Taxation & Estate Planning

Avi-Yonah: Designing a Federal VAT

Posted on August 13, 2009
Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan) has posted Designing a Federal VAT: Summary and Recommendations on SSRN. Here is the abstract: For the past thirty-five years, the debate on fundamental tax reform in the United States has centered on whether some type of consumption tax would replace all or part of the...

Livingston: The Future of Progressive Taxation in an Asian-Led World

Posted on August 13, 2009
Michael A. Livingston (Rutgers-Camden) has posted From Mumbai to Shanghai, with a Side Trip to Hong Kong: China, India, and the Future of Progressive Taxation in an Asian-Led World on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Progressive taxation has historically been discussed primarily in the context of developed, Western nations...

Fold Payroll Tax Into Income Tax, End Tax Withholding

Posted on August 13, 2009
Op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal: Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy; So Is the Payroll Tax. End Them Both and Voters Will Have a Healthier Understanding of the Government Burden: Fold payroll taxes into the personal tax code, adjusting the rules so that everyone still pays the same total,...

Georgia State Seeks to Hire Tax Prof

Posted on August 13, 2009
Georgia State University College of Law seeks to hire a tenure-track Tax Prof to begin in the 2010-11 academic year: The College of Law is located in the heart of Atlanta with approximately 650 students, nearly one-third of whom attend the part-time program...

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India Tax Reform

Posted on August 13, 2009
Wall Street Journal: India Unveils Draft Code to Replace Tax Laws: India Wednesday unveiled a new code for direct taxes that proposes sweeping changes in existing personal and corporate tax structures. The code aims at consolidating under a single system laws - some of which were framed more than 50...

Canadian Tax Reform

Posted on August 13, 2009
Canadian tax reform news from Arthur Cockfield (Queen's University): In 2007, the Canadian Department of Finance formed the Advisory Panel on Canada's System of International Taxation to consider comprehensive reforms. In December 2008, the Advisory Panel issued its Final Report...

En Banc First Circuit Reverses Panel, Gives IRS Access to Textron's Work Papers

Posted on August 13, 2009
The First Circuit today, in a 3-2 en banc decision, reversed the 2-1 panel and held that Textron's tax accrual work papers were not protected under the work product doctrine and thus had to be turned over to the IRS in its tax shelter investigation. United States v...

The Most Heavily-Cited Tax Cases

Posted on August 12, 2009
I previously blogged my friend and colleague Adam Steinman's work on the most frequently cited cases (The Irrepressible Myth of Celotex: Reconsidering Summary Judgment Burdens Twenty Years after the Trilogy, 63 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 81, 143-45 (2006)). Adam published fascinating charts of the 15 most-cited cases by federal...

Call for Tax Papers: Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference

Posted on August 12, 2009
The Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference has issued a call for papers: The annual Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference is an important community for law faculty of color as a support network, as a place for safe commentary on scholarship and as an insightful discussion of...

Judge Bars Microsoft From Selling Word

Posted on August 12, 2009
Injunction CNet News Seattle Post-Intelligencer USA Today Wall Street Journal WSJ Law Blog (Hat Tip: Tim Armstrong.)

UBS, IRS Settle Tax Evasion Case

Posted on August 12, 2009
Associated Press Bloomberg New York Times NPR Reuters Wall Street Journal

Man Sentenced for Sending Fake Anthrax to IRS

Posted on August 12, 2009
From the Kansas City Star: A federal judge on Monday sentenced an Overland Park man to a year and a day in prison for sending the IRS white powder he claimed was anthrax. John P. Barker, 47, was caught after investigators traced his letter to an automated postal center where...

Retired IRS Agent Sentenced to 46 Months for Tax Fraud

Posted on August 12, 2009
From the U.S. Attorney in Kansas City: Thomas W. Steelman, 72, Blue Springs, Mo., has been sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for his part in a tax fraud scheme by a defunct Topeka firm called Renaissance, the Tax People. Steelman also was ordered to pay more than $10...

Beale: Is Bilski Likely the Final Word on Tax Strategy Patents?

Posted on August 12, 2009
Linda M. Beale (Wayne State) has posted Is Bilski Likely the Final Word on Tax Strategy Patents? Coherence Matters, 9 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The explosion of business method patents after the Federal Circuit?s State Street decision -- in particular,...

Who Should Get Jack Abramoff's Tax Refund?

Posted on August 12, 2009
In today's Blog of the Legal Times: Dividing Up Abramoff's Tax Refund: Imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff is hoping for another big refund from the Internal Revenue Service. This time, though, his family wouldn't get to decide alone how to spend it...

Bill Henderson Named Director of Indiana's Center on the Global Legal Profession

Posted on August 12, 2009
Kudos to my co-blogger and friend Bill Henderson, who will direct Indiana's new Center on the Global Legal Profession: [T]he center will focus on the unprecedented challenges lawyers are facing around the world and develop research and training materials to assist current and future attorneys in their understanding of international...

Foundation Press Publishes Constitutional Law Stories, 2d ed.

Posted on August 11, 2009
Foundation Press has published Constitutional Law Stories (2d ed. 2009), by Michael C. Dorf (Cornell): This publication provides a student with an understanding of 15 leading U.S. constitutional law cases, focusing on how the litigation was shaped by lawyers, judges and socioeconomic factors, and why the cases have attained landmark...

Law School Rankings iPhone App

Posted on August 11, 2009
Following up on yesterday's post: the Law School 100 rankings are now available as an app for your iPhone (at a cost of 99 cents). From the iTunes description: Since the year 2000, LawTV has compiled the list of the best law schools in the United States, based on qualitative...

Iowa Seeks to Hire Tax Prof

Posted on August 11, 2009
The University of Iowa College of Law seeks to hire several new lateral, visiting, or entry-level faculty members over the coming year: We are interested in all persons of high academic achievement and promise, and wish to enhance the diversity of our faculty by including among our candidates persons of...

Law School 4.0, Part Two

Posted on August 11, 2009
Following up on my prior post, Law School 4.0: in today's American Lawyer, Welcome to the Future: Law School 4.0, Part Two, by Paul Lippe (Founder, Legal OnRamp): When I wrote Law School 4.0 in June about the likely direction of change for law schools, I wasn?t purporting to be...

The Relationship Between Tax Rates, Taxable Income, and Tax Revenue

Posted on August 11, 2009
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation (CF&P) today released The Laffer Curve: Understanding the Relationship Between Tax Rates, Taxable Income, and Tax Revenue: The Laffer Curve shows the relationship between tax rates, taxable income and tax revenues: at a certain point, higher tax rates fail to produce more revenue...

Faux IRS Agents Burglarize House

Posted on August 11, 2009
From today's Web CPA: Two thieves claiming to be IRS agents stole property from a North Carolina home and then encouraged the neighbors to rip off the house too. This interesting tidbit came from the Statesville Record & Landmark over the weekend, and quite a prank it must have been...

Taxing Higher Ed

Posted on August 11, 2009
Last week, I blogged the 66 tax raising options circulated by the Congressional Budget Office. Today's Inside Higher Ed blogs the items affecting higher education: One, ending the federal government's practice of subsidizing the interest on loans for graduate students while they are in school, would save more than $10...

Deadline for Paper Proposals for 2010 Critical Tax Conference

Posted on August 11, 2009
Next Monday (August 17) is the deadline to submit paper proposals on comparative and international tax law for the 2010 Critical Tax Conference to be held on April 9-10, 2010, at Saint Louis University School of Law (with papers to be published in the Saint Louis University Law Journal): Saint...

Lewis Begins Term as Chair of ABA Tax Section

Posted on August 10, 2009
Stuart M. Lewis (Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Washington, D.C.) (right) began his one-year term as Chair of the ABA Tax Section at the close of the ABA's annual meeting in Chicago on August 4. Charles H. Egerton (Dean, Mead, Egerton, Bloodworth, Capouano & Bozarth, Orlando) was chosen as the Chair-Elect...

Richmond Seeks to Fill Distinguished Chair in Law

Posted on August 10, 2009
The University of Richmond School of Law is seeking to fill the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair in Law: The Robins Chair recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in his or her field, and is not limited by subject matter...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on August 10, 2009
Saturday: Hickman: D.C. Circuit Delivers a Doozy Tax Prof Vegan Revising § 2702 to Apply to Same-Sex Couples Tax Delinquency and Blight in Pennsylvania Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads ABA Approves 19th Law School in California IRS Issues FBAR Notice U...

CBPP Releases Tax Reports

Posted on August 10, 2009
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released two tax reports: Expanding Sales Taxation of Services: Options and Issues Excise Tax On Insurers Offering High-Cost Plans Can Help Pay For Health Reform

Five iPhone Apps for Lawyers

Posted on August 10, 2009
Five Apps for the Lawyer, by Lauren Hirsch: It's official. The iPhone has come into its own in the legal world. It took a little time, and lawyers are notorious Luddites (you can pry the WordPerfect out of their cold, dead hands) but they do like Bright Shiny Objects, and...

19 Year Old Northwestern 1L

Posted on August 10, 2009
19-year-old Kate McLaughlin will be a 1L at Northwestern this Fall (she describes it on her blog (EvilProdigy) as an "ill-fated journey into Hades"). She scored a 174 on the LSAT (after scoring 780/700 on the SATs at age 11) and graduated from UC-San Diego at age 17...

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