Eric Smith

Associate Dean, Professor of Taxation

Contact

Phone: 801-626-6041
Email: ericsmith@weber.edu
Office: Wattis Business Building, Room 201A
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
LinkedIn

About

Eric Smith joined Weber State University’s faculty in 2009. He serves as associate dean and professor of taxation in the School of Accounting & Taxation. Eric graduated with distinction from Georgetown University Law Center, with an LLM in taxation. Prior to attending Georgetown, he graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was a member of the Kentucky Law Journal.

He received his BA in accounting from WSU, cum laude. Prior to joining the WSU faculty, Smith clerked for the Honorable Glenn E. Acree, of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Eric has taught Taxation of Individuals in the undergraduate accounting program, and Advanced Individual Taxation, State & Local Taxation, Tax-Exempt Entities, International Taxation, Retirement Plans, and Tax Research, in the Master of Taxation program.

Smith’s scholarly interests center on topics related to state and local taxation, individual taxation, and general tax policy. His publications appear in The Utah Law Review, The Virginia Tax Review, The Florida Tax Review, and The Tax Lawyer, among others.

Education

LLM, Master of Laws in taxation (with distinction), Georgetown University Law Center, 2009

JD, University of Kentucky College of Law, 2008

BA, Accounting, Weber State University, 2004

Certifications and Affiliations

Licensed Attorney, Utah State Bar
Admitted to Practice, United States Tax Court
Member, Academy of Legal Studies in Business
Utah State Bar—Tax Section

Hobbies

Spending time with my family, playing the guitar, backpacking in the Uinta and Wind River Mountains.

Publications
1. "Exploiting the Charitable Contribution Deduction’s Hypersalience," 2020 Utah Law Review 419 (2020).
2. "The Effects of Individual Values on Willingness to Pay and Fairness Perceptions of Use Tax on Internet Purchases," 27 Advances in Taxation 197 (2020) (with Lixuan Zhang and Andrea Gouldman).
3. "Due Process Implications Related to State Notice and Economic Nexus Laws," 70 The Tax Lawyer 833 (2017).
4. "The PACT Act as Indicium of the Due Process Validity of the Marketplace Fairness Act," 19 Florida Tax Review 1 (2016).
5. "A Historical Review and Prospective Modern-Day Assessment of the Non-Itemizer Charitable Contribution Deduction," 14 The ATA Journal of Legal Tax Research 20 (2016).
6. "A Deduction Properly Extinguished? The Live-Burn Donation: A Proposed Sequence of Analysis and Policy Evaluation," 33 Virginia Tax Review 459 (2014).
7. "Distinguishing the ‘Live-Burn’ and ‘Deconstruction’ Donations," Practical Tax Strategies April 2014, at 171, (republished as Deductions for Homes that Cease to Be, Taxation of Exempts, May/June 2014, at 41).
8. "Subpart F Inclusions under Code Sec. 951 Are Not Qualified Dividends," Taxes, January 2014 at 35.
9. "Are Supplemental Unemployment Benefits Subject to FICA?" 19 The Journal of Taxation, 225 (2013).
10. "An Analysis of the Medical Expense Deduction Post-O’Donnabhain," 10 The ATA Journal of Legal Tax Research 43 (2012) (with R. Pace).
11. "Supreme Court Clarifies Itself: Department of Treasury is Entitled to Chevron Deference," The CPA Journal, February 2012 at 46.
12. "Student or Employee?—The Status of Medical Residents in Relation to FICA Taxes," 12 Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Economics 1 (2011).
13. "Seventh Circuit Does not Hear ‘Audible Silence’—Innocent Spouses Must Comply with Two-Year Deadline," The CPA Journal, October 2010 at 48.
14. "Meeting their Professional Obligations?—A Comparison of the Professional Obligations of Enron’s Attorneys and Accountants," 2010 Ethics and Critical Thinking Journal 35 (2010).
15. "The Creation of a Groundless Exception to the Dormant Commerce Clause: An Expansion on the Dissenting Opinion in Department of Rev. v. Davis," 11 Journal of Accounting, Ethics & Public Policy 341 (2010).
Presentations
1. “Due Process Implication Related to State Notice and Economic Nexus Laws,” Utah State Bar—Tax Law Section, Salt Lake City, UT, Sept. 28, 2017.
2. “A Historical Review and Prospective Modern-Day Assessment of the Non-itemizer Charitable Contribution Deduction,” ATA Mid-Year Meeting: Journal of Legal Tax Research Conference, Washington, D.C., February 2015.
3. “An Analysis of the Medical Expense Deduction Post-O’Donnabhain,” ATA Mid-Year Meeting: Journal of Legal Tax Research Conference, New Orleans, LA, February, 2012.
4. “A Survey of International Taxation Course Offerings Among Graduate Accounting Programs,” BYU Accounting Research Symposium, Provo, UT, September, 2011.
5. “Student or Employee?—The Status of Medical Residents in Relation to FICA Taxes,” Mountain Plains Management Conference, Layton, UT, October, 2010.
6. “A ‘New Look’ at the Deductibility of Medical Expenses: The O’Donnabhain Case and Gender Identity Disorder,” Mountain Plains Management Conference, Layton, UT, October 2010.