'Tax logic' is an oxymoron and a trap for smart technologists to fall into. Tax codes are not logically consistent or clearly defined. They're a bunch of illfitting laws, beauracratic/regulatory guidance and interpretations of judicial decisions.
I tell folks working in this area to accept the illogical nature of it all and to be ready for all sorts of arbitrary last minute changes. As the article points out understanding time plays an important role here too - when do different tax treatments take effect is an important question to answer.
Tax is written by a bunch of people whose background is overwhelmingly from law, not finance, for reasons that have nothing to do with logic, consistency, financial literacy, understanding, sanity, or common sense. Politicians frequently pass laws without understanding what it will do or what its implications are, because they just didn't think that far ahead. It is quite possibly the worst system you could come up with for writing tax law.
That said, there is a logic to most of it, but not in a way that allows you to come up with general heuristics or universal abstractions.
I tell folks working in this area to accept the illogical nature of it all and to be ready for all sorts of arbitrary last minute changes. As the article points out understanding time plays an important role here too - when do different tax treatments take effect is an important question to answer.