Taxation & Estate Planning

Foundation Press Publishes Property Stories, 2d ed.

Posted on April 14, 2009
Foundation Press has published Property Stories (2d ed. 2009), edited by Gerald Korngold (New York Law School) & Andrew P. Morriss (Illinois): This title provides a law student with an enriched understanding of fifteen leading property cases. It focuses on...

Who Pays Federal Taxes?

Posted on April 14, 2009
Following up on last week's post, TPC Hosts Conference on Who Pays Federal Taxes?: the Tax Policy Center has posted thirteen graphs from the conference: Average Pretax Household Income by Income Percentile, 1979-2005 Average Pretax Household Income by Income Percentile,...

TIGTA, DOJ Release Tax Reports

Posted on April 14, 2009
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released these reports: Statistical Portrayal of the Criminal Investigation Division?s Enforcement Activities for Fiscal Years 2000 Through 2008 (2009-30-053) A Documented Comprehensive Strategy Is Needed to Focus Efforts on Ensuring Compliance by...

Tip for Colorado Tax Profs: Go Easy When You Call on This Student

Posted on April 14, 2009

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Northwestern to

Posted on April 14, 2009
Chicago Tribune: Northwestern to Let Law School Grads With Deferred Jobs Postpone Loan Payments: Northwestern University Law School is trying to ease the pain of graduating students who face short-term unemployment because their jobs have been deferred...

Why Do Female Tax Profs Do Better in the SSRN Rankings Than Their Nontax Counterparts?

Posted on April 13, 2009
Sonja Starr (Maryland) has an interesting post, Women and SSRN: A few weeks ago, out of idle curiosity, I clicked on the SSRN ?Top Law Authors? list. The list ranks authors by ?total new downloads? of all of their pieces....

The Taxing Life of a Pro Athlete

Posted on April 13, 2009
L.A. Times: The Taxing Life of a Pro Athlete: If opening day is the best day of the year for professional athletes, then April 15 -- tax day -- is probably the worst. Especially now that 20 of the 24...

Tax Court: Digital Option Spread Transaction Lacked Economic Substance

Posted on April 13, 2009
New Phoenix Corp. v. Commissioner, 132 T.C. No. 9 (Apr. 9, 2009). (Hat Tip: John Colvin, Richard Jacobus.)

The Obama Estate Tax Would Impact 6,160 Estates (and 100 Farms and Small Businesses) in 2011

Posted on April 13, 2009
TaxVox: Number of Taxable Estates by State, 2011, by Len Burman: We estimated that in 2011, there would be 6,160 taxable estates of which about 100 would be small farms and businesses. Here are the Top 5: California: 1,286 taxable...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on April 13, 2009
Saturday: Martha Stewart's Daughter Sues CPA After Getting $1m Tax Bill Call for Tax Papers: Critical Perspectives on Taxation Zelinsky: Obama Embraces Defined Contribution Paradigm The Tax Consequences of Catching Home Run Baseballs Sunday: Survivor Argentina: Richard Hatch Wants to...

Crawford: Tax Avatars

Posted on April 13, 2009
Bridget J. Crawford (Pace) has published Tax Avatars, 2008 Utah L. Rev. 793. Here is the abstract: Anyone who has spent time in cyberspace understands the concept of an alter ego. In online games, chat rooms and on the internet...

125 Associates Accept Skadden's Offer: 1 Year Off at 1/3 Pay

Posted on April 13, 2009
ABA Journal: Associate Plans a Year of Travel, Thanks to Skadden's No-Strings-Attached Offer Above the Law: Skadden's Sidebar: Phase One Complete Financial Times: The Economics of Paying People Not to Work New York Times: $80,000 for a Year Off? She'll...

Top 10 Reasons to Scrap the Tax Code

Posted on April 13, 2009
Top Ten Reasons to Scrap the Code: Adam Smith famously noted in the Wealth of Nations that complex tax codes are "more burdensome to the people than they are beneficial to the sovereign." Our tax code is broken. It's unfair,...

AAUP Releases Annual Faculty Salaries Report

Posted on April 13, 2009
AAUP Press Release AAUP 2008-09 Report on the Economic Status of the Profession AAUP List of Tables and Figures AAUP Individual University Data Chronicle of Higher Education: Professors' Pay Raises Beat Inflation; So Much for the Good News Inside Higher...

Fleischer: Everyone Should Pay Income Taxes

Posted on April 13, 2009
Op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal: Everyone Should Pay Income Taxes; It's Bad For Our Democracy to Exempt Half the Country, by Ari Fleischer: If you thought Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme was bad, wait until you hear about the inverted...

The Income Elasticity of Gross Casino Revenues

Posted on April 13, 2009
Mark W. Nichols & Mehmet Serkan Tosunhave (both of the University of Nevada-Reno, Department of Economics) have published The Income Elasticity of Gross Casino Revenues: Short?Run and Long?Run Estimates, 61 Nat'l Tax J. 635 (2008). Here is the abstract: We...

Where Do Our

Posted on April 13, 2009
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go?: Where Do Our State Tax Dollars Go?:

For Anyone With Parents or Grandparents in Florida

Posted on April 12, 2009
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c Dirty Bird Special thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Survivor Argentina: Richard Hatch Wants to Serve Supervised Release in Buenos Aires

Posted on April 12, 2009
Richard Hatch, the first winner of the CBS reality TV show "Survivor," has filed a petition seeking to alter the terms of his supervised release from prison where he is serving his conviction for failing to pay taxes on his...

WSJ: Ten States Ponder Tax Increases; NYC to 12.62% Top Rate?

Posted on April 12, 2009
Front page story: More States Look to Raise Taxes: A free fall in tax revenue is driving more state lawmakers to turn to broad-based tax increases in a bid to close widening budget gaps. At least 10 states are considering...

Bartlett: Tax Tea Parties Misstate U.S. Tax Burden

Posted on April 12, 2009
Forbes: Tax Tea Party Time?, by Bruce Bartlett: To protest the allegedly high level of taxation in the United States, various right-wing groups are organizing tea parties around the country [for April 15] in the spirit of the Boston Tea...

Zelinsky: Obama Embraces Defined Contribution Paradigm

Posted on April 11, 2009
Oxford University Press Blog: President Obama Embraces the Defined Contribution Paradigm, by Edward A. Zelinsky (Cardozo): Many important decisions are embedded in the federal budget proposed by President Obama. Among these are the President?s embrace of the defined contribution paradigm...

The Tax Consequences of Catching Home Run Baseballs

Posted on April 11, 2009
Michael Halper (J.D. 2009, Case Western) has published Note, The Tax Ramifications of Catching Home Run Baseballs, 59 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 191 (2008). Here is the Conclusion: [T]he combination of current tax law and IR-98-56 is either suspect,...

NY Post: Martha Stewart's Daughter Sues CPA After IRS Hits Her With $1 Mil Tax Bill After Audit

Posted on April 11, 2009
New York Post: Matha's Kid Paid $1 Mil for Tax "Goof": Martha Stewart's daughter had her own run-in with the feds - she had to shell out almost $900,000 in back taxes and a $110,000 fine after an IRS audit,...

Call for Tax Papers: Critical Perspectives on Taxation

Posted on April 11, 2009
See details here.

NY Times & WSJ

Posted on April 10, 2009
New York Times: Guarding the Family Fortune: Last week, ... 10 Democrats in the Senate joined all 41 Republican senators to cut estate taxes for the wealthiest families. ... With economic pain and suffering on the rise, how do the...

Why "Will Never Die"

Posted on April 10, 2009
Robert Morse, Director of Data Research at U.S. News & World Report, blogs: Why College Rankings "Will Never Die": [Kevin Carey (Policy Director, Education Sector), College Rankings Will Never Die, Chronicle of Higher Education]: Carey's thesis is that the process...

Who Games SSRN Download Counts?

Posted on April 10, 2009
Benjamin G. Edelman (Harvard Business School) & Ian Larkin (Harvard Business School) have posted Demographics, Career Concerns or Social Comparison: Who Games SSRN Download Counts? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We use a unique database of every SSRN paper...

More on The Law School 100 Rankings

Posted on April 10, 2009
In last week's post on the revised The Law School 100: The Best Law Schools in the United States (2009-2010), I said: Although the site claims that the ranking is "based on qualitative, rather than quantitative, criteria," there is no...

Graham & Kim: Impact of the NOL Carryback Period on Marginal Corporate Tax Rates

Posted on April 10, 2009
John R. Graham (Duke University, Fuqua School of Business) & Hyunseob Kim (Duke University, Fuqua School of Busines) have posted The Effects of the Length of the Tax-Loss Carryback Period on Tax Receipts and Corporate Marginal Tax Rates on SSRN....

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