Michael Kirsch

Professor of Law

Office: 3116 Eck Hall of Law
Phone: 574.631.5582
Fax: 574.631.8078
Email: Michael.S.Kirsch.1@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Beth Ferrettie
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Michael Kirsch teaches and researches in the federal taxation area, with an emphasis on international issues. He has published numerous articles in the international tax field. Professor Kirsch joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 2001 and has twice been named the Distinguished Professor of the Year by graduating classes (2004 and 2010). He has served as Associate Dean at the Law School, and also has been a visiting professor of law at the Northwestern University School of Law. 

Prior to joining the faculty in 2001, Professor Kirsch practiced law for four years in the tax department of a Los Angeles law firm. He then served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Lapsley W. Hamblen, Jr., of the United States Tax Court in Washington, D.C. Following the two-year clerkship, he served in the IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International). From 1997 through 2001, he worked in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy, where he served as the Associate International Tax Counsel. While at the Treasury Department, he was a member of numerous U.S. delegations to international tax treaty negotiations. 

Professor Kirsch earned his J.D. cum laude in 1988 from Harvard Law School, where he served on the editorial board of the Harvard Journal on Legislation. In 1989, he earned an LL.M. in taxation from New York University. Professor Kirsch received his A.B. summa cum laude in economics from Cornell University in 1985. He has been a member of the California Bar since 1988 (currently inactive).

Courses Taught

LAW70423, International Taxation

LAW70428, Tax Policy Seminar

LAW70605, Federal Income Taxation

LAW70607, Estate & Gift Taxation

Scholarship

Articles 

New Technologies and the Evolution of Tax Compliance, 39 Virginia Tax Review 287 (2020) (with J. Alm, J. Beebe, O. Marian, and J. Soled)

Conditioning Citizenship Benefits on Satisfying Citizenship Obligations, 2019 U. Illinois Law Review 1701

Citizens Abroad and Social Cohesion at Home: Refocusing a Cross-Border Tax Policy Debate, 36 Virginia Tax Review 205 (2017) 

Tax Treaties and the Taxation of Services in the Absence of Physical Presence, 41 Brook. J. Int'l L. 1143 (2016) (invited symposium) 

Revisiting the Tax Treatment of Citizens Abroad: Reconciling Principle and Practice, 16 Florida Tax Review 117 (2014).

The Role of Physical Presence in the Taxation of Cross-Border Personal Services, 51 Boston College Law Rev. 993 (2010). 

The Limits of Administrative Guidance in the Interpretation of Tax Treaties, 87 Texas Law Rev. 1063 (2009). 

Taxing Citizens in a Global Economy, 82 N.Y.U. Law Review 443 (2007). 

The Tax Code as Nationality Law, 43 Harvard J. on Legis. 375 (2006). 

The Congressional Response to Corporate Inversions: The Tensions Between Symbols and Substance in the Taxation of Multinational Corporations, 24 Virginia Tax Rev. 475 (2005). 

Alternative Sanctions and the Federal Tax Law: Symbols, Shaming, and Social Norm Management as a Substitute for Effective Tax Policy, 89 Iowa L. Rev. 863 (2004). 

Tax Consequences of Expatriation and Transfers to Foreign Trusts, 28 Notre Dame Tax & Est. Plan. Inst. 32 (2002).

Areas of Expertise

• Estate & Gift Taxation
• International Taxation
• Tax Law & Policy