Alan Schenk
Professor of Law
Office Address: Room 3361
Office Phone: (313) 577-3946
E-mail: schenk@wayne.edu
Website: click here
EDUCATION:
BS, 1961, University of Illinois; LL.B, 1965, University of Illinois; LL.M in Taxation, 1966, New York University
COURSES TAUGHT:
Federal Income Tax, Business Planning, Consumption-Based Tax (valued-added tax), Accounting for Lawyers, Corporate Taxation, Corporate Reorganizations
PROFILE:
Professor Schenk has devoted his academic career to tax law; in particular, he is regarded as an expert on value added taxation (VAT). He is a member of the Michigan and Illinois bars, the U.S. Tax Court, and the United States Supreme Court. He is a Certified Public Accountant. Professor Schenk received a number of teaching awards from his students, alumni, and the University. He received a distinguished faculty award from the Michigan Association of Governing Boards of State Universities.
His regular academic appointment includes teaching Federal Income Tax, Business Planning, Accounting for Lawyers, and Consumption-Based Taxes. Professor Schenk taught a portion of the VAT course at Harvard Law School for a number of years. He is teaching a Consumption Tax course at the University of Michigan Law School in the fall, 2004. He taught VAT at the University of Windsor in Canada, and the University of San Diego. He taught VAT in Taiwan’s Academy of International Taxation for a number of years. He has spoken at conferences or conducted seminars on VAT in the U.S., Africa, and Asia.
Professor Schenk has written extensively about U.S. taxation of business and comparative taxation in the field of VAT. He has written four books on value added tax and is working on a revision of one of them. In 2005, the Cambridge University Press will publish a new version of a Comparative Value Added Tax book that he is co-authoring with Professor Emeritus Oliver Oldman of Harvard Law School. This book covers material on VAT from the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, and other countries. The first version of this book, also co-authored with Professor Oldman, entitled Value Added Tax: A Comparative Approach, With Materials and Cases, was published in 2001 by Transnational Publications.
Professor Schenk has written books on the Canadian GST and the British VAT, and was reporter for a model VAT statute prepared by the American Bar Association Tax Section VAT committee. In several different sessions of the U.S. Congress, Senator Hollings introduced that ABA model to serve as the revenue source to reduce the federal deficit or to fund a national health care system. Professor Schenk testified before the U.S. Congress on tax reform and alternative tax systems, including the value-added tax.
Professor Schenk’s recent articles on VAT include several involving the taxation of financial services. A recent article on financial services is “Treating Financial Services Under a Value-Added Tax: Conceptual Issues and Country Practices” (with economist Howell Zee of the IMF) (22 Tax Notes Int’l 3309 (June 25, 2001). A revised version of this article was published as part of a monograph edited by Howell Zee and published by the IMF in 2004. Another recent article on financial services was written at the request of the Japan Tax Association. Consumption Taxation and Financial Services: Departure From the European Approach, was published in Japanese in 2004.2 Tax Research 116, by the Japan Tax Association, February, 2004.
Professor Schenk’s professional work on value added tax includes his current service as chair of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation Committee on Value Added Tax and Other Consumption Taxes. He served for several years as U.S. correspondent for The VAT Monitor published by the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation. He also wrote articles for that publication.
For the past eight years, Professor Schenk has served as Technical Advisor for the International Monetary Fund, drafting and reviewing legislative proposals for sales and value added tax for several countries in Africa and for emerging economies of Eastern Europe. He drafted the VAT law in effect in Botswana and Ethiopia. He drafted, along with another IMF technical adviser, the VAT in effect in Namibia and the VAT adopted in Lesotho. He participated in the drafting of a VAT for Grenada and Dominica. He wrote regulations and directives to implement VATs in several countries. He also wrote explanatory memoranda to help government personnel and the private sector administer and comply with the VATs that he drafted. He recently completed texts of VAT statutes for countries interested in adopting a VAT or reforming their existing VATs. These texts are available on the IMF website.
Professor Schenk has been called upon to serve as an expert on value added tax in international arbitrations.
