Taxation & Estate Planning

The Influence of U.S. News on Law Schools

Posted on December 03, 2009
Back in 2007, I blogged an article by Wendy Nelson Espeland (Northwestern University, Department of Sociology) & Michael Sauder (University of Iowa, Department of Sociology), Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds, 113 Am...

Government Challenges Expert Testimony of David Weisbach & Ethan Yale in Son of BOSS Tax Shelter Case

Posted on December 03, 2009
There is an interesting Son of BOSS tax shelter case in Texas involving billionaire investor Andrew Beal, who is seeking to have two Tax Prof luminaries, David Weisbach (Chicago) and Ethan Yale (Virginia), testify as expert witnesses over the objection of the Government: Expert Report of David A...

NYLS & Hofstra Plummet on NY Bar Exam, Blame Bad Economy

Posted on December 03, 2009
New York Law Journal, N.Y. Law Schools Experience Slight Decline in Bar Pass Rates: Nine of New York state's 15 law schools saw a decrease in performance among first-time candidates for the July 2009 bar examination over last year, when 10 of the 15 campuses saw increases...

Subscribing to TaxProf Blog

Posted on October 01, 2009
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Zelinsky: Reforming Health Care: The Paradoxes of Cost

Posted on October 01, 2009
Edward A. Zelinsky (Cardozo) delivered the Dr. Arthur Grayson Distinguished Lecture Series at Southern Illinois University School of Law on ?Reforming Health Care: The Paradoxes of Cost, 31 J. Legal Med. ___ (2010). Here is the abstract: ?Whatever happens in Washington in the weeks and months ahead, the United States...

IRS's Whistle-Blower Office Release Annual Reports to Congress

Posted on October 01, 2009
The IRS's Whistle-Blower Office has released its 2009 and 2008 annual reports to Congress

47% Will Pay $0 Income Tax in 2009

Posted on October 01, 2009
CNN, 47% Will Pay No Federal Income Tax: In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Some in that group will even get additional money from the government because they qualify for refundable...

Buchanan Ingersoll Files Answer in $2m Tax Malpractice Suit

Posted on October 01, 2009
Following up on my prior post: Blog of Legal Times, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney Answers Malpractice Allegations: Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and a former partner at the firm have responded to the malpractice suit filed by the name partners of Alcalde & Fay in July...

Does IRS Enforcement Make Health Care Mandate a 'Tax'?

Posted on September 30, 2009
Following up on my prior posts (Tax Penalties and the Health-Care Bill; Obama's Nontax Tax): Wall Street Journal editorial, Rhetorical Tax Evasion: The IRS says it will fine or jail you for not paying Obama's mandate levy. President Obama's effort to deny that his mandate to buy insurance is a...

Business Groups Seeks Estate Tax Compromise

Posted on September 30, 2009
Following up on last week's post, The Estate Tax Legislative Battle: forty-six business associations joined in a letter to Congress yesterday, abandoning their goal of repealing the estate and instead offering their support for Senator Kyl's proposal for a $5 million exemption ($10 million for married couples) and a 35%...

Waller: Dynamic Taxation, Private Information and Money

Posted on September 30, 2009
Christopher J. Waller (University of Notre Dame, Department of Economics) has posted Dynamic Taxation, Private Information and Money on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The objective of this paper is to study optimal fiscal and monetary policy in a dynamic Mirrlees model where the frictions giving rise to money as...

ABA Tax Section Webcast Today on Tax-Exempt Bonds & Green Energy

Posted on September 30, 2009
The ABA Tax Section offers a teleconference and webcast today on Public and Private Municipal Financing of Renewable Energy Projects and Green Expenditures from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EST: This teleconference will explore the various ways municipal bonds can be utilized in connection with the public and private development of...

Top 100 Most Influential People in Tax and Accounting

Posted on September 30, 2009
I am honored to be included on the list of Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People for the fourth year in a row. The magazine contains one-sentence explanations of why each of the folks made the list; here is mine: Caron has built the leading tax blog on the...

California Commission Proposes Dramatic Tax Reform

Posted on September 30, 2009
The California Commission on the 21st Century Economy has issued its final report, proposing dramatic changes in the state's tax structure: Reduce Personal Income Tax (PIT) for every taxpayer ? Reduce the number of tax brackets from six to two. The new tax rate would be 2...

A Seating Chart Tee Shirt

Posted on September 30, 2009
As one who has difficulty learning my students' names each year, I may follow the approach Jack Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark) has taken this fall with his Income Tax class: This is an improvement on his prior clothing effort, and I am sure his students are grateful that he covered...

State Tax Revenues Plummet 17%

Posted on September 30, 2009
Wall Street Journal, Falling Tax Revenues Slam States, by Conor Dougherty: State tax revenues in the second quarter plunged 17% from a year earlier as rising unemployment and reduced spending hurt sales- and income-tax collections, according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday...

Schwidetzky: Integrating Subchapters K and S

Posted on September 30, 2009
Walter D. Schwidetzky (Baltimore) has published Integrating Subchapters K and S?Just Do It, 62 Tax Law. 749 (2009). Here is part of the Introduction: The Code contains two ?pass-through? tax regimes for business entities. One is contained in Subchapter K, which applies to partnerships, the other in Subchapter S, which,...

Taxes and Health Care Reform

Posted on September 30, 2009
FactCheck.org, RNC Tax Attack Goes Too Far: The Republican National Committee claims in a new Web ad that Democratic health care plans propose taxes on "charities and small businesses. A doctor?s tax. Taxes on your health insurance. Even a tax on medical supplies...

Live Webcast of Today's Volcker Tax Reform Panel Meeting

Posted on September 30, 2009
A live webcast is available here of today's first meeting of the President's Tax Reform Panel (President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB)) at 12:30 p.m. EST. From Austin Goolsbee: The Administration wanted a report on options for tax reform from an outside group so they asked the PERAB to take...

Norman Stein Leaves Alabama for Drexel

Posted on September 30, 2009
Norman Stein, Douglas Arant Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law, has accepted a tenured position at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, beginning Fall 2010. Professor Stein has been on the Alabama faculty for 25 years

CBPP: Debt as % of GDP, 1940-2050

Posted on September 30, 2009
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released Updated Long-Term Fiscal Deficit and Debt Projections:

Stanford Law Grad-Call Girl Sentenced to Home Confinement Following Guilty Plea in Tax Evasion Case

Posted on September 29, 2009
I previously blogged (here, here, and here) the case of 2001 Stanford Law Grad Cristina Warthen, who pled guilty in January 2009 in California federal district court to failing to pay taxes on $133,717 she earned as a prostitute in 2003 (United States v...

Chorvat Presents The Effect of the Taxation of Risky Income on Investment Behavior Today at Toronto

Posted on September 29, 2009
Terrence Chorvat (George Mason) presents The Effect of the Taxation of Risky Income on Investment Behavior at the University of Toronto today as part of the James Hausman Tax Law and Policy Workshop Series. Here is the abstract: Domar and Musgrave?s article concerning the effects of a full-loss-offset income tax...

Tax Court: CPA's Google Search Does Not Constitute Reasonable Cause to Avoid Penalty

Posted on September 29, 2009
The Tax Court yesterday held that a Google search did not constitute reasonable cause to excuse a Harvard MBA/ CPA's failure to properly rollover a $150,000 IRA distribution. Woodard v. Commissioner, T.C. Summ. Op. 2009-150 (Sept. 28, 2009): Mr. Woodard asks the Court to accept that his research on the...

Larson: Evidence Rules in the Tax Court

Posted on September 29, 2009
Joni Larson (Thomas Cooley) has published Tax Evidence III: A Primer on the Federal Rules of Evidence as Applied by the Tax Court, 62 Tax Law. 555 (2009). Here is part of the Introduction: This Article surveys the Tax Court?s interpretation and application of the [Federal Rules of Evidence]...

Judge Drops Charges Against Cop for Oral Sex With Five Calves

Posted on September 29, 2009
Nontax, but too weird to be ignored -- from the Philadelphia Daily News: [A] Superior Court judge dismissed animal-cruelty charges against a Moorestown police officer accused of sticking his penis into the mouths of five calves in rural Southampton in 2006, claiming a grand jury couldn't infer whether the cows...

50 State Ranking of Median Real Estate Tax/Median Home Value

Posted on September 29, 2009
Following up on last week's post, 50 State Ranking of Median Real Estate Taxes Paid: several readers commented that they would like to see a 50 state ranking of median real estate taxes paid as a percentge of median home values. From the Tax Foundation [click on chart to enlarge]:

Leviner & Richison: The Role of Paid Preparers in Taxpayer Compliance

Posted on September 29, 2009
Sagit Leviner (Tel Aviv University, Buchmann Faculty of Law) & Kyle Richison (IRS Office of Research, Analysis, and Statistics) have posted The Role Paid Preparers Play in Taxpayer Compliance in the United States: An Empirical Investigation with Policy Implications on SSRN...

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

Posted on September 29, 2009
SSRN has updated its monthly rankings of 609 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 September 18, 2009) of the Top 25 U...

Students Save Law Prof's Life

Posted on September 29, 2009
Buffalo News, Compassionate Law Students Overrule Judge and Save His Life: Seven University at Buffalo Law School students get high grades from State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr., their professor, not necessarily for legal knowledge but compassion...

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