Taxation & Estate Planning

AALS Annual Meeting

Posted on January 07, 2010
The AALS Annual Meeting kicks off today in New Orleans. Tax Profs with speaking roles today include: Susan J. Stabile (University of St. Thomas), The Relationship of Faith and Law: The Example of Corporate Law Bert Lazerow (Sab Diego), International Cooperation to Create Opportunities for Students Eric D...

2009 Law School Survey of Student Engagement

Posted on January 07, 2010
The Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) has released its 2009 Annual Survey Results: The Law School Survey of Student Engagement focuses on activities that affect learning in law school. The results show how law students use their time, what they think about their legal training, and what law...

Georgetown Symposium: Empirical Research on the Legal Profession -- Insights From Theory and Practice

Posted on January 07, 2010
The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics has published a symposium issue on Empirical Research on the Legal Profession: Insights From Theory and Practice, 22 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 1249-1483 (2009): Robert L. Nelson, Are We There Yet? Empirical Research and the Predicted Demise of Large Law Firms: An Introductory Essay,...

22% of Americans Need a Lawyer

Posted on January 07, 2010
FindLaw, Lawsuits, Estate Planning and Housing the Most Common Legal Issues: One in five Americans faced a legal issue in the last year that could have involved hiring an attorney, according to a new national survey by FindLaw.com, the most popular legal information Web site...

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Minority Enrollments Decline as Law Schools Add 3,000 More Students Over Past 15 Years

Posted on January 07, 2010
Columbia has released a new study, A Disturbing Trend in Law School Diversity: Steady Demand: Over the past 15 years, African Americans and Mexican Americans have been applying to law schools in relatively constant numbers. Improving Quality: These African-American and Mexican-American applicants are doing better than ever on the leading...

WSJ: IRS Takeover of the Tax Preparer Industry

Posted on January 07, 2010
Following up on Tuesday's post, IRS Issues New Tax Return Preparer Rules: Wall Street Journal editorial, H&R Blockheads: The IRS Wants to Save You From Your Rogue Tax Accountant: We're guessing that when Americans think of outlaw industries, tax preparers aren't the first rogues that come to mind...

Airline Rankings

Posted on January 07, 2010
The Wall Street Journal has a great article on airline performance in 2009, including a ranking of the nine major airlines in five categories: On-time arrivals (percentage of flights arriving on-time) Canceled flights (percentage of flights canceled) Mishandled luggage (mishandled bag reports per 1,000 passengers) Consumer complaints (reports per million...

WSJ: Carried Interest Tax Gains Traction in Congress

Posted on January 07, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Congress Has Hedge Funds, Buyout Firms in Tax Sights, by Peter Lattman, Jenny Strasberg & Naftali Bendavid: The "carried-interest" tax debate has re-emerged in Congress, threatening to more than double taxes on some of the country's wealthiest individuals?private-equity and hedge-fund managers...

The Shelf Project Starts SSRN Paper Series

Posted on January 07, 2010
The Shelf Project has started a Law Research Centers Papers series in the Legal Scholarship Network: The proposal is made as a part of The Shelf Project, which is a collaboration among tax professionals to develop and perfect proposals to help Congress raise revenue...

Will Higher Taxes Force Wealthy to Flee U.S.?

Posted on January 07, 2010
WSJ Wealth Report, "Golden Geese" + Higher Taxes = Wealth Exodus? Web CPA, Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Tax and Financial Dilemmas Involved in Retiring Abroad

Best Values in Public Colleges

Posted on January 06, 2010
Kiplinger's has released Best Values in Public Colleges 2009-10, using this methodology. Top 25 (in-state rank) North Carolina-Chapel Hill Florida Virginia William & Mary SUNY-Binghamton Georgia Washington Maryland SUNY-Geneseo North Carolina State UC-San Diego New College of Florida UCLA Wisconsin Georgia Tech Virginia Tech Florida State UC-Berkeley Michigan UC-Irvine James...

Court Applies Deliberative Privilege to P&G's $1 Billion Charitable Deduction

Posted on January 06, 2010
The U.S. District Court here in Cincinnati has decided a dispute over the application of the deliberative privilege in a case involving $1 billion in charitable deductions claimed by Proctor & Gamble. Proctor & Gamble Co. v. United States, No. 1:08-cv-608 (S...

Why Taxing Stock Trades Is a Really Bad Idea

Posted on January 06, 2010
Wall Street Journal op-ed, Why Taxing Stock Trades Is a Really Bad Idea, by Donald L. Luskin & Chris Hynes: The Democrat-dominated Congress has come up with a new way for President Obama to violate his campaign pledge to not raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000 per year...

NYSBA Releases Tax Reports

Posted on January 06, 2010
The New York State Bar Association Tax Section has issued tax reports on: The Treatment of Fluctuations in Value under § 382(l)(3)(C) (No. 1198) Administration Proposals on Deferral of Deductions Related To Deferred Foreign Income, Foreign Tax Credit Pooling, and Entity Classification (No...

Estate Tax Roundup

Posted on January 06, 2010
Boston Globe, It?s Boom Times, Granny: Elimination of the Estate Tax Helps Keep It All in the Family, by Alex Beam CBS Money Watch, Estate Tax: What You Need to Know for 2010 New York Times, With Death and Taxes, Timing Is All OMB Watch, How Temporary Is the Estate...

Curbing Excessive Compensation Through the Tax Code

Posted on January 06, 2010
Aaron Zelinsky (J.D. 2010, Yale) has published Note, Taxing Unreasonable Compensation: § 162(A)(1) and Managerial Power, 119 Yale L. J. 637 (2009). Here is the abstract: Section 162(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code, as construed by the IRS, effectively allows publicly traded businesses to deduct an unlimited amount of executive...

Health Care Bill Includes $2k Marriage Penalty

Posted on January 06, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Married Couples Pay More Than Unmarried Under Health Bill, by Martin Vaughan: Some married?couples would pay thousands of dollars more for the same health?insurance?coverage as unmarried people living together, under the health insurance overhaul plan pending in Congress...

National Taxpayer Advocate Releases Annual Report to Congress, Says IRS Provides "Unacceptable" Customer Service

Posted on January 06, 2010
National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson today released her 2009 Annual Report to Congress, which lists the twenty most serious problems encountered by taxpayers (as required by § 7803(c)(2)(B)(ii)(III)). Volume One: Section 1: Preface, Table of Contents and the Most Serious Problems Encountered by Taxpayers Section 2: Legislative Recommendations Section...

ABA Blawg 100

Posted on January 05, 2010
The votes are in for the 2009 ABA Blawg 100, and TaxProf Blog finished second among the 15 blawgs nominated in the Legal Theory category: 1 Volokh Conspiracy 149 2 TaxProf Blog 80 3 Leiter's Law School Reports 35 4 Feminist Law Professors 34 5 Concurring Opinions 28 6 Legal...

IRS Issues New Tax Return Preparer Rules

Posted on January 05, 2010
The IRS yesterday proposed new registration, testing and continuing education requirements for tax return preparers: Return Preparer Review (55 pages) IR-2010-1 FS-2010-1, Return Preparer Review Leads to Recommendations For New Requirements of Paid Tax Return Preparers FS-2010-2, Tax Filing Season 2010: Efforts Increase to Ensure Accurate Return Preparation FS-2010-3, How...

Monroe: Contributed Property Allocations

Posted on January 05, 2010
Andrea Monroe (Temple) has published Saving Subchapter K: Substance, Shattered Ceilings, and the Problem of Contributed Property, 74 Brook. L. Rev. 1381 (2009). Here is the abstract: Partnership taxation is in crisis, with Congress struggling to reconcile the foundational ideals of flexibility and substance...

CRS: An Economic Analysis of the Homebuyer Tax Credit

Posted on January 05, 2010
Open CRS has posted An Economic Analysis of the Homebuyer Tax Credit (R40955) (Dec. 1, 2009). Here is the summary: There have been three different versions of the homebuyer tax credit enacted since the summer of 2008. In July 2008, Congress enacted a first-time homebuyer tax credit as part of...

U.S. News to Colleges: "You Lie!"

Posted on January 05, 2010
Following up on my prior post, How Nebraska, Others Hide Adjuncts From U.S. News Rankings: in response to this statement in a New York Times article: Colleges tend to play down the increasingly central role of adjuncts. This fall, the American Federation of Teachers complained that some top-ranked universities exaggerated...

Bishop: Forgotten Trust: A Check-the-Box Achilles? Heel

Posted on January 05, 2010
Carter G. Bishop (Suffolk) has posted Forgotten Trust: A Check-the-Box Achilles? Heel, 43 Suffolk U.L. Rev. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The 1997 check-the-box regulations largely ignored the distinction between trusts and business entities...

UBS Whistleblower Files Complaint Against DOJ Lawyers

Posted on January 05, 2010
UBS tax whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld has filed a complaint today with the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) seeking a formal investigation into incomplete and misleading statements made by attorneys for the Justice Department...

Virginia Tax Review Publishes New Issue

Posted on January 05, 2010
The Virginia Tax Review has published Vol. 28, No. 4 (Spring 2009): William Turnier (North Carolina) & Jeffrey Harrison (Florida), A Malthusian Analysis of the So-Called Dynasty Trust, 28 Va. Tax Rev. 779 (2009) Philip Postlewaite (Northwestern), Fifteen and Thirty Five--Class Warfare in Subchapter K of the Internal Revenue Code:...

Tax Person of the Year

Posted on January 04, 2010
Tax Analysts has named its Tax Person of the Year: Bradley Birkenfeld, the whistleblower in the UBS offshore tax shelter case: Birkenfeld must be considered among the biggest whistle-blowers of all time. He is the Benedict Arnold of the private banking industry and single-handedly made 2009 the year in which...

Subscribing to TaxProf Blog

Posted on January 04, 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...

Unsuccessful Law Faculty Applicant Sues Iowa for Age Discrimination

Posted on January 04, 2010
Following up on my prior post on Donald Dobkin, 56, a professor at Central Michigan University and a partner in a Troy Michigan immigration law boutique law firm who has sued the University of Iowa College of Law for age discrimination for refusing to even interview him after he responded...

TaxProf Blog Holiday Weekend Roundup

Posted on January 04, 2010
Friday: Jan. 1: A Good Day to Die Kirsch: The Role of Physical Presence in the Taxation of Cross-Border Personal Services Iran Wages War on its 'Star Students' How Regressive Is a Carbon Tax? Saturday: Economists in Favor of Estate Tax Repeal Bartlett: Republican Rigidity Hurts Estate Tax Reform Tax...

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