Taxation & Estate Planning

Symposium on The Michigan Business Tax

Posted on July 16, 2009
The Wayne Law Review has published a symposium issue, Taking Care of Business: Is the Michigan Business Tax Friend or Foe?, 53 Wayne L. Rev. 1149-1581 (2007). (A webcast of the proceedings is available here.): Steven M. Bieda, Facing the Challenge of Replacing the Single Business Tax: The Development and...

TPC Hosts Panel Today on Australia and International Pension Reform: Lessons for the U.S.

Posted on July 16, 2009
The Tax Policy Center hosts a panel today on Australia and International Pension Reform: Lessons for the United States: Lessons from Australia?s mandatory retirement savings system?the Superannuation Guarantee?continue to have a great deal of relevance to American policy-makers...

The Tax Lawyer Publishes New Issue

Posted on July 16, 2009
The Tax Lawyer has published Vol. 62, No. 2 (Winter 2009): Thomas D. Greenaway, Choice of Forum in Federal Civil Tax Litigation, 62 Tax Law. 311 (2009) Aubree L. Helvey (Cameron University) & Beth Stetson (Oklahoma City University), The Doctrine of Election, 62 Tax Law...

Burke: Comments on Carried Interest Bill (H.R. 1935)

Posted on July 16, 2009
Karen C. Burke (San Diego) has posted Comments on Carried Interest Bill (H.R. 1935) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This letter offers comments on two proposed statutory changes currently set forth in H.R. 1935: (1) new section 710, which would tax the compensatory component of certain 'carried interests' as...

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House Marks Up Health Reform Bill

Posted on July 16, 2009
The House Ways and Means Committee began its markup today of H.R. 3200, America?s Affordable Health Choices Act: Bill Chairman's Amendment Revisions to Chairman's Amendment Joint Committee on Taxation Description of Chairman's Amendment (JCX-32-09) Joint Committee on Taxation Revenue Estimate of Chairman's Amendment (JCX-33-09) Health Care Surcharge and Households Health...

The UBS Case and Health Care Reform

Posted on July 16, 2009
Reuters: Obama?s Self-Defeating War on the Wealthy, by James Pethokoukis: The push by the Justice Department, along with the IRS, to compel UBS to fork over the names of some 52,000 American taxpayers with banking accounts in Switzerland may produce an important benefit for the Obama administration ? or so...

Law Prof Blog Rankings

Posted on July 15, 2009
Below are the updated quarterly traffic rankings (visitors and page views) of the Top 35 blogs edited by law professors with publicly available SiteMeters for the most recent 12-month period (July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009): Visitors Page Views 1 InstaPundit 120,920,620 InstaPundit 125,495,827 2 Hugh Hewitt 12,270,165 Volokh...

Coates Proposes Mutual Fund Tax Reforms

Posted on July 15, 2009
John C. Coates (Harvard) has proposed to the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation a series of tax and regulatory reforms of the mutual fund industry. Here are his tax recommendations: Professor Coates seeks to correct U.S. taxation of mutual funds by bringing it into line with the tax regime for...

International Tax and International Trade: A Game Theory Analysis

Posted on July 15, 2009
Aharon Illouz (Michigan) has posted Allocation of Jurisdictional Power and Institutional Choice in the International Trade Regime and in the International Tax Regime ? A Game Theory Analysis on SSRN. Here is the abstract: One of the main goals of international legal regimes is to allow countries to allocate jurisdictional...

More on the House's Proposed Surtax on the "Wealthy"

Posted on July 15, 2009
Don't Mess With Taxes, State + Federal Health Tax = 50%-Plus Rate Greg Mankiw's Blog, Top Tax Rate May Soon Exceed 50 Percent Heritage Foundation, Income Tax Surtax Should Not Fund Government Health Care Expansion Tax Foundation, House's Health Care Plan Pushes Top Tax Rates Over 50% in 39 States...

Virginia Tax Review Publishes New Issue

Posted on July 15, 2009
The Virginia Tax Review has published Vol. 28, No. 3 (Winter 2009): Calvin H. Johnson (Texas), Taxing the Consumption of Capital Gains, 28 Va. Tax Rev. 477 (2009) Brant J. Hellwig (South Carolina), On Discounted Partnership Interests and Adequate Consideration, 28 Va...

Holo & Talansky: Taxing the Business of Sports

Posted on July 15, 2009
Robert Holo & Jonathan Talansky (both of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, New York) have published Taxing the Business of Sports, 9 Fla. Tax Rev. 161 (2008). Here is part of the Introduction: While sports owners inevitably grapple with ordinary issues of business taxation, the peculiarities of sports involve a unique...

Givati: The Unfulfilled Promise of Advance Tax Rulings

Posted on July 15, 2009
Yehonatan Givati (John M. Olin Fellow in Law & Economics, Harvard Law School) has posted Resolving Legal Uncertainty: The Unfulfilled Promise of Advance Tax Rulings, 29 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Advance tax rulings allow taxpayers to achieve certainty about the tax consequences of...

Form 1040: The Puzzle

Posted on July 15, 2009
I previously blogged my purchase of a Form 1040 Puzzle, which I have added to my extensive collection of tax bric-a-brac. Leandra Lederman (Indiana-Bloomington) reports that she and her colleague Aviva Orenstein have completed side one of the puzzle -- note the (loop)hole in the income section! Aviva says that...

Tax Court Rejects Gay Activist's Attempt to File Joint Return With Long-Term Partner

Posted on July 14, 2009
From my prior post, Charles Merrill Raises First Amendment Challenge to DOMA in Tax Court: Charles Merrill has filed papers with the U.S. Tax Court objecting to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) based on the 1st Amendment Establishment Clause of the U...

D.C. Bar Hosts Program Today on Different Paths in Tax Law

Posted on July 14, 2009
The District of Columbia Bar Association Tax Section hosts a luncheon program today on Different Paths in Tax Law: The New Tax Practitioners Committee invites J.D. and LL.M. candidates, summer associates, and new practitioners to a panel to learn about different career paths in tax law...

LAWSUIT! Wins Game of the Year Award

Posted on July 14, 2009
For the third year in a row, LAWSUIT!? has won the Game of the Year award in family education from Creative Child magazine. From the press release: It puts a fun spin on the law while teaching players legal jargon, tactics, and what it takes to run a practice...

Great Law Schools to Work For

Posted on July 14, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education has announced its Great Colleges to Work For 2009. The only universities on the list with law schools are: Cornell Duke Emory George Mason Georgia Tech Mississippi Notre Dame Oklahoma City

House Democrats Propose 5.4% Income Tax Surtax on Millionaires to Fund Health Care Reform

Posted on July 14, 2009
House Democrats today unveiled their 1018-page health care reform bill, which increases their previously announced income surtax to (page 197 of the bill): 1.0% on married couples earning $350,000 - $5,000 1.5% on married couples earning $500,000 - $1,000,000 5...

Why Not a 0% Tax Rate for the Bottom 60%?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal: The 0% Tax Rate Solution: It's Better Policy, and Politics, Than the Proliferation of Tax Credits, by Peter Ferrara (Institute for Policy Innovation): The federal income tax code is now so mangled that we can probably increase federal revenues with a 0% income tax...

WSJ: Obama Should Rethink UBS Tax Shelter Case

Posted on July 14, 2009
Editorial in today's Wall Street Journal: Picking on the Swiss: The Obama Administration Blows Up a Tax Treaty: President Obama has been traveling the world to "reset" diplomatic relations with the likes of Russia and Iran. But his Administration continues to do what it can to blow up America's long...

WSJ: Democrats Choose Income Redistribution Over Economic Growth

Posted on July 14, 2009
Editorial in today's Wall Street Journal: The Small Business Surtax: The Obama Democrats Pick Income Redistribution Over Job Creation and Economic Growth: Jason Furman owes an apology to Michael Boskin, the Stanford economist who wrote a year ago on these pages that Barack Obama would raise American income tax rates...

Usher: Is It More Efficient to Redistribute Income Through the Tax Law?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Dan Usher (Queen's University, Department of Economics) has posted Why the Legal System Is Not Necessarily Less Efficient Than the Income Tax in Redistributing Income on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A common, though by no means universally-accepted doctrine among practitioners of law and economics is that redistribution is no...

Settlement Near in US - UBS Tax Shelter Case?

Posted on July 13, 2009
ABC News Bloomberg Financial Times New York Times Wall Street Journal

Michael Jackson Estate May Owe $80m to IRS

Posted on July 13, 2009
Associated Press: Death and Taxes: Big IRS Bill Looms for MJ Estate, by Stevenson Jacobs: Creditors and heirs of Michael Jackson hoping for a cut of his musical empire will have to line up with the Internal Revenue Service, which could lay claim to $80 million or more in federal...

Summer/Fall 2009 Law Review Article Submission Guide

Posted on July 13, 2009
Nancy Levit (UMKC) & Allen Rostron (UMKC) have updated their incredibly useful document, which contains two charts for the summer and fall 2009 submission season covering 188 law reviews. The first chart (pp. 2-74) contains information gathered from the journals? websites on: Methods for submitting an article (such as by...

First DePaul Faculty Departure Following Firing of Dean Glen Weissenberger

Posted on July 13, 2009
Brian Leiter has predicted that DePaul's abrupt firing of Dean Glen Weissenberger will cause "at least 10% of DePaul's law faculty to be gone by the end of the academic year 2009-10; the number may well be higher, though the difficult economic situation means that many schools that would be...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on July 13, 2009
Saturday: House Wants 1%-3% Surtax on "Wealthy" to Pay for Health Care Reform Democrats for a Flat Tax? IRS Not Pursuing 18% of Taxpayers Who Owe >$1m in Taxes University of California Faculty Face 4%-10% Pay Cut NYSBA Releases Tax Reports Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads NY: Widow Cannot...

IRS: Defective Chinese Drywall May Qualify for Casualty Loss Deduction

Posted on July 13, 2009
The IRS has sent this letter to Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), explaining that homeowners may be able to deduct losses caused by defective Chinese drywall as casualty losses under § 165(c)(3): [Y]our constituents['] ... homes were constructed with Chinese drywall...

Advanced Placement for Law Schools

Posted on July 13, 2009
Ben Barros (Widener) of our sister PropertyProf Blog has a provocative idea: Advanced Placement for Law Schools: What we teach in law school can be roughly divided into two components: stuff and skills. In its current incarnation, legal education is largely focused on teaching stuff ? the basic doctrinal rules,...

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