Taxation & Estate Planning

Broughman & Cooter: Charitable Donations Fund Social Goods That the State and Markets Undersupply

Posted on September 28, 2010
Brian Broughman (Indiana-Bloomington) & Robert Cooter (UC-Berkeley) have published Charitable Donations Fund Social Goods That the State and Markets Undersupply, 43 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 871 (2010). Here is the abstract: Despite widespread belief in the importance of private charity, most Americans donate little or nothing...

Census Bureau Releases Income, Poverty Data

Posted on September 28, 2010
The U.S. Census Bureau today released the results of the 2009 American Community Survey. From the press release: Median Household Income Real median household income in the United States fell between 2008 and 2009 ? decreasing by 2.9 percent from $51,726 to $50,221...

Benshalom Presents Realization and Progressivity Today at Toronto

Posted on September 28, 2010
Ilan Benshalom (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Law) presents Realization and Progressivity of the Ideal Tax Base: A Normative Defense for the Achilles Heel of the Income Tax (with Kendra Stead (J.D. 2010, Northwestern)) at the University of Toronto today as part of the James Hausman Tax Law and...

How a Prof's Race and Gender Affect the 1L Curriculum

Posted on September 28, 2010
Meera E. Deoa (Thomas Jefferson), Maria Woodruff (UCLA) & Rican Vuedd (UCLA) have published Paint by Number? How the Race and Gender of Law School Faculty Affect the First-Year Curriculum, 29 Chicana/o-Latina/o L. Rev. 1 (2010). Here is the abstract: While there is a relatively standard first-year curriculum at all...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

WaPo: IRS to Stop Mailing Tax Forms

Posted on September 28, 2010
Washington Post, IRS to Stop Mailing Income Tax Forms: The IRS plans to stop mailing instructions and paper forms for annual income tax returns, saving the agency about $10 million a year as more Americans are filing online. About 11.5 million people who filed paper tax returns in 2009 received...

The Most Despicable Political Ad. Ever.

Posted on September 28, 2010
The nonpartisan FactCheck.org reports that Florida Rep. Alan Grayson's new ad "manipulates video to make his opponent seem to urge wives to 'submit to' their husbands. He didn't": In a new ad, Grayson accuses his Republican opponent Daniel Webster of being a religious fanatic and dubs him "Taliban Dan...

Shaviro Delivers Tillinghast Lecture at NYU on The Rising Tax-Electivity of U.S. Corporate Residence

Posted on September 27, 2010
Daniel Shaviro (NYU) delivered the 15th annual David R. Tillinghast Lecture on International Taxation last week at NYU on The Rising Tax-Electivity of U.S. Corporate Residence:

Fleischer Presents Taxing Founders' Stock at Florida State

Posted on September 27, 2010
Victor Fleischer (Colorado) presented Taxing Founders' Stock at Florida State last Thursday as part of its Faculty Enrichment Series. Here is the abstract: Founders of a start-up usually take common stock as a large portion of their compensation for current and future labor efforts...

Leiter: The Tax LL.M. -- 'The One Advanced Law Degree That Everyone Considers Worth the Candle'

Posted on September 27, 2010
Brian Leiter (Chicago), The LLM, Under Attack: In a more thorough look, Caron, Kawol and Pratt focus on whether to pursue a tax LLM -- the one advanced law degree that everyone considers worth the candle -- and conclude that for the right student, there can be real benefits...

Fact-Checking the Tax Provisions in the 'Pledge to America'

Posted on September 27, 2010
FactCheck.org criticizes the several "dubious factual claims" in the Republican Party's Pledge to America, including these tax provisions: Pledge, page 14: Unless action is taken, a $3.8 trillion tax hike will go into effect on January 1, 2011 that will unravel these policies...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on September 27, 2010
Saturday: Pastors for ObamaCare? IRS Relaxes Uncertain Tax Position Rules NYSBA Releases Tax Reports The Application of Quill in the Internet Age Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads 100 Pastors to 'Bait' IRS Today on 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday' The Reagan Tax Cuts and Revenues Tax Presentations at CSLSA Annual Meeting

Monahan Presents Taxes and Health Insurance Today at Loyola-L.A.

Posted on September 27, 2010
Amy Monahan (Minnesota) presents The Complex Relationship between Taxes and Health Insurance at Loyola-L.A. today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series. The commentator is Samuel Sessions (UCLA Medical Center). Here is the abstract: Our current system of tax preferences for the purchase of health insurance and for unreimbursed...

GOP Senators Seek TIGTA Probe of White House Access to, and Disclosure of, Confidential Taxpayer Data

Posted on September 27, 2010
Following up on last week's post, Barack Milhous Obama -- Did White House Reveal Confidential Tax Information About Political Enemy? (Sept. 21, 2010): Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley and six other committee Republicans have sent this letter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, seeking an investigation...

NY Times Debate: Abolish the Estate Tax?

Posted on September 27, 2010
New York Times, Bloggingheads Video Debate: Abolish the Estate Tax?, with Annie Lowrey (Washington Independent) & Reihan Salam (National Review).

60% of Economists: Extend Bush Tax Cuts for Everyone

Posted on September 27, 2010
CNN, Economists: Extend Bush Tax Cuts for Everyone: [A] majority of a panel of leading economists surveyed by CNNMoney.com said that the tax cuts should be renewed for everyone.

WSJ: The Send Jobs Overseas Act

Posted on September 27, 2010
Wall Street Journal editorial, The Send Jobs Overseas Act: [T]he President's plan reveals how out of touch Democrats are with the real world of tax competition. The U.S. already has one of the most punitive corporate tax regimes in the world and this tax increase would make that competitive disadvantage...

President Obama Signs Small Business Tax Bill

Posted on September 27, 2010
President Obama today signed H.R. 5297, the Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010. Here is the White House summary of the tax provisions: Eight New Small Business Tax Cuts ? Effective Today, Providing Immediate Incentives to Invest: The President had already signed into law eight small business tax cuts,...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on September 26, 2010
This week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's list: 1. [261 Downloads] The Ethics of Tax Lawyering: An Introduction, by Michael Hatfield (Texas Tech) 2. [224 Downloads] Fifty Years of Utopia: A Half-Century after Louis Kelso?s The Capitalist Manifesto, a Look...

100 Pastors to 'Bait' IRS Today on 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday'

Posted on September 26, 2010
USA Today, Pastors Plan to 'Bait' IRS with Pulpit Politics: On Sunday, a group of 100 preachers nationwide will step into the pulpit and say the only words they're forbidden by law from speaking in a church. They plan to use the pulpit as a platform for political endorsements, flouting...

The Reagan Tax Cuts and Revenues

Posted on September 26, 2010
Wall Street Journal op-ed, Tax Cuts and Revenue: What We Learned in the 1980s, by Richard W. Rahn (Cato Institute): Supply-siders never argued that all tax cuts pay for themselves. But the evidence is clear that lower rates on high earners do produce more revenue over time...

Tax Presentations at CSLSA Annual Meeting

Posted on September 26, 2010
Here are the tax presentations at this weekend's Central States Law Schools Association Annual Meeting at North Dakota: Danshera Cords (Albany), Lien on Me: Virtual Debtors Prisons, The Practical Effects of Tax Liens and Proposals for Reform, 49 Brandeis L...

NYSBA Releases Tax Reports

Posted on September 25, 2010
The New York State Bar Association Tax Section has issued tax reports on: Partnership Target Allocation (No. 1219) Employment Taxes and Professional Service Businesses (No. 1218) Section 514: Debt-Financed Income Subject to UBIT (No. 1217) The Rescission Doctrine (No...

The Application of Quill in the Internet Age

Posted on September 25, 2010
Michael R. Gordon (J.D. 2011, North Carolina) has published Recent Development, Up the Amazon Without a Paddle: Examining Sales Taxes, Entity Isolation, and the Affiliate Tax, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 299 (2010). Here is the abstract: As a result of the Supreme Court?s decision in Quill v...

Pastors for ObamaCare?

Posted on September 25, 2010
Wall Street Journal op-ed, Pastors For ObamaCare?, by Jim Towey (Director, White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (2002-06): If the White House office of faith-based initiatives is going to be used as propaganda unit, it might as well be shut down...

IRS Relaxes Uncertain Tax Position Rules

Posted on September 25, 2010
The IRS yesterday released several forms of guidance on the reporting of uncertain tax positions: Announcement 2010-75, 2010-41 I.R.B. ___ (Oct. 14, 2010) Announcement 2010-76, 2010-41 I.R.B. ___ (Oct. 14, 2010) Schedule UTP Schedule UTP Instructions Treasury Directive for All Large Business and International Division (LB&I) Prepared Remarks of IRS...

The Forbes 400

Posted on September 24, 2010
Forbes yesterday released the 2010 version of the The Forbes 400 -- The Richest People in America. Here are the Top 10: Bill Gates ($54 billion) (Microsoft) Warren Buffett ($45 billion) (Berkshire Hathaway) Larry Ellison ($27 billion) (Oracle) Christy Walton ($24 billion) (Walmart) Charles Koch ($21...

Harvey: Schedule UTP

Posted on September 24, 2010
J. Richard ?Dick? Harvey, Jr. (Villanova) has posted Schedule UTP: Views of a Former Tax Advisor and Administrator, 128 Tax Notes 1259 (Sept. 20, 2010), on SSRN, Here is the abstract: Since its announcement on January 26, 2010, Schedule UTP has been the subject of much discussion in corporate tax...

Legacy Admissions: Affirmative Action for the Rich

Posted on September 24, 2010
Richard D. Kahlenberg (The Century Foundatio) has published Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions (Brookings Institution, 2010): The use of race-based affirmative action in higher education has given rise to hundreds of books and law review articles, numerous court decisions, and several state initiatives to ban...

Guitarists and Accountants

Posted on September 24, 2010
At the 30-second mark: (Hat Tip: Beau Baez.)

Call for Tax Panels: West Coast Law & Society Retreat

Posted on September 24, 2010
The West Coast Law & Society Retreat has issued a call for panel proposals for its 4th retreat to be held at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles on February 11-12, 2011: Building on the success of retreats at Berkeley (2005), Hawaii (2008), and Stanford (2009), the fourth retreat will...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.