Taxation & Estate Planning

Only Graduates of 'Top 5' Schools Land the Best Jobs

Posted on January 13, 2011
Chronicle of Higher Education, Brown and Cornell are Second Tier: If you want to get a job at the very best law firm, investment bank, or consultancy, here?s what you do: 1. Go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or (maybe) Stanford. If you?re a business student, attending the Wharton School at...

Pratt: Tax Expenditures Are Key to Deficit Reduction

Posted on January 13, 2011
Los Angeles Daily Journal, Show Me the Money: A Hidden Source of Funding for Federal Deficit Reduction, by Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.): If President Barack Obama and Congress ever decide to get serious about federal deficit reduction, there is a potential $1 trillion deficit reduction funding source that they have ignored...

Hasen: Lobbying, Rent Seeking, and the Constitution

Posted on January 13, 2011
Rick Hasen (Loyola-L.A.) has posted Lobbying, Rent Seeking, and the Constitution on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Politicians across the political spectrum, from Barack Obama to Sarah Palin and Rand Paul, routinely castigate lobbyists for engaging in supposedly corrupt activities or having unequal access to elected officials...

Patents, Tax Law, and the AIDS Epidemic

Posted on January 13, 2011
Robert M. Kane, Jr. (J.D. 2011, Temple) has published Comment, A License to Donate: Patents, Tax Law, and the AIDS Epidemic, 29 Temp. J. Sci. Tech. & Envtl. L. 53 (2010). Here is part of the Conclusion: Congress needs to change our tax law to encourage companies to donate patents...

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Forbes: Rich Donors Seek to Undo Taxable 2010 Gifts

Posted on January 13, 2011
Forbes, Rich Folks Seek To Undo 2010 Taxable Gifts, by Deborah L. Jacobs: Many wealthy people got pitches from their estate planning lawyers last year encouraging them to make taxable gifts. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Lifetime gifts are an important estate-planning tool...

Indiana and Wisconsin Court Illinois Businesses Fleeing 66% Individual and 46% Business Tax Hikes

Posted on January 13, 2011
Wall Street Journal editorial, Illinois Exit Fee: Jubilation has broken out in the Midwest?or at least in Wisconsin and Indiana, now that Democrats in neighboring Illinois have rushed their tax increase into law. Late Tuesday night, Democrats in the Illinois house and senate rammed through Governor Pat Quinn's 67% hike...

ABA May Make LSAT Optional

Posted on January 13, 2011
National Law Journal, ABA Panel Considering Making the LSAT Optional: The LSAT is a rite of passage for aspiring lawyers, but could go from mandatory to voluntary under proposed changes to the ABA's law school accreditation standards. The committee reviewing the standards is leaning toward dropping the rule that law...

Man Arrested for Threatening to Kill Congresmman Because of His Tax Views

Posted on January 13, 2011
Charles Habermann, 32, of Palm Springs, California, was arrested yesterday for phone calls he made in December to the office of Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA), threatening to kill the congressman for, among other things, his position on extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy...

DePaul Issues Call for Papers on Uncertain Tax Positions

Posted on January 13, 2011
The DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal has issued a call for papers for its symposium issue on Uncertain Tax Positions: We foresee submissions discussing topics such as FIN 48, disclosure of work papers and memos between attorneys and accountants, the proposed IRS Schedule UTP, and any recent cases decided...

Pay Your Taxes or We'll Kill Your Dog

Posted on January 12, 2011
Time Magazine, Swiss Village to Dog Owners: Pay Your Taxes, or Poochie Dies: The taxman has never been a popular figure anywhere. But in the tiny Swiss village of Reconvilier, that functionary has assumed the even more detestable profile as the guy who'll waste your dog if you don't cough...

Public Interest Law School Rankings

Posted on January 12, 2011
The Winter 2011 issue of preLaw magazine recognizes 96 law schools for "making an above average commitment to public service": Law schools make the Best Public Interest Law School rankings if they meet three main criteria: have one or more public interest clinics; have one or more faculty committees or...

American College of Employee Student Writing Competition

Posted on January 12, 2011
The American College of Employee Benefits Counsel is sponsoring its seventh annual Employee Benefits Writing Competition on any topic in the field of employee benefits law. The competition is open to any J.D. and graduate (L.L.M. or S.J.D) law students enrolled at any time between August 15, 2010 and August...

Why Remittances to Poor Countries Should Not be Taxed

Posted on January 12, 2011
Christian Barry (Australian National University) & Gerhard Overland (University of Oslo) have published Why Remittances to Poor Countries Should Not be Taxed, 42 N.Y.U. J. Int'l L. & Pol. 1181 (2010). Here is the Introduction: Remittances are private financial transfers from migrant workers back to their countries of origin...

Individual Income Tax Receipts Are Soaring (But So Is Spending)

Posted on January 12, 2011
Wall Street Journal editorial, Revenues Are Rising: Individual Receipts Are Up 23% in Three Months: [T]here's some good budget news to report for a change. Federal tax revenues are rising briskly again, which should allow progress against deficits if the politicians can control their spending appetites...

How Pro Bono Tax Professionals Can Help Low-Income Taxpayers Claim the EITC

Posted on January 12, 2011
Kate Leifeld (Pine Tree Legal Assistance Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, Bangor, ME) has published Creating Access to Tax Benefits: How Pro Bono Tax Professionals Can Help Low-Income Taxpayers Claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, 62 Me. L. Rev. 543 (2010)...

Martin: Providing Aid to Victims of Tragedy

Posted on January 12, 2011
John H. Martin (Ohio Northern) has published Providing Aid to Victims of Tragedy Through Selection of an Imperfect Solution or Anticipatory Creation of a Community Relief Fund, 45 Real Prop. Tr. & Est. L.J. 213 (2010). Here is the abstract: Frequently, the public wants to collect funds to benefit an...

7th Circuit Nixes DePaul Law Prof's Lawsuit Against Geico Over Car Repairs

Posted on January 12, 2011
Courthouse News Service, Court Nixes Class Action on Geico Insurance Fraud: The 7th Circuit dismissed a man's prospective class action, accusing Geico of omitting necessary repairs from its collision-damage estimates, because the plaintiff had donated his car to charity after the crash without performing repairs...

More Mayo: Johnson on the Demise of Tax Exceptionalism

Posted on January 12, 2011
Following up on yesterday's post on the Supreme Court's unanimous opinion in Mayo Foundation for Medical Education & Research v. United States, No. 09-837 (Jan. 11, 2011), from Steve Johnson (UNLV): Mayo does several good things. First, it clarifies that Chevron provides the analytical standard for judging general authority tax...

Columbia Journal of Tax Law Publishes Third Issue

Posted on January 11, 2011
The Columbia Journal of Tax Law has published its third issue (Vol. 2, No. 1): Erika W. Nijenhuis (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, New York), New Tax Issues Arising From the Dodd-Frank Act and Related Changes to Market Practice for Derivatives, 2 Colum...

U.S. News to Extend Numerical Rankings to Third Tier Law Schools?

Posted on January 11, 2011
National Law Journal, 'U.S. News' Considering Giving Third Tier Law Schools a Number: Numerical rankings could be coming to the law schools that U.S. News & World Report categorizes as third tier ? meaning those 42 schools would be subject to the same up-and- down fluctuations watched so closely among...

Mayer: Charities and Lobbying After Citizens United

Posted on January 11, 2011
Lloyd H. Mayer (Notre Dame) has posted Charities and Lobbying: Institutional Rights in the Wake of Citizens United on SSRN. Here is the abstract: One of the many aftershocks of the Supreme Court?s landmark decision in Citizens United v. FEC is that the decision may raise constitutional questions for the...

Cooper Posts Tax Papers on SSRN

Posted on January 11, 2011
Graeme S. Cooper (University of Sydney, Faculty of Law) has posted two tax papers on SSRN: Legislating Principles as a Remedy for Tax Complexity, 4 British Tax Rev. 334 (2010): "This article considers the recent experiment in the ?principles-based drafting? of tax legislation in the UK, in the light of...

What Estate Planners Need to Know About the Step Transaction Doctrine

Posted on January 11, 2011
Donald P. DiCarlo, Jr. (Wilmington Trust, Villanova, PA) has published What Estate Planners Need to Know About the Step Transaction Doctrine, 45 Real Prop. Tr. & Est. L.J. 355 (2010). Here is the abstract: In this Article, the Author discusses the courts? recent use of the step transaction doctrine to...

Hickman: Goodbye National Muffler! Hello Administrative Law?

Posted on January 11, 2011
Kristin Hickman (Minnesota), Goodbye National Muffler! Hello Administrative Law?: With today?s opinion in Mayo Foundation for Medical Education & Research v. United States, No. 09-837 (Jan. 11, 2011), the Supreme Court has finally and decisively rejected the notion of tax exceptionalism in judicial review standards...

Osler Presents Hybrid Foreign Entities Today at Toronto

Posted on January 11, 2011
Matias Milet Osler (Hosking & Harcourt, Toronto) presents Hybrid Foreign Entities, Uncertain Domestic Categories: Treaty Interpretation Beyond Familiar Boundaries at the University of Toronto today as part of the James Hausman Tax Law and Policy Workshop Series...

Tax Prof in Paradise

Posted on January 10, 2011
I am thrilled to be spending the spring semester at Pepperdine University School of Law as the D & L Straus Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law. I got a taste of this special law school last March, teaching a one-week short course during my spring break from Cincinnati, and I...

Sullivan: The Tea Party Will Determine Fate of Tax Reform

Posted on January 10, 2011
Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts) has published The Fate of Tax Reform Depends on the Tea Party, 130 Tax Notes 143 (Jan. 10, 2010): A new day is dawning, and on Capitol Hill, conservatives must make a choice. Will they follow the easy path of politics as usual, or will...

NY Times: Is Law School a Losing Game?

Posted on January 10, 2011
New York Times, Is Law School a Losing Game?, by David Segal: [A] generation of J.D.?s face the grimmest job market in decades. Since 2008, some 15,000 attorney and legal-staff jobs at large firms have vanished, according to a Northwestern Law study. Associates have been laid off, partners nudged out...

2011 Tax News

Posted on January 10, 2011
Monica Davey (New York Times), In Illinois, a Giant Deficit Leads to Talk of a Giant Tax Increase Esther Fung (Wall Street Journal), China Set to Tax Residential Real Estate Al Hunt (Bloomberg), Reagan Offers Obama Playbook on Fixing Tax Code John Harwood (New York Times), Changing Corporate Tax Is...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on January 10, 2011
Saturday: Repetti & Schneider Elected to AALS Tax Section Leadership Roles The 'Lord Voldemort' of Legal Education Takes on Faculty Tenure Financial-Industry Tax Law Reforms in the Wake of the Financial Crisis 'B-School Faculty Are the Big Winners in the Rankings Game' Sunday: July 2010 California Bar Exam Results Top...

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