Taxation & Estate Planning

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on March 28, 2010
There is a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new paper debuting on the list at #5: 1. [477 Downloads] Ten Estate Planning Advantages of Limited Liability Companies, by Paul L. Caron (Cincinnati) 2. [365 Downloads] Foreign Bank Accounts...

President Obama Makes Two Tax Recess Appointments

Posted on March 28, 2010
President Obama yesterday made 15 recess appointments: Michael F. Mundaca: Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Treasury Department Michael F. Mundaca currently is Senior Advisor for Policy within the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy and the Acting Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy...

Students Who Visit College on a Cloudy Day Are More Likely to Enroll

Posted on March 28, 2010
Uri Simonsohn (University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School) has published Weather To Go To College, 120 Econ. J. 270 (2009). Here is the abstract: Does current utility bias predictions of future utility for high stakes decisions? Here I provide field evidence consistent with such Projection Bias in one of life's most...

Saturday at the IRS

Posted on March 27, 2010
More than 180 local IRS ofices are open today from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m to help taxpayers complete their 2009 tax returns. From the IRS press release: ?We are holding these special open houses to give taxpayers who are struggling in these difficult economic times more opportunity to work...

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Tax Articles in The Urban Lawyer

Posted on March 27, 2010
Lauren Ashley Smith (J.D. 2010, Washington University), Alternatives to Property Tax Increment Finance Programs: Sales, Income, and Nonproperty Tax Increment Financing, 41 Urb. Law. 705 (2009) Philip J.F. Geheb (Husch Blackwell Sanders, St. Louis), Tax Increment Financing Bonds as "Debt" Under State Constitutional Debt Limitations, 41 Urb...

Court Rejects NYLS Grade Complaint

Posted on March 27, 2010
Following up on my prior post, Court Refuses 2L's Request to Change "C" Grade or to Order NYLS to Adopt Pass/Fail Grading System: the Appeallate Division has affirmed the dismissal of the student's complaint. Keefe v. New York Law School, 2010 NY Slip Op 02477 (A...

New York's Amazon Tax and the Battle Over Affiliate Nexus

Posted on March 27, 2010
Sam Zaprzalka (J.D. 2010, Seattle) has published Note, New York's Amazon Tax Not Out of the Forest Yet: The Battle Over Affiliate Nexus, 33 Seattle U. L. Rev. 527 (2010). Here is the Conclusion: Of course, the ultimate question in this Amazon Tax saga is, ?Who cares? How does this...

Tax Lawyer Staged Suicide to Look Like Murder

Posted on March 27, 2010
Alabama Major Bashinsky (Tax LL.M., Florida), 63, son of the late CEO of Golden Flake Snack Foods, staged his own suicide to make it look like he had been abducted and murdered. ABA Journal ABA News Associated Press Birminham News CBS News Huffington Post NBC News

New U.S. News Rankings to be Released on April 15

Posted on March 26, 2010
Robert Morse, Director of Data Research at U.S. News & World Report, announced yesterday that the new law school rankings will be released April 15: This year, we have improved and modified both our part-time J.D. and part-time M.B.A. program ranking methodologies...

Tax Foundation Publishes 2010 Facts & Figures: How Does Your State Compare?

Posted on March 26, 2010
The Tax Foundation yesterday released the 2010 version of Facts and Figures: How Does Your State Compare?, a pocket-sized booklet comparing the 50 states on 31 different measures of taxing and spending, including individual and corporate income tax rates, business tax climates, excise taxes, tax burdens and state spending.

A Celebration of Bill Stuntz

Posted on March 26, 2010
Following up on my prior post, Harvard Law Prof Bill Stuntz Talks of His Impending Death, Faith (Mar. 7, 2010): a two-day Celebration of the Career of Bill Stuntz kicks off today at Harvard (schedule; live webcast). From Orin Kerr (George Washington), one of the participants: On the afternoon of...

The Right Warms to Tax Increases

Posted on March 26, 2010
Fututre of Capitalism, Another Tax Increaser on the Right: We've been tracking the increased openness on the center-right to new or increased federal taxes: David Brooks, Glenn Hubbard, Karl Rove, Tyler Cowen, Greg Mankiw. The latest example comes in the new Spring issue of National Affairs, which bills itself as...

Why UC-Irvine Law Students Are the Nation's Happiest

Posted on March 26, 2010
The inaugural class at UC-Irvine, which will enjoy a tuition-free ride through all three years of law school (resulting in class medians of 167 LSAT and 3.65 UGPA), has a 100% employment rate for their first summer. Above the Law, UC?Irvine: Everybody Has a Job JD Journal, Jobs for Everyone...

Kleinbard Publishes Woodworth Lecture: How Tax Expenditures Distort our Budget and our Political Processes

Posted on March 26, 2010
Edward D. Kleinbard (USC) has published his Laurence Neal Woodworth Memorial Lecture in United States Tax Law and Policy delivered at the May 2009 ABA Tax Section Midyear Meeting, The Congress within the Congress: How Tax Expenditures Distort our Budget and our Political Processes, 36 Ohio N...

Each 100-Point Increase in Woman's SAT Score Increases Payment for Egg Donation by $2,350

Posted on March 26, 2010
A new study by Aaron D. Levine (Georgia Tech) and published by the Hastings Center reports for each 100-point increase in her SAT score, women at elite universities can earn an extra $2,350 for donating eggs for in vitro fertilization, up to as much as $50,000 per donation (in violation...

Legislature Takes Aim at Maryland Law School Clinics

Posted on March 26, 2010
Baltimore Sun: State House Bullies Target UM Law School: Make no mistake, the state Senate has done much more than express some idle curiosity about the University of Maryland?s law clinics. Budget language approved by the Senate this week includes a not-so-subtle message: Be careful who you let your law...

David Meyer Named Dean at Tulane

Posted on March 26, 2010
David Meyer, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois College of Law and a Constitutional Law and Family Law scholar, has been named Dean at Tulane, replacing Interim Dean Stephen M. Griffin who has served since former dean Lawrence Ponoroff stepped down in 2009...

Weisbach & Posner: Climate Change Justice

Posted on March 26, 2010
Tax Prof David Weisbach (Chicago) & Eric A. Posner (Chicago) have published Climate Change Justice (Princeton University Press, 2010). Here is the abstract: Climate change and justice are so closely associated that many people take it for granted that a global climate treaty should--indeed, must--directly address both issues together...

Does New 10% Tanning Tax Discriminate Against Whites?

Posted on March 25, 2010
A lawyer asks whether the new 10% tanning tax included in the health care bill unconstitutionally discriminates against whites: I [have] a question about the intersection of taxation and civil rights law. It strikes me that the health care bill which requires that indoor tanning salons will charge customers a...

'Medicare Tax' in Health Bill Changed to ?Unearned Income Medicare Contribution?

Posted on March 25, 2010
Pro Publica, ?Medicare Tax? Now to be Called ?Unearned Income Medicare Contribution?: The payroll tax increase that was formerly known as ?Medicare tax? in both President Obama?s health care reform reconciliation proposal and the original House reconciliation bill is NOT A TAX...

Goodbye GRATs

Posted on March 25, 2010
Forbes, Goodbye GRATs?, by Ashlea Ebeling: Congress seems set to crack down on a popular strategy for cutting estate and gift taxes. Tucked into a jobs and small business tax relief bill that the House is expected to vote on Wednesday are new restrictions on a popular estate planning strategy...

Bryan Camp Wins Texas Outstanding Law Review Article Award

Posted on March 25, 2010
Protecting Trust Assets from the Federal Tax Lien, 1 Est. Plan. & Community Prop. L.J. 295 (2009), by Bryan Camp (Texas Tech), has been selected as the Texas Bar Foundation?s Outstanding Law Review Article for 2009. The award is presented annually to designate the most important and best-written legal article...

Famous People Rejected by Their First College Choice

Posted on March 25, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Before They Were Titans, Moguls and Newsmakers, These People Were...Rejected; At College Admission Time, Lessons in Thin Envelopes: Few events arouse more teenage angst than the springtime arrival of college rejection letters. With next fall's college freshman class expected to approach a record 2...

Will Citizens United Spawn Tax Breaks for Corporations?

Posted on March 25, 2010
Matthew Yglesias (Think Progress), Corporate Political Contributions as Tax Break: Citizens United is going to be a significant tax break for politically active smallish business owners. If you used to be a guy who shelled out $10,000 a year on political contributions, then you used to need to pay yourself...

Peroni Presents Tax Expenditure Analysis and a Normative Tax Base Today at NYU

Posted on March 25, 2010
Robert J. Peroni (Texas) presents Can Tax Expenditure Analysis be Divorced from a Normative Tax Base?: A Critique of the "New Paradigm" and its Denouement (with J. Clifton Fleming, Jr. (BYU)) at NYU today as part of its Colloquium Series on Tax Policy and Public Finance...

Stark Presents The Federal Role in State Tax Reform Today at Indiana

Posted on March 25, 2010
Kirk Stark (UCLA) presents The Federal Role in State Tax Reform at Indiana-Bloomington today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series organized by Ajay K. Mehrotra. Here is part of the Introduction: This paper considers the federal government?s role in the design of state tax systems and asks what...

BNA Tax Management Advisory Board Meets Today in New York City on Estates, Gifts, and Trusts

Posted on March 25, 2010
The BNA Tax Management Advisory Board meets today in New York City to discus three Estates, Gifts and Trusts papers: Ten Rules for Running a Family Foundation without Running Afoul of the Law, by Elizabeth Carrott Minnigh (Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Washington, D...

Don't Fund Healthcare by Taxing Capital

Posted on March 25, 2010
Reuters, Don?t Fund Healthcare by Taxing Capital, by James Pethokoukis: Washington will have difficulty producing a stranger bit of public policy than raising investment taxes to pay for healthcare reform. Remember, the consensus critique of the U.S economy is that it?s been plagued by too much consumption and debt...

Health Care Law Add Even More Taxes

Posted on March 25, 2010
The Heritage Foundation, Reconciliation Bill Adds Even More Taxes: By signing the legislation, Obama already broke his campaign promise not to raise ?any form? of taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year. The reconciliation bill adds even more taxes for Americans ? an estimated $52...

Caron, Kowal & Pratt: Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree -- Why and When?

Posted on March 25, 2010
Jennifer M. Kowal (Loyola-L.A.), Katherine Pratt (Loyola-L.A.) and I have posted Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree: Why and When? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article and a related article, Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree: Where?, provide information and advice about Tax LLM programs to American law students and...

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