Donald Cyril Lubick

Donald Cyril Lubick (April 29, 1926 – February 8, 2022) was an American attorney and tax policy expert. He served every Democratic President—from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama—and was the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the Department of the Treasury under both President Carter and President Clinton.

Early life and education Lubick was born on April 29, 1926, in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Lafayette High School, where he was a member of the Debate Team and the Virgil Club, which studied the works of Homer, Ovid and other classics, in 1942 at the age of 16. Lubick attended the University of Buffalo on a full-tuition scholarship and graduated in three years by including extra night and summer courses. He received his bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, in September 1945. At the end of his first year of law school he was elected to join the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. At the end of his second year he was invited to join the Harvard Law Review but decided to remain with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, of which he became president in his third year. He graduated magna cum laude in 1949 and then spent a year as one of Harvard's first Teaching Fellows, promoting a new program including cross subject material for each first year student. Lubick retired from Hodgson Russ in 1994, having served with the firm for parts of five decades, to work in the Clinton Administration.

In addition to the teaching at the University at Buffalo, Lubick taught a seminar on comparative corporate taxation after leaving the Treasury in 1999 at the American University of Washington College of Law. Throughout his career, Lubick advocated for “efficiency, simplicity, and horizontal equity” in the tax code, and he valued teamwork and comradery among his co-workers. While working in government, Lubick was known for his bipartisan relationships with members of Congress and support from both White House and Treasury Department officials.

Federal Government service During the four decades from 1961 until 2001, Lubick served in the Department of the Treasury in the Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, and Clinton Administrations. He also served on then-President-elect Obama's 2008 transition team.

Kennedy and Johnson administrations Following President Kennedy's election, his then-Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy, Stanley Surrey, asked Lubick to serve as Tax Legislative Counsel for the Office of Tax Policy at the Department of the Treasury, one of the highest tax policy positions in the Executive Branch. While at the Treasury, Lubick worked on the development and passage of President Kennedy's tax reform legislation, the Revenue Act of 1962 (P.L. 87-834) and the Revenue Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-272).

Lubick was a longtime advocate for comprehensive tax reform and played a key role in drafting the Carter Administration's tax legislation. In addition to tax reform, Lubick was also involved in developing President Carter's energy legislation.

As the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Lubick was often called on to testify before Congress with respect to the Carter Administration's position on tax legislation. He testified on various tax matters, including recognition of unrealized capital gain at death, limiting tax-exempt securities to finance single-family housing, disallowing tax credits for political campaign contributions, limiting tax-free treatment for both employer and employee fringe benefits, and requiring tax withholding for independent contractors to avoid the necessity of a dispute whether a worker is an employee rather than an independent contractor.

Clinton administration From 1994 to 1996, Lubick served as Director of the Treasury Department's Office of International Tax Assistance to Developing Countries at the OECD in Paris. He travelled roughly half of every month to visit two or more of the participating countries—Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine—to review the work of his representatives and meet with the key persons of the countries' finance ministries. President Clinton announced the proposal in his 1999 State of the Union address. supporting President Clinton's proposed budget, raising concerns about corporate tax shelters, supporting long-term funding for the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, expanding pension coverage and retirement benefits for low-income workers, and advocating for taxpayer rights proposals.

In 1997, as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Lubick led the development of a package of 59 proposals intended to protect taxpayer rights and provide for tax simplification. Most of these proposals were adopted by Congress in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.

Lubick was also heavily involved in the preparation and release of the Treasury Department's influential policy study on the deferral of income earned through U.S. controlled foreign corporations. As Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Lubick outlined the fundamental international tax policy principles that would guide the Treasury in its evaluation of the options for reforming or replacing the subpart F regime as in place at the time.

International Tax Policy Beyond the Treasury Department In addition to his international tax policy work at the Treasury Department, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lubick served on the International Monetary Fund's expert panel on fiscal affairs and was a Senior Fellow with Harvard Institute of International Tax (HIIT). Lubick's and Hussey's work in the Dominican Republic was also the basis for their book, Basic World Tax Code and Commentary. The book includes a sample tax code with draft tax laws and commentary aimed at serving as a tax reform template for developing countries around the world, and especially those former Soviet republics developing their own tax systems. The book has been translated into at least a dozen languages for various countries needing assistance, including Poland, the Dominican Republic, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Russia.

Personal life and death Lubick married Susan Lubick (née Cohen) June 5, 1960, and they had three children. Lubick and his wife resided in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and have maintained a home in Fort Erie, Ontario, across the Niagara River from Buffalo, since 1967. Lubick was a member and an officer in his synagogues, Temple Beth El (now Temple Beth Tzedek) in Buffalo, New York, and Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. He died on February 8, 2022, at the age of 95.

Awards Throughout his time at the Department of the Treasury, Lubick received various awards for his public service, including:

1964: Treasury Exceptional Service Award, for his service as Tax Legislative Counsel 1980: Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department of the Treasury's highest honor, for his service as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy 1999: Treasury Medal, for his leadership with respect to consideration and passage of The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and efforts to reform the Internal Revenue Service, among other accomplishments 1999: Federal Bar Association Section of Taxation's Kenneth H. Liles Distinguished Service Award, for his service as Assistant Secretary of Tax Policy 2018: Chamber of Commerce Award, Dominican Republic, for his contributions that culminated in the enactment for the Dominican Republic Fiscal Code

In 2016, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center established the Donald C. Lubick Symposium to honor his government service by holding an annual public event each spring with policymakers, government officials, scholars, and members of the press to discuss tax policy and tax administration issues.