Taxing Zombies with Professor Adam Chodorw ASU and Radu Golban in Compass

Law Professor Adam Chodorow, at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Instructor at the Arizona State University, formerly Chair of the Teaching Tax Committee of the ABA’s Tax Section and on the Council of the Tax Section of the State Bar of Arizona, is clear about what we will be facing and the responsibility of tax professionals in the coming crisis:
“The U.S. stands on the precipice of a financial disaster, and Congress has done nothing but bicker. Of course, I refer to the coming day when the undead walk the earth, feasting on the living. A zombie apocalypse will create an urgent need for significant government revenues to protect the living, while at the same time rendering a large portion of the taxpaying public dead or undead. The government’s failure to anticipate or plan for this eventuality could cripple its ability to respond effectively, putting us all at risk. This article fills a glaring gap in the academic literature by examining how the estate and income tax laws apply to the undead. Beginning with the critical question of whether the undead should be considered dead for estate tax purposes.”
He has been investigating this topic for years an made a debut a couple of years ago, with the article titled ”Death and Taxes and Zombies” for the Iowa Law Review.
He points out at the major problem:” It seems a stretch to conclude that those who transform seamlessly into zombies should be considered dead. They never lose heart or brain function, though they now function quite differently from before. While it might be tempting to declare them dead, significant line-drawing problems would arise as one tried to distinguish between zombies and those who have suffered some mental or physical breakdown. Put differently, were such zombies to be considered dead because they suffered a personality change, physical disability, or decreased brain function, the door would be open to declaring dead a wide range of people currently considered to be alive.”