Taxation & Estate Planning

Chicago Man Sues After Court Denies Property Tax Exemption for Racquetball Court-Turned 'Church' in Lakefront Mansion

Posted on August 09, 2010
Chicago Tribune, Man Who Turned Mansion Into Church Alleges Bias After Losing Tax Break: George Michael says he simply wanted to give his ailing and deeply religious wife a place to worship when he transformed the racquetball court in his lakefront mansion [photograph here] into the Armenian Church of Lake...

Borden & Longhofer: The Liability-Offset Theory of Peracchi

Posted on August 09, 2010
Bradley T. Borden (Brooklyn) & Douglas L. Longhofer (Martin Pringle, Wichita, KS) have posted The Liability-Offset Theory of Peracchi, 64 Tax Law. ___ (2011), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Peracchi v. Commissioner is a lightning rod for commentators and the bane of students of corporate income tax...

'Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful'

Posted on August 09, 2010
This is a problem I have struggled with for years: Chronicle of Higher Education, Professors: Hot at Their Own Risk: Research shows that attractive people do better in life. They are treated better by teachers, doctors, even strangers, and are more likely to be hired and promoted than those who...

WSJ: Democrats Against ObamaCare -- The 1099 Repeal Fiasco, and the Snooki Tax

Posted on August 08, 2010
Weekend Wall Street Journal editorial, Democrats Against ObamaCare: The 1099 Repeal Fiasco, and the Snooki Tax: This wasn't a good week for ObamaCare, with Missouri voting to repeal the law and a Virginia judge refusing to dismiss a serious Constitutional legal challenge...

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Boston BigLaw Adopts Merit Pay for Associate

Posted on August 08, 2010
Boston Globe, Law Firms Rethinking Pay System: At Many Hub Offices, Automatic Raises Are a Thing of the Past: Boston?s top law firms are dramatically changing how they pay young lawyers, adapting to a changing market by adopting Wall Street-style compensation systems that rely on performance bonuses for large shares...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on August 08, 2010
This week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's, with some minor reshuffling within the Top 5: 1. [813 Downloads] Social Security Benefits Formula 101: A Practical Primer, by Francine J. Lipman (Chapman) & James E. Williamson (San Diego State University, College...

U.S. News Responds to ABA Report on Law School Rankings

Posted on August 08, 2010
Following up on last week's post, ABA Issues Report on U.S. News Law School Rankings: Robert Morse, Director of Data Research, U.S. News Responds to the ABA's Take on Law School Rankings: It's clear that the U.S. News law school rankings have a large impact on law schools and prospective...

More on the (Non)Deductibility of Medical Marijuana

Posted on August 07, 2010
Following up on Wednesday's post, Don't Bogart That Deduction: Is Medical Marijuana a Medical Expense?: The Huffington Post, Can You Write Off Medical Marijuana On Your Taxes?: It may be legal to purchase medical marijuana with a prescription in 14 states, but is that pot tax-deductible as a medical expense?...

IRS Hits Haitian Presidential Candidate Wyclef Jean With $2.1m Tax Lien

Posted on August 07, 2010
The IRS has filed $2.1 million in tax liens against singer Wyclef Jean, who is running for the presidency of Haiti. CBS News Miami Herald Perez Hilton The Smoking Gun The Tax Lady's Blog Tax Lawyer's Blog Web CPA

More on BP's $10 Billion Deduction From the Gulf Oil Spill

Posted on August 07, 2010
Following up on my prior post, Tax Gusher: Gulf Oil Spill Deduction Will Save BP $10 Billion in U.S. Taxes: Christian Science Monitor, If BP Qualifies for $10 Billion Cleanup Tax Break, Should It Get One?: BP says it will seek a $9.9 billion tax write-off based on the $32...

More on Tax Court's Approval of $37m Penalty Because of PWC's 'Tainted' Opinion (Given for $800k Flat Fee)

Posted on August 07, 2010
Following up on yesterday's post, Tax Court Upholds $37m Penalty Against TP Who Relied on Tax Opinion Issued by PWC for $800k Flat Fee: Bloomberg, PricewaterhouseCoopers Gave ?Tainted? Advice on Tax, Court Says, by Ryan J. Donmoyer: The U.S. Tax Court upheld a $37 million penalty imposed on Canal Corp...

Tax Court Upholds

Posted on August 06, 2010
The Tax Court yesterday held that Chesapeake Corp.'s 1999 transfer of a wholly-owned subsidiary to a joint venture with Georgia Pacific Corp. was actually a disguised sale under § 707(a)(2)(B), resulting in a $524 million capital gain. Canal Corp. v. Commissioner, 135 T...

District Court Issues Order in Snipes Case

Posted on August 06, 2010
Following the 11th Circuit's affirmance last month's of actor Wesley Snipes' tax conviction and sentence, the district court yesterday issued this order: On July 16, 2010, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion affirming this Court?s judgment of conviction and sentence against Defendant Wesley Trent Snipes...

Polling on the Expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts

Posted on August 06, 2010
Huffington Post, Rasmussen Poll on Bush Tax Cuts Is Just One of Many, by Mark Blumenthal: "The people speak: Keep the Bush Tax Cuts." So reads the headline in today's New York Post. Really? ... The survey is an automated, recorded-voice telephone poll of 1,000 "likely voters" conducted August 1-2,...

McCormack: Negative Externalities and the Charitable Deduction

Posted on August 06, 2010
Shannon Weeks McCormack (UC-Davis) has posted Taking the Good with the Bad: Recognizing the Negative Externalities Created by Charities and Their Implications for the Charitable Deduction, 52 Ariz. L. Rev. ___ (2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The tax code allows donors to deduct amounts donated to an extremely...

Unemployed J.D. Begins Hunger Strike Aimed at 10 Law Schools

Posted on August 06, 2010
Ethan Haines, an unemployed J.D., began a hunger strike yesterday directed at ten law schools: My name is Ethan Haines. I stand in place of countless law students and recent law graduates who have been disillusioned by law school employment statistics, commercial school rankings, and antiquated career counseling programs...

Johnson: Ain't Charity: Disallowing Deductions for Kept Resources

Posted on August 06, 2010
Calvin H. Johnson (Texas) has published Ain't Charity: Disallowing Deductions for Kept Resources, 128 Tax Notes 545 (Aug, 2, 2010). Here is the abstract: A deduction for a charitable contribution is a reasonable subtraction when the taxpayer has lost the amounts paid so it can no longer be used to...

Swain: Misalignment of Substantive and Enforcement Tax Jurisdiction in a Mobile Economy

Posted on August 06, 2010
John A. Swain (Arizona) has posted Misalignment of Substantive and Enforcement Tax Jurisdiction in a Mobile Economy: Causes and Strategies for Realignment, 63 Nat'l Tax J. ___ (2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: When a state asserts substantive jurisdiction over the subject matter of a tax, the state generally...

Jensen: The Tonnage Clause, Polar Tankers, and State Taxation of Commerce

Posted on August 06, 2010
Erik M. Jensen (Case Western) has posted Quirky Constitutional Provisions Matter: The Tonnage Clause, Polar Tankers, and State Taxation of Commerce on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Polar Tankers, Inc. v. City of Valdez, the Supreme Court in 2009 struck down a City of Valdez levy that was in...

Tech Tip of the Day: Accessing iPhone Voice Mail

Posted on August 06, 2010
As regular readers of this blog know, I adore my iPhone. In upgrading to the new iPhone Operating System (IOS 4), however, I endured my first glitch: the upgrade created a new voice mail password, which left me unable to access my voice mail because I of course did not...

More on the Expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts

Posted on August 06, 2010
The Atlantic, Why Higher Taxes Wouldn't Kill Small Business Bloomberg, Deficits Make Bush Tax Cuts Champions Say There's No Free Lunch Business Week, The Wisdom and Folly of the Bush Tax Cuts CNN, The Great Tax Debate Going Concern, TurboTax Jockey Tim Geithner Says Tax Increases Won?t Hurt Small Businesses...

Abrams: The Carried Interest Catastrophe

Posted on August 05, 2010
Howard E. Abrams (Emory) has published The Carried Interest Catastrophe, 128 Tax Notes 523 (Aug. 2, 2010): Congress seems intent on taxing the labor component of carried interests as ordinary income. If that must be done, it should be simple and accurate...

Tax Consequences of A-Rod's 600th Home Run

Posted on August 05, 2010
Wall Street Journal, A-Rod?s Home Run Ball: A Tax Headache for the Record Books?, by Laura Sanders: Will A-Rod?s 600th homer score him a huge federal tax bill as well as a line in the record books? Probably not unless he sells it, says tax expert Richard Lipton of Baker...

Using Google Maps to Find Tax Cheats

Posted on August 05, 2010
Fortune, Greek Government Uses Google Maps to Find Tax Cheats: When you do a Google Maps or Google Earth fly over of residential neighborhoods, it is pretty easy to spot who has a pool and who doesn't. In fact, if you look closely, you can even see people enjoying themselves...

NY Times: Pledge to Give Away Half Gains Billionaire Adherents

Posted on August 05, 2010
New York Times, Pledge to Give Away Half Gains Billionaire Adherents, by Stephanie Strom: More than three dozen billionaires, including well-known philanthropists like David Rockefeller and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and less familiar big donors like Lorry I...

Andrew Beal Wins Partial Victory in Son-of-BOSS Tax Shelter Case

Posted on August 05, 2010
Following up on my prior posts: Court Rejects $1.1b Tax Losses Claimed by Andrew Beal in DAD Tax Shelter (Aug. 20, 2009) 5th Circuit to Hear Andrew Beal's Appeal of $1.1b DAD Tax Shelter Loss (Aug. 1, 2010) Forbes, Billionaire Banker Beal Wins Timing Victory on Tax Shelter, by Janet...

Deans' Leadership in Legal Education Symposium

Posted on August 05, 2010
The University of Toledo Law Review has published the tenth annual issue in its wonderful Deans' Leadership in Legal Education Series. Each issue contains essays written by Deans of various law schools on a wide array of legal education topics. The current issue contains eight essays written by these deans:...

Desai & Dharmapala: Do Strong Tax Fences Make Strong Neighbors?

Posted on August 05, 2010
Mihir A. Desai (Harvard) & Dhammika Dharmapala (Illinois) have posted Do Strong Fences Make Strong Neighbors? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Many features of U.S. tax policy towards multinational firms ? including the governing principle of capital export neutrality, the byzantine system of expense allocation, and anti-inversion legislation ?...

Chandler: Healthcare Reform and Marginal Tax Rates

Posted on August 05, 2010
Seth J. Chandler (Houston) has published The Architecture of Contemporary Healthcare Reform and Effective Marginal Tax Rates, 29 Miss. C. L. Rev. 335 (2010). Here is part of the Introduction: The story told here is a realistic prediction of what could happen to one American family if PPACA is not...

Lavoie: Tea Parties and Taxes -- What's Patriotism Got to Do With It?

Posted on August 05, 2010
Richard Lavoie (Akron) has posted Tea Parties and Taxes: What's Patriotism Got to Do With It? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article considers the factors that contribute to developing a self-sustaining taxpaying ethos in a society, with a focus on understanding those factors using a social contract framework...

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