Taxation & Estate Planning

UK Taxman Scares Off Sports Stars

Posted on January 19, 2010
The Sunday Times, Taxman Scares Off Top Sport Stars; New Rules Threaten to Drive Away Some of the Biggest Overseas Names from Showcase Events in Britain: Britain?s sporting calendar is in danger of being decimated by a new threat: a harsh tax regime blowing in from the government...

Monahan: Value-Based Mandated Health Benefits

Posted on January 19, 2010
Amy Monahan (Minnesota) has published Value-Based Mandated Health Benefits, 80 U. Col. L. Rev. 127 (2009). Here is the abstract: Mandated health benefit laws figure prominently in health reform debates. These laws, which are primarily enacted by the states, require health insurers to cover specific medical treatment, services, or supplies...

Should Congress Abolish the Joint Committee on Taxation?

Posted on January 19, 2010
Howard Gleckman (Urban Institue) asks Should Congress Abolish the Joint Committee on Taxation?: Should the Joint Committee on Taxation cede its key role as scorekeeper for tax bills to the Congressional Budget Office? A former boss of JCT suggests that maybe it should, at least for a big chunk of...

McMahon Presents U.K. Lessons for the U.S. in Eliminating the Marriage Penalty Today at Pittsburgh

Posted on January 19, 2010
Stephanie McMahon (Cincinnati) presents Tax Filing in the U.K.: A Guide for the U.S. When Eliminating the Marriage Penalty today at Pittsburgh as part of the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh Scholar Exchange Program. Here is the abstract: The United States is one of the last remaining countries that use the joint return for...

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After Paying $70m in Taxes, Nicolas Cage Owers IRS $14m More

Posted on January 18, 2010
People Magazine: Nicolas Cage Will Pay IRS $14 Million: Nicolas Cage is determined to get his financial house in order and to pay the IRS all that he owes in back taxes. While the government recently placed a tax lien on his real-estate holdings, including an additional $6...

Nicodème: Recent Developments in Fighting Harmful Tax Practices

Posted on January 18, 2010
Gaëtan Nicodème (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels) has published On Recent Developments in Fighting Harmful Tax Practices, 62 Nat'l Tax J. 755 (2009). Here is the abstract: The recent uncovered cases of tax evasion in the European Union and the United States have revived the fight against harmful tax practices...

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tax

Posted on January 18, 2010
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: reports on how some southern officials tried to use state tax laws to stop King and the nascent civil rights movement: "In Alabama, ... Governor John Patterson in early 1960 directed state revenue authorities to charge Martin Luther King, Jr...

Government Takeover of 401(k)s and IRAs?

Posted on January 18, 2010
Bloomberg reports that the Obama Administration is considering measures to encourage Americans to convert their 401(k)s and IRAs into Government-provided annuities. The story has attracted a lot of negative commentary in the blogosphere: Will Collier, Coming Soon: Substituting Government Annuities for Your 401(k)? The International Forecaster, IRA's and 401k's to...

Taylor: The Relevance of Faith Integration in Legal Education

Posted on January 17, 2010
Tax Prof Scott A. Taylor (University of St. Thomas) has posted The Relevance of Faith Integration in Legal Education: An Essay, 18 Nottingham L.J. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The purpose of this essay is to consider the question of whether faith integration in a legal education...

Law Prof Advice on 1L Grades

Posted on January 17, 2010
Michael Froomkin (Miami), IL Grades Amy Jarmon (Texas Tech), The Numbers Game Orin Kerr (George Washington), Thought on First-Year Law School Grades Lyrissa Lidsky (Florida), Emotional Distress and 1L Grades Jeff Yates (Binghamton University), First Year Grades -- The Saga Continues

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on January 17, 2010
This week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's list: 1. [271 Downloads] The Regulatory Systems for Employee Benefits, by Brian A. Benko (McDermott Will & Emery, Washington, D.C.) 2. [215 Downloads] Taxation of Credit Derivatives, by Lawrence Lokken (Florida) 3...

Gravelle: Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion

Posted on January 17, 2010
Jane G. Gravelle (Congressional Research Service) has published Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion, 62 Nat'l Tax J. 727 (2009). Here is the abstract: The federal government loses both individual and corporate income tax revenue from the shifting of profits and income into low-tax countries, often referred to as...

Clausing: Multinational Firm Tax Avoidance and Tax Policy

Posted on January 16, 2010
Kimberly A. Clausing (Reed College, Department of Economics) has published Multinational Firm Tax Avoidance and Tax Policy, 62 Nat'l Tax J. 703 (2009). Here is the abstract: This paper considers the tax policy consequences of both real and financial types of international tax avoidance, focusing on U...

Iowa Combined Reporting

Posted on January 16, 2010
Lindsay McAfee (J.D. 2010, Iowa) has published Note, Making Taxes More Certain: Iowa State Legislators? Guide to Combined Reporting, 95 Iowa L. Rev. 245 (2009). Here is the abstract: State corporate-income-tax revenues are declining for several reasons, and amidst one of the worst economic climates in history, state policymakers are...

IRS's e-file and Free File Open for Business

Posted on January 16, 2010
IR-2010-4, IRS e-file: IRS e-file, the popular electronic tax return delivery service used by two-thirds of the nation?s taxpayers, opens for business January 15 and marks 20 years of safely and securely transmitting nearly 800 million individual federal tax returns...

NY Times: BigLaw Associates in 'Existential Crisis'

Posted on January 16, 2010
New York Times, No Longer Their Golden Ticket, by Alex Williams: The Deep End,? a series that has its premiere on ABC this week, ... was conceived in 2007, that halcyon era of $160,000 starting salaries and full employment even for law grads who had scored in the 150s on...

USC Hosts Conference Today on America's Looming Fiscal Crisis

Posted on January 15, 2010
The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics host a conference today on Train Wreck: A Conference on America's Looming Fiscal Crisis at USC (webcast: morning, afternoon): This conference on the long-term fiscal crisis will bring together leading experts from a range of...

Mock & Tobin: The Constitutionality of the Health Insurance Tax

Posted on January 15, 2010
Rodney P. Mock & Jeffrey Tolin (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo -- Orfalea College of Business) have posted Purchase or Else: The Health Insurance "Tax", 126 Tax Notes 224 (Jan. 11, 2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: With the Affordable Health Care for America Act, H...

2010 Salary Guide for Accountants

Posted on January 15, 2010
Accounting Principals has released its 2010 Salary Guide for Accounting and Finance Professionals. Here are some sample salaries: Accountant: $43,000 Cost Accountant: $47,700 Tax Accountant: $48,600 Internal Auditor: $49,700 Senior Accountant: $62,500 Senior Cost Accountant: $68,100 Senior Internal Auditor: $72,300 Senior Tax Accountant: $74,000 Tax Supervisor: $77,800 Accounting Manager: $82,500...

46%-60% of Law School Class of 2013 Will Graduate With $120k Debt

Posted on January 15, 2010
Visualize Law projects that 46%-60% of the law school Class of 2013 will graduate with over $120,000 of debt: (Hat Tip: The Blackbook Legal Blog.)

Tennessee Tax Lawyer's Farewell to Lane Kiffin

Posted on January 15, 2010
I previously blogged the musical stylings of Tennessee Tax Lawyer Anne M. McKinney (Ballad of Timothy Geithner; Circular 230 Lament). Here is her Ballad of Lane Kiffin on his abrupt departure to USC:

Groups Seek Presidential Pardon for UBS Tax Whistleblower

Posted on January 15, 2010
The National Whistleblowers Center and other groups today sent a letter to President Obama requesting that UBS tax whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld, who began serving his prison sentence on Jan. 9, be given a presidential pardon: We ask that you issue a presidential pardon to UBS whistleblower Bradley Charles Birkenfeld, or...

CBPP: States Should Opt Out of § 199 Domestic Production Deduction

Posted on January 15, 2010
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities today released States Can Opt Out of the Costly and Ineffective ?Domestic Production Deduction? Corporate Tax Break: Over the past year, state revenue collections have dropped dramatically, creating large budget gaps for many states...

Hanson & Sullivan: The Incidence of Tobacco Taxation

Posted on January 15, 2010
Andrew Hanson (Georgia State University, Department of Economics) & Ryan Sullivan (Syracuse University, Department of Economics) have published The Incidence of Tobacco Taxation: Evidence from Geographic Micro-Level Data, 62 Nat'l Tax J. 677 (2009). Here is the abstract: This paper uses a recent increase in Wisconsin?s tobacco tax as a...

Monahan: The Relationship Between Taxes and Health Insurance

Posted on January 15, 2010
Amy Monahan (Minnesota) has posted The Complex Relationship between Taxes and Health Insurance on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Our current system of tax preferences for the purchase of health insurance and for unreimbursed medical expenses has few fans, particularly among economists...

ABA Tax Section Awards

Posted on January 15, 2010
The ABA Tax Section has announced the recipeints of the following awards to be given at the 2010 Midyear Meeting in San Antonio: Janet Spragens Pro Bono Award ("The Janet Spragens Pro Bono Award, named after the late American University Law professor who greatly contributed to ensuring representation for low-income...

The Lapsed Estate Tax's First Casualty

Posted on January 14, 2010
New York Post, Dying 13 Hrs. Too Soon Cost $3 Mil in Taxes: If Fritz Lohman had only known, he would have waited another 13 hours to kick the bucket. Lohman, 87, a SoHo real-estate magnate who pioneered the exhibition of gay art, died at home at about 11 a...

More on the U.S. News "Echo Chamber"

Posted on January 14, 2010
In our article, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83, 88 (2006), Bernie Black and I noted the phenomena of "Self-referential reputation: A school that does better (or worse) in U.S. News? overall rankings than in peer reputation tends, in the future, to do...

Acevedo: The SEC and GAAP

Posted on January 14, 2010
Arthur Acevedo (John Marshall) has posted The Fox and the Ostrich: Is GAAP a Game of Winks and Nods? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The fox is frequently described as sly, cunning and calculating in world literature. It is often associated with behavior that seeks advantage through trickery and...

Li & Weber: Taxes and Ex-Dividend Day Returns

Posted on January 14, 2010
Oliver Zhen Li (University of Arizona, Eller College of Management) & David P. Weber (University of Connecticut, School of Business) have published Taxes and Ex-Dividend Day Returns: Evidence From REITs, 62 Nat'l Tax J. 657 (2009). Here is the abstract: The distributions of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are comprised...

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