Levin College of Law

Charlene Luke

Hubert C. Hurst Eminent Scholar Chair in Law
Professor of Law
Associate Dean for Institutional Affairs

Phone:
(352) 273-0658

Expertise

Corporate Tax Law  • Income Tax Law  • Partnership Tax  • 

About

Professor Charlene D. Luke is the Hubert C. Hurst Eminent Scholar Chair in Law. Professor Luke served as the Associate Dean for Tax Programs from 2018-2023. She teaches about individual, corporate, and partnership taxation at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. Professor Luke joined the University of Florida in 2008 and teaches in both its J.D. and LL.M. programs. Her research primarily focuses on the problem of tax avoidance and evasion. Her work on the economic substance doctrine is highly regarded and has been selected for inclusion by the Practicing Law Institute in its influential series on the taxation of corporations and partnerships. Professor Luke also writes about tax issues relating to various forms of insurance. Professor Luke’s published work has appeared in multiple publications, including the Virginia Tax Review, Tax Lawyer, Seattle University Law Review, Buffalo Law Review and Connecticut Insurance Law Journal.

Professor Luke earned her B.A. and J.D. degree from Brigham Young University. She graduated first in her J.D. class and clerked for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Ninth Circuit. Following her judicial clerkship, Professor Luke was a tax associate at Dechert LLP in its Philadelphia office. She began her academic career at Florida State University.

Education

J.D., Brigham Young University (first in class)
B.A., Brigham Young University

Teaching & Scholarship

Individual Income Taxation, Corporate Taxation, Partnership Taxation, Tax Shelters

Courses

  • Corporate Taxation
  • Taxation of Property Transactions

Publications

Books

  • FEDERAL INCOME TAXATION OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS (6th ed., West Academic 2021) (with Martin J. McMahon, Jr., Daniel L. Simmons & Bret Wells) [Link]
  • FEDERAL INCOME TAXATION OF PARTNERSHIPS AND S CORPORATIONS, (6th ed. West Academic 2020) (with Martin J. McMahon, Jr., Daniel L. Simmons & Bret Wells) [Link]
  • FEDERAL INCOME TAXATION OF CORPORATIONS, (5th ed. 2019) (with Martin J. McMahon, Jr., Daniel L. Simmons & Bret Wells) [Link]
  • PARTNERSHIP INCOME TAXATION (CONCEPTS AND INSIGHTS), 6th ed. (with William H. Lyons & James R. Repetti) (2018) [Link]

Articles

  • Response: “Continuity as the Key to to ‘Reform of Section 355,'” 69 Am. U. L. Rev. F. 39 (2019) [Link]
  • “Captivating Deductions,” 46 Hofstra L. Rev. 855 (2018) [SSRN]
  • “Of More Than Usual Interest: The Taxing Problem of Debt Principal,” 39 Seattle U. L. Rev 33 (2015) [SSRN]
  • “The Relevance Games: Congress’s Choices for Economic Substance Gamemakers,” 66 Tax Lawyer 551 (2013), updated as Chapter 432,PLI Corporate Tax Practice Series: Strategies for Corporate Acquisitions, Dispositions, Spin-Offs, Joint Ventures, Reorganizations & Restructurings(2014) & as Chapter 265E, PLI Partnership Tax Practice Series: Planning for Domestic & Foreign Partnerships, LLCs, Joint Ventures & Other Strategic Alliances (2014) [SSRN]
  • “Managing the Next Deluge: A Tax System Approach to Flood Insurance,” 18 Conn. Ins. L.J. (2011) (with Aviva Abramovsky) [SSRN]
  • “What Would Henry Simons Do?: Using an Ideal to Shape and Explain the Economic Substance Doctrine,” 11 Hous. Bus. & Tax L.J. 108 (2011) [SSRN]
  • “Risk, Return, and Objective Economic Substance,” 27 Va. Tax Rev. 783 (2008) [SSRN]
  • “Taxing Risk: An Approach to Variable Insurance Reform,” 55 Buff. L. Rev. 251 (2007) [SSRN]
  • “Beating the “Wrap”: The Agency Effort to Control Wraparound Insurance Tax Shelters,” 25 Va. Tax Rev. 129 (2005) [SSRN]

Other Publications

  • Tribute to Professor Martin J. McMahon, Jr., 70 FLA. L. REV. vii (2018)
  • Natural Disasters: Tax Help for Individuals, 58 BLOOMBERG BNA TAX MGMT. MEMORANDUM 463 (2017)
  • Crowdfunding: Federal Income Tax Considerations, 58 BLOOMBERG BNA TAX MGMT. MEMORANDUM 331 (2017)
  • Tax Reform Perspectives: The Case for a Consumption Tax, Law360 (2017) [Link]
  • Repeal or Retain Section 1031?: A Tempest in a $6 Billion Teapot, 34 ABA Tax Section News Quarterly 1 (SPRING 2015) (with Bradley T. Borden, Joseph B. Darby III, & Roberta F. Mann) [SSRN]
  • Illuminating the Dark Matter of Intellectual Capital 66 Fla. L. Rev. F. 61 (2015) (article review)
  • The Role of Developed World Tax Incentives in Microfinance, TAX, LAW AND DEVELOPMENT 241 (Yariv Brauner & Miranda Stewart, eds., 2013) (book chapter).
  • Three Once & Future Issues, 20 ABA Tax Section News Quarterly 1 (Fall 2010)
  • Summary of Tax Shelter Disclosure Regulations, SH036 ALI-ABA 991 (2002) (with Michael Hirschfeld)
  • The Developmental Progress of Free Exercise,, 1999 BYU L. Rwc. 943 (book review)