Taxation & Estate Planning

Law School Rankings by Placement in Largest 250 Law Firms

Posted on February 22, 2010
The National Law Journal has published its annual Law Schools Report: How bad was it in 2009? The National Law Journal's annual Go-To Law School List paints a pretty sorry picture of first-year associate employment at the nation's 250 largest law firms last year...

The Austin Pilot Had a Valid Tax Beef About § 1706

Posted on February 22, 2010
Following up on my recent posts (links below) on the substance of the Austin pilot's tax complaint against the IRS: Congressional Research Service, Independent Contractors: Repeal of Section 1706 of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 for Technical Service Workers: S...

Tax Foundation: President Obama's International Tax Proposals Would Hurt U.S. Competitiveness

Posted on February 22, 2010
The Tax Foundation has published The Importance of Tax Deferral and a Lower Corporate Tax Rate: President Obama?s recently released budget reemphasizes the administration?s goal to curtail tax deferral for income earned abroad by American businesses, but a new Tax Foundation study argues that this would harm U...

Life Changes in an Instant

Posted on February 22, 2010
It was a typical Friday morning. My daughter had already left for high school. Despite waking up at 5:00 a.m., I was scrambling to get out of the house to a meeting. My wife was frantically getting ready for her weekly women's bible study. She stepped out the back door,...

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TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on February 22, 2010
Saturday: David Cay Johnston on Tax Provision Cited by Austin Pilot Wesley Snipes on the IRS Plane Crash: 'What's New'? New York DA Raises Heat on Tax Cheats Reforming the Tax Treatment of Health Insurance Premiums Sunday: Call for Tax Book Reviews: Michigan Law Review Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads...

Shaviro Presents The Case Against Foreign Tax Credits Today at Northwestern

Posted on February 22, 2010
Daniel N. Shaviro (NYU) presents The Case Against Foreign Tax Credits at Northwestern today as part of its Advanced Topics in Taxation Series organized by Tom Brennan and Charlotte Crane. Here is the abstract: In international tax policy debate, it is usually assumed that, if one chooses not to exempt...

New Mexico Seeks Clinical Tax Visitor

Posted on February 22, 2010
The University of New Mexico School of Law seeks a Visiting Professor of Law to teach in its nationally-recognized clinical law program during Fall 2010: The candidate hired will teach and supervise students in UNM?s Business and Tax Clinic, who represent clients involved with small businesses and non-profit corporations with...

TPC: Obama's Tax Proposals Yield $4.9 Trillion (Not the Claimed $1.1 Trillion) Shortfall

Posted on February 22, 2010
The Tax Policy Center has released a detailed 49-page analysis of the key tax proposals in President Obama?s 2011 budget: Separate discussions below describe each of the proposals including current law, proposed changes, and, when appropriate, the distributional effects...

Former Maryland Dean Under Fire for Payments in Lieu of Sabbatical

Posted on February 22, 2010
A controversy has erupted over an audit report flagging "question compensation payments" of $410,000 to former (1999-2009) Maryland Dean Karen Rothenberg, consisting of payments for an untaken sabbatical leave ($350,000) and for four summer research grants ($60,000)...

Senator Specter?s 'Flat Tax' Cuts Taxes on Richest 5%, Raises Taxes on Remaining 95%

Posted on February 22, 2010
Citizens for Tax Justice has published Senator Specter?s ?Flat Tax? Cuts Taxes for the Richest 5% and Raises Taxes for Everyone Else: Since 1995, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has introduced legislation to create a federal ?flat tax? in every session of Congress, including this session...

Free Books Sent by Publishers to Professors Are Subject to NY Use Tax

Posted on February 22, 2010
From our sister Adjunct Law Prof Blog: Free Books Given To Professors Are Subject To New York State Use Tax. New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Advisory Opinion No. S090923A (Feb. 8, 2010): Petitioner asks whether college textbooks and other nonfiction books that it distributes free of charge...

WSJ: Threats Against IRS Employees on the Rise

Posted on February 21, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Threats Against IRS Employees On The Rise: The federal agency charged with ensuring the safety of IRS employees said it has seen an uptick in the past several years in threats against agency personnel. In the past four years, there appears to have been a "steady, upward...

California Senate Passes Amazon Tax

Posted on February 21, 2010
L.A. Times, Lawmakers Want to Tax Amazon Sales in California, by Evan Halper: The retail giant is among several that have no physical presence in the state. Legislative Democrats think a levy on them could bring in up to $150 million annually. State lawmakers hunting for revenue are eyeing one...

Call for Tax Book Reviews: Michigan Law Review

Posted on February 21, 2010
The Michigan Law Review is soliciting book reviews for its 2011 Survey of Books Related to the Law: The Michigan Law Review publishes an Annual Survey of Books dedicated to book reviews. Book reviews are not included in any other issue of the Michigan Law Review...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on February 21, 2010
There is a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new paper debuting on the list at #5: 1. [349 Downloads] The Regulatory Systems for Employee Benefits, by Brian A. Benko (McDermott Will & Emery, Washington, D...

New York DA Raises Heat on Tax Cheats

Posted on February 20, 2010
Wall Street Journal, New York DA Raises Heat on Tax Cheats, by Amir Efrati: Cyrus Vance Jr., the new Manhattan district attorney, is trying to step out of the shadow of Robert Morgenthau by doing more of what made his predecessor famous. Six weeks into the job, the 55-year-old Mr...

Reforming the Tax Treatment of Health Insurance Premiums

Posted on February 20, 2010
Janene R. Finley (Augustana College, Department of Accounting) & Amanda M. Grossman (Murray State University, Department of Accounting) have published Equity in Reforming the Tax Treatment of Health Insurance Premiums, 34 Seton Hall Legis. J. 1 (2009)...

Johnston on Tax Provision Cited by Austin Pilot

Posted on February 20, 2010
Following up on yesterday's post, More on the Austin Pilot's Tax Dispute With the IRS: David Cay Johnston wrote about Section 1706 of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which Joseph Stack blamed for his tax troubles, in the New York Times in 1998, How a Tax Law Helps Insure...

Wesley Snipes on IRS Plane Crash: 'What's New'?

Posted on February 20, 2010
Associated Press, Snipes Asks 'What's New?' About IRS Plane Crash: Actor Wesley Snipes, who has tax problems of his own, had a blunt reaction to news about a software engineer who crashed his plane into an office building with nearly 200 IRS employees inside...

"I Learned It By Watching You' ... Tax Edition

Posted on February 19, 2010
(Hat Tip: Web CPA.)

Florida State Lays Off 21 Tenured Faculty, 15 Tenure-Track Faculty

Posted on February 19, 2010
Tallahassee Democrat, FSU Layoffs of Tenured Faculty Cause a Stir: FSU's decision to lay off 21 tenured and 15 additional tenure-track faculty isn't going unnoticed. The esteemed Science magazine last month detailed how the science programs at FSU have been affected by layoffs, and how FSU is letting go of...

More on the Austin Pilot's Tax Dispute With the IRS

Posted on February 19, 2010
Following up on yesterday's post, Pilot Deliberately Crashes Into IRS Office Building in Austin, Blames Tax Reform Act of 1986: Bloomberg, Austin Pilot?s Note Says Dispute With IRS Began in Early 1980s Don't Mess With Taxes, Man Angry at IRS Crashes Plane Into Austin Building Going Concern, The Full Text...

Limiting Simultaneous Article Submissions to 20 Law Reviews

Posted on February 19, 2010
The free LexOpus law review submission service (used by 477 law journals) hosted by William & Mary has changed its policy on simultaneous submissions: Authors can select as many law journals as they wish, the system will transmit the work to up to 20 law journals concurrently, and when one...

Willens: Obama's Budget to Spark Tax Debates

Posted on February 19, 2010
Robert Willens (Robert Willens LLC, New York; Adjunct Professor, Columbia) has published Obama Budget to Spark Tax Debates (CFO Magazine): President Obama's budget submission contains numerous tax proposals, many of them quite "hostile" towards business in general and "high-income" taxpayers in particular...

Cunningham: Improving Scholarship (and Rankings) by Buying Out Nonproductive Senior Faculty

Posted on February 19, 2010
Lawrence Cunningham (George Washington), For Faculty Buyouts: Universities nationwide are in a vise, devastating for most, but an opportunity for a few. The grip is how financial woes dictate reduced spending while rankings intensity demands enhanced research prowess...

President Obama's Prescription for Low-Wage Workers: High Taxes, Higher Premiums

Posted on February 19, 2010
Michael F. Cannon (Cato Institute) has posted Obama's Prescription for Low-Wage Workers: High Implicit Taxes, Higher Premiums on SSRN. Here is the abstract: House and Senate Democrats have produced health care legislation whose mandates, subsidies, tax penalties, and health insurance regulations would penalize work and reward Americans who refuse to...

Cockfield Posts Tax Papers on SSRN

Posted on February 19, 2010
Arthur J. Cockfield (Queen's University Faculty of Law) has posted two tax pieces on SSRN: Manager's Guide to International Tax: What You Didn't Learn in Business School but Must Know About Global Tax Management (Thomson Reuters Carswell, 2009) Student Edition of the Income Tax Act 2009: Featuring 'How to Mange...

Obama Administration to Crack Down on Independent Contractor Tax Issue Cited by Austin Pilot

Posted on February 19, 2010
Following up on this morning's post on the Austin pilot's grievance against the IRS over the treatment of independent contractors: New York Times, U.S. Cracks Down on ?Contractors? as a Tax Dodge: Federal and state officials, many facing record budget deficits, are starting to aggressively pursue companies that try to...

Johnson Presents The Effective Tax Ratio and the Undertaxation of Intangible Investments Today at SMU

Posted on February 19, 2010
Calvin H. Johnson (Texas) presents The Effective Tax Ratio and the Undertaxation of Intangibles at SMU today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series hosted by Christopher H. Hanna and Henry J. Lischer, Jr. Here is the abstract: The corporate income tax imposes widely divergent real or effective tax...

IRS Releases 2007 Tax Return Data on Wealthiest 400 Americans: Income Soared 31% (to $345m), Tax Rate Fell 3.2% (to 16.7%)

Posted on February 18, 2010
The IRS has released Individual Income Tax Data of Taxpayers with the Top 400 Adjusted Gross Income: This release contains four tables which contain information from the Top 400 Individual Income Tax Returns for each of Tax Years 1992 through 2007. Table 1 contains frequencies, money amounts, and average dollar...

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