Taxation & Estate Planning

Buchanan: Tax Wall Street's Huge Bonuses

Posted on December 30, 2009
CNN Opinion, Tax Wall Street's Huge Bonuses, by Neil H. Buchanan (George Washington): France and Britain have recently enacted new taxes on bankers' bonuses, taxes that will be paid in addition to the standard income taxes that the bankers pay in those countries...

Mistake in Today's WSJ Front-Page Estate Tax Article

Posted on December 30, 2009
Front page article in today's Wall Street Journal, Rich Cling to Life to Beat Tax Man: Nothing's certain except death and taxes -- but a temporary lapse in the estate tax is causing a few wealthy Americans to try to bend those rules. Starting Jan. 1, the estate tax --...

'Girls Gone Wild' Founder Joe Francis Sues IRS for Retaliatory Tax Lien

Posted on December 29, 2009
Web CPA reports this morning that Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis has filed a lawsuit against the IRS for illegal collection activities: [S]hortly after the judge accepted his plea deal [he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of filing false tax returns and was sentenced to the nearly year...

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

Posted on December 29, 2009
SSRN has updated its monthly rankings of 631 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 December 18, 2009) of the Top 25 U...

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U.S. Ranks 20th in Tax Support for R&D

Posted on December 29, 2009
Canada's Department of Finance has released a study of the tax support for corporate research and development provided by various foreign countries, An International Comparison of Tax Assistance for Investment in Research and Development. The U.S. ranks only 20th among the 36 countries: Rank Country Subsidy Rate 1 France 40...

Arizona Tuition Tax Credit Program May Violate Federal Tax Law

Posted on December 29, 2009
Arizona Republic, Ariz. Tuition-Credit Practices May Violate Federal Tax Laws: This month, as the tax year nears an end, thousands of Arizonans are expected to donate money to private-school tuition groups and claim a tax credit that reduces what they owe the state...

2009 Annual Survey of Virginia Law -- Taxation

Posted on December 29, 2009
Craig D. Bell (McGuireWoods, Richmond, VA) has published 2009 Annual Survey of Virginia Law -- Taxation, 44 U. Rich. L. Rev. 599 (2009). Here is the Introduction: This article reviews significant recent developments in the law affecting Virginia taxation...

USA Today: Estate Tax Set to Expire Thursday

Posted on December 29, 2009
USA Today, Estate Tax Set to Expire Thursday, by Kevin McCoy: Benjamin Franklin's maxim that "nothing is certain but death and taxes" remains true. But a congressional stalemate has left the federal estate tax, the levy on assets left to heirs, in doubt for at least part of 2010...

Tax Accountants to Get Biggest 2010 Raise

Posted on December 29, 2009
Fortune, 10 Jobs That Will Get a Raise in 2010: [W]ho is in the best position now to get a raise? The short answer: People whose skills are in demand because they serve a particular strategic purpose. ... In a recent look at the IT and finance industries, Robert Half...

NY Times: Senate Bill's Tax on Cadillac Health Plans Is 'Dishonest'

Posted on December 29, 2009
New York Times op-ed, A Less Than Honest Policy, by Bob Herbert: There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate?s version of President Obama?s effort to reform health care. The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent...

Dodge: What Federal Taxes Are Subject to Apportionment?

Posted on December 29, 2009
Joseph M. Dodge (Florida State) has published What Federal Taxes Are Subject to the Rule of Apportionment Under the Constitution?, 11 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 839 (2009). Here is the abstract: Under the U.S. Constitution as amended by the Sixteenth Amendment, any federal tax that is a "direct tax"...

Two NYC Partners Suspended for Tax Evasion

Posted on December 28, 2009
John J.P. Howley (former partner, Kaye Scholer) (In re Howley, 2009 N.Y. Slip. Op. 09410 (N.Y. App. Div. 1st Dep't, Dec. 17, 2009)) and Ronald A. Goldman (former partner, Manning Raab Dealy & Sturm) (In re Goldman, (2009 N.Y. Slip. Op. 09409 (N.Y. App...

The Optimal Minimum Wage-EITC Combination

Posted on December 28, 2009
Miki Malul (Ben Gurion University, Department of Publuc Policy and Administration) & Israel Luski (Ben-Gurion University, Department of Economics) have published The Optimal Policy Combination of the Minimum Wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit, The B...

The 10 Worst Tax Ideas of 2009

Posted on December 28, 2009
Howard Gleckman (Urban Institue) has a great post on The Ten Worst Tax Ideas of 2009. My favorites: 10. The Roth Rollover. Let?s see, allowing people to turn their tax-deferred retirement savings into fully tax-free investments starting on Jan. 1 will be a long-term fiscal catastrophe...

Hot (T&E) and Cold (Tax) Areas of Practice

Posted on December 28, 2009
The ABA has published Robert Denney?s report on What's Hot Report and What's Not in the Legal Profession: Hot areas of practice: Intellectual Property, Environmental, Government Relations/Lobbying, Bankruptcy/Reorganization, Litigation, Alternate Dispute Resolution, Public Finance, White Collar Crime, Labor & Employment, Regulatory, Anti-Trust, Prepaid Legal Service, Consumer Protection, Collections, Estates &...

NY Times: Tax Planning for 2010 -- Roth IRAs & Estate Tax Planning

Posted on December 28, 2009
New York Times, Thinking Hard About Retirement and Death, by Paul Sullivan: With 2010 a few days away, there are several tax matters that wealthy investors need to consider next year. The two at the top of the list are whether they should convert their taxable retirement account to a...

How Law Grads Can Survive the Legal Recession

Posted on December 28, 2009
Cover story in the Jan. 2010 ABA Journal, When the Detour Becomes the Destination: How 5 Grads Survived a Recession?And How You Can Too: The economic downturn lasted only eight months, from July 1990 to March 1991, but it triggered a severe legal recession that lingers in many memories...

TaxProf Blog Holiday Weekend Roundup

Posted on December 28, 2009
Friday: Our Christmas Dog In Hoc Anno Domini Pratt: What I Want for Christmas Is . . . Saturday: The Secret for a Merry Christmas IRS Releases 10-Year Enforcement Data: Business Audits Down, Individual Audits Up CCH Summary of 2010 Estate Tax Quandary NYC Congestion Charge: A User Fee, Not...

TaxProf Blog Named Best Law Professor Blog of 2009

Posted on December 28, 2009
Dennis Kennedy has published his 6th annual law-related blogging awards (the Blawggies) in 12 categories. I am proud that TaxProf Blog was named the Best Law Professor Blog: Best Law Professor Blog ? Paul Caron's The TaxProf Blog The Blawggies have always had a spot for the best law professor...

Akers, Blattmachr & Boyle: Creating Intentional Grantor Trusts

Posted on December 28, 2009
Stephen R. Akers (Bessemer Trust Co., Dallas), Jonathan G. Blattmachr (Milbank, New York) & F. Ladson Boyle (South Carolina) have published Creating Intentional Grantor Trusts, 44 Real Prop. Trust & Estate L. 208 (2009). Here is the abstract: The changes in the progressive tax structure over the past decades have...

Viard: The Case Against the Millionaire Surtax

Posted on December 27, 2009
Alan D. Viard (American Enterprise Institute) has published The Case Against the Millionaire Surtax, 125 Tax Notes 1355 (Dec. 21, 2009). Here is the abstract: By increasing marginal tax rates at high income levels, the millionaire surtax in the House health care reform bill would promote tax avoidance and impede...

IRS Files $1m Tax Lien Against Denny McLain

Posted on December 27, 2009
The Detroit News reports that the IRS has filed a $1,019,998 tax lien against former Detroit Tigers' pitcher Denny McLain, the major leagues' last 30-game winner: The tax trouble represents lingering fallout from an embezzlement, money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy conviction tied to the theft of millions in pension...

Textron Files Cert. Petition in Tax Work Papers Case

Posted on December 27, 2009
On Christmas Eve, Williams & Connolly filed this 161-page cert. petition on behalf of Textron, asking the Supreme Court to review the First Circuit's 3-2 en banc decision (United States v. Textron, No. 07-2631 (1st Cir. Aug. 13, 2009)) holding that Textron's tax accrual work papers were not protected under...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on December 27, 2009
This week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's list: 1. [463 Downloads] 2009 Federal Tax Update, by Samuel A. Donaldson (U. Washington) 2. [270 Downloads] The Accidental Deduction: A History and Critique of the Tax Subsidy for Mortgage Interest, by Dennis...

Tax Court: § 2035(b) Applies to Gift Tax on Deemed Gift of QTIP Remainder

Posted on December 27, 2009
The Tax Court on Monday held that the amount of gift tax paid by the doness of deemed gifts of a remainder interest in QTIP property is includable in the decedent's gross estate under § 2035(b). Estate of Morgens v. Commissioner, 133 T.C. No. 17 (Dec...

The Secret for a Merry Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2009
Yesterday, Don't Mess With Taxes discovered the secret for a Merry Christmas. It also works for New Years.

IRS Releases 10-Year Enforcement Data: Business Audits Down, Individual Audits Up

Posted on December 26, 2009
The IRS has released its Fiscal Year 2009 Enforcement Results, with ten years worth of data. Among the trends: Enforcement revenue up 50% from 2000 Individual audit rate up 100% from 2000 A millionaire is six times more likely to be audited than someone earning less than $200,000 Business audit...

CCH Summary of 2010 Estate Tax Quandary

Posted on December 26, 2009
CCH has published a 4-page special briefing on the 2010 Estate Tax Quandary: Estate Tax Carryover Basis Gift Tax Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Retained EGTRRA Changes

NYC Congestion Charge: A User Fee, Not a Tax Covered by Diplomatic Immunity

Posted on December 26, 2009
Leslie A. Powell (J.D. 2010, Emory) has published Comment, User Fee or Tax: Does Diplomatic Immunity From Taxation Extend to New York City's Proposed Congestion Charge?, 23 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 231 (2009). Here is the Conclusion: Congestion pricing is simply a user fee charged to motorists...

Chang: Immigration Restriction as Redistributive Taxation

Posted on December 26, 2009
Howard F. Chang (Pennsylvania) has published Immigration Restriction as Redistributive Taxation: Working Women and the Costs of Protectionism in the Labor Market, 5 J.L. Econ. & Pol'y 1 (2009). Here is the abstract: In this paper, I argue that tax and transfer policies are more efficient than immigration restrictions as...

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