Taxation & Estate Planning

The Death of the State Death Tax Credit

Posted on August 03, 2009
Patrick R. Thiessen has published The Death of the State Death Tax Credit: Can It Be Resuscitated?, 10 Marq. Elder's Advisor 309 (2009).. Here is the Conclusion: By passing EGTRRA, Congress phased-out and repealed the state death tax credit system that had augmented state treasuries for eight decades...

ABA Releases Comment Letters

Posted on August 02, 2009
The ABA Tax Section and Real Property, Property & Trust Section have submitted comment letters on: Grantor Retained Income Trusts IRS Public Forum on Tax Return Preparer Review Federal Wealth Transfer Tax Reform Proposed § 6231(c) Regs on Conversion of Partnership Items to Nonpartnership Items

Davis and the Dormant Commerce Clause

Posted on August 02, 2009
Timothy J. Slattery (J.D. 2009, WIlliam & Mary) has published Note, The Dormant Commerce Clause: Adopting a New Standard and a Return to Principle. (Dep't of Revenue of Ky. v. Davis, 128 S.Ct. 1520, 2008), 17 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 1243 (2009). Here is the Conclusion: Current Dormant...

Fed. Cir. Invalidates

Posted on August 02, 2009
The Court of Federal Claims on Thursday invalidated the retroactive application of Reg. § 1.752-6, which required a partner to reduce her outside basis for contingent obligations transferred to a partnership. Murfam Farms LLC v. United States, No. 06-245T (Fed...

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Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on August 02, 2009
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. [315 Downloads] The Obama International Tax Plan: A Major Step Forward, by Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan) 2. [235 Downloads] Recent Developments...

Boulware and the Demise of the Miller Rule

Posted on August 01, 2009
Gurpreet Bal (J.D. 2009, Hastings) has published Note, Bringing it All Back Home: Boulware and the Unfortunate Demise of the Miller Rule, 5 Hastings Bus. L.J. 367 (2009). Here is the Introduction: For the ten-year period beginning in 1989, Michael Boulware siphoned income from his Hawaiian Isles Enterprises, for which...

Public Law Schools Raise Tuition to Offset State Budget Cuts and Endowment Losses

Posted on August 01, 2009
In next week's National Law Journal: At Public Law Schools, Tuition Jumps Sharply; Students May Pay as Much as 20% More at Some State Institutions, by Karen Sloan: Double-digit tuition increases loom for students at some of the country's top public law schools...

The Virtual Tax Library Receives Outstanding Article Award From AALL

Posted on August 01, 2009
The Virtual Tax Library: A Comparison of Five Electronic Tax Research Platforms, 8 Fla. Tax Rev. 931 (2008), by Katherine Pratt, Jennifer M. Kowal & Daniel Martin (all of Loyola-L.A.) received the Outstanding Article Award from the Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section (ALL-SIS) at this week's American Association of...

GM's Tax Shelter Not Avaialable to Other Car Makers (or Other Taxpayers)

Posted on August 01, 2009
Wall Street Journal editorial: GM?s Tax Shelter: Another $16 billion Not Available to Other Car Makers: As everyone else?s taxes rise, one favored outfit may not have to pay federal taxes for years: General Motors. In another sweet deal from its benefactors on Pennsylvania Avenue, the government-owned car company is...

Breakthrough Cincinnati

Posted on August 01, 2009
I spent a wonderful afternoon at graduation ceremonies at Breakthrough Cincinnati -- the local chapter of the nationwide Breakthrough Collaborative. The program provides six weeks of academic classes (math, science, English, history, and foreign languages) for inner city students from a faculty of high school and college students...

The Top 1% Pays More Income Tax Than the Bottom 95%

Posted on July 31, 2009
The Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Blog: Tax Burden of Top 1% Now Exceeds That of Bottom 95%, by Scott A. Hodge: Newly released data from the IRS clearly debunks the conventional Beltway rhetoric that the "rich" are not paying their fair share of taxes. Indeed, the IRS data shows that...

$1.6b Tax Break for Trial Lawyers

Posted on July 31, 2009
A pending bill in Congress would permit plaintiffs' lawyers to immediately deduct loans to clients to cover litigation expenses (rather than at the conclusion of the litigation), at a cost of $1.6 billion A Bill to Amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to Allow the Deduction of Attorney-Advanced Expenses...

Fed. Cir. Rejects Application of 6-Year SOL to Overstatement of Basis in Tax Shelter

Posted on July 31, 2009
The Government suffered a major tax shelter setback yesterday when a divided (2-1) Federal Circuit reversed the Court of Federal Claims and held that the extended six-year statute of limitations for issuing a final partnership administrative adjustment under § 6501(e)(1)(A) did not apply to the omission of more than 25%...

Rhode Island Threatens to Close 1,200 Businesses for Nonpayment of Taxes

Posted on July 31, 2009
Providence Journal: 1,200 R.I. Businesses Face Closure Over Sales Tax: State tax officials have put more than 1,200 businesses across the state on notice this week that they are out of business unless they pay their overdue sales taxes immediately. For most, that action came in the form of a...

Federal Tax Policies and Farm Households

Posted on July 31, 2009
Ron Durst (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service) has posted Federal Tax Policies and Farm Households on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Significant changes in Federal individual income and estate tax policies have occurred over the last 10 years...

Getting California Off the Tax Rollercoaster

Posted on July 31, 2009
San Diego Newsroom, Getting Off the Roller-Coaster: California?s Volatile Tax Base: As the governor signed California?s belabored budget this week and sleep-deprived Legislators agreed to cuts that would have previously been unthinkable, finger-pointing was in full force...

U.S., UBS Settle Tax Shelter Case

Posted on July 31, 2009
Associated Press Bloomberg Business Week Forbes New York Times Reuters Wall Street Journal WSJ Law Blog

Ex-BDO Partner Pleads Guilty in Tax Shelter Case

Posted on July 31, 2009
U.S. Attorney Press Release Information Bloomberg Going Concern New York Post New York Times

Fat Tax to Finance Health Care Reform?

Posted on July 31, 2009
Forbes: Fat Tax Could Be Panacea For Health Reform, by Brian Wingfield: One of the ways President Barack Obama hopes to reduce soaring health care costs is through the promotion of overall wellness. There's a related idea cooking in Washington: a fat tax...

Gingrich's Tax Reform Plan

Posted on July 30, 2009
Newt Gingrich's American Solutions For Winning the Future has launched a petition drive for Jobs Here. Jobs Now. Jobs First with four tax planks: Cut the Payroll Tax in Half for 2 Years. Every single working American pays the payroll tax. In this economy, many people may not get a...

Cain: DOMA and the Internal Revenue Code

Posted on July 30, 2009
Patricia Cain (Santa Clara) has posted DOMA and the Internal Revenue Code, 84 Chi-Kent L. Rev. ___ (2009), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the recognition of same-sex marriages for any purpose under federal tax law...

DePaul Accreditation Report

Posted on July 30, 2009
DePaul's accreditation report from the ABA is here. This is the portion of the report dealing with the disputed margin agreement between the law school and the university:

Tax Cheats Flock to IRS to Confess Their Sins

Posted on July 30, 2009
In today's Wall Street Journal: Tax Evaders Flock to IRS to Confess Their Sins, by Laura Saunders & Carrick Mollenkamp: Wealthy taxpayers have inundated the IRS in recent weeks with requests to come clean for past tax evasion, amid a government crackdown on undeclared income from overseas accounts...

W-K9: Individual Tax Return

Posted on July 30, 2009
Check out the Form W-K9, Individual Pet Tax Return: (Hat Tip: Lisa Milot.) Update: Leandra lederman passed along Form 1040-DOG.

Mehran & Suher: The Impact of Tax Law Changes on Banks

Posted on July 30, 2009
Hamid Mehran & Michael Suher (both of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York) have posted The Impact of Tax Law Changes on Bank Dividend Policy, Sell-Offs, Organizational Form and Industry Structure on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper investigates the effect at the bank and industry level of...

Michigan Grad Files Complaint With ABA Over Wolverine Program's LSAT-Free Admissions Policy

Posted on July 30, 2009
David Boyle has filed this 24-page complaint with the ABA, alleging that Michigan's Wolverine Scholars Program for admitting Michigan undergrads with a minimum 3.80 GPA if they agree to not take the LSAT violates several law school accreditation standards...

More Turmoil at DePaul

Posted on July 29, 2009
Three developments following yesterday's post, ABA Dismisses Complaints Over DePaul's Funding of Law School, Firing of Dean: 1. A DePaul faculty member shared with me a memo that ousted Dean Glen Weissenberger sent to the faculty in response to the ABA's action: From: Weissenberger, Glen Sent: Tue 7/28/2009 2:10 PM...

The Impact of Preparer Penalty Provisions on Tax Preparer Aggressiveness

Posted on July 29, 2009
Richard A. White & Victoria J. Glackin (both of the University of South Carolina, Moore School of Business) have posted An Investigation of the Impact of Preparer Penalty Provisions on Tax Preparer Aggressiveness on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Public and government outrage over recent tax fraud and tax shelter...

Somin: Can Moneyball Strategies Still Work for Law Schools?

Posted on July 29, 2009
As regular readers of this blog know, I have long been intrigued by the application of Moneyball principles to law schools, beginning with my article, What Law Schools Can Learn from Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics, 82 Tex. L. Rev. 1483 (2004). Ilya Somin (George Mason) has a great...

Why Dwayne Wade Won't Sign With the Chicago Bulls: State Taxes

Posted on July 29, 2009
Taxing Dilemma for NBA's 2010 Free Agents, by Sam Smith: With increasing taxes geared to the wealthy and the Bush tax cuts also coming off the books, it may be that the low tax states like Florida and Texas begin to have a big advantage over higher tax states when...

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