About

Gary A. McGill is the J. Roy Duggan Professor of Accounting at the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business, where he also serves as Senior Associate Dean and Director of the Fisher School of Accounting and the Hough Graduate School of Business. He holds the J. Roy Duggan Endowed Professorship in Accounting and previously held the PwC Endowed Professorship from 1999 to 2011. Professor McGill is a CPA (Texas) with professional experience at Ernst & Whinney in Dallas before earning his PhD at Texas Tech University. He joined the University of Florida faculty in 1986 and has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in tax and accounting, including international taxation and doctoral courses in accounting and tax research. His research has resulted in over 65 publications, including journal articles, book chapters, and research reports, and he has co-authored several books on taxation and business entities. Throughout his career, Professor McGill has received numerous awards and recognitions, including lifetime service awards, outstanding tax educator awards, and teaching honors. He has served on various editorial boards and professional organizations, including leadership roles in the American Accounting Association and the AACSB's Accounting Accreditation Committee, where he served as Chair from 2022 to 2024. His expertise and interests focus on accounting and taxation, with a notable emphasis on international tax issues.

Research topics

• Economics
• Finance
• Monetary economics
• Public economics
• Labour economics

Selected publications

• Executive Regulatory Focus and Tax Avoidance

  2026-02-16

  book-chapterSenior author

  Abstract Regulatory focus theory proposes that strategic decision-making and goal pursuit occur either via a promotion focus—which emphasizes strong ideals and a desired end state—or a prevention focus—which emphasizes strong “oughts” and a need for stability, safety, and vigilance. The authors posit that executives predominantly motivated through a promotion focus emphasize the gains accruing from tax avoidance and should therefore engage in significantly greater levels of tax avoidance. Using textual analysis of CEO’s letter to shareholders to measure promotion and prevention regulatory focus, the authors find firms with CEOs in a predominantly promotion focus pay less corporate income tax than firms with CEOs in a predominantly prevention focus. By grounding executive effects on tax avoidance in cognitive, behavioral, and motivational theory, the authors provide insight into how and why individual managers craft corporate policies and practices.

  PublisherDOI

• Executive Regulatory Focus and Tax Avoidance

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Homeownership and taxes: How the TCJA altered the tax code's treatment of housing

  Real Estate Economics · 2022 · 15 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Economics
  • Labour economics
  • Public economics

  Abstract The federal government has long promoted homeownership through various provisions in the US income tax code. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) renewed interest and debate about the treatment of housing via the tax code, particularly with respect to the mortgage interest deduction and the limitation on deductions for state and local taxes. We document the extent that the TCJA magnifies the long‐standing unequal treatment of debt and equity financing of homeownership in the tax code. Our analysis indicates that most households no longer benefit from mortgage interest and property tax deductions. We also show how the limitations on the deduction of state and local taxes alter the costs associated with homeownership across geographic areas, and we provide detailed calculations of the average and marginal tax rates at which housing‐related expenses are deducted. The former are relevant to the tenure choice decision, the latter to the quantity demanded decision. Finally, we document that the lost tax savings associated with the inability to benefit from mortgage interest and property tax expenditures are often small relative to the primary tax benefit owners still enjoy: the nontaxation of the return on equity invested in the home.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evolution in the Tax Code: (Almost) the End of Homeowner Tax Savings?

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2021-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Some rich people will love at least one sweetener in Democrats’ $3.5 trillion plan

  2021-09-23

  preprint
  PublisherDOI

• The Geometry of International Tax Planning After the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: A Riff on Circles, Squares, and Triangles

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2019-09-19 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  The enactment of the so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) significantly changes the landscape for tax planning and compliance by U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs). The promised shift to a more territorial system actually results in a greater likelihood that more of a U.S. MNC’s foreign income is subject to current U.S. taxation. The TCJA complicates effective tax planning for such firms, forcing them to reexamine their existing global structures and financial arrangements (i.e., the “geometry” of international tax planning). We briefly review international tax planning before the TCJA as well as some key international tax provisions in the TCJA. We then provide a method to estimate the new Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) tax from a U.S. MNC’s financial statements when such information is not publicly disclosed and illustrate the effective tax rate (ETR) and GILTI tax effects for a small sample of public firms after the TCJA. Finally, we discuss some likely changes in international tax planning going forward.

  Publisher

• THE GEOMETRY OF INTERNATIONAL TAX PLANNING AFTER THE TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT

  National Tax Journal · 2019-11-01 · 21 citations

  article

  The enactment of the so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) significantly changes the landscape for tax planning and compliance by U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs). The promised shift to a more territorial system actually results in a greater likelihood that more of a U.S. MNC’s foreign income is subject to current U.S. taxation. The TCJA complicates effective tax planning for such firms, forcing them to reexamine their existing global structures and financial arrangements (i.e., the “geometry” of international tax planning). We briefly review international tax planning before the TCJA as well as some key international tax provisions in the TCJA. We then provide a method to estimate the new Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) tax from a U.S. MNC’s financial statements when such information is not publicly disclosed and illustrate the effective tax rate (ETR) and GILTI tax effects for a small sample of public firms after the TCJA. Finally, we discuss some likely changes in international tax planning going forward.

  PublisherDOI

• RISKY BUSINESS: THE PROSOPOGRAPHY OF CORPORATE TAX PLANNING

  National Tax Journal · 2014-12-01 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  We trace the history of corporate tax planning from a compliance-focused activity to a profit-enhancing endeavor to a risk management center. Tax directors of U.S. multinational corporations face unprecedented global pressures from taxing jurisdictions seeking to increase their share of the enterprise's worldwide taxes. Increasingly, corporations must consider the risks that a tax strategy will impose on them, not only in terms of potential lost revenue, but also in terms of reputation and market share. We discuss the components of tax risk management in today's global environment and speculate how future corporate tax planning will change in light of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD: THE STRUCTURAL AND ACCOUNTING CONSEQUENCES OF A SWITCH TO A TERRITORIAL TAX SYSTEM

  National Tax Journal · 2013-09-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  We review the basics of international tax planning by U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) and the organizational structures that facilitate such planning. We then discuss the potential impacts that adopting a participation exemption regime (i.e., a territorial tax system) along the lines proposed by Representative Camp could have on a U.S. MNC's worldwide supply chain structure and financing arrangements. We compare the change in a corporation's global accounting effective tax rate under the current U.S. worldwide tax system and four participation exemption options proposed by Representative Camp. Using a hypothetical set of facts representative of a U.S. multinational with highly mobile intellectual property income, we show that the options produce very different accounting effective tax rates and tax revenues received by the U.S. Treasury. We also point out potential tax planning strategies that could be employed pre- and post-effective date of the implementation of a participation exemption system that would change the expected revenue to be received during the transition to such a system.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY: WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT A U.S. MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION'S INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS FROM ITS FINANCIAL STATEMENT DISCLOSURES?

  National Tax Journal · 2012-12-01 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access

  We discuss the accounting rules that apply to reporting a U.S. company's international operations. We use examples to illustrate diversity in accounting and offer caveats for policy makers, standard setters, analysts, and researchers regarding their interpretation and use of financial accounting information.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Edmund Outslay

  Michigan State University

  18 shared

• David C. Ling

  17 shared

• Michael P. Donohoe

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  17 shared

• Wayne R. Archer

  University of Florida

  8 shared

• Patric H. Hendershott

  Fisher College

  5 shared

• Michael Mayberry

  University of Florida

  4 shared

• Brent W. Ambrose

  3 shared

• B. Anthony Billings

  Wayne State University

  3 shared

Labs

• Fisher School of AccountingPI

Awards & honors

• James Benjamin Lifetime Service Award (2024)
• Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator Award (2018)
• FSA/Joseph A. Silvoso Faculty Merit Award (2015)
• Rawls College of Business Distinguished Alumni Faculty Award…
• Lyons School of Accounting PhD Hall of Fame (2025)