Taxation & Estate Planning

The 'Good Enough' Law Teacher

Posted on August 29, 2009
Mary R. Falk (Brooklyn) has published "The Play of Those Who Have Not Yet Heard of Games": Creativity, Compliance, and the "Good Enough" Law Teacher, 6 J. Ass'n Legal Writing Directors 201 (2009). Here is the abstract: If there is creative thinking out there in the law offices and courts...

VanderWolk Posts Tax Papers on SSRN

Posted on August 29, 2009
Jefferson P. VanderWolk (Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong) has posted two tax papers on SSRN: Codification of the Economic Substance Doctrine: If We Can't Stop It, Let's Improve It U.S. Exceptionalism in International Taxation: It's Time for a Change

CT AG Demands Access to 4,450 Taxpayer Names to be Released by UBS to IRS

Posted on August 29, 2009
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced on Thursday that he has sent letters to the IRS and Department of Justice requesting the names of the 4,450 taxpayers to be released under the August 19 settlement agreement with UBS and the Swiss government...

AICPA Urges Civil Tax Penalty Reform

Posted on August 29, 2009
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants yesterday submitted a 20-page report to Congress, the Treasury Department, and the IRS, Report on Civil Penalties: The Need for Reform: We are writing to express our concerns about the current state of civil tax penalties and to offer some suggestions for improvement...

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UConn Law Prof's

Posted on August 28, 2009
Following up on my previous post, UConn Law Prof Suspended for Showing Film Clip in Class; Blames Technology "Wardrobe Malfunction": Above the Law reports on Professor Robert L. Birminham's latest travails (from the Hartford Courant): Heather Kaufmann, 33, surrendered to police Monday and is facing charges of second-degree forgery, third-degree...

Colorado Seeks to Fill Endowed Professorship in Tax

Posted on August 28, 2009
The University of Colorado Law School at Boulder is accepting applications and nominations to an endowed professorship in the area of business law, including business associations, securities law, corporate finance, entrepreneurial law, tax, and commercial law...

Even Tax Lawyers Get the Ax

Posted on August 28, 2009
From Above the Law, Nationwide Layoff Watch: Even Tax Lawyers Get the Ax: Nothing is certain but death and taxes -- and employment for tax lawyers, right? Not necessarily. Read more at our sister site, Going Concern: True Partners Consulting (TPC), who provides ?Intelligent Tax Advice? according to its website,...

Brophy: The Signaling Value of Law Reviews -- An Exploration of Citations and Prestige

Posted on August 28, 2009
Alfred L. Brophy (North Carolina) has published The Signaling Value of Law Reviews: An Exploration of Citations and Prestige, 36 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 229 (2009). Here is the abstract: This brief Essay reports a study of citations to every article published in 1992 in thirteen leading law journals...

More Tax Problems for Rep. Rangel

Posted on August 28, 2009
New York Post: Tax Chief Charlie a Tax "Cheat," Too: The Tax Man is a deadbeat. Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has failed to pay taxes on two plots of land he has in New Jersey, records show. Rangel's ownership of the small, undeveloped...

Tax for Clunkers (Continued)

Posted on August 28, 2009
Following up on Wednesday's post, Tax for Clunkers: Jim Maule (Villanova) elaborates in State Tax Consequences of Cash-for-Clunkers: Although the IRS has made it clear, following the language of the enacting statute, that the amounts paid by the government to auto dealers as part of the cash-for-clunkers program is gross...

Sales Tax Holidays: Politically Expedient but Poor Tax Policy

Posted on August 28, 2009
The Tax Foundation has released Sales Tax Holidays: Politically Expedient but Poor Tax Policy, by Mark Robyn, Micah Cohen and Joseph Henchman. Here is the Executive Summary: Sales tax holidays are periods of time when selected goods are exempted from state (and sometimes local) sales taxes...

Zelinsky: Interpretive Bulletin 08-1 and Economically Targeted Investing

Posted on August 28, 2009
Edward A. Zelinsky (Cardozo) has published Interpretive Bulletin 08-1 and Economically Targeted Investing: A Missed Opportunity, 82 S. Cal. L. Rev. Postscript 11 (2009). Here is the Conclusion: IB 08-1 was a missed opportunity. By attenuating ERISA?s exclusive benefit rule, the ETI moniker opens the decisionmaking of employee plan fiduciaries...

Papers in Higher Ranked Journals Get Cited More

Posted on August 28, 2009
The Impact Factor?s Matthew Effect: A Natural Experiment in Bibliometrics, by Vincent Larivière & Yves Gingras: Since the publication of Robert K. Merton?s theory of cumulative advantage in science (Matthew Effect), several empirical studies have tried to measure its presence at the level of papers, individual researchers, institutions or countries...

Installing an Extra Bathroom Won't Improve Your Child's SAT Scores

Posted on August 28, 2009
The New York Times uses this graph to show that kids from higher income families get higher average SAT scores: Greg Mankiw (Harvard) responds in The Least Surprising Correlation of All Time: Of course! But so what? This fact tells us nothing about the causal impact of income on test...

Crawford & Gans:

Posted on August 27, 2009
Bridget J. Crawford (Pace) & Mitchell Gans (Hofstra) have posted Sticky Copyrights: Discriminatory Tax Restraints on the Transfer of Intellectual Property, 66 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The focus of this article is the federal estate and gift tax treatment of copyright...

Former Adjunct Arrested in Louisville Law School Library With 2 Guns, 53 Rounds of Ammunition

Posted on August 27, 2009
ABA Journal Legal Blog Watch Louisville Courrer-Journal

AMT by State, 2007

Posted on August 27, 2009
Carol Rosenberg, AMT Coverage by State, 2007 (Aug. 3, 2009): The map below shows the proportion of taxpayers paying AMT in each state in 2007. In two-thirds of the states, less than 3.5% of taxpayers were subject to the AMT, but in New Jersey 8.7% of taxpayers paid AMT, and...

Seattle Seeks to Hire Tax Prof

Posted on August 27, 2009
Seattle University School of Law seeks to hire entry-level and lateral faculty members to begin in the 2010-11 academic year in a variety of fields, including trusts & estates/estate planning (elder law a plus), corporate law/securities, and taxation...

Buchanan Named Featured Columnist at FindLaw

Posted on August 27, 2009
Tax Prof Neil Buchanan (George Washington) has joined FindLaw's Writ, the editorial page of the FindLaw website, as a featured columnist. His column appears every other Thursday, and today's inaugural column is Rationing Health Care: We Have Always Done It, We Do It Now, and We Always Will: As the...

Ted Kennedy's Tax Votes

Posted on August 27, 2009
On the Issues lists these tax votes by Ted Kennedy: Voted YES on increasing tax rate for people earning over $1 million. (Mar 2008) Voted NO on allowing AMT reduction without budget offset. (Mar 2008) Voted NO on raising the Death Tax exemption to $5M from $1M...

Joe Francis to Use "Deductions Gone Wild" Defense in Tax Evasion Trial

Posted on August 27, 2009
Following up on my earlier posts (below): The Smoking Gun reports that Joe Francis, founder of the Girls Gone Wild video series, is going to use a slide show to try to convince a jury in his upcoming tax evasion trial that various expenses are deductible as business expenses: As...

Rosser: On Becoming 'Professor' -- A Semi-Serious Look in the Mirror

Posted on August 27, 2009
Ezra Rosser (American) has published On Becoming "Professor": A Semi-serious Look in the Mirror, 36 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 215 (2009). Here is the abstract: Brief parody article about law reviews, socio-economic class, cheese, and the legal professoriate.

Tax Man Uses MySpace to Nab Deadbeats

Posted on August 27, 2009
In today's Wall Street Journal, Is "Friending" in Your Future? Better Pay Your Taxes First, by Laura Saunders: Tax deadbeats are finding someone actually reads their MySpace and Facebook postings: the taxman. State revenue agents have begun nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites, from relocation announcements...

Aspiring Law Professors Conference

Posted on August 26, 2009
Arizona State is hosting the Aspiring Law Professors Conference on October 17, 2009: Designed for Visiting Assistant Professors and Fellows who plan to go on the academic teaching market. Learn to succeed in the entry-level law teaching market Obtain an insider?s perspective on the appointments process from faculty who?ve been...

Summer 2009 SOI Bulletin

Posted on August 26, 2009
The IRS's Statistics of Income Division yesterday released the Summer 2009 SOI Bulletin with these six articles: Sole Proprietorship Returns, 2007, by Adrian Dungan Individual Noncash Contributions, 2006, by Pearson Liddell & Janette Wilson S Corporation Returns, 2006, by Heather Duffy Parisi Foreign-Controlled Domestic Corporations, 2006, by James R...

ABA Journal Launches Legal Rebels Project

Posted on August 26, 2009
The ABA Journal yesterday launched a Legal Rebels Project, which will profile fifty of the legal profession's leading innovators over the next three months. The first seven Legal Rebels includes Northwestern Dean David Van Zandt: The legal profession often has a guild mindset, he posits: Members value perceived intelligence and...

ABA Tax Section Offers Webcast Today on Hot Topics in Bad Debt

Posted on August 26, 2009
The ABA Tax Section offers a teleconference and webcast today on Hot Topics in Bad Debt from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EST: Please join our panelists as they cover a variety of character and timing considerations under § 166 (for bad debts) and § 165 (both worthless securities and losses...

Tax for Clunkers

Posted on August 26, 2009
Following up on my previous post, Cash for Clunkers = Gross Income to Dealers (Not Customers), which explained that the statute expressly provides that the $3,500 and $4,500 rebates are not treated as income to car buyers for federal income tax purposes (as confirmed in the government's official clunker website's...

Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Releases Annual Report

Posted on August 26, 2009
The IRS's Taxpayer Advocacy Panel today released its 2008 Annual Report: The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) has released its 2008 Annual Report. The report fulfills TAP?s responsibility under its charter to provide a written report describing TAP?s objectives and a self-assessment of TAP?s work relative to its objectives each year...

NY Times: Downturn Dims Prospects Even at Top Law Schools

Posted on August 26, 2009
New York Times: Downturn Dims Prospects Even at Top Law Schools, by Gerry Shih: This fall, law students are competing for half as many openings at big firms as they were last year in what is shaping up to be the most wrenching job search season in over 50 years...

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