to be legacy college applicants,[128] employed after graduation,[129] and recipients of an inheritance from their families.[130] In other words, I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A) should be understood as part of a system that contributes to and sustains white financial well-being to the near total (but not complete) exclusion of other races. When one understands the tax system to be deeply implicated in the racial wealth gap and views tax-free direct tuition payments as inconsistent with the policies of wealth transfer taxes,[131] then any serious effort to narrow that gap should include the repeal of I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A).
Eliminating this particular tax benefit has positive economic and symbolic value in anti-racist advocacy; however, compared to a drastic reduction in the gift and estate tax exemption, the financial impact is small. Furthermore, wealthy individuals likely would not feel much of a “pinch” in their pocketbooks if I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A) was repealed.[132] These taxpayers could still make annual exclusion gifts of $15,000 to intended beneficiaries who can then use the money to pay educational expenses.[133] Donor-taxpayers could also generously fund 529 plans without being taxed on interest when those funds are used for educational purposes.[134] To the extent that annual exclusion gifts or 529 plan proceeds are not enough for these purposes, taxpayers could always use some of their wealth transfer tax exemption.[135] And for generous taxpayers who have already given away their full exemption amount, there remains the possibility of making taxable gifts.[136]
Even after the repeal of I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A), there are still other ways for wealthy taxpayers to assist intended beneficiaries with education expenses. However, they cannot avail themselves of that particular and potentially large tax benefit for direct tuition payments. Ultimately, the gift tax exclusion for direct tuition payments is unnecessary and mainly serves a white wealth preservation function.[137] Furthermore, tax-free treatment for direct tuition payments unfairly advantages transfers that are typically subject to wealth transfer taxes and that otherwise undermine the transfer tax base.[138]
Although annual exclusions have existed since the federal gift tax was enacted in 1924,[139] the exclusion for direct payments of educational and medical expenses was not made part of the Code until 1981.[140] In enacting I.R.C. § 2503(e), Congress indicated the new provision had a different purpose than the gift tax annual exclusion.[141] Whereas I.R.C. § 2503(b)(1) eliminated the need to account for multiple small transfers, such as birthday and holiday presents, Congress intended I.R.C. § 2503(e) to assist taxpayers who otherwise might be unaware that their transfers were technically taxable gifts under the law at the time.[142]
Professor Kerry Ryan hypothesizes that Congress’s decision to add a new exclusion for direct tuition and medical payments—as opposed to merely expanding the annual exclusion—is attributable to the size and irregularity of educational and medical expenses.[143] She also notes in hindsight that, as a factual matter, because educational and medical expenses have risen more steeply than general inflation adjustments for the annual exclusion, the annual exclusion benefit by itself would not have been able to fully cover those costs today (particularly at private educational institutions).[144] These rationales for the addition of I.R.C. § 2503(e) in 1981 actually bolster the case for its repeal now.
The gift tax exclusion for direct payments of educational and medical expenses originated with a 1969 proposal from the American Law Institute (ALI) to exempt from taxation three categories of transfers: (1) a transfer that does not result in a member of the transferor’s household or a child of the transferor under the age of twenty-one “acquiring property which will retain significant value after the passage of one year from the date of such expenditure;” (2) a transfer for “current educational, medical or dental costs of any person;” and (3) a transfer for “reasonable” expenditures for “costs of food, clothing and maintenance . . . of any person in fact dependent on the transferor.”[145] In other words, under the ALI proposal, for consumption-type expenses, the identity of the transferee (as the transferor’s household member or dependent) was relevant. Also, these expenses were subject to some financial standard (either “insignificant” or “reasonable”).
As enacted in 1981, however, the statute provides an expansive and open-ended transfer tax benefit: the identity of the donee does not matter; the donor can use this exclusion for an unlimited number of donees; there is no cap on total cumulative amounts paid as tuition; and there is no restriction on the total number of years the donor can use and benefit from this exclusion.[146] Congress adopted this variation of the ALI’s second recommendation (ignoring the other two ALI recommendations), limiting the gift tax exclusion to amounts paid directly on behalf of an individual as tuition to certain educational organizations (or to medical providers, although I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(B) is beyond the scope of this discussion).[147]
Practically speaking, the ALI’s proposal that consumption-type transfers should be tax-free makes sense. The gift tax’s original purpose was to serve as a backstop to the estate tax (although, arguably, it has done so weakly at many points in history).[148] In the case of transfers without significant estate-depleting effects, there is little concern that taxpayers are attempting to shrink their taxable estates to avoid estate taxation. But given the cost of higher education, gifts in the form of direct tuition payments can have an estate-depleting impact—and potentially a sizeable one—and thus, logically, should be subject to the gift tax.[149] Indeed, it is precisely because of the size of these payments that gift taxation is appropriate.[150]
The proposition that direct tuition payments differ from other consumption-like transfers proposed for tax-free treatment under the ALI proposal is supported by reference to the income tax treatment of similar expenditures.[151] In the income tax context, investments in human capital, such as building one’s professional reputation[152] or acquiring general education,[153] are typically treated as non-deductible personal expenses.[154] It is factually true that higher education enhances an individual’s employment, health, and other prospects.[155] In the case of students who attend elite colleges, there also may be additional social and networking benefits that are not available to students at less selective schools.[156] Thus, in a practical sense, tuition payments generate benefits that redound to the prolonged future benefit of donees under I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A). These transfers may be immediately “consumed” in one sense, insofar as a bill is immediately paid, but the donee’s benefits are lifelong. For the transfer of an asset that creates substantial wealth for the donee while depleting the donor’s estate, it is appropriate to impose a gift tax.[157]
The dramatic increase in the wealth transfer exemption since 1981 is another reason that the repeal of tax-free treatment for direct tuition payments is appropriate. In 1981—the year § 2503(e) was enacted—the estate and gift tax exemption could shield transfers with a lifetime and deathtime aggregate value of $175,625.[158] In 2021, that equates to approximately $500,000.[159] But due to increases under several successive presidential administrations, and most notably under the TCJA, today’s wealth transfer tax exemption shields $11.7 million in assets per person.[160] President Biden’s tax plan proposes lowering the wealth transfer tax exemptions to 2009 levels (when the estate tax exemption was $3.5 million and the gift tax exemption was $1 million), but that change is not certain to occur.[161] It is difficult to predict what changes, if any, Congress will enact to the wealth transfer tax laws. Under any system where more than 99.5% of all decedents pay no wealth transfer tax at all, the wealth transfer exemption should be understood as a primary feature of a system that allows one generation to pass economic privilege to the next.[162]
The increase in the wealth transfer tax exemption,[163] along with the widening wealth gap,[164] has reduced the percentage of the population that will ever owe any gift or estate tax. In 2009, when the lifetime gift tax exemption was $1 million, fewer than 10,000 people owed any gift tax.[165] For decedents dying in 2009, when the estate tax exemption was $3.5 million, only 0.23% of decedents owed any estate tax.[166] In 2018 (the first year after the combined wealth transfer tax exemption jumped from $5.5 million to more than $11 million),[167] fewer than 2,200 donors owed any gift tax, and only 0.19% of decedents owed any estate tax.[168] Given the increased wealth transfer tax exemption and decreased number of individuals who owe wealth transfer taxes, one must ask whether there is any continued vitality to the concerns that motivated Congress in 1981—namely, the likelihood that “innocent” payments of items, such as educational and medical expenses, were subject to the gift tax.[169]
Apart from increases in the wealth transfer tax exemption between 1981 and today, the concerns that motivated the enactment of I.R.C. § 2503(e) are no longer relevant.[170] With dramatic improvements in technology,[171] there should be no practical concern that the repeal of I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A) would result in taxpayers being unaware that tuition payments trigger a taxable gift (to which they could apply their exemption). A university that receives a direct payment of tuition from a grandparent, for example, could issue a form similar to the Form 1099-Q that taxpayers receive in the year of distribution from a 529 plan or Coverdell education savings account.[172] Furthermore, tax preparation programs, which are used by almost all professional tax preparers and most individual filers (including via the IRS’s Free File Program),[173] could be modified to ask whether the taxpayer made any tuition payments on behalf of an individual other than the taxpayer’s minor child. If the taxpayer’s answer is affirmative, the program could generate a gift tax return in addition to an income tax return. Alternately, the IRS could add a simple rider to the Form 1040 that would allow taxpayers to file a gift tax return for tuition payments along with their income tax return.
In states where parents are not required to pay their adult child’s college costs, a wrinkle could arise at the nexus of college tuition payments and potential gift taxation.[174] In some of these states, a court can order one or both divorced parents to subsidize or cover postsecondary education.[175] Those payments will not be subject to any gift tax.[176] Any tax preparation program can be easily programmed to take this information into account. In other words, after repeal of I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A), improvements made to technology in general and to tax-reporting technology in particular can facilitate awareness and reports of direct tuition payments as taxable gifts.
The tax system both reflects and creates values.[177] As Professor Tsilly Dagan has explained it:
[T]he currency of taxation necessarily sorts through attributes and actions and measures and arranges them along the income tax scale . . . . [T]his process of classifying, comparing, and measuring has certain features that challenge and, at times, even reconstruct, the reality it is intended to measure, thereby shaping our identities in a number of ways.[178]
In the context of tax benefits for higher education, the very existence of these benefits makes at least two signals: first, that higher education in the United States is expensive[179] and, second, that education is beneficial for individuals and society.[180] There is a third possible perspective on the “currency” of tax-free tuition payments—one of the most generous of all educational tax benefits. Because of the inferential evidence that these benefits inure to the almost exclusive benefit of educated, white, wealthy individuals, another message of I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A) is that the “deck is stacked” in favor of maintaining those wealthy taxpayers’ social welfare.
To be sure, if one understands the purpose of wealth transfer taxes, at least in part as breaking up concentrations of wealth,[181] then one of the easiest ways to accomplish that purpose is by dramatically lowering the exemption amount.[182] Repealing I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A) alone cannot eliminate or drastically reduce wealth concentration in this country. A wider goal includes enacting wealth transfer tax laws that do not systematically favor one race over another in cases where a particular tax benefit contravenes the underlying tax policy. As this Article has shown, one such case is the gift tax exemption for direct tuition payments, where the overarching goal of wealth transfer taxation is preventing tax-free, estate-depleting transfers.
The investigation of tax law through the lens of race is a foundational move of critical tax scholarship.[183] Although there is already a sizable body of analysis at the intersection of race and taxation,[184] many areas of the tax code merit further study. A non-exhaustive list includes familiar topics, such as tax benefits related to homeownership, children, and dependents; the list also includes capital gains, dividends and interest, retirement savings, the income of rental real estate, pass-through businesses, charitable giving, and health care. Analyzing how tax law impacts various taxpayers differently can reveal the extent of the tax system’s involvement in exacerbating inequalities and sustaining privileges.[185]
The concept of colorblindness has a long, complex, and controversial legal history. For some, the term “colorblind” expresses the idea that laws are wrongful if they constrain individuals from attaining their full potential in education, employment, or other aspects of social and political life on account of their skin color.[186] For others, the term “colorblind” means that laws are wrongful if they permit affirmative action employment preferences for non-whites.[187] Still, others suggest that for the Supreme Court (and presumably other courts) to be “colorblind,” it must adopt an “ideological strategy by which the current Court obscures its active role in sustaining hierarchies of racial power.”[188] This is a corollary of Justice Blackmun’s observation that “[i]n order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race.”[189] Because Americans hold widely divergent views concerning the utility of talking about race, conversations on these issues remain difficult.[190] In the case of tax policy, coming to some national consensus on what role race should play in the law seems like an impossible goal.[191]
Professor Jeremy Bearer-Friend has critiqued the IRS’s colorblind policy as a “misguided tool” in the effort to prevent policy makers from discriminating on the basis of race.[192] He argues that “colorblind data conceal racial inequalities embedded in our tax code and prevent the remedy of that inequality” in an anti-democratic way.[193] Bearer-Friend stops short of recommending that the IRS collect race-based data, though, out of caution for the agency’s own reputation.[194] We agree with his assessment that other tools, including the U.S. Census’s Current Population Survey and the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, could make minor modifications to capture more accurate race-based tax information.[195]
For those who embrace a more racially just society, an important goal is broadening the definition of “fairness” that applies in analyzing tax laws. In the case of wealth transfer taxes, this Article argues that a particular tax benefit is inequitable and, thus, should be repealed if (1) it has disparate impacts on the basis of race and (2) its benefit is inconsistent with the overall policy objective of taxing gratuitous transfers that create substantial wealth in the transferee and deplete the transferor’s estate. In the case of tax-free transfers under I.R.C. § 2503(e)(2)(A), both of those criteria are met: (1) it disproportionately benefits educated, wealthy whites, and (2) it fails to tax transfers that simultaneously generate a lifetime benefit for the donee and diminish the size of the donor’s gross estate.
For helpful comments and conversations, we thank Dorothy A. Brown, Phyllis Taite, and Samuel D. Brunson. ↑
/fulltext/ED524299.pdf [https://perma.cc/T2QV-K8AT] (“Bachelor’s degree holders earn 31 percent more than workers with an Associate’s degree and 74 percent more than those with just a high school diploma.”); Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Lauren Bauer & Audrey Breitwieser, The Hamilton Project, Eight Economic Facts on Higher Education, at i (2017), https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/thp_20170426_eight_econo
mic_facts_higher_education.pdf [https://perma.cc/S3CV-3HBB] (“Higher education provides extensive benefits to students, including higher wages, better health, and a lower likelihood of requiring disability payments.”). In addition to economic benefits, “Americans with a college education report they are happier, healthier and enjoying a higher quality of life than respondents with a high school education or less.” Michael T. Nietzel, New Evidence for the Broad Benefits of Higher Education, Forbes (June 17, 2019, 6:40 AM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/michael
tnietzel/2019/06/17/new-evidence-for-the-broad-benefits-of-higher-education/ [https://perma.
cc/E8AE-ATAK] (relying on data from the 2018 General Social Survey); see also Nat’l Ctr. for Health Stat., U.S. Dep’t of Health & Hum. Servs., Health, United States, 2011, at 30 fig.25, 37 fig.32 (2011), https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus11.pdf [https://perma.cc/
52FC-ZHRY] (showing lower rates of obesity in families where the head of household has a bachelor’s degree or higher and finding that those with a bachelor’s degree also have greater life expectancies). ↑
a.cc/KTZ4-DWEC] (detailing societal benefits based on postsecondary education, such as higher income tax payments and increased rates, for example, of voting and blood donation). ↑
/03/29/us/george-floyd-timing-929-846/index.html [https://perma.cc/TRD8-KNVV]; What We Know About the Death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, N.Y. Times (Jan. 12, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html [https://perma.cc/48KG-SMY6]. ↑
htm [https://perma.cc/7D8D-TPRG] (reporting data for years 2000 to 2020); Neil Bhutta, Jesse Bricker, Andrew C. Chang, Lisa J. Dettling, Sarena Goodman, Joanne W. Hsu, Kevin B. Moore, Sarah Reber, Alice Henriques Volz & Richard A. Windle, Bd. of Governors of Fed. Rsrv. Sys., Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2016 to 2019: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances, Fed. Rsrv. Bull., Sept. 2020, at 1, 11 (relying on the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances to determine wealth inequality by race for years 2016 and 2019); Beverly I. Moran & William Whitford, A Black Critique of the Internal Revenue Code, 1996 Wis. L. Rev. 751 app. at 816–17 (drawing on information from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, among other sources); Dorothy A. Brown, The Marriage Bonus/Penalty in Black and White, 65 U. Cin. L. Rev. 787, 792 (1997) [hereinafter Brown, Marriage Bonus/Penalty] (pulling data from the Census Bureau, among other sources); Dorothy A. Brown, The Tax Treatment of Children: Separate But Unequal, 54 Emory L.J. 755, 757 (2005) [hereinafter Brown, Tax Treatment of Children] (drawing on data from the Current Population Survey). ↑
hfs/essays/hfs-essay-1-2015-race-ethnicity-and-wealth.pdf [https://perma.cc/NTJ4-Q822]. ↑
docs/hq9511.html [https://perma.cc/KG4P-HVRL] (“Prior to the time of [the] establishment [of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)], and for many years afterwards, [B]lacks were generally denied admission to traditionally white institutions. As a result, HBCUs became the principle [sic] means for providing postsecondary education to black Americans.”). Historically Black colleges and universities are statutorily defined as “any historically Black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of Black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education].” 20 U.S.C. § 1061(2). ↑
ma.cc/HNS4-YM7F] (describing the history of quotas for Jewish students at several schools, with a particular focus on Harvard University). ↑
0/10/12/justice-department-sues-yale-over-admissions [https://perma.cc/9HWR-PM64] (“Yale’s policies favor Black and Latinx applicants, the suit alleges.”); Anemona Hartocollis, Justice Department Drops Suit Claiming Yale Discriminated in Admissions, N.Y. Times (Feb. 3, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/yale-admissions-affirmative-action.html?
smid=url-share [https://perma.cc/2Z3X-UTDN] (“The Justice Department on Wednesday withdrew a lawsuit against Yale University that charged it with discriminating against Asian-American and white applicants, reversing a key element of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine race-based college admissions.”). ↑
cc/78BY-KLHF] (reporting that students with at least one parent who attended Harvard College are nearly three times as likely to be admitted to Harvard). Schools that have ended their legacy preferences in recent years include Johns Hopkins University; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; California Institute of Technology; and the University of California, Berkeley. See Jill Robbins, Major Universities Ending Legacy Admissions, VOA: Learning Eng. (Jan. 21, 2020), https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/major-universities-ending-legacy-admissions/
5249873.html [https://perma.cc/NRN2-3KKR]. ↑
al-finance/average-college-tuition#annual-average-tuition-at-public-4-year-colleges-and-unive
rsities [https://perma.cc/HR4V-EJZK] (basing estimates on data from College Board). ↑
ally-pay.html [https://perma.cc/3T4D-ZN23]. ↑
of2019.pdf [https://perma.cc/V89Z-9C9A]. ↑
8] [hereinafter TICAS, 2019 Quick Facts]. ↑
97-BAGB] (showing that students from the highest quintile of socioeconomic status are more likely than other students to enroll at four-year private or public institutions). ↑
d-we-terminate-the-coverdell-education-savings-account [https://perma.cc/FT69-JMWU]. ↑
irs-announces-higher-estate-and-gift-tax-limits-for-2021 [https://perma.cc/XQ2E-Z3LQ]. For a discussion of President Biden’s tax proposals, see infra Section IV.C.3. ↑
rma.cc/NL4J-ATAM] (aggregating all education expenditures, including exclusion of interest on student-loan bonds, credits for zone academy bonds, and exclusion of employer-provided education assistance, among other items). But cf. Internal Revenue Serv., supra note 16, at tbl.1.4. ↑
e-july2010.html [https://perma.cc/Y5CD-9Q75]. ↑
rma.cc/TB5Y-MQ8Q] [hereinafter Fed. Rsrv., Wealth]; Tommy Beer, Top 1% of U.S. Households Hold 15 Times More Than Bottom 50% Combined, Forbes (Oct. 8, 2020, 5:15 PM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/10/08/top-1-of-us-households-hold-15-times-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-combined [https://perma.cc/2WBJ-QBMQ]. ↑
.cc/V9TY-FRHJ] (defining “millionaire” somewhat counterintuitively as those having a household net worth of $2 million or more). ↑
es/feds-notes/disparities-in-wealth-by-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-2019-survey-of-consumer-fina
nces-20200928.htm [https://perma.cc/Y56E-V79D] (reporting in Table 2 that 29.9% of all white families actually received an inheritance compared to 10.1% of Black families, 7.2% of Hispanic/Latinx families, and 17.8% of “other” families and further reporting that 17.1% of whites, compared with 6% of Blacks, 4.2% of Hispanic/Latinx families, and 14.7% of “others,” expect to receive an inheritance). The size of the median expected inheritance also differs by race: $195,500 for whites; $100,000 for Blacks; $150,000 for Hispanic/Latinx families; and $100,000 for “others.” Id. ↑
com/calculators/uscompare/ [https://perma.cc/Q3LS-KYRZ] (enter “1981” into “initial year” box; then enter “$175000” into “initial amount” box; then enter “2021” into “desired year” box; then click “calculate”; then scroll down to view “real wage or real wealth” metric) (providing a wealth comparison of $175,000 in 1981 to $492,000 in “real wage or real wealth” in 2019). ↑
unts-1.aspx [https://perma.cc/C7V5-MVZ2]. ↑
/tables/pop.pdf [https://perma.cc/P7VR-B5N2] (reporting population in 2009 as 307,439,000). ↑
78N-TJ4K] (follow “2009” hyperlink under “Table 1: Estate Tax Returns, Year of Death, Values for Tax Purposes by Tax Status and Size of Gross Estate”) (reporting 5,668 taxable returns out of 12,940 estate tax returns filed); Kenneth D. Kochanek, Jiaquan Xu, Sherry L Murphy, Arialdi M. Miniño & Hsiang-Ching Kung, Nat’l Vital Stat. Sys., Deaths: Final Data for 2009, at 1 (2011), https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf [https://perm
a.cc/P6QD-EQVQ]. ↑
nchs/data/databriefs/db355-h.pdf [https://perma.cc/C6TE-N2QF] (reporting 2,839,205 resident deaths in the United States in 2018). ↑
X] (estimating that 89.3% of all U.S. households had a computer in 2016). See also Nick Routley, How the Computing Power in a Smartphone Compares to Supercomputers Past and Present, Bus. Insider (Nov. 6, 2017, 7:08 PM), https://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-how-computing-power-has-changed-over-time-2017-11 [https://perma.cc/49GR-6B2R] (showing the one trillion-fold increase in computing power from 1956 to 2015 and noting that the computer behind the first moon landing in 1969 had as much power as two Nintendo game consoles); Patrick McCarthy, Infographic: The Growth of Computer Processing Power, OffGrid (May 2, 2017), https://www.offgridweb.com/preparation/infographic-the-growth-of-computer-processing-power/ [https://perma.cc/S89K-2XTP] (showing a pattern of computer power doubling every two years from 1971–2011). ↑