Taxation & Estate Planning

TIGTA: 15% of IRS Contractors Are Tax Deadbeats

Posted on January 10, 2011
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Federal Guidelines Do Not Prohibit the Awarding of Contracts to Contractors With Delinquent Tax Liabilities (2010-30-120): The IRS does not annually verify that government contractors have paid Federal taxes, despite a presidential directive that contractors with serious tax delinquencies not receive...

Elkins: Mark-to-Market Taxation of Publicly-Traded Securities

Posted on January 10, 2011
David Elkins (Netanaya College School of Law, Israel; Visiting Professor, SMU) has published The Myth of Realization: Mark-to-Market Taxation of Publicly-Traded Securities, 10 Fla. Tax Rev. 375 (2010). Here is part of the abstract: Although a serious deviation from the pure concept of income, [realization] was adopted as a means...

Texas A&M Applies Pay-for-Performance Model to Faculty

Posted on January 10, 2011
Wall Street Journal editorial, Grading the Ivory Towers: Texas A&M Shocks the Professoriate With Cost-Benefit Analysis: There's a memorable scene in the movie "Ghostbusters" when Dan Akroyd says in horror to Bill Murray after they lose their jobs at a university: "I've worked in the private sector...

Geographic Desegregation and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit

Posted on January 10, 2011
J. William Callison (Faegre & Benson, Denver) has published Achieving Our Country: Geographic Desegregation and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, 19 S. Cal. Rev. L. & Soc. Just. 213 (2010). Here is part of the Introduction: This Article proceeds as follows: Part II details the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (?LIHTC?)...

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IRS Releases 2010 Taxpayer Attitude Survey

Posted on January 10, 2011
The IRS Oversight Board today released the results of its 2010 Taxpayer Attitude Survey of 1,000 respondents. This is the ninth year the board has conducted the survey. How much, if any, do you think is an acceptable amount to cheat on your income taxes? A little here and there,...

Galle & Klick: The AMT as a Counter-Cyclical Fiscal Stabilizer

Posted on January 10, 2011
Brian D. Galle (Boston College) & Jonathan Klick (Penn) have published Recessions and the Social Safety Net: The Alternative Minimum Tax as a Counter-Cyclical Fiscal Stabilizer, 63 Stan. L. Rev. 187 (2010), Here is the abstract: As recent events illustrate, state finances are procyclical: during recessions, state revenues crash, worsening...

The Tax Consequences of Vows of Poverty

Posted on January 09, 2011
Samira Alic Omerovic (J.D. 2011, Boston College) has published Note, Improper Taxation of the Vowed Religious: How Glenshaw Glass Principles Can Reestablish Horizontal Equity, 51 B.C. 1247 (2010). Here is the abstract: The 1955 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Commissioner v...

The Wash Sale Rules and Exchange-Traded Funds

Posted on January 09, 2011
Garrett M. Fischer (J.D. 2011, Washington University) has published Note, New Twists on an Old Plot: Investors Look to Avoid the Wash Sale Rule by Harvesting Tax Losses with Exchange-Traded Funds, 88 Wash. U. L. Rev. 229 (2010). Here is the Introduction: On October 7, 2007, all seemed well on...

July 2010 California Bar Exam Results

Posted on January 09, 2011
The July 2010 California bar passage rates by school are out. For first-time takers, the overall pass rates were 68.3% for all takers and 75.2% for graduates of the twenty California ABA-approved law schools. The results by gender: Female: 68.3% overall, 75...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on January 09, 2011
SSRN has not updated its top downloads listing, so this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's list: 1. [523 Downloads] 2010 Federal Tax Update, by Samuel A. Donaldson (U. Washington) 2. [332 Downloads] Oy Yes, the Healthcare Penalty is Unconstitutional,...

Financial-Industry Tax Law Reforms in the Wake of the Financial Crisis

Posted on January 08, 2011
Richard T. Page (Tax LL.M. 2011, Georgetown) has published Comment, Foolish Revenge or Shrewd Regulation? Financial-Industry Tax Law Reforms Proposed in the Wake of the Financial Crisis, 85 Tul. L. Rev. 191 (2010). Here is the abstract: This Comment evaluates four recent proposals to reform tax laws affecting the financial...

'B-School Faculty Are the Big Winners in the Rankings Game'

Posted on January 08, 2011
Robert Morse (Director of Data Research, U.S. News & World Report), Undergrad Business Rankings Have Positive Effect on B-Schools: The U.S. News undergraduate business school rankings are having a number of "very positive outcomes that can favorably affect the nature of undergraduate business programs...

Repetti & Schneider Elected to AALS Tax Section Leadership Roles

Posted on January 08, 2011
Kudos to Jim Repetti (Boston College), the new Chair of the AALS Tax Section, and Dan Schneider (Northern Illinois), the new member of the Executive Committee, who were unanimously elected to their positions at the business portion of Thursday's section meeting.

The 'Lord Voldemort' of Legal Education Takes on Faculty Tenure

Posted on January 08, 2011
National Law Journal, 'Voldemort' Attempts to Salve Worries That ABA Might Drop Tenure Requirement: A colleague, Santa Clara University School of Law Dean Donald Polden said, called him the "Lord Voldemort of legal education." Polden is chairman of an ABA committee that is reviewing, and considering scrapping, what many assumed...

Schumacher: The IRS's Administrative Process in Innocent Spouse Cases

Posted on January 07, 2011
Scott Schumacher (U. Washington) has published Innocent Spouse, Administrative Process: Time for Reform,130 Tax Notes 113 (Jan. 3, 2011): This article examines the administrative process the IRS uses in innocent spouse cases. The author argues that the way the IRS reviews these cases, as well as the substantive rules that...

Sen. Grassley Releases Review of Tax Issues Raised by Media-based Ministries

Posted on January 07, 2011
Senator Charles Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, yesterday released his review of tax issues raised by six media-based ministries. From his press release: Grassley wrote to six media-based ministries in November 2007, based on requests for review from members of the public who wrote to him because...

AALS 'Hot Topics' Panel on Taxing Internet Sales

Posted on January 07, 2011
Several Tax Profs participated in a "Hot Topics" panel yesterday at the AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco on Taxing Internet Sales: The Battle Between States and Retailers: David Gamage (UC-Berkeley) Andrew Haile (Elon) Randle Pollard (Widener) Darien Shanske (UC-Hastings) John Swain (Arizona) Buying goods over the internet has become...

Why Liberals Want Higher Taxes

Posted on January 07, 2011
(Hat Tip: Legal Insurrection.)

Should Faculty Live With Their Students?

Posted on January 07, 2011
Inside Higher Ed, 'Living as They Live': To invoke the image of a typical residence hall at a public university is to conjure pictures (or memories, perhaps) of cinder block high-rises packed with students living cheek-by-jowl for maximum cost efficiency...

Obama Weighs Tax Reform Push in State of the Union Address

Posted on January 07, 2011
Bloomberg, Obama Enters Political, Economic Quandary as He Weighs U.S. Tax Overhaul, by Ryan J. Donmoyer & Rich Miller: President Barack Obama and his economic team are torn over whether to make overhauling the tax system a priority or relegate it to a brief mention in his annual State of...

Witches Rage Against Income Tax, Using Cat Excrement

Posted on January 07, 2011

Tax Profs Craig Boise, Beverly Moran Named Dean Finalists at Cleveland State

Posted on January 07, 2011
Tax Profs Craig Boise (DePaul) and Beverly Moran (Vanderbilt) are two of the four finalists for the Deanship at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. The other two finalists are former Ohio Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher and Daniel Hamilton (Illinois)...

Elizabeth Edwards' Will Leaves Everything to Kids, Does Not Mention John

Posted on January 07, 2011
Elizabeth Edwards' will, signed six days before her December 7 death, is here. The will leaves her $1.5 million estate ($496,000 in personal property and $1 million in real property) to her three children. The will does not mention her husband, John Edwards...

2011 ABA Blawg 100 Results

Posted on January 07, 2011
Kudos to my fellow blogger in the Law Professor Blogs Network, Gerry Beyer (Texas Tech), whose Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog was voted the top blawg in the Law Prof Plus category in the ABA Journal's 2011 Blawg 100 -- "the 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers,"...

AALS Panel Today on Taxation in Developing Countries

Posted on January 06, 2011
Today is the first full day of the AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The Section on Taxation is hosting a program from 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Taxation in Developing Countries: Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan) (Moderator) Kimberley R. Brooks (McGill) Karen B...

New House 'Cut-As-You Go' Rules Take Business Tax Increases Off the PAYGO Table

Posted on January 06, 2011
Bloomberg, Oil Companies, Buyout Firms Avoid Tax Hits With New House Rules: The oil companies, multinational corporations and private-equity managers that fought off tax increases over the past four years can breathe easier. New rules that the Republican-led House of Representatives will adopt today make it less likely that Congress...

Pew Launches Tax Expenditure Database

Posted on January 06, 2011
The Pew Economic Policy Group has launched the Tax Expenditure Database: Pew?s Subsidyscope presents a first-of-its-kind database of federal tax expenditure estimates from the Department of Treasury (Treasury) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT)...

Alesina & Passarelli: Regulation Versus Taxation

Posted on January 06, 2011
Alberto Alesina (Harvard University, Department of Economics) & Francesco Passarelli (University of Teramo and Bocconi University) have posted Regulation Versus Taxation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We study which policy tool and at what level would be chosen by majority voting to reduce negative externalities, such as pollution...

ABA Hosts Webcast Today on Planning Under the New Estate Tax Law

Posted on January 06, 2011
The ABA Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section offers a teleconference and webcast today on Planning with the TRA 2010 Transfer Tax Rules: The Sun Has Risen from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EST: The dust is settling on the flurry of year-end estate planning activity resulting from the Tax...

Top 10 2010 Tax Highs and Lows

Posted on January 06, 2011
Forbes, 2010 IRS Milestones, by Robert W. Wood (Wood & Porter, San Francisco): I?ve been watching the tax world for 30 years, and here?s my own not very scientific list of 10 highs and lows we taxpayers saw in 2010, mostly from the IRS, but some from our elected representatives...

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