Taxation & Estate Planning

Tax Lawyers Sentenced to 60 Hours/Year Giving Speeches 'Explaining Dangers of Misleading the IRS'

Posted on January 22, 2010
Following up on my prior post, Four E&Y Partners Convicted on All Counts in Tax Shelter Fraud: New York Law Journal, Tax Lawyers' Sentences Include 'Explaining Dangers of Misleading IRS': Southern District of New York Judge Sidney Stein gave a special assignment to two lawyers he sentenced Thursday in connection...

Hoffer Presents Defining a Role for Direct Democracy in Non-Essential Government Spending Today at Cincinnati

Posted on January 22, 2010
Stephanie Hoffer (Ohio State) presents Defining a Role for Direct Democracy in Non-Essential Government Spending at Cincinnati today as part of our Scholar Exchange Program. Here is the Introduction of the paper: The task of raising revenue to provide public goods such as roads, schools, and emergency services is unquestionably...

Brown Presents Teaching with Clickers Today at William & Mary

Posted on January 22, 2010
Dorothy A. Brown (Emory) presents If They Haven't Learned ... Have You Really Taught: The Value of Teaching with Classroom Response Systems at William & Mary today as part of its Herbert V. Kelly, Sr. Teaching Program: The 2009-10 Kelly Teaching Program was designed by Professor Jayne W...

ABA Tax Section Midyear Meeting

Posted on January 21, 2010
The three-day ABA Tax Section midyear meeting kicks off today in San Antonio. There is a welcome reception tonight from 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. The full program is here.

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

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

Posted on January 21, 2010
SSRN has updated its monthly rankings of 629 American and international law school faculties and 1,500 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN data base. Here is the new list (through January 18, 2010) of the Top 25 U...

ABA Webcast Today on Estate Tax Repeal and Possible Retroactive Reenactment

Posted on January 21, 2010
The ABA Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section offers a teleconference and webcast today on What Hath Congress Wrought? Dealing with Estate Tax Repeal, Carryover Basis and Other Potential Complications of Congressional Inaction from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p...

Keeping Wheaton America's 'Premier Religious College'

Posted on January 21, 2010
Inside Higher Ed, Academic and Publishing Freedom: Many secular academics could never imagine working at a college with a "statement of faith" with which everyone must agree. What makes a controversy breaking out about Wheaton College in Illinois striking is that the criticism is coming from a church-going professor who...

CBO Should Not Take Over JCT

Posted on January 21, 2010
Following up on Tuesday's post, Should Congress Abolish the Joint Committee on Taxation?: Pete Davis asks Should CBO Take Over JCT?: The suggestion that the tax legislative process can be cleaned up by having CBO take over JCT is a dangerous fantasy. The last time I checked the Constitution, the...

Tenure and Promotion Timelines at 41 Top Law Schools

Posted on January 21, 2010
Opinio Juris has a detailed post on the tenure and promotion timelines at 41 of the Top 100 law schools (including Cincinnati), broken down into two categories: Schools that link tenure with promotion to full professor (25 schools) Schools that don?t link tenure and promotion to full professor (16 schools)...

CBO: Percentage of Estates That Have Been Taxable, 1943 to 2006

Posted on January 21, 2010
On the Congressional Budget Office's homepage: Percentage of Estates That Have Been Taxable, 1943 to 2006 Congressional Budget Office, Federal Estate and Gift Taxes (Dec. 18, 2009).

Brooks Presents Tax Sparing and Foreign Investment Today at NYU

Posted on January 21, 2010
Kimberly Brooks (McGill) presents Tax Sparing: A Needed Incentive for Foreign Investment in Low Income Countries, or an Unnecessary Revenue Sacrifice?, 34 Queen's L.J. ___ (2009), at NYU today as part of its Colloquium Series on Tax Policy and Public Finance...

Lederman Presents Basketing and Corporate Tax Shelters Today at SMU

Posted on January 21, 2010
Leandra Lederman (Indiana-Bloomington) presents A Tisket, A Tasket: Basketing and Corporate Tax Shelters at SMU today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series hosted by Christopher H. Hanna and Henry J. Lischer, Jr. Here is the abstract: The U.S. federal income tax system requires individuals to basket a number...

Tax Court Lacks Jurisdiction to Block Release of Private Letter Ruling

Posted on January 20, 2010
The Tax Court held yesterday that it lacks jurisdiction to prevent the IRS from publicly disclosing a taxpayer's properly redacted private letter ruling. Anonymous v. Commissioner, 134 T.C. No. 2 (Jan. 19, 2009).

2009 Law Prof Blog Rankings

Posted on January 20, 2010
Below are the 2009 traffic rankings (page views and visitors) of the Top 35 blogs edited by law professors with publicly available SiteMeters, as well as the percentage change in traffic from 2008: Blog Page Views Change 1 InstaPundit 140,929,193 +36...

WSJ: Democrats Call To Extend Bush Tax Cuts

Posted on January 20, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Among Democrats, Calls To Extend Bush Tax Cuts, by Martin Vaughan: Some Capitol?Hill?Democrats want President Barack Obama to extend tax cuts for wealthy?Americans now scheduled to expire at the end of 2010, arguing that a tax increase could hinder economic recovery...

Why Are Economics Students So Selfish?

Posted on January 20, 2010
Yoram Bauman (Program on the Environment, University of Washington; the Stand-Up Economist) & Elaina Rose (University of Washington, Department of Economics) have written Why Are Economics Students More Selfish Than the Rest? Here is the abstract: A substantial body of research suggests that economists are less generous than other professionals...

SOI Releases 2007 Corporation Source Book

Posted on January 20, 2010
The IRS's Statistics of Income Division yesterday released the 2007 Corporation Source Book: The Source Book presents balance sheet, income statement, tax, and other selected items by size of total assets for all returns with and without net income. Statistical tables are available by industrial sectors, major groups within a...

Paul Schmidt Named Chair of Baker Hostetler?s Tax Group

Posted on January 20, 2010
Baker & Hostetler LLP announced today that Paul Schmidt has been appointed firmwide Chair of Baker Hostetler?s Tax Group. Schmidt succeeds Jeffrey Paravano, who was recently named Managing Partner of the firm?s Washington, D.C., office.

Wealth, Taxes, and Politics

Posted on January 20, 2010
Jim Maule (Villanova), A Tax Policy Determination Clue (1/6/10) Linda Beale (Wayne State), Who's Rich? What's Going on With Those Freshwater Economists? And More Posts Worth Reading (1/7/10) Peter Pappas (The Tax Lawyer's Blog), Two Professors, an Angry Bear and Hate the Rich Syndrome (1/8/10) Jim Maule (Villanova), If a...

Haiti Tax Relief

Posted on January 20, 2010
The House today approved by voice vote H.R. 4462, A Bill to Accelerate the Income Tax Benefits for Charitable Cash Contributions for the Relief of Victims of the Earthquake in Haiti. Here is the Joint Committee on Taxation's Technical Explanation (JCX-2-10): The provision permits taxpayers to treat charitable contributions of...

Lawsky Presents Declining Marginal Utility and Tax Policy Today at McGill

Posted on January 20, 2010
Sarah B. Lawsky (George Washington; visiting at Virginia) presents On the Edge: Declining Marginal Utility and Tax Policy at McGill today as part of its Tax Policy Workshop Series hosted by Kimberly Brooks. Here is the abstract: Tax policy and scholarship generally assume that income has declining marginal utility (that...

President Obama Blocks 'Tax Cheats' From Government Work

Posted on January 20, 2010
President Obama today issued a presidential memorandum directing the Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department, and other federal agencies to block contractors who are delinquent on their taxes from receiving new government contracts. The memorandum also directs the IRS to review the accuracy of companies' tax delinquency claims...

IRS Names Michael Danilack LMSB Deputy Commissioner (International)

Posted on January 20, 2010
The IRS today named Michael Danilack Deputy Commissioner (International) for the Large and Mid-Size Business Division. From IR-2010-8: In his position, Danilack will oversee a wide range of issues relating to international tax matters. These include ensuring consistent tax treatment of U...

Over a Dozen

Posted on January 20, 2010
Over a dozen Georgia lawmakers have failed to file their 2008 tax returns, on the heels of a scandal last year involving 22 Georgia lawmakers who failed to pay their 2007 state taxes. Associated Press Atlanta Journal-Constitution WXIA-TV

Tulane Seeks to Hire Tax Visitor

Posted on January 19, 2010
Tulane University Law School seeks to fill a visiting tax professor position for either Fall 2010 or Spring 2011. For more information or to apply, email Jancy Hoeffel (Vice Dean of Academic Affairs & Catherine D. Pierson Professor of Law).

State Tax Support for Higher Education

Posted on January 19, 2010
The Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University has released its annual report on state tax support for higher education. The report found that state support for higher education declined by 1.1% (to $79.4 billion) in the 2010 fiscal year from the previous year...

Why Are Professors So Liberal?

Posted on January 19, 2010
Ethan Fosse (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University) & Neil Gross (University of British Columbia, Department of Sociology) have posted a working paper, Why Are Professors So Liberal?. Here is the abstract: The political liberalism of professors?an important occupational group and anomaly according to traditional theories of class politics?has...

Bar Exam Prep: There's an App for That (for $1,000)

Posted on January 19, 2010
Edible Apple, Bar Exam Preparation App for the iPhone Now Available for $1000: [T]he biggest purveyor of bar review classes is a company called BarBri, and the cost of their intensive review courses can run in excess of $3500. ...[A] virtual competitor to BarBri has emerged in the form of...

TaxProf Blog Holiday Weekend Roundup

Posted on January 19, 2010
Saturday: NY Times: BigLaw Associates in "Existential Crisis" IRS's e-file and Free File Open for Business Clausing: Multinational Firm Tax Avoidance and Tax Policy Iowa Combined Reporting Sunday: Law Prof Advice on 1L Grades Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads Gravelle: Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion Taylor: The Relevance...

CBO: AMT Will Ensnare 27 Million in 2010

Posted on January 19, 2010
The Congressional Budget Office has released The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax. From the Director's Blog: The number of people who will be subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT) will increase dramatically in 2010 under current law. About 4...

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