Taxation & Estate Planning

Snyder: The Law of Frivolity and Pro Se Taxpayers

Posted on July 21, 2009
John B. Snyder, III (Baltimore) has published Barbarians at the Gate?: The Law of Frivolity as Illuminated by Pro Se Tax Protest Cases, 54 Wayne L. Rev. 1249 (2008). Here is the Conclusion: Ultimately, the law of frivolity is a double-edged sword. At its best, it preserves the integrity of...

TaxProf Blog Passes 7,500,000 Visitor Milestone

Posted on July 21, 2009
This morning, TaxProf Blog passed the 7,500,000 visitor milestone, after just five years in operation. I am proud that TaxProf Blog is the most-visited law-focused blog edited by a single law professor. I am delighted that so many tax professors and students, tax lawyers in private practice and government, accountants,...

Columbia Journal of Tax Law Seeks Articles

Posted on July 20, 2009
I previously blogged the launch of the Columbia Journal of Tax Law, with the inaugural issue slated for November 2009. Editor-in-chief is Suyash Paliwal has asked me to pass along the following information to the tax community: The vision of the Journal is to be a forum that brings together...

Epps: A Tipping Point for Law Schools?

Posted on July 20, 2009
National Law Journal: A Tipping Point for Law Schools? It's Time to Reassess How Lawyers Are Taught and Specifically Consider Whether More Practical Training Is Needed, by Joanne A. Epps (Dean, Temple): Few professions have been spared in the current economic crisis, with the business of law unquestionably among the...

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Alexander & Luna: How Investors Respond to Disclosures: The Case of 529 College Savings Plans

Posted on July 20, 2009
Raquel Meyer Alexander (University of Kansas, Department of Accounting) & LeAnn Luna (University of Tennessee, Department of Accounting) have posted How Investors Respond to Disclosures: The Case of 529 College Savings Plans on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We examine a new government-sponsored investment vehicle available only to individual investors,...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on July 20, 2009
Saturday: Make Congress Pay the Surtax CBPP: House Surtax on Wealthy Is Fair, Won't Hurt Small Businesses Bartlett: Robin Hood Tax Policy Preferential Capital Gain Treament of Private Equity Managers' Carried Interests Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads Lawyer Faces Criminal Contempt for Mentioning Plaintiff's Tax-Motivated Cayman Islands Incorporation During...

Toni Braxton

Posted on July 20, 2009
Singers Toni Braxton and Foxy Brown both have had tax liens filed against them.

IRS Lacks Data to Effectively Monitor Paid Preparers

Posted on July 20, 2009
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released Inadequate Data on Paid Preparers Impedes Effective Oversight (2009-40-098): One of the IRS? key objectives in its 2009?2013 Strategic Plan is to ensure that preparers adhere to professional standards and follow the law...

Former Florida Med School Dean Gets $517k Settlement After Allegedly Sending Emails to Job Applicants Trashing University

Posted on July 20, 2009
The Gainesville Sun: Amid Barrage of Harsh E-mails, Ex-Med School Dean Kone Resigns, Gets Settlement, by Nathan Crabbe: Former University of Florida College of Medicine dean Dr. Bruce Kone has resigned from UF and will receive $517,000 over three years as part of a settlement reached with the university just...

IRS Agent Threatens to Kill Treasury Department Investigators

Posted on July 20, 2009
IRS agent Albert Bront, 49, of Valencia, California, screamed ?I?m going to kill all of you!? when U.S. Treasury agents served a search warrant at his home as part of an investigation into whether Mr. Bront had filed false tax return. He is being held without bail pending a July...

'Teaching Naked' at SMU

Posted on July 20, 2009
In this week's Chronicle of Higher Education: When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom, by Jeffrey Young: College leaders usually brag about their tech-filled "smart" classrooms, but a dean at Southern Methodist University is proudly removing computers from lecture halls...

WSJ: IRS Uses FBAR to Get Tougher on Offshore Tax Evaders

Posted on July 20, 2009
Wall Street Journal: IRS Gets Tougher on Offshore Tax Evaders, by Laura Sanders: The IRS has stepped up scrutiny of offshore accounts and foreign income, an enforcement campaign that could sweep up tens of thousands of taxpayers. ... The IRS is using a once-obscure tax form called the Foreign Bank...

The Most (and Least) Productive State Higher Education Systems

Posted on July 19, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed report on a new study that measures the productivity of each state's higher education system. The study from the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity, and Accountability ranks the fifty states by comparing the median earnings of people at each...

Tax Incentives for Education

Posted on July 19, 2009
Bradley R. Palmer (J.D. 2010, Louisville) has published Note, Uncle Sam, Tuition Costs, and the Changing Economy: Tax Incentives for Education Expenses and How to Improve Them, 38 J.L. & Educ. 345 (2009). Here is the Introduction: In the past dozen years, Congress has twice created new means of reducing...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on July 19, 2009
There is quite a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with new papers debuting on the list at #4 and #5: 1. [472 Downloads] Now You See it, Now You Don't: Exiting a Partnership and Making Gain Disappear, by Howard Abrams...

Lawyer Faces Criminal Contempt for Mentioning Plaintiff's Tax-Motivated Cayman Islands Incorporation During Voir Dire

Posted on July 19, 2009
In a patent case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham IV ordered counsel for the defendant, Beyond Innovation Technology Co. ("BiTEK"), to not say anything about the tax motivation for the Cayman Islands home of the plaintiff, O2 Micro. One of BiTEK's lawyers, James Van Loben Sels (Wayne, Hartmann, Gibbs &...

Bartlett: Robin Hood Tax Policy

Posted on July 18, 2009
Forbes: Robin Hood Tax Policy, by Bruce Bartlett: This week, House Democrats proposed that most of the funding for their health reform plan should come from an income tax surcharge of 1% on those earning between $350,000 and $500,000; 1.5% on those with incomes between $500,000 and $1 million; and...

Preferential Capital Gain Treament of Private Equity Managers' Carried Interests

Posted on July 18, 2009
Michael R. Pieczonka (LL.M. (Tax) 2010, John Marshall-Chicago) has published Comment, The Largest Loophole in Federal Tax Law: Preferential Capital Gain Treatment for Private Equity and Hedge Fund Managers' Carried Interests, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 529 (2009)...

Make Congress Pay the Surtax

Posted on July 18, 2009
Dow Jones, House Democrat: Lawmakers Should Also Pay Surtax, by Martin Vaughan: House Democratic leaders want to tax the rich to pay for universal health care, but one House Democrat is seeking to have members of Congress chip in out of their own pockets...

CBPP: House Surtax on Wealthy Is Fair, Won't Hurt Small Businesses

Posted on July 18, 2009
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released House Health Bill?s High-Income Surcharge: A Reasonable Approach; Impact on Small Businesses Would Be Modest, by Chuck Marr: The House surcharge proposal is reasonable and well-targeted. In recent decades, incomes have grown disproportionately for households at the top of the income...

GAO: Use State Licensing Requirements to Reduce Federal Tax Gap

Posted on July 17, 2009
GAO, Opportunities Exist to Improve Tax Compliance of Applicants for State Business Licenses Senate Finance Committee, Baucus, Grassley Call for Federal?State Cooperation in Imrpoving Tax Compliance; GAO Report Suggests Opportunities Exist to Enforce Federal Tax Compliance Through Business Licensing Forbes, Should Tax Cheats Be Denied Business Licenses? Web CPA, State...

Two Former Ave Maria Faculty Settle Lawsuit Against School

Posted on July 17, 2009
Naples News: Ave Maria Law School Settles Lawsuits With Two Former Professors: Two former Ave Maria School of Law professors have settled their employment claims against the school, its founding dean and its primary benefactor, the professors? attorney said Thursday...

Pasquale: House's 5.4% Income Tax Surcharge Is Not Progressive Enough

Posted on July 17, 2009
Frank Pasquale (Seton Hall), Is the House?s Proposed Health Surcharge Progressive Enough?: Beneath all the sturm und drang about soaking the rich, the press should focus on three underlying realities. First, income and wealth vastly increased at the top of the distribution over the past thirty years ? in part...

National Review: Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearing Reveals Misguided Law School World

Posted on July 17, 2009
National Review: Law Schools' Ward Churchill Moment: Sotomayor Has Exposed the Misguided World of Academic Legal Theory, by Heather MacDonald: Sonia Sotomayor's shameless repudiation in the Senate of her past statements on gender, race, and judging is not just hypocritical, it is a lost opportunity...

Tax in ASEAN and China Conference

Posted on July 17, 2009
The Australian Taxation Studies Program (Atax), University of New South Wales, hosts the Tax in ASEAN and China Conference today in Sydney, Australia: This one day conference brings together leading scholars from Australia and the region with an interest in taxation in China and the ASEAN region...

What Caused Loyola-L.A.'s Fall in the U.S. News Rankings?

Posted on July 17, 2009
Brian Leiter reports on the plunge in Loyola L.A.'s academic reputation score from 2.6 in the 2009 U.S. News rankings (tied with Cincinnati, Houston, Indiana-Indianapolis, Rutgers-Camden, Rutgers-Newark, and Santa Clara) to 2.3 in the 2010 U.S. News rankings (tied with LSU, Louisville, Maine, Mercer, Mississippi, Missouri-Kansas City, New York Law...

Burke: The Sound and and Fury of Carried Interest Reform

Posted on July 17, 2009
Karen C. Burke (San Diego) has posted Commentary: The Sound and Fury of Carried Interest Reform on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Of all the Subchapter K reform proposals advanced in recent years, perhaps none has generated more acrimony and confusion than the pending carried interest legislation contained in proposed...

The Value of a U.S. News Top 50 Ranking

Posted on July 17, 2009
Robert Morse, Director of Data Research at U.S. News & World Report, blogs a new paper by Nicholas A. Bowman (Notre Dame) & Michael N. Bastedo (Michigan), Getting on the Front Page: Organizational Reputation, Status Signals, and the Impact of U.S. News and World Report on Student Decisions: First, moving...

House Committee Approves Health Care Reform Bill With Surtax on the "Wealthy"

Posted on July 17, 2009
Early this morning, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 23-18 to approve H.R. 3200, America?s Affordable Health Choices Act, which includes a $540 billion surtax on the "wealthy" and several other tax increases. All 15 committee Republicans voted against the bill, as did three Democrats (Ron Kind (Wis...

Houston Business & Tax Law Journal Symposium on White Collar Crime & Tax Fraud

Posted on July 16, 2009
The Houston Business & Tax Law Journal has published a symposium issue on White Collar Crime: Issues in Tax Fraud (Vol. 9, No. 2): Geraldine Szott Moohr (Houston), Introduction: Tax Evasion as White Collar Fraud, 9 Hous. Bus. & Tax L.J. 208 (2009) Stuart P...

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