Taxation & Estate Planning

Tax Foundation Blasts State Film Tax Credits

Posted on January 14, 2010
The Tax Foundation today released a new study, Film Tax Credits, Production Incentives Fail to Spur Economic Growth; State Tax Codes Should Provide Welcome Mat for All Industries, Not Holloywood Handouts: All eyes in Hollywood may be focused on Sunday?s Golden Globe Awards, but a new Tax Foundation report [Movie...

Wanted: Tax Casebook Authors (For $20k-$25k)

Posted on January 14, 2010
CALI (Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction) has launched the eLangdell Electronic Casebook Stimulus Project to create an open repository of high-quality ebooks for teaching in various areas of law, including tax. CALI will pay law faculty a $500 stipend per chapter for contributions to its repository...

NYLS Offers Summer Tax Institute for J.D. Students

Posted on January 14, 2010
New York Law School has announced a 2010 Summer Institute (June 1 to July 27) for J.D. students in four areas of concentration, including tax: Students from any ABA-accredited law school may take two or three courses in one of these concentrations. Each program will offer its own co-curricular activities?such...

Tax Prof Nominees for Best Law Teachers in America

Posted on January 14, 2010
Following up on my prior post, Nominate a Tax Prof for Best Law Teachers in America: Michael Hunter Schwartz (Washburn) has released the list of 150 nominees for inclusion in his forthcoming book, What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, 2011)...

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Batchelder Presents Getting More From Tax Incentives Today at NYU

Posted on January 14, 2010
Lily Batchelder (NYU) presents the first three chapters of her forthcoming book, $750 Billion Misspent? Getting More From Tax Incentives (with Austin Nichols (Tax Policy Center) & Eric Toder (Tax Policy Center) at NYU today as part of its Colloquium Series on Tax Policy and Public Finance: Introduction: Social Policy...

President Obama Calls for TARP Tax on Big Banks

Posted on January 14, 2010
White House Press Release White House Fact Sheet Treasury Department Press Release Treasury Department Example The Atlantic Bloomberg The Conglomerate (and here, here, here, and here) Deal Book (NY Times) Deal Journal (WSJ) Dorf on Law Financial Times FindLaw Forbes New York Times Tax...

GAO: 68% of S Corp Tax Returns Have Errors

Posted on January 14, 2010
The Government Accountability Office today released Tax Gap: Actions Needed to Address Noncompliance with S Corporation Tax Rules (GAO-10-195): According to IRS data, about 68% of S corporation returns filed for tax years 2003 and 2004 (the years data were available) misreported at least one item...

IRS Commissioner Does Not Do His Own Taxes Because of Complexity of Code

Posted on January 13, 2010
During an interview on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" on Sunday, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said he uses a tax preparer for his own returns: "I've used one for years. I find it convenient. I find the tax code complex so I use a preparer." The Blackbook Legal Blog The Capitolist Going Concern...

American Express Reward Points Can be Used to Pay Taxes

Posted on January 13, 2010
American Express announced on Monday that cardholders can use rewards points to pay their federal, state, and local income tax payments via Pay1040.com and OfficialPayments.com. But the exchange rate is quite onerous -- 200 points are needed for each $1 in taxes (thus it will take 1 million points to...

D.C. Circuit: Tax Court Lacks Jurisdiction to Determine Partners' Outside Basis in Son of BOSS Case

Posted on January 13, 2010
The D.C. Circuit yesterday ruled on the Tax Court's jurisdiction in a Son of BOSS case. Petaluma FX Partners LLC v. Commissioner, No. 08-1356 (D.C. Cir. Jan. 1, 2010): Petaluma FX Partners, LLC appeals from the Tax Court?s decision that it had jurisdiction over several partnership-level determinations and that valuation...

ACTEC & ALI-ABA Webcast Today on Estate Tax Repeal

Posted on January 13, 2010
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and ALI-ABA are hosting a webcast today on The Impact of Estate Tax Repeal -- Going Blindly Where No One Else Has Gone Before today from noon to 1:30 p.m. EST: All estate planners face uncertainty about the future of estate,...

GAO Offers Seven Improvements for 2010 Tax Filing Season

Posted on January 13, 2010
The Government Accountability Office criticized the IRS's telephone service to taxpayers during the 2009 tax filing season, "where, for a second year in a row, unanticipated increases in call volume significantly reduced performance, in part, because of inquires related to tax law changes...

Wood: Ten Things to Know About California's Tax System

Posted on January 13, 2010
Robert W. Wood (Wood & Porter, San Francisco) has posted Notes from California?s Tax Trenches, 126 Tax Notes 247 (Jan. 11, 2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Many federal tax practitioners and many clients occasionally encounter California?s tax system, which can be substantively and procedurally daunting...

Babiarz & Yilmazer: The Impact of College Financial Aid Rules on Household Portfolio Choice

Posted on January 13, 2010
Patryk Babiarz (University of Alabama, Department of Consumer Services) & Tansel Yilmazer (University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Personal Financial Planning) have published The Impact of College Financial Aid Rules on Household Portfolio Choice, 62 Nat'l Tax J...

Study: Tax Breaks Don't Work to Lure High Tech Business

Posted on January 13, 2010
Goods Job First has relased a 106-page report, Growing Pennsylvania's High-Tech Economy: Choosing Effective Investments: [T]he study explores fundamental questions about Pennsylvania?s economic development incentives, programs, and taxes?its high-tech ?business climate,? if you will...

Taxpayers Win 14% of Tax Cases

Posted on January 13, 2010
Blog of the Legal Times, Fighting the IRS: Your chances of winning a fight with the IRS are about as great as your chances when fighting City Hall. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, in her recently-released annual report to Congress, listed the 10 tax issues most litigated in the federal...

Rep. Rangel "Unsure" if Congress Will Retroactively Reinstate Estate Tax

Posted on January 13, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Rep. Rangel: Unsure If a Retroactive Estate Tax Will be Passed, by Martin Vaughan: Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he is unsure whether there will be legislation to re-impose the federal estate tax retroactive to Jan...

Joint Tax Committee Releases Individual Income and Social Insurance Taxes, 2010 & 2011

Posted on January 13, 2010
The Joint Committee on Taxation today released Present Law And Background Data Related to the Individual Income and Social Insurance Taxes as In Effect for 2010 and 2011 (JCX-1-10): This document ... provides a summary of the present-law Federal tax system with respect to the individual income tax and social...

Joint Tax Committee Releases Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for 2009-2013

Posted on January 12, 2010
The Joint Committee on Taxation yesterday released Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2009-2013 (JCS-1-10) (55 pages): Part I of this report contains a discussion of the concept of tax expenditures. Part II is a discussion of the measurement of tax expenditures...

The IRS Is Auditing Harvard

Posted on January 12, 2010
Harvard announced yesterday in a $400 tax-exempt bond offering that it is one of 40 universities being audited by the IRS as part of its review of the tax-exempt status of nonprofit organizations. ataxingmatter Bloomberg Boston Globe See also E&Y Mines IRS Data on Colleges & Universities.

Does U.S. News Make Law Schools More Expensive?

Posted on January 12, 2010
Does U.S. News Make Law Schools More Expensive?, by Frank J. Macchiarola (Chancellor, St. Francis College; former Dean, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law) & Michael C. Macchiarola (Lecturer, City University of New York): Why do law schools charge higher and higher tuitions that keep outrunning the cost of living?...

Status of Obama's Campaign Promise of Pre-Filled-Out Tax Forms

Posted on January 12, 2010
PolitiFact, Barack Obama Campaign Promise No. 18, Provide Option for a Pre-Filled-Out Tax Form: Will direct the IRS to "give taxpayers the option of a pre-filled tax form to verify, sign and return to the IRS or online. This will eliminate the need for Americans to hire expensive tax preparers...

Albany, Chicago & Villanova Ban Laptops in the Classroom

Posted on January 12, 2010
Details at Above the Law: You know, if I didn?t know better, I?d say that Villanova, Albany, and Chicago have lost sight of the fact that students are [paying] to be in those classrooms. This isn?t high school. Students spending class time playing Warcraft aren?t truants ? instead, they are...

Hickman: IRB Guidance -- The No Man?s Land of Tax Code Interpretation

Posted on January 12, 2010
Kristin E. Hickman (Minnesota) has published IRB Guidance: The No Man?s Land of Tax Code Interpretation, 2009 Mich. St. L. Rev. 239. Here is the abstract: This Symposium Essay compares current patterns and practices surrounding IRS utilization of IRB guidance (revenue rulings, revenue procedures, and notices) with administrative law doctrine...

TIGTA: IRS Staff

Posted on January 12, 2010
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released Insufficient and Inexperienced Staff Could Reduce the Ability to Detect and Stop Fraudulent Refunds (2010-40-017): The Questionable Refund Program (QRP) is a nationwide, multi-functional program designed to detect and stop fraudulent claims for refunds on income tax returns...

Sanchirico Presents Two Tax Papers Today at Toronto

Posted on January 12, 2010
Chris William Sanchirico (Pennsylvania) presents two papers at the the University of Toronto today as part of the James Hausman Tax Law and Policy Workshop Series: A Critical Look at the Economic Argument for Taxing Only Labor Income, 63 Tax L. Rev. ___ (2010): "According to accepted wisdom, "the tax...

NLJ: Estate Tax Fiasco

Posted on January 12, 2010
National Law Journal, Estate Tax Fiasco, by Carol A. Harrington (McDermott Will & Emery, Chicago): What was once unthinkable has now become reality for estate planners and their clients. A bizarre sequence of see-sawing transfer tax law that was never intended to actually occur is now the law...

Kleinbard: Tax Expenditure Framework Legislation

Posted on January 12, 2010
Edward D. Kleinbard (USC) has posted Tax Expenditure Framework Legislation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Tax expenditures have been closely analyzed in the United States for over 30 years, but to date the U.S. Congress has failed to incorporate tax expenditure analysis in any meaningful way into its budget...

West & Parry: Cross-Price Elasticity Between Alcoholic Beverages and Leisure

Posted on January 12, 2010
Sara E. West (Macalester College, Department of Economics) & Ian W. H. Parry (Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.) have published Alcohol-Leisure Complementarity: Empirical Estimates and Implications for Tax Policy, 62 Nat'l Tax J. 611 (2009). Here is the abstract: This paper provides a first attempt to estimate the cross-price...

Lavoie: Instilling a Taxpaying Ethos

Posted on January 12, 2010
Richard Lavoie (Akron) has posted Flying Above the Law and Under the Radar: Instilling a Taxpaying Ethos in Those Playing by Their Own Rules, 29 Pace L. Rev. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: These days it really does seem like "only the little people pay taxes...

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