Taxation & Estate Planning

Crawford: Taxation, Pregnancy and Privacy

Posted on July 24, 2009
Bridget J. Crawford (Pace) has posted Taxation, Pregnancy and Privacy, 17 Wm. & Mary Bill of Rts. J. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article frames a discussion of surrogacy within the context of existing income tax laws. A surrogate receives money for carrying and bearing a...

Z-scores in 2010 U.S. News Rankings

Posted on July 24, 2009
Tom Bell (Chapman) has published his wonderful annual listing of the z-scores of each school in the Top 100 of the U.S. News law school rankings. The z-scores measure how well each school performed relative to its peers. At Cincinnati, we outperformed in the employed at 9 months (0...

See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Tax Me

Posted on July 24, 2009
Kimberly Krawiec (Duke) blogs on Freakonomics' coverage (When Taxpayers Welcome Taxes) of Oakland's 80% vote to impose a tax on medical marijuana in one of the all-time best-titled blog posts, See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Tax Me.

Farewell, San Diego!

Posted on July 24, 2009
This is a bittersweet day for me, as I leave San Diego after seven weeks to return home to Cincinnati. This was my sixth summer teaching at the University of San Diego School of Law, my first as the Herzog Summer Visiting Professor in Taxation. My thanks to the kind...

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Haile: Sin Taxes -- When the State Becomes the Sinner

Posted on July 24, 2009
Andrew J. Haile (Elon) has posted Sin Taxes: When the State Becomes the Sinner on SSRN. Here is the abstract: To fill budget gaps, several state legislatures have proposed increasing existing taxes on tobacco and alcohol products. In addition, some states (as well as the federal government) are considering the...

Should States Focus Scarce Higher Ed Dollars on Their Crown Jewels?

Posted on July 24, 2009
There is an interesting debate in California over how the University of California system should absorb massive budget cuts. Some are pushing to abandon the goal of having ten major research universities and instead concentrate resources in the elite campuses (Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, and perhaps San Francisco) while...

Jordan: The Tax Treatment of Tenant-Stockholders in Coop Housing

Posted on July 24, 2009
Martha W. Jordan (Duquesne) has published Are Tenant-Stockholders Entitled to a Charitable Contribution Deduction when a Cooperative Housing Corporation Donates a Preservation Easement?, 39 U. Mem. L. Rev. 515 (2009). Here is the abstract: Most Tenant-Stockholders of cooperative housing corporations (?CHC?) view themselves as the owners of their apartments, a...

Levin, McCain Reintroduce Stock Options Tax Bill

Posted on July 23, 2009
Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday reintroduced the Ending Excessive Corporate Deductions for Stock Options Act (S. 1491), which would prohibit corporations from deducting stock option compensation in excess of the stock option book expenses shown on their financial statements...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Tax Evasion

Posted on July 23, 2009
The American Lawyer: Indicted Lawyer Slaps Haim Saban With Sensational Civil Suit, by Brian Baxter: A civil suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday reads like a script for a big screen Hollywood legal thriller. It's a case of the truth being stranger -- and far more complicated...

Tax-Hungry California Creates Work for Tax Lawyers

Posted on July 23, 2009
The Recorder: Tax-Hungry State Creates Work for Lawyers, by Amanda Royal: Tax lawyers for large corporations and wealthy individuals expect some busy years ahead as cash-strapped states turn to taxpayers for solutions. Attorneys say the recession has made state and local tax agencies more aggressive, and in the last year,...

John Yoo Pranked During International Law Class at Chapman

Posted on July 23, 2009
Daily Kos Wired

Stephen Baldwin's Tax Troubles

Posted on July 23, 2009
Add actor Stephen Baldwin to the large and growing list of celebrity tax scofflaws. He has filed for bankruptcy, listing over $1 million in federal and state tax liabilities. ABC News Don't Mess With Taxes Huffington Post Reuters TMZ Wall Street Journal Web CPA

Tax Literacy Project

Posted on July 23, 2009
Marjorie Kornhauser (Arizona State) is soliciting funds for her Tax Literacy Project -- "a non-partisan effort to informally educate the public about taxes through popular methods such as web-based games and other internet activities."

The "Stickiest" Law Prof Blogs

Posted on July 23, 2009
Roger Alford (Pepperdine) has an interesting take on my quarterly traffic ranking (by visitors and page views) of the Top 35 blogs edited by law professors: he re-ranks the blogs based on their "average visit length." As Roger notes, SiteMeter measures traffic length on a daily basis and does not...

McCreary: The Laptop-Free Zone

Posted on July 23, 2009
Jana R. McCreary (Florida Coastal) has published The Laptop-Free Zone, 43 Valparaiso L. Rev. 989 (2009). Here is part of the abstract: This new article ... addresses the hotly debated issue of laptops in law school classroom; ... This article reports and analyzes the data collected through an IRB-approved survey...

CBPP Embraces New York's "Amazon Tax"

Posted on July 23, 2009
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released New York?s ?Amazon Law?: An Important Tool for Collecting Taxes Owed on Internet Purchases, by Michael Mazerov: The inability to collect all sales taxes that are legally due on purchases made over the Internet costs states billions of dollars a year...

Court: LLCs Not Subject to Limited Partnership Passive Loss Disallowance Rule

Posted on July 22, 2009
Section 469(h)(2) treats a limited partnership interest as presumptively passive for purposes of the passive loss rules, with the result that partnership losses cannot offset the limited partner's salary or investment income. The Court of Federal Claims yesterday, in Thompson v...

Brennan, Staudt & Epstein: The Political Economy of Judging

Posted on July 22, 2009
Thomas J. Brennan (Northwestern), Lee Epstein (Northwestern) & Nancy C. Staudt (Northwestern) have published The Political Economy of Judging, 93 Minn. L. Rev. 1503 (2009). Here is the Conclusion: Scholars and commentators have long argued that Supreme Court Justices seek to advance legal and political goals in the decision-making process,...

McClendon: Extending Benefits to Same-Sex Couples

Posted on July 22, 2009
Janice K. McClendon (Stetson) has posted A Small Step Forward in the Last Civil Rights Battle: Extending Benefits under Federally Regulated Employee Benefit Plans to Same-Sex Couples, 36 U. N.M. L. Rev. 99 (2006), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Over the last few years, states, counties, municipalities and private...

U.S. News Agrees to Use "Loyola Law School" in Future Rankings

Posted on July 22, 2009
Following up on Friday's post, What Caused Loyola-L.A.'s Fall in the U.S. News Rankings?: Loyola yesterday issued a press release, US News Remedies Loyola Law School Naming Inconsistency that Affected Ranking: US News & World Report, which unilaterally changed Loyola Law School?s name on the ranking ballot it sent to...

Tom Watson's Lessons For Tax Lawyers (and Professors)

Posted on July 22, 2009
What Tom Watson Teaches Us About Business and Practicing Law, by John L. Watkins: [M]ost athletes have very limited time in which they can play their game or sport at its highest levels. Fortunately, this is not true for most people in business, and it is certainly not true in...

Pay of Top Earners Erodes Social Security

Posted on July 22, 2009
Wall Street Journal: Pay of Top Earners Erodes Social Security, by Ellen E. Schultz: The nation's wealth gap is widening amid an uproar about lofty pay packages in the financial world. Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U...

One L Revisted

Posted on July 22, 2009
The UMKC Law Review devotes part of one issue each year to a collection of ?Law Stories? ? short tales about various aspects of the legal world. For the next edition (Spring 2010), the theme will be One-L Revisited. An introduction by Scott Turow, author of the classic account of...

CTJ: House Surtax Won't Have Noticeable Impact on Small Business

Posted on July 22, 2009
Citizens for Tax Justice has released House Surcharge Proposal Unlikely to Have Noticeable Impact on Small Businesses: Only about one in one-hundred are rich enough to be subject to the surcharge The surcharge paid by the rich would be less than they got from the Bush tax cuts Only a...

Top 8 Reasons Not to Go to Law School

Posted on July 22, 2009
Top 8 Reasons Not to Go to Law School: Financial Suicide If You're a Creative Person, Forget It The "Breakup" Is Nearly 80% The Bar Exam Is Brutal Top Jobs Are Hard to Come By Insane Hours Law Professors Are A**holes Harassment (Hat Tip: Robert Ambrogi, Laura Wilson...

Brooks: Tax Sparing

Posted on July 21, 2009
Kim Brooks (McGill) has posted Tax Sparing: A Needed Incentive for Foreign Investment in Low Income Countries or an Unnecessary Revenue Sacrifice, 34 Queen's L.J. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abtstract: Low income countries often offer tax incentives to induce foreign investment, but the effectiveness of these measures...

UNLV Prof Fails to Turn in Spring Semester Con Law Grades; Dean Assigns Other Faculty to Grade Pass/Fail

Posted on July 21, 2009
From: John.White@unlv.edu Date: July 9, 2009 11:28:54 AM PDT Subject: Constitutional Law I grades Dear Rising 2L?s, It is possible you have heard a rumor that some first year grades are not yet available and that those classes missing the grades may be graded on a pass/fail basis...

What Counts for Tenure

Posted on July 21, 2009
Inside Higher Ed: What Counts for Tenure: For all the talk about how research universities place an increasing value on teaching, a survey on tenure standards in political science departments finds not only that research remains dominant, but that poor teaching may be tolerated at doctoral-granting universities...

Just Tax

Posted on July 21, 2009
This Just Tax music video (riffing Lady Gaga's Just Dance) was unveiled at today's weekly Republican conference call): CNN Perez Hilton Talking Points Memo TaxGirl

DePaul Faculty: Provost's Selection of Interim Dean Violates ABA Standards

Posted on July 21, 2009
Last week, sixteen tenued members of the DePaul faculty sent this letter to the ABA alleging that the provost's appointment of Illinois state appellate judge Warren Wolfson as Interim Dean following the abrupt firing of Dean Glen Wiessenberger violates ABA Standard 206(d): The sole focus of this report is the...

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