Hester Prynne, Lydia Bennet, and Section 306 Stock: The Concept of Tainting in the American Novel, the British Novel, and the Internal Revenue Code

Authors

Stephen B. Cohen, Georgetown University Law CenterFollow
Stephen B. Cohen, Georgetown University Law CenterFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2001

Abstract

Did Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, inspire Section 306 of the Internal Revenue Code? This code provision adopts a peculiarly Hawthorne-like solution to a tax avoidance scheme known as the "preferred stock bailout." Section 306 taints the stock used in the scheme as "Section 306 stock." Special rules then govern all subsequent dispositions of the tainted stock. With its concept of a taint that can dog a stock from acquisition to disposition, Section 306 might have been designed by a novelist rather than a tax technician.

Publication Citation

5 Green Bag 2d 5-9 (2001)

Scholarly Commons Citation

Cohen, Stephen B. and Cohen, Stephen B., "Hester Prynne, Lydia Bennet, and Section 306 Stock: The Concept of Tainting in the American Novel, the British Novel, and the Internal Revenue Code" (2001). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 920.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/920