Law Professor Receives Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award

Tracy A. Kaye, J.D., professor of law and Eric Byrne Research Fellow, director of the Dean Acheson Legal Scholar Program and IRS Chief Counsel Externship Program at Seton Hall University Law School, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Vienna, Austria, for the 2024 fall semester from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Her project, The Global Minimum Tax: Consequences for the EU-U.S. Relationship, will examine the ramifications of the steps taken by the European Union (EU) and the United States to combat aggressive tax planning by multinationals in light of the OECD’S Pillar II agreement on a global minimum tax. This will be Kaye’s third Fulbright award. In the fall of 2014, she served as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the University of Luxembourg where she examined the implications of automatic exchange of information. In the spring of 2002, she served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Germany, teaching U.S. Corporate and International Income Tax.

“It is notable that Professor Kaye was chosen again as a Fulbright scholar,“ said John Buschman, Dean of University Libraries, Associate Provost, Research & Innovation. “Her high-quality scholarship and exchanges with these eminent universities exemplify how our faculty foster international collaboration and interdisciplinarity. It elevates and enhances Seton Hall’s reputation as a home for great minds.”

While in Austria, Professor Kaye will wield her expertise in European and international tax law and collaborate with colleagues at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, founded in 1898 and now one of the largest educational institutions for business, economics, and social sciences in Europe.

Kaye’s project will focus on the so-called GloBE directive. In December 2022, the EU Council’s unanimous adoption of the directive obliged all 27 Member States to adopt the same global 15 percent minimum tax by 2023, with these GloBE taxes taking effect in 2025. The U.S., on the other hand, has not adopted the GloBE rules but instead enacted GILTI, a 10.5 percent minimum tax on certain income earned by foreign subsidiaries calculated on a global basis. The tax rate, the tax base, and the scope of this GILTI regime also differ in numerous ways from the GloBE rules.

“The incomplete implementation of the OECD’s Pillar II global tax reform plan by the U.S. has created tension between the U.S. and various EU Member States,” Kaye explained, noting that “my Fulbright project will focus on the implementation of Pillar II into Austrian tax law as well as some other EU Member States and analyze those legislative actions that could impact the EU's relationship with the United States.”

As the Fulbright-WU Visiting Professor, Kaye also will be teaching U.S. Corporate Tax Law at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law. In addition, she will speak at the Institute’s Colloquium on Current Developments in European and International Tax Law.

Kaye will present a paper before students in the Doctoral Program in International Business Taxation (DIBT), which is jointly run by the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, the Business Taxation Group, and the Department of Economics, WU. The DIBT provides interdisciplinary training in business, economics, law, and tax psychology in a three-year program designed to prepare an elite group of young tax researchers for future academic careers in their home countries and throughout the world.

Kaye will also participate on a panel at the sixth WU Transfer Pricing Symposium in October 2024 and give an Honorary Lecture at the conference Recent and Pending Cases at the CJEU on Direct Taxation on December 16, 2024.

“The Vienna University of Economics and Business is extremely happy to host one of the leading U.S. scholars in international tax law and one of the few U.S. scholars who is not only familiar with the developments in Europe but is also actively contributing to the academic discussion in European tax law,” shared Michael Lang, Head of Institute, Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at the University. He added that “our students will greatly benefit from Professor Kaye being with us, but specifically our research team is looking forward to discussing papers with her.”

Previously, Kaye was a visiting professor at the Universities of Indiana, Illinois, and Leiden as well as Renmin University of China Law School and the University of International Business and Economics, School of Law, in Beijing. She was a Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition, and Tax Law in the summer of 2007 and the PWC Visiting Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in the summer of 2012. She is also an Associate Member of the European Association of Tax Law Professors.

John Kip Cornwell, Former Dean and Professor of Law, Seton Hall Law School, said of the achievement: “It is inspiring to witness Professor Kaye’s dedication to researching aggressive corporate tax avoidance and the global economic implications of the stresses to the international relationship of the U.S. and European Union as they enact different strategies to combat the base erosion and profit shifting engaged in by multinationals.”

About the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program

Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators, and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs, and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges.

Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Over 800 individuals teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. In addition, over 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program participants—recent college graduates, graduate students, and early career professionals—participate in study/research exchanges or as English teaching assistants in local schools abroad each year.

Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide. In the United States, the Institute of International Education implements the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit https://fulbrightprogram.org.