Taxation & Estate Planning

Model Client Letter on 2010 Tax Act's Estate & Gift Tax Provisions

Posted on January 06, 2011
The Wealth Strategies Journal has posted a model client letter regarding the 2010 Tax Act's estate and gift tax provisions.

IRS Has Its Eyes on Fockers' Actress for $450k

Posted on January 06, 2011
The Detroit News reports that the IRS has filed $458,608 in tax liens against actress Teri Polo, best know as Ben Stiller's wife in the three Meet the Fockers movies. California also has filed a $91,748 tax lien against Ms. Polo. Accounting Today Perez Hilton Radar Online The Tax Lady...

WSJ: Momentum Builds for Corporate-Tax Overhaul

Posted on January 06, 2011
Wall Street Journal, Momentum Builds for Corporate-Tax Overhaul, by John D. McKinnon & Elizabeth Williamson: The White House and congressional Republicans are moving from different directions toward a consensus that the U.S. corporate tax code needs a fundamental overhaul, a goal high on corporate leaders' agenda...

IRS Agent Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud

Posted on January 06, 2011
IRS agent Albert Bront faces nine years in prison after pleading guilty on Wednesday to filing false tax returns for himself and some of his relatives and obtaining thousands of dollars in fraudulent refunds. Forbes L.A. Times Washington Post

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Europe Confiscates Private Pension Accounts to Close Budget Deficits

Posted on January 05, 2011
Christian Science Monitor, European Nations Begin Seizing Private Pensions: Hungary, Poland, and three other nations take over citizens' pension money to make up government budget shortfalls. American Spectator, Stealing People's Pensions Washington Examiner, Europe Starts Confiscating Private Pension Funds San Diego Examiner, Hungary, Ireland and Others Snatch Retirement Accounts...

ABA Tax Section Hosts Webcast Today on Estate Planning Under the 2010 Act

Posted on January 05, 2011
The ABA Tax Section offers a teleconference and webcast today on Moving Forward (2 Years at a Time) With Estate Planning Under the 2010 Act from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EST: With the wonderland year of 2010 behind us and all last-minute gifts to grandchildren safely protected from GST tax,...

Snyder: What Tax Court Procedure Can Teach Us About Civil Procedure

Posted on January 05, 2011
John B. Snyder, III (Baltimore) has published Dispositions Unsettled: What Tax Court Procedure Can Teach Us About Federal Civil Procedure, 36 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 359 (2010). Here is the abstract: In the federal district courts, cases may be disposed of any of three ways: by trial, by motion, or...

Tax and Economic Policy Responses to Medicaid Long-Term Care Financing

Posted on January 05, 2011
Diane Lourdes Dick has posted Tax and Economic Policy Responses to the Medicaid Long-Term Care Financing Crisis: A Behavioral Economics Approach, 5 Cardozo Pub. L., Pol'y & Ethics J. 379 (2007), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article utilizes behavioral economics theory to model consumer choice in the area...

Roger Milliken Died on Dec. 30, Beat Estate Tax on $1 Billion Fortune by 48 Hours

Posted on January 05, 2011
Bloomberg, Tycoon?s Death Stiffs IRS Century After Grandfather Fought Tax, by Ryan J. Donmoyer: Textile tycoon Roger Milliken ducked the taxman upon his death almost a century after his grandfather lost a landmark legal fight with the U.S. government over sheltering a fortune from the estate tax...

Court Dismisses Law Prof's Suit Against Aspen Casebook Co-author

Posted on January 05, 2011
National Law Journal, Law Professor's Suit Against Casebook Co-author is Dismissed: A federal judge has dismissed a case leveled by one law professor against another over a book deal gone awry. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted the motion to dismiss filed by University of...

NY Times Debate: Tax Breaks for Home Schoolers?

Posted on January 05, 2011
New York Times, Room for Debate -- Do Home Schoolers Deserve a Tax Break?: The new Republicans in Congress have vowed to challenge Washington's role in American public education, and said they will seek to turn more power over to the states on many fronts...

National Taxpayer Advocate Releases Annual Report to Congress, Says Tax Reform Is #1 Priority

Posted on January 05, 2011
National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson today released her 2010 Annual Report to Congress, which lists the twenty-one most serious problems encountered by taxpayers (as required by § 7803(c)(2)(B)(ii)(III)): Executive Summary News Release Dedication, Preface, and Table of Contents IRS Information Release (IR-2011-02) The Most Serious Problems Encountered by Taxpayers:...

2010 Law School Survey of Student Engagement

Posted on January 05, 2011
The Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) has released its 2010 Annual Survey Results: The Law School Survey of Student Engagement focuses on activities related to effective learning in law school. The results provide evidence of how law students use their time and what they think about their legal...

Johnstron: On the Dole, Corporate Style

Posted on January 04, 2011
David Cay Johnston has published On the Dole, Corporate Style,130 Tax Notes 123 (Jan. 3, 2011): Johnston examines a new book by political scientist Kenneth P. Thomas [Investment Incentives and the Global Competition for Capital (Palgrave Macmillan (Jan...

Forbes: New Estate Tax Law Could Hurt Charity

Posted on January 04, 2011
Forbes, New Estate Tax Law Could Hurt Charity, by Deborah L. Jacobs: Billionaires Gates, Buffett and Zuckerberg will still give big. But what about ordinary donors? For donors, a crucial question has always been how much to give to charity while alive and what to leave as charitable bequests in...

Tenure Buyouts and FICA Taxes

Posted on January 04, 2011
Carson Maricle (Mathis, Marifian & Richter, Belleville, IL) has published Comment, Early Retirement Payments Under Tenure and FICA Taxes: Transfer of a Property Right or Just Another Payday?, 34 S. Ill. U. L.J. 727 (2010). Here is the Conclusion: Rather than employing on an all-or-nothing approach that ignores economic reality,...

5th Circuit Tax Survey

Posted on January 04, 2011
William D. Elliott has published Fifth Circuit Survey -- Taxation, 42 Tex. Tech. L. Rev. 825 (2010). Here is the Introduction: The period between June 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 reveals eighty-nine Fifth Circuit cases that touch federal taxation. Of these, only four cases warrant discussion...

Zelinsky: New York Appellate Division Upholds 'Amazon' Law

Posted on January 04, 2011
Edward A. Zelinsky (Cardozo) has posted New York Appellate Division Upholds 'Amazon' Law: Analysis, 59 State Tax Notes ___ (2011), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Amazon.com LLC v. New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court upheld and remanded...

Tax Information Exchange Agreements in Latina America

Posted on January 04, 2011
Erika G. Litvak (Greenberg Traurig, Miami) has published Selected Update on Tax Information Exchange Agreements in Latina America, 16 Law & Bus. Rev. Am. 335 (2010). Here is the Conclusion: During 2009, there was considerable activity in the area of information exchange and international cooperation...

Charges of Racial, Gender Bias in DePaul's Tenure Process

Posted on January 04, 2011
New York Times, Questions of Racial Discrimination on Tenure Unsettle DePaul: As DePaul University seeks to improve its academic standing and raise $250 million for capital projects and scholarships, public accusations of bias and discrimination in the tenure process continue to mount...

TIGTA: IRS Refuses to Take Steps to Cut Down on Prisoner Tax Fraud

Posted on January 04, 2011
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Significant Problems Still Exist With IRS Efforts to Identify Prisoner Tax Refund Fraud (2011-40-009): The IRS has not shared prisoner tax return information with Federal and State prison officials to help combat tax fraud by inmates...

States Lure Veteran Profs to Retire in Face of Budget Cuts; Penn Hires Arlen Specter (Age 80)

Posted on January 04, 2011
Bloomberg, States Luring Veteran Professors to Retire as Budget Cuts Loom: Darrell Fasching planned to keep teaching religious studies at the University of South Florida until he was offered a year?s salary of about $90,000 to retire and give up tenure rights earned over almost three decades at the school...

IRS Extends Tax Filing Deadline to April 18, Issues New Fact Sheets

Posted on January 04, 2011
The IRS today announced (IR-2011-1) today that it has delayed this year's tax-filing deadline by three days, from April 15, 2011 to April 18, 2011 to accommodates a District of Columbia holiday on April 15. In addition, the IRS today released six fact sheets: FS-2011-01: 2010 Changes Offer Expanded Tax...

The Tax Lawyer Publishes New Issue

Posted on January 04, 2011
The Tax Lawyer has published Vol. 63, No. 4 (Summer 2010), The State & Local Tax Edition: Richard D. Pomp (Connecticut), The Unfulfilled Promise of the Indian Commerce Clause and State Taxation, 63 Tax Law. 897 (2010) Anthony Ciolli (Suffolk), The Power of United States Territories to Tax Interstate and...

Happy 40th Anniversary, Tax Analysts

Posted on January 03, 2011
Tan Analysts has published a free commemorative book, Forty Years of Change, One Constant: Tax Analysts, in which fifty tax folks answer this question: What is one of the most significant changes to tax administration, practice, or policy that you have seen in your professional career? Introduction, Chris Bergin Henry...

Subscribing to TaxProf Blog

Posted on January 03, 2011
We offer two ways to have TaxProf Blog content automatically delivered to your computer or smart phone, as explained in the left column of the blog, "Subscribe to TaxProf Blog Via RSS Feed or Email": RSS Feeds: You can subscribe to one of three different feeds to receive TaxProf Blog...

Did Orange Bowl Abuse its Tax Exemption With Caribbean Cruise?

Posted on January 03, 2011
In advance of tonight's Orange Bowl game between Stanford and Virginia Tech, Playoff PAC has filed a supplemental complaint (original complaint here) with the IRS alleging that the Orange Bowl Committee used charitable funds to treat Orange Bowl executives and college athletic directors to a summer 2010 Caribbean cruise where...

Assessment in Tax Teaching

Posted on January 03, 2011
Audrey Sharp (University of Auckland) & Kalmen H. Datt (University of New South Wales) have posted Proposals for Assessment in Tax Teaching on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article compares the assessment methods used by Atax, a school in the Faculty of Law, UNSW (Atax), and the Commercial Law...

TaxProf Blog Holiday Weekend Roundup

Posted on January 03, 2011
New Year's Eve: New Estate Tax Law Exposes 65,000 Small Businesses and Farms to Estate Tax Canada Drops Corporate Tax Rate to 16.5%, Less Than Half the U.S. Rate Journal of Taxation of Investments Publishes New Issue An Attorney-Client Privilege for Embattled Tax Practitioners New Year's Day: Tax Reform Won?t...

2011 Tax Person of the Year

Posted on January 03, 2011
Tax Analysts today named its second annual person of the year: Heather Maloy, Commissioner, IRS Large Business and International Division Commissioner (Person of the Year, 130 Tax Notes 7 (Jan. 3, 2011)): 2010 was no ordinary year for taxpayers and practitioners...

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