Taxation & Estate Planning

Virginia Tax Review Publishes New Issue

Posted on September 02, 2010
The Virginia Tax Review has published Vol. 29, No. 4 (Spring 2010): Susan C. Morse (UC-Hastings), Revisiting Global Formulary Apportionment, 29 Va. Tax Rev. 593 (2010) Bret Wells (Houston), Voluntary Compliance: "This Return Might Be Correct But Probably Isn't," 29 Va...

Steve Johnson Posts Tax Articles on SSRN

Posted on September 02, 2010
Steve R. Johnson (UNLV) has posted a third tranche (Part 1, Part 2) of his tax papers on SSRN: When General Statutes and Specific Statutes Conflict, 57 Tax Notes 113 (2010) Is Lost Tax Revenue Property Under RICO?, 56 State Tax Notes 307 (2010) Civil RICO and State and Local...

TIGTA: Taxpayer Identity Theft Cases Increased 460% in Three Years

Posted on September 02, 2010
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released A Statistical Portrayal of the Taxpayer Advocate Service for Fiscal Years 2005 Through 2009 (2010-10-081): Rising case receipts are presenting challenges for the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) to timely resolve taxpayer problems...

Hatfield: Tax Lawyers, Tax Defiance, and the Ethics of Casual Conversation

Posted on September 02, 2010
Michael Hatfield (Texas Tech) has posted Tax Lawyers, Tax Defiance, and the Ethics of Casual Conversation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Essay addresses the increasingly common social situation in which tax lawyers are confronted with tax protester arguments and similar anti-tax system comments...

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Higher Ed Bubble Dwarfs Housing Bubble

Posted on September 02, 2010
Mark J. Perry (University of Michigan-Flint, School of Management), The Higher Education Bubble Is About to Burst (CarpeDiem): Note that the housing bubble resulted from about a 4-time increase in home prices between 1978 and 2006, and college tuition has now increased by more than twice that amount since 1978...

Creighton Seeks

Posted on September 02, 2010
Creighton University School of Law invites applications for a full-time tenure-track tax position to begin in 2011-12: The Law School is particularly interested in candidates whose focus includes federal income taxation, tax policy, estate and gift taxation, state and local taxation, estate planning and elder law...

Hellerstein & Duncan: VAT Exemptions: Principles and Practice

Posted on September 01, 2010
Walter Hellerstein (Georgia) & Harley Duncan (KPMG, Washington, D.C.)have published VAT Exemptions: Principles and Practice, 128 Tax Notes 989 (Aug. 30, 2010): This article reviews the nature and operation of exemptions in a VAT system and explores some of the issues of principle and practice related to VAT exemptions, including...

Subscribing to TaxProf Blog

Posted on September 01, 2010
We offer two ways for you to have TaxProf Blog content automatically delivered to your computer, cell phone, or mobile device, as explained in the left column of the blog under the banner, "Subscribe to TaxProf Blog Via RSS Feed or Email": RSS Feeds: You can subscribe to one of...

Mickey Mouse, the Estate Tax and Me

Posted on September 01, 2010
USA Today op-ed, Mickey Mouse, the Estate Tax and Me, by Abigail Disney: [T]he estate tax will automatically be reinstated after a year's hiatus ? in its 2001 form. ... In a far stricter tax environment, my grandfather still managed to accumulate and pass on ample funds to make three...

Law School Deans' Summer of Love

Posted on September 01, 2010
Corporate Counsel, Law School Deans' Summer of Love: Are law school deans just more attractive than the rest of us? Probably not. But they sure seem to be hot candidates for university president. ... [E]ight of the 63 universities that are members of the Association of American Universities (13%) currently...

Chronicle: 30 Ways to Rate a College

Posted on September 01, 2010
Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 Ways to Rate a College, by Alex Richards & Ron Coddington: The lines below connect raters to each of the measures they take into account. Notice how few measures are shared by two or more raters. That indicates a lack of agreement among them on...

Rubin & Robertson: Bring the Estate Tax, Retroactive to Jan. 1

Posted on September 01, 2010
Wall Street Journal op-ed, Bring Back the Estate Tax Now, by Robert Rubin (Co-chair, Council on Foreign Relations; former Treasury Secretary) & Julian Robertson (Chair, Tiger Management): With a host of other issues behind it, Congress is finally turning its attention to the expiring 2001 and 2003 tax cuts...

Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give a Sh**?

Posted on September 01, 2010
(Warning: Foul language.) In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit?

Lines Blur in Tax Advice

Posted on September 01, 2010
Dow Jones, Lines Blur In Tax Advice, by Arden Dale: The line between smart and criminal can be a fine one when it comes to giving tax advice, and some advisers see it blurring lately. Many in the tax profession are becoming unsure about the difference between a legitimate tax...

TIGTA: 10% Error Rate in Returns Claiming Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

Posted on September 01, 2010
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Improvements Are Needed to Reduce Erroneous Foreign Earned Income Exclusion Claims (2010-40-091): TIGTA reviewed 231,277 tax returns from Tax Year 2008 and found that 10% (23,334) of taxpayers claiming the exclusion either failed to qualify for the exclusion or inaccurately computed...

The Clean Slate

Posted on September 01, 2010
Newsweek: Clean Slate Time, by Keith Libbey (Fredrikson & Byron, Minneapolis) & Evan Thomas (Newsweek): How about this for a tax plan: cut most people?s taxes by half, eliminate the need to file returns, and provide the Treasury with a better way to reduce the deficit...

Fellowships for Aspiring Law Professors (2010-11 Edition)

Posted on August 31, 2010
For practitioners and others contemplating joining the law professor ranks, many law schools offer wonderful opportunities to transition into the legal academy with one- or two-year fellowships which allow you to enter the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference (the "meat market") with published scholarship (and in many cases teaching experience) under...

Tennessee Sees to Hire Tax Prof

Posted on August 31, 2010
The University of Tennessee College of Law seeks to fill three tenure-track positions with entry level or lateral professors to begin in Fall 2011 in a variety of fields, including tax: The Faculty Appointments Committee will interview applicants who are registered in the 2010 Faculty Appointments Register of the Association...

9th Cir.: Reversible Error to Refuse Continuance to Allow Tax Evasion Defendant to See His Dying Son

Posted on August 31, 2010
A divided (2-1) Ninth Circuit yesterday reversed the tax evasion conviction of Garth Kloehn on the ground that the district court abused its discretion in refusing to continue his trial for two days to allow him to see his dying son. United States v. Kloehn, No...

WSJ: Expiration of Bush Tax Cuts Won't Reduce Dividends

Posted on August 31, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Higher Taxes May Not Push Firms To Cut Dividends, by Martin Vaughan: The expiration of a tax cut on dividend income wouldn't likely spur firms to significantly cut their dividend payouts, say some scholars who study the relationship between tax rates and corporate behavior...

The Homebuyer Tax Credit -- What Was It Good For?

Posted on August 31, 2010
The Guardian, Home Truths for Complacent Economists: What should be clear is that the tax credits helped to pull housing demand forward. People who might have bought in the second half of 2010, or even 2011, instead bought their home before the tax credit expired...

WSJ: Are Law School Faculties Part of the Problem With Legal Education?

Posted on August 31, 2010
Following up on my prior posts: Newton: How Law Profs' Preoccupation with 'Impractical Scholarship' Obstructs Legal Education Reform (Aug. 23, 2010) Garnett: 'Preaching What They Don't Practice' (Aug. 27, 2010) Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Are Law School Faculties Part of the Problem With Legal Education?: It?s often struck us...

Fogg: In Whom We Trust

Posted on August 31, 2010
T. Keith Fogg (Villanova) has published In Whom We Trust, 43 Creighton L. Rev. 357 (2010). Here is the abstract: The federal government collects the majority of taxes through business entities that are required to withhold taxes from wages or collect excise taxes at the time of providing services...

Home Values Fell 16% in 2008, But Property Taxes Rose 4.2%

Posted on August 31, 2010
Tax Foundation, Property Tax Revenue Increased As Property Values Fell: The Case-Shiller index, a popular measure of residential home values, shows a drop of almost 16% in home values across the country between 2007 and 2008. As property values fell, one might expect property tax collections to have fallen commensurately,...

Former Law Prof Adds Oxford as Defendant in Discrimination Suit Against Florida

Posted on August 31, 2010
Following up on my prior posts: Former Florida Law Prof Files Racial and Sexual Discrimination Lawsuit Against School and Dean (Feb. 7, 2010) Former Florida Law Prof Comments on Racial and Sexual Discrimination Lawsuit Against School and Dean (Feb. 9, 2010) More on Former Florida Law Prof's Discrimination Complaint (Feb...

Johnston: How Would You Invest $1 Billion Under the Current Tax System?

Posted on August 30, 2010
David Cay Johnston has published How Would You Invest $1 Billion Under the Current Tax System?, 128 Tax Notes 1001 (Aug. 30, 2010): In this column, Johnston poses a question about what to do with a windfall, asking readers to ponder how the tax system affects investment decisions and suggest...

NYU Graduate Tax Program Seeks to Hire Tax VAPs

Posted on August 30, 2010
The NYU Graduate Tax Program is seeking applicants for its Acting Assistant Professor of Tax Law Program for the 2011-12 academic year, beginning August 1, 2011: For over fifty years, the NYU Acting Assistant Professor of Tax Law (?Tax AAP?) program has launched the careers of dozens of tax academics...

Ground Zero Mosque Developers Owe $224k in Back Taxes

Posted on August 30, 2010
New York Post, Mosque Big Owes 224G Tax: The mosque developers are tax deadbeats. Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show. El-Gamal's company, 45 Park Place Partners, failed to pay its...

'TurboTax for Divorce'

Posted on August 30, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Breaking Up Without Breaking the Bank: Breaking up is always hard to do. In the worst economic downturn most of us have ever lived through, it can be downright excruciating. Plummeting home values, sagging investments, job worries and exploding college and health-care costs have made parting ways...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on August 30, 2010
Saturday: 2d Cir. Upholds KPMG BLIPS Tax Shelter Convictions CNN: Barrister Barista -- Law Grad Works in Coffee Shop Where Do State and Local Governments Get Their Tax Revenue? Obama Tax Policies Threaten Gulf Recovery From Katrina and BP Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads WSJ: The $31 Billion Tax...

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