Taxation & Estate Planning

Stanford Abandons 'Easy Class' List for Athletes After Outcry

Posted on March 10, 2011
California Watch, Stanford Athletes Had Access to List of 'Easy' Classes (via The Stanford Daily): A drama class in ?Beginning Improvising? and another in ?Social Dances of North America III? were among dozens of classes on a closely guarded quarterly list distributed only to Stanford athletes to help them choose...

NLJ on Duke, Miami, and SMU Jobs Programs for Law Grads

Posted on March 10, 2011
National Law Journal, Law Schools Helping to Pay the Price for Students' Firm Employment: In May, SMU unveiled its Test Drive program, in which the school pays employers $3,500 to take in recent graduates for one or two months. Advocates said the program is an innovative way to help graduates...

Forbes: Law School Rankings by Mid-Career Compensation

Posted on March 10, 2011
Forbes, The Best Law Schools For Getting Rich: Starting pay is important at law schools, but many grads at elite schools choose prestigious clerkships right out of school that pay peanuts. More important is mid-career compensation when many lawyers are typically on a more lucrative career path...

Zolt Presents The Charitable Deduction for Foreign Activities Today at NYU

Posted on March 10, 2011
Eric M. Zolt (UCLA) presents Tax Deductions for Charitable Contributions: Domestic Activities, Foreign Activities, or None of the Aboveat NYU today as part of its Colloquium Series on Tax Policy and Public Finance convened by Daniel Shaviro (NYU) and Mihir Desai (Harvard Business School)...

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Penn State Faces Biggest Budget Cut (52%) in History of Higher Education

Posted on March 10, 2011
Penn State and other Pennsylvania public universities face the largest budget cut in the history of higher education -- 52.4% -- under the budget proposal released on Tuesday by Governor Tom Corbett. Penn State Press Release Philadelphia Inquirer Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pottsville Republican Herald

Galle Presents The Role of Charity in a Federal System Today at Indiana

Posted on March 10, 2011
Brian Galle (Boston College) presents The Role of Charity in a Federal System at Indiana-Bloomington today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series. Here is the abstract: This Article critiques the prevailing justification for subsidies for the charitable sector, and suggests a new alternative...

Wood: Post-Traumatic Street Disorder and § 104

Posted on March 09, 2011
Robert W. Wood (Wood & Porter, San Francisco) has published Is Post-Traumatic Street Disorder Physical Injury for Tax Purposes,130 Tax Notes 961 (Mar. 7, 2011): With the scope of § 104 often debated and litigated, a question exists as to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)...

A Single European Tax

Posted on March 09, 2011
Ana-Maria I. Bercu (Al. I. Cuza University) has posted The Opportunity to Identify a Single European Tax -- A Comprehensive Analysis on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper proposes a comprehensive approach to identifying a single tax on European level, on the premise that harmonization is a priority for...

Death of Brian Comerford

Posted on March 09, 2011
Tax Prof Brian E. Comerford (Brooklyn) died on March 4: The Brooklyn Law School community mourns the loss of a beloved colleague, teacher and friend, Professor Emeritus Brian Comerford. Over the course of nearly four decades of service on the Law School faculty, teaching and writing in the areas of...

Justice and Taxation

Posted on March 09, 2011
Mathias O. Royce (Swiss Management Center University) has posted Justice and Taxation - Is There Any Form of Just Taxation? If so, What is it Like and How Can it Be Justified? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article intends to assess the various characteristics of just taxation in...

Raging IRS: Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino Hit With Tax Liens

Posted on March 09, 2011
Movie director Martin Scorsese ($2.85 million) and actor Al Pacino ($188,000) have been hit with IRS tax liens, apparently arising at least in part from their association with convicted celebrity accountant Kenneth Starr. ABC News Accounting Today New York Post Perez Hilton TMZ (Hat Tip: Bob Kamman...

China's 'Tea Party' Calls for Lower Taxes

Posted on March 09, 2011
International Business Times, China's "Tea Party" Starts Call for Lower Taxes: A small but increasingly vocal number of Chinese are beginning to complain about taxes, placing their government in the unfamiliar position of having to defend -- and sometimes change -- its fiscal policies...

U.S. News Changes Methodology in Forthcoming New Rankings to Stop Schools From Gaming Employment Data

Posted on March 09, 2011
Robert Morse (Director of Data Research, U.S. News & World Report) announced today that in the forthcoming 2012 law school rankings to be released on March 15, U.S. News has changed the employment component of its methodology: In an effort to make our law school employment data more reflective of...

Beverly Moran Is Dean Finalist at Kansas

Posted on March 09, 2011
Tax Prof Beverly Moran (Vanderbilt), one of the finalists for the Kansas Deanship, will be doing her campus visit in Lawrence tomorrow: A candidate for dean of the School of Law will visit the University of Kansas this week and participate in an open forum...

Death of Charles Terry

Posted on March 09, 2011
Tax Prof Charles T. Terry (Illinois) died on March 6 at the age of 65. (Hat Tip: Stephanie Hoffer.)

Senate Hearing on Distribution and Efficiency of Spending in the Tax Code

Posted on March 09, 2011
The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing today on Distribution and Efficiency of Spending in the Tax Code (video here), with these witnesses: Robert Greenstein (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) Scott Hodge (Tax Foundation) Robert S. McIntyre (Citizens for Tax Justice)

Tax Cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeal

Posted on March 08, 2011
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has released its semi-annual report on the caseloads of the federal courts as of June 30, 2010. There were 200 civil tax cases (ranging from 2 in the 1st Circuit to 55 in the 9th Circuit) and 104 criminal tax cases (ranging from...

Cummings: Academic Articles on Tax

Posted on March 08, 2011
Jasper L. Cummings, Jr. (Alston & Bird, Raleigh, NC) has published Academic Articles on Tax, 130 Tax Notes 1189 (Mar. 7, 2011): The number of academic articles on tax has been declining sharply for the last 40 years, and those that do appear tend to be more theoretical than useful...

Senate Holds Hearing Today on Tax Reform

Posted on March 08, 2011
The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing today on Does the Tax System Support Economic Efficiency, Job Creation and Broad-Based Economic Growth?. Here are the wtinesses scheduled to testify Alan Auerbach (UC-Berkeley) James K. Galbraith (University of Texas) Micheal Graetz (Columbia Law School) R Glenn Hubbard (Dean, Columbia Business School)

Cunningham: The Influence of Law & Economics on Law & Accounting

Posted on March 08, 2011
Lawrence A. Cunningham (George Washington) has posted The Influence of Law and Economics on Law and Accounting: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, in Research Handbook on the Economics of Corporate Law (Brett McDonnell & Claire Hill, ed.) (Edward Elgar, 2012), on SSRN...

GAO Releases Two Tax Reports

Posted on March 08, 2011
The Government Accountability Office yesterday released two tax reports: Electronic Tax Return Filing: Improvements Can Be Made Before Mandate Becomes Fully Implemented (GAO-11-344) (Mar. 7, 2011) Illicit Tobacco: Various Schemes Are Used to Evade Taxes and Fees (GAO-11-313) (Mar...

Ribstein: Practicing Theory -- Legal Education for the 21st Century

Posted on March 08, 2011
Larry E. Ribstein (Illinois) has posted Practicing Theory: Legal Education for the Twenty-First Century, Iowa L. Rev. ___ (2011), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Law practice and legal education are facing fundamental changes. Many assume that these changes will force law schools to give up on theory and focus...

ABA Submits Comments on Tax Court's Proposed Rules Changes

Posted on March 08, 2011
The ABA Tax Section has submitted a comment letter to the Tax Court on its proposed amendments to its rules: The Section commends the Court on the proposed amendments to its Rules and endorses the Court?s efforts to provide clarity with regard to its procedures and promote efficiency in case...

NYU and UCLA Launch Annual Tax Policy Conference

Posted on March 08, 2011
NYU and UCLA today announced the inauguration of the NYU-UCLA Tax Policy Conference, a joint annual conference that will focus on tax policy issues from both a legal and economic perspective: The conference is intended to provide a forum in which leading scholars, policymakers and practitioners can offer expert perspectives...

BigLaw Hiring Partners and Recruiters Law School Rankings

Posted on March 08, 2011
U.S. News & World Report has teased the March 15 release of its annual law school rankings with an advance look at "the first ever ranking of law schools by hiring officials at the country's top law firms. ... [T]he U.S. News survey ... was sent last fall to 750...

Gamage & Shanske: Three Essays on Tax Salience

Posted on March 08, 2011
David Gamage (UC-Berkeley) & Darien Shanske (UC-Hastings) have posted Three Essays on Tax Salience: Market Salience and Political Salience, 64 Tax L. Rev. ___ (2011), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article analyzes the literatures on how individuals understand taxation (i...

Sullivan: The Rich Get 100 Times More Mortgage Subsidy Than the Poor

Posted on March 07, 2011
Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts) has published The Rich Get 100 Times More Mortgage Subsidy Than the Poor, 130 Tax Notes 1110 (Mar. 7, 2011): Beverly Hills is home to the stars. Clarksdale, Miss., is home to the blues. ... Beverly Hills 90210 and Clarksdale 38614 both have a population...

Dems, GOP Reject Economists' Call for a VAT

Posted on March 07, 2011
The Hill, Calls for New VAT Tax Prove Unpopular With Both Dems, GOP: A range of economists have come to Capitol Hill to sing the praises of a value-added tax (VAT), but their song is falling on deaf ears. While some elected officials have pledged to keep an open mind...

Five Sneaky Tax Deductions

Posted on March 07, 2011
MSN Money, 5 Sneaky Tax Deductions: You've probably never heard of these write-offs, but they could save you a lot of money and make your April easier. Why send the IRS any more than you need to? 'Depreciate' land Make money on charitable contributions Expense it all, or depreciate 100%...

Chapman Hosts Advising Clients Under the New Estate and Gift Tax

Posted on March 07, 2011
Chapman hosts a conference today on Advising Your Clients Under the New Estate and Gift Tax Law: For clients who died in 2010, should the estate tax or the carryover basis regime be elected? When should you use new Form 8939? Portability of unused exemption Should trusts below $5 million...

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