Taxation & Estate Planning

Foundation Press Publishes Civil Procedure Stories, 2d Edition

Posted on June 24, 2008
Foundation Press has published Civil Procedure Stories (2d ed. 2008), edited by Kevin M. Clermont (Cornell): This book is a collaborative effort by fourteen law-school professors to provide a deeper understanding of the great civil procedure cases. The professors each...

Corn Products

Posted on June 24, 2008
Corn Products Refining Co. -- of § 1221 fame -- (350 U.S. 46 (1955)) is being acquired by Bunge for $4.4 billion. Corn Products Press Release Associated Press Bloomberg News New York Times Reuters Wall Street Journal (Hat Tip: David...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on June 23, 2008
Saturday: Tax Lawyers for Obama Updated Comparison of the McCain and Obama Tax Plans CTJ Applauds House AMT Patch Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads Henderson Applauds Northwestern's 2-Year J.D. You Might Be An Economist If...

David Cay Johnston Launches Tax Notes Column

Posted on June 23, 2008
David Cay Johnston, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his tax reporting in 2001 and recently accepted a buyout after thirteen years with the New York Times, has agreed to write a regular column for Tax Notes called Johnston's Take....

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IRS Increases Standard Mileage Rate in Light of Record Gas Prices

Posted on June 23, 2008
Last Monday, I blogged the groups requesting the IRS to increase the 2008 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile in light of record gas prices. Today, the IRS announced (IR-2008-82; Announcement 2008-63)...

Tax Profs Present Today at Midwest Junior Faculty Workshop

Posted on June 23, 2008
Two Tax Profs are presenting works-in-progress today at the Midwest Junior Faculty Works-in-Progress Workshop at Washington University. Bradley T. Borden (Washburn), A Win-Win Proposal for Analyzing Profits-Only Partnership Interests (Including Carried Interests): The proper tax treatment of profits-only partnership interests...

CBPP Criticizes Property Tax Limitation in Senate Housing Bill

Posted on June 23, 2008
The Center on Budget & Policy Priorities today released Property Tax Limitation in the Senate Housing Bill Is Unnecessary, Impractical, and Likely to Cause Harm, by Iris J. Lav & Nicholas Johnson Legislation that the Senate is considering in response...

Buckles: The Ban on Participation in Political Campaigns by Charities: A Reply to Donald Tobin

Posted on June 23, 2008
Johnny Rex Buckles (Houston) has published Is the Ban on Participation in Political Campaigns by Charities Essential to Their Vitality and Democracy? A Reply to Professor Tobin, 42 U. Rich. L. Rev. 1057 (2008). Here is the abstract: Religious and...

Aprill: Legislation Needed to Exclude All Student Loan Forgiveness From Income

Posted on June 23, 2008
On Friday, I blogged the IRS's issuance of Rev. Rul. 2008-34, which clarifies that law school public interest loan forgiveness programs qualify for the § 108(f) exception (and, as a result, students need not report the forgiven interest as discharge....

Burke & McCouch: Cobra Strikes Back: Anatomy of a Tax Shelter

Posted on June 23, 2008
Karen C. Burke (San Diego) & Grayson M.P. McCouch (San Diego) have posted Cobra Strikes Back: Anatomy of a Tax Shelter on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Paul Daugerdas gained notoriety for himself and his erstwhile firm, Jenkens & Gilchrist,...

Tax Prof in China

Posted on June 23, 2008
Tax Prof Ann Murphy (Gonzaga), teaching in China on a Fulbright, is profiled in Chinese Law or Murphy?s Law?

You Might Be An Economist If...

Posted on June 22, 2008
Last year, I blogged the comedy stylings of Yoram Bauman, Ph.D., the "World's First and Only Stand Up Economist." Check out his very funny bit, You Might Be An Economist If... Friday's New York Times' Freakonomics Blog gave him a...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on June 22, 2008
There is quite a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new #1 paper and three new papers debuting on the list at #3, #4, and #5: 1. [310 Downloads]...

Henderson Applauds Northwestern's 2-Year J.D.

Posted on June 22, 2008
Following up on Friday's post on Northwestern's new two-year J.D. program: Bill Henderson (Indiana) has a detailed analysis here. Read the whole thing; here are some excerpts: The NWU 2-year program was carefully vetted by focus groups populated by decisions...

Tax Lawyers for Obama

Posted on June 21, 2008
Two of the community blogs hosted by the Obama campaign: Tax Lawyers for Obama: Lawyers and other professionals with a special interest in tax policy who support Barack Obama for president. Tax Policy Discussion Group: Discussion of tax policy issues...

Updated Comparison of the McCain and Obama Tax Plans

Posted on June 21, 2008
The Tax Policy Center has updated its Preliminary Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans (revised 6/20/08), originally blogged here. Here is the abstract: Tax and fiscal policy will loom large in the next president's domestic policy agenda...

CTJ Applauds House AMT Patch

Posted on June 21, 2008
Citizens for Tax Justice, House Proposal to Pay for AMT Relief by Closing Loopholes Would Make the Tax Code Fairer and Avoid Increasing the Deficit: The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill (H.R. 6275) this week that would...

IRS Blesses Law School Student Loan Forgiveness Programs

Posted on June 20, 2008
I previously blogged (links below the fold) the uncertainty over whether law school loan forgiveness programs (in which law schools forgive the debt of their students who work in the public following graduation) result in discharge of indebtedness income to...

Sharpton Lawyers Up in Tax Probe

Posted on June 20, 2008
From today's New York Daily News: Sharpton Gets Big Gun to Fend Off Feds, by John Marzulli: Facing an escalating federal probe into his charity's finances, the Rev. Al Sharpton now has his own muscle: former Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Zachary...

National Women's Law Center on the AMT

Posted on June 20, 2008
National Women's Law Center: One Tax Loophole Gets Closed. Could We Make It a Trend?, by Joan Entmacher: [This week], President Bush actually closed a tax loophole. Defense contractors had been setting up shell subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands to...

U.S. Firms Repatriated Billions More Than Expected

Posted on June 20, 2008
Bloomberg News: U.S. Firms Repatriated Billions More Than Expected, Study Says, by Ryan J. Donmoyer: U.S. companies such as McDonald's Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co. took advantage of a one-year tax incentive to repatriate a total of $312 billion,...

Gay Marriage and the Marriage Penalty

Posted on June 20, 2008
Gay Marriage and the Marriage Penalty, by Stephen Bainbridge (UCLA): In states that recognize gay marriage, does state tax law likewise impose a marriage penalty? If so, will it be applied to gay marriages? Presumably, yes. If so, will gays...

Northwestern to Offer 2-Year J.D.

Posted on June 20, 2008
Northwestern will become the first Top Tier law school to offer an accelerated, two-year J.D., starting in Fall 2009 (Southwestern has offered a two-year program since 1974, and Dayton began offering such a program in 2005 following the ABA's elimination...

GAO: Effect of Economic Stimulus Program on IRS's Telephone Service and Costs

Posted on June 20, 2008
The Government Accountability Office yesterday released Tax Administration: Data on the Effects of the Economic Stimulus Program on the Internal Revenue Service's Telephone Service and Costs (GAO-08-916T). Here is the Summary: The purpose of this testimony is to provide information...

House Holds Hearing Today on Economic Stimulus Payments

Posted on June 19, 2008
The Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Ways & Means Committee holds a hearing today on Economic Stimulus Payments. From the hearing announcement: The Subcommittees will review the status of the economic stimulus payments. They will examine the number of...

Off to the CALI Conference on Tranforming Legal Education

Posted on June 19, 2008
I am leaving this for this to spend the next three days at the 2008 CALI Conference for Law School Computing on Tranforming Legal Education at the University of Maryland School of Law. I will be attending many of the...

Borden: LLCs as Exempt Organizations

Posted on June 19, 2008
Bradley T. Borden (Washburn) has posted Limited Liability Companies as Exempt Organizations, 33 Est. Gifts & Tr. J. 150 (2008), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The use of limited liability companies and exempt organizations has exploded over recent years...

Raft: Imagining a Progressive and Comprehensive Consumption Tax

Posted on June 19, 2008
Sean Raft (Santa Clara) has published Imagining a Progressive and Comprehensive Consumption Tax, 86 Or. L. Rev. 161 (2007). Here is the abstract: The income tax system has become quite a mess. Unfortunately, the brunt of that mess falls primarily...

Ex-UBS Banker Birkenfeld Pleads Guilty in Tax Evasion Case

Posted on June 19, 2008
Former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld pleaded guilty today in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, admitting that he helped California billionaire real estate developer Igor Olenicoff evade income taxes on $200 million in assets hidden in Liechtenstein and Switzerland...

A Comparative Tax Story: Obama, McCain, and Ike

Posted on June 19, 2008
A Comparative Tax Story: Obama, McCain, and Ike, by Sam Pizzigati: [T]his November's election may matter more to America's super-rich, in pure dollars and cents, than any other election in U.S. history. In 2009, the 140,000 households in the top...

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