Taxation & Estate Planning

How Do Sales Taxes Apply to a Groupon?

Posted on February 21, 2011
Forbes, Social Confusion: How Do Sales Taxes Apply to a Groupon?, by Janet Novack: Have you used a Groupon or a Living Social coupon recently? When you handed over your coupon, did the merchant collect tax from you? Did he calculate the tax based on the full face value of...

WSJ: 2-Year Gift Tax Window to Transfer Control of Family Businesses

Posted on February 21, 2011
Wall Street Journal, Family Businesses Catch a Big Break, by Anne Tergesen: It is the gift tax that keeps on giving. Families now have the chance to pass a substantial stake in their businesses to the next generation?even before handing over the reins...

WSJ: Tax Code Keeps Microsoft, Other U.S. Companies From Spending $1 Trillion in Foreign Profits

Posted on February 21, 2011
Wall Street Journal, Why Investors Can't Get More Cash Out of U.S. Companies, by Jason Zweig: Earlier this month, Microsoft borrowed $2.25 billion in unsecured debt. What in the world possesses a company with $40 billion in cash and short-term securities to go out and borrow money? Rock-bottom interest rates...

McMahon Presents Taxing Tax Expenditures Today at Chapman

Posted on February 21, 2011
Martin J. McMahon Jr. (Florida) presents Taxing Tax Expenditures?, 130 Tax Notes 775 (Feb. 14, 2011), at Chapman today as part of its Dialogue Series. Here is the abstract: This report is a chapter from a coming book, The Proper Tax Base; Structural Fairness From an International and Comparative Perspective:...

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VAT Rates Needed to Erase Obama's Deficits

Posted on February 20, 2011
The Tax Foundation has released VAT Rates Needed to Erase Obama Deficits: Although President Obama's recently released budget includes roughly $1.6 trillion in new tax revenues over the next ten years, it still racks up $7.2 trillion in deficits through 2021...

CTJ: Tax Justice Digest

Posted on February 20, 2011
Citizens for Tax Justice, Tax Justice Digest (Feb. 18, 2011): Obama's FY 2012 Budget Would Make Permanent 81% of the Bush Tax Cut Gimmers of Hope on Taxes in the States Virginia Gov. Says No to EITC Expansion, Yes to Corporate Tax Breaks to Pull Kids Out of Public Schools...

WSJ: Same-Sex Couples in CA, NV & WA Reap Big Federal Tax Bonuses

Posted on February 20, 2011
Wall Street Journal, Same-Sex Couples And The Marriage Penalty, by Laura Saunders: Thanks to a 1996 federal law aimed at preserving traditional marriage, thousands of same-sex couples in California, Nevada, and Washington state could get big tax bonuses on their federal returns starting this year...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on February 20, 2011
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 #3: 1. [507 Downloads] The Fundamentals of Wealth Transfer Tax Planning: 2011 and Beyond, by John A. Milller (Idaho) & Jeffrey A...

San Francisco to Impose 1.5% Tax on Stock Options

Posted on February 19, 2011
Tech Crunch, San Francisco Wants to Tax Your Stock Options ? All of Them: Few people are aware the San Francisco has had a tax provision in its municipal code since 2004 that requires companies to pay a payroll tax on gains from employee stock options...

Albany Law School to Shrink Class Size, Budget

Posted on February 19, 2011
National Law Journal, Albany Law Plans to Cut its Class Size, Budget: Are law schools starting to downsize? Pundits have predicted for several years that market forces will eventually force law schools to shrink enrollment due to the dearth of jobs available to graduates...

FactCheck.org: ObamaCare Requires the IRS to Hire 1,000 More Workers

Posted on February 19, 2011
FactCheck.org, IRS and the Health Care Law, Part II: Q: Is the IRS seeking more than 1,000 new workers to administer the new health care law? A: Yes. ... The IRS budget request for fiscal year 2012 shows that the agency is seeking at least 1,269 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs)...

California Bar Asks U.S. News to Add Diversity Component to Rankings

Posted on February 19, 2011
National Law Journal, California Bar wants 'U.S. News' to Add Diversity as Factor in Law School Rankings: Should diversity be a factor in the U.S. News & World Report rankings? The State Bar of California thinks so. Its Council on Access & Fairness ? essentially a think tank on diversity...

McMahon, Shepard & Simmons: Recent Developments in Federal Income Tax (2010)

Posted on February 18, 2011
Martin J. McMahon, Jr. (Florida), Ira B. Shepard (Houston) & Daniel L. Simmons (UC-Davis) have published Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation: The Year 2010, 10 Fla. Tax Rev. 569 (2011). Here is the abstract: This recent developments article discusses, and provides context to understand the significance of, the most...

U.S. News: Villanova to Fall in Upcoming Rankings After Reporting Accurate (and Lower) LSAT & GPA Medians

Posted on February 18, 2011
Following up on my prior posts on the Villanova rankings scandal (here and here): Robert Morse (Director of Data Research, U.S. News & World Report), Villanova Law School Certifies Accuracy of New Data: Earlier this month, Villanova Law School's new dean John Gotanda sent a letter to the school's alumni...

Law Students: Are You Smarter Than Your Professor?

Posted on February 18, 2011
Above the Law, Columbia Reassures 1Ls By Sharing Professors? Dirty Transcript Secrets: We all know that in this legal economy, 1L grades are critically important. There aren?t enough good jobs to go around, and coming out of your first semester with a strong transcript can really help...

University of Chicago Law School Musical 2011

Posted on February 18, 2011

Moran: The Lack of Values Training in Legal Education

Posted on February 18, 2011
Tax Prof Beverly I. Moran (Vanderbilt) has published Disappearing Act: The Lack of Values Training in Legal Education -- A Case for Cultural Competency, 38 S.U. L. Rev. ___ (2011). Here is the abstract: Professor Beverly Moran of Vanderbilt Law School has written widely on the many intersections between tax,...

UC-Hastings Law Prof Threatens to Sue Following Drug Raid of His Penthouse

Posted on February 18, 2011
Clark Freshman (UC-Hastings) has promised to sue the DEA and San Francisco Police Department after being handcuffed during a 7 a.m. raid of his rented penthouse as authoriities searched for proceeds from growing illegal marijuana pursuant to a warrant...

More on Malcolm Gladwell's Law School Rankings

Posted on February 18, 2011
Following up on yesterday's post, Malcolm Gladwell's Law School Rankings: ABA Journal, Is BYU?s Law School No. 2 in US? Malcolm Gladwell Puts It Behind Chicago Conglomerate, What Do the Law Schools at Chicago and BYU Have in Common? Dallas Morning News, Ranking the Colleges Lexician, Input Metrics, Output Metrics,...

Cell Phone Tax Rankings

Posted on February 18, 2011
The Tax Foundation today released States Target Cell Phones for Stealth, Burdensome Taxes: The number of U.S. cell phone subscribers has grown significantly in recent years, from 55 million in 1997 to 292 million in 2010. That period has also seen a fall in landline telephones (there are now 50...

Kahn Presents Penalty Taxes Today at San Diego

Posted on February 18, 2011
Jeffrey H. Kahn (Washington & Lee) presents Penalty Taxes at San Diego today as part of its Tax Speakers Series. Here is the abstract: President Obama signed into law an historic overhaul of the United States health care system. One of the most discussed provisions of the health care reform...

Call for Tax Book Reviews: Michigan Law Review

Posted on February 17, 2011
The Michigan Law Review is soliciting book reviews for its 2012 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...

Malcolm Gladwell's Law School Rankings

Posted on February 17, 2011
The New Yorker (Feb. 14, 2011): The Order of Things: What College Rankings Really Tell Us, by Malcom Gladwell [author of The Tipping Point (2000), Blink (2005), Outliers (2008)]: There's no direct way to measure the quality of an institution -- how well a college manages to inform, inspire, and...

Infanti: Decentralizing Family and Individual Tax Filing

Posted on February 17, 2011
Anthony C. Infanti (Pittsburgh) has published Decentralizing Family: An Inclusive Proposal for Individual Tax Filing in the United States, 2010 Utah L. Rev. 605. Here is the abstract: The debate in the United States over individual versus joint federal income tax filing is at something of a crossroads...

Law Students Experiencing Buyer?s Remorse

Posted on February 17, 2011
Texas Bar Journal (Feb. 2011), Texas Law Students Experiencing Buyer?s Remorse?: Law students across the nation seem to be experiencing buyer?s remorse, and Texas is no exception. With job prospects grim and student loan debt at an all-time high, this generation of students faces unprecedented difficulty in finding their footing...

Kaplow: Why (Ever) Define Markets?

Posted on February 17, 2011
Louis Kaplow (Harvard) has published Why (Ever) Define Markets?, 124 Harv. L. Rev. 437 (2010). Here is the abstract: Competition law is dominated by the market definition / market share paradigm, under which a relevant market is defined and pertinent market shares therein are examined in order to make inferences...

Avi-Yonah: Taxation as Regulation

Posted on February 17, 2011
Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan) has published Taxation as Regulation: Carbon Tax, Health Care Tax, Bank Tax and Other Regulatory Taxes, Accounting, Economics, and Law (Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Art. 6, 2011). Here is the abstract: This paper addresses three questions: 1...

MSNBC Calls Congressmen Who Sleep in Their Offices 'Tax Criminals'

Posted on February 17, 2011
Do Congressmen Who Sleep in Their Offices Receive a Taxable Fringe Benefit? (Feb. 12, 2011) Maule: The Tax Consequences of Congressional Sleepovers (Feb. 14, 2011) (Hat Tip: Michael Cahill.)

Scheve Presents Envy and Altruism in Hard Times Today at NYU

Posted on February 17, 2011
Kenneth Scheve (Yale University, Department of Political Science) presents Envy and Altruism in Hard Times at 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)...

McMahon: Taxing Tax Expenditures?

Posted on February 16, 2011
Martin J. McMahon Jr. (Florida) has published Taxing Tax Expenditures?, 130 Tax Notes 775 (Feb. 14, 2011): This report is a chapter from a coming book, The Proper Tax Base; Structural Fairness From an International and Comparative Perspective: Essays in Honor of Paul McDaniel, edited by Yariv Brauner and Martin...

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