Taxation & Estate Planning

Tax Lawyer's Conviction in Tax Shelter Case Results in Automatic Disbarment

Posted on March 14, 2011
The New York Appellate Division last week held that a tax lawyer's criminal conviction in a tax shelter case results in automatic disbarment from the New York bar. Matter of Nissenbaum, 2011 N.Y. Slip Op 01847 (N.Y. App, Div. Mar. 8, 2011): According to the petitioner, the respondent "was convicted...

Stephen Mazza Is Dean Finalist at Kansas

Posted on March 14, 2011
Tax Prof Stephen W. Mazza, the Interim Dean at Kansas and one of the three announced finalists for the Deanship, interviews today and tomorrow for the position. (Hat Tip: Francine Lipman, The Faculty Lounge.) Tax Prof Beverly Moran is one of the other finalists...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on March 14, 2011
Saturday: Federal Circuit Exacerbates Split on Overstatement of Basis and 6-Year SOL Tax Foundation: On April 1, U.S. Is #1 (World's Highest Corporate Tax Rate) Newman Presents A Comparative Study of Household Taxation at S. Illinois Stephen King: 'Why Am I Not Paying 50% Tax?' Sunday: AIG Adopts Poison Pill...

Harvard Law Review on Intermountain

Posted on March 14, 2011
Federal Tax Court Holds Pre-Chevron Judicial Construction of Statute Precludes Subsequent Agency Interpretation if Prior Construction Was Premised on Legislative History. ? Intermountain Insurance Service of Vail, LLC v. Commissioner, No. 25868-06, 2010 WL 1838297 (T...

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The Academic Performance Tournament

Posted on March 14, 2011
Inside Higher Education, The Academic Performance Tournament: For the sixth year, Inside Higher Ed presents the Academic Performance Tournament ? our take on what the National Collegiate Athletic Association?s Division I Men?s Basketball Tournament would look like if teams advanced based on their outcomes in the classroom...

Joint Tax Committee Releases General Explanation of New Tax Legislation

Posted on March 14, 2011
The Joint Committee on Taxation today released General Explanation of Tax Legislation Enacted In the 111th Congress (JCS-2-11) (758 pages): This document ... provides an explanation of tax legislation enacted in the 111th Congress. The explanation follows the chronological order of the tax legislation as signed into law...

IRS Increased Audit Rate of Richest Americans by 73% in 2010

Posted on March 14, 2011
The 2010 IRS Data Book released today reports that audits of the highest-income Americans (AGI >$10 million) increased 73.4% in FY 2010: AGI FY 2009 FY 2010 100k/200k 0.67% 0.71% 200k/500k 1.86% 1.92% 500k/1m 2.77% 3.37% 1m/5m 5.35% 6.67% 5m/10m 7.52% 11...

2010 IRS Data Book

Posted on March 14, 2011
The IRS today released the 2010 IRS Data Book, which contains a wealth of statistical information for the IRS's Oct. 1, 2009 - Sept. 30, 2010 fiscal year. Here are the statistical tables: Returns Filed, Taxes Collected, and Refunds Issued Table A. First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for Homes Purchased in...

Ten Fat-Chance Tax Deductions

Posted on March 13, 2011
Kiplinger, 10 Fat-Chance Tax Deductions: Over the years, taxpayers have concocted a lot of zany arguments to justify tax deductions. We?ve come up with what we think are the 10 most creative ones that the courts decided did not quite work. As secret agent Maxwell Smart would say, ?Missed it...

AIG Adopts Poison Pill to Preserve $65 Billion NOL

Posted on March 13, 2011
AIG, like GM and Citigroup before it, has adopted a poison pill to preserve its $65 billion NOL by ensuring that no investor acquires a 5% stake and triggers the change of ownership rules. AIG SEC Form 8-K AIG Tax Asset Protection Plan M&A Law Prof Blog Reuters The Street...

IRS Tries to Bogart Medical Marijuana Club's Deductions

Posted on March 13, 2011
Marin Independent Journal, IRS Tells Fairfax Medical Marijuana Dispensary It Owes Millions in Unpaid Taxes: The IRS has notified the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax that it owes millions of dollars in unpaid back taxes, according to the alliance's founder and director, Lynnette Shaw...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on March 13, 2011
This week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's list, with the #1 paper now #121 in all-time downloads among 7,325 tax papers : 1. [735 Downloads] The Fundamentals of Wealth Transfer Tax Planning: 2011 and Beyond, by John A...

Newman Presents A Comparative Study of Household Taxation at S. Illinois

Posted on March 12, 2011
Joel S. Newman (Wake Forest) presented Taxation of Households: A Comparative Study, 55 St. Louis U. L.J. ___ (2010), at Southern Illinois as part of its Dean's Colloquim Series. Here is the abstract: Some of us live alone, but most live in groups. Those of us who live in groups...

Stephen King: 'Why Am I Not Paying 50% Tax?'

Posted on March 12, 2011
The Daily Caller, Stephen King Doesn?t Think His Taxes Are High Enough: [A]s a rich person I pay 28% tax. What I want to ask you is why am I not paying fifty? Stephen King What I want to ask you, Stephen King, is? who?s stopping you? If you don?t...

Tax Foundation: On April 1, U.S. WiIl Be #1 (in Highest Corporate Tax Rate)

Posted on March 12, 2011
The Tax Foundation has released Countdown to #1: 2011 Marks 20th Year That U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Is Higher than OECD Average: There is increasing recognition in Washington that the U.S. corporate tax rate is out of step with the lower tax rates of most industrialized and emerging nations...

Federal Circuit Exacerbates Split on Overstatement of Basis and 6-Year SOL

Posted on March 12, 2011
The Federal Circuit yesterday exacerbated the split in the circuits in holding that a taxpayer's overstatement of basis was an omission of income under § 6501(e) and thus triggered the six-year statute of limitations. Grapevine Imports Ltd. v. United States, No...

Tax Court: Settlement Payments From Auto Accidents Are Not Casualty Losses

Posted on March 11, 2011
The Tax Court held yesterday that settlement payments resulting from automobile accidents do not constitute deductible casualty losses under § 165(c)(3). Pang v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2011-55 (Mar. 9, 2011): In Whitney v. Commissioner, 13 T.C. 897, 899 (1949), this Court observed that "the losses allowable under § 23(e)(3) [a...

Two University of Minnesota Professors Indicted for Also Drawing Paychecks From Georgia Tech

Posted on March 11, 2011
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Professors Indicted in Georgia for Double-Dipping: Two high-profile University of Minnesota professors have been indicted in Georgia for conspiring to draw salaries from two schools at once. Francois Sainfort and his wife, Julie Jacko, face felony charges of conspiracy, theft and false statements...

Infant, Mehtrotra Present

Posted on March 11, 2011
Tax Prof presentations at today's annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities in Las Vegas: Anthony C. Infanti (Pittsburgh), Inequitable Administration: Documenting Family for Tax Purposes: Family can bring us joy, and it can bring us grief...

CBS: CPAs Trump Turbo Tax, H&R Block in Tax Prep

Posted on March 11, 2011

CBO Releases Tax Revenue Options

Posted on March 11, 2011
The Congressional Budget Budget Office yesterday released Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options: The CBO regularly issues a compendium of budget options to help inform federal lawmakers about the implications of possible policy choices. This volume?one of several reports that CBO produces regularly for the House and Senate Committees...

Committee: Don't Fire Tenured Law Prof for Classroom Hypos About His Dean

Posted on March 11, 2011
Following up on my prior posts: Law Prof May Lose Tenure For Classroom Hypos on Shooting His Dean (Feb. 15,2011) Interview With Tenured Law Prof Fighting For His Job After Using Dean in Hypos (Feb. 21, 2011) A faculty committee has recommended that Widener discontinue tenure revocation proceedings against Professor...

Henderson & Morriss: The U.S. News 'Employed at Graduation' Rankings Metric

Posted on March 11, 2011
Following up on Wednesday's post, U.S. News Changes Methodology in Forthcoming New Rankings to Stop Schools From Gaming Employment Data: Bill Henderson (Indiana-Bloomington) & Andrew Morriss (Alabama), Data on the "Employed at Graduation" U.S. News Rankings Input: Yesterday, Bob Morse of U...

Johnson & Willis Debate Constitutionality of ObamaCare's Tax Penalty

Posted on March 11, 2011
Calvin H. Johnson (Texas) and Steven J. Willis (Florida) continue their debate over the constitutionality of the tax penalty in ObamaCare today at Loyola-New Orleans: Professor Willis argues that the penalty portion of the recent act is an unapportioned direct tax...

ABA Tax Section Awards Two Public Service Tax Fellowships

Posted on March 10, 2011
The ABA Tax Section yesterday announced the winners of its two Public Service Tax Fellowships: Anna Tavis, scheduled to earn her J.D. from the Boston College Law School in May 2011. After graduating, Tavis will be working on tax-related matters at the South Brooklyn Legal Services in Brooklyn, N...

Nassau: How to Split the Tax Baby

Posted on March 10, 2011
Robert Nassau (Syracuse) has published How to Split the Tax Baby: What Would Solomon Do?, 61 Syr. L. Rev. 83 (2010). Here is the abstract: For as long as taxpayers have been able to claim deductions or credits for their children, separated parents have argued over which of them is...

TIGTA: IRS Can't Find 9% of its Guns and Other Investigative Equipment

Posted on March 10, 2011
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration yesterday released Weaknesses Continue to Exist in the Controls Over Investigative Equipment (2011-30-008): The IRS should strengthen its controls over its investigative equipment to prevent waste and loss, according to a report publicly released today by TIGTA...

Number of U.S. Expatriates Doubled in 2010

Posted on March 10, 2011
Andrew Mitchel reports that the number of individuals renouncing their U.S. citizenship (or terminating their long-term U.S. permanent residency) and expatriating from the U.S. more than doubled in 2010:

TIGTA: 53% Error Rate in Returns Reporting Rental Real Estate Actvities

Posted on March 10, 2011
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration yesterday released Actions Are Needed in the Identification, Selection, and Examination of Individual Tax Returns With Rental Real Estate Activity (2011-30-005): The IRS should increase its examinations of individual tax returns that report losses from rental real estate activity, according to a new...

UNLV Absorbs $2.26m Budget Cut: 97% on Students, 3% on Faculty; Dean Fears 'Mediocre' Law School

Posted on March 10, 2011
Following up on my prior post, UNLV to Fire Tenured Faculty, Close Schools in Face of 'Fiscal Collapse' (Feb. 16, 2011): National Law Journal, Cuts at UNLV Could Render Law School a 'Mediocre Institution': Public law schools are no strangers to funding cuts, but few have found themselves in the...

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