Taxation & Estate Planning

Christmas Gifts for that Special Tax Person

Posted on December 21, 2010
Available on eBay: Mortimer Caplin IRS Commissioner Signed Autograph: This is an authentic hand signed item and is NOT a preprint. Buy It Now price: $9.99. From Wikipedia: First in his class at University of Virginia School of Law, and Editor-in-Chief of Virginia Law Review, Caplin served as a law...

Fundamental Tax Reform in the 111th Congress

Posted on December 21, 2010
Chaka Fattah (Member, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Pa.)) has published Deja Vu All Over Again: Reexamining Fundamental Tax Reform and Evaluating the Feasibility of a Transaction Tax in the 111th Congress. 47 Harv. J. on Legis. 327 (2010). Here is the abstract: Few issues have been the subject of more...

Gazur: An Arm's Length Solution to the Shareholder Loan Tax Puzzle

Posted on December 21, 2010
Wayne M. Gazur (Colorado) has published An Arm's Length Solution to the Shareholder Loan Tax Puzzle, 40 Seton Hall L. Rev. 407 (2010). Here is part of the Introduction: This Article proposes the substitution of a hypothetical, arm's length, third-party lender test for the multiple-factor classification test...

West Ordered to Pay $5.2m to Two Law Profs in Dispute Over Treatise

Posted on December 21, 2010
I previously blogged (links below) the lawsuit by David Rudovsky (Penn) and Leonard N. Sosnov (Widener) against West, claiming that they were falsely identified as the authors of a poorly researched ?sham? supplement to their treatise, Pennsylvania Practice: Criminal Procedure Law, Commentary and Forms...

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Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee's Tax Opportunity

Posted on December 21, 2010
Wall Street Journal, Sara Lee's Businesses, Tax Bind Stir Takeover Interest: In the past five years, Sara Lee Corp., once a hodgepodge of consumer brands, has narrowed its focus to food. But its businesses, which range from Douwe Egberts coffee to Hillshire Farm deli meats, still have little in common,...

NY Times: Is Going to an Elite College Worth the Cost?

Posted on December 21, 2010
New York Times, Is Going to an Elite College Worth the Cost?: The sluggish economy and rising costs of college have only intensified questions about whether expensive, prestigious colleges make any difference. Do their graduates make more money? Get into better professional programs? Make better connections? And are they more...

Tax Policy to Fuel Coming Iraq Economic Boom

Posted on December 21, 2010
Wall Street Journal op-ed, The Coming Iraqi Business Boom, by Bartle Bull: Driven by what many geologists consider the world's largest oil reserves, Iraq will probably be the world's biggest crude oil producer within a decade. ... [A]s Iraq's oil production rises, its economy could grow approximately six-fold over the...

San Diego Dean Finalists

Posted on December 21, 2010
Robert B. Ahdieh (Associate Dean of Faculty & Professor of Law and Director, Center on Federalism & Intersystemic Governance, Emory University School of Law) Nicholas W. Allard (Partner and Co-Chair, Public Policy & Administrative Law Department, Patton Boggs, Washington, D...

Oregon's Millionaires' Tax Drives Millionaires Out of State

Posted on December 21, 2010
Wall Street Journal editorial, Ducking Higher Taxes: Oregon's Vanishing Millionaires: Oregon raised its income tax on the richest 2% of its residents last year to fix its budget hole, but now the state treasury admits it collected nearly one-third less revenue than the bean counters projected...

Johnston: How History Can Inform the Tax Debate

Posted on December 20, 2010
David Cay Johnston has published Reasons, Rules, and Riots: Our Societal Panic,129 Tax Notes 1389 (Dec. 20, 2010): Johnston shows how lessons from history can inform our chaotic tax debate. All Tax Analysts content is available through the LexisNexis® services.

2011 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Which Students Study the Most (and Least)?

Posted on December 20, 2010
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in eleven categories posted on Princeton Review's web site in connection with its publication of the 2011 edition of Best 172 Law Schools (with the University of Cincinnati College of Law again on the cover)...

Christmas Gifts for that Special Tax Person

Posted on December 20, 2010
1969 magazine ad: Face the IRS with a Coke in Your Hand ($9.99):

Thaler: It?s Time to Rethink the Charity Deduction

Posted on December 20, 2010
New York Times op-ed, It?s Time to Rethink the Charity Deduction, by Richard H. Thaler (University of Chicago, Booth School of Business): Now that Congress has actually managed to enact tax legislation, it may be time to consider some bigger issues. I hope that broad-based tax reform will be high...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on December 20, 2010
Saturday: Kleinbard: The Health Care Law Is Constitutional (Still) IRS Agent Charged With Stealing $160k of Tax Refunds NYSBA Releases Tax Reports Virtual World, Real Taxes Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads Tax Lawyer 'Lap Dance Lou' Disbarred for Promoting Prostitution at Strip Bar More on the Obama-GOP Tax Bill...

IRS Releases Revised Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax

Posted on December 20, 2010
The IRS has released a revised edition of Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax (295 pages), for use in preparing 2010 tax returns:

Coverdale: Catholic Social Thought and the Tax Exemption

Posted on December 20, 2010
John F. Coverdale (Seton Hall) has published The Normative Justification for Tax Exemption: Elements From Catholic Social Thought, 40 Seton Hall L. Rev. 889 (2010): I believe Catholic Social Thought offers valuable elements that can contribute to our understanding of tax exemption...

IRS Enforcement Revenue = $57.6 Billion, Up 17.8%

Posted on December 20, 2010
The IRS has released the results of its fiscal year 2010 enforcement, collection, examination and taxpayer service activities. Among the data: Total enforcement revenue collected was $57.6 billion (up 17.8% from FY2009) Total enforcement staffing was 22,710 FTEs (up 7...

Accounting Majors Score Lowest in Verbal and Writing Among All Grad Students

Posted on December 20, 2010
Discover Magazine, Verbal vs. Mathematical Aptitude in Academics: It isn?t too difficult to find GRE scores by intended major online. ... That got me wondering about the average mathematical and verbal aptitudes of those who intend to pursue graduate work ...

Tbilisi, Georgia Seeks International Tax Lecturer for 2011

Posted on December 20, 2010
The Georgian Institute of Public Affairs ("GIPA") in Tbilisi, Georgia is seeking a lecturer interested in applying to the Fulbright Specialist Program to teach International Tax Law at GIPA's School of Law and Politics' LL.M. program for at least one semester: Interested candidates should be willing to teach courses in...

Tax Court Proposes Rule Changes

Posted on December 20, 2010
The Tax Court yesterday issued this press release: Chief Judge John O. Colvin announced today that the United States Tax Court has proposed amendments to its Rules of Practice and Procedure. The proposed amendments include proposals affecting the time for filing summary judgment motions, Rule 155 computations, motions regarding elections...

More on the Obama-GOP Tax Deal

Posted on December 19, 2010
The Hill, Dems: Tax Cut Package Will Kill Social Security Huffington Post, Teddy Roosevelt: Estate Tax Champion, Republican Icon L.A. Times, And the Rich Get Richer New York Times, The Tax Cut Deal NPR, Beyond The Tax Deal: Targeting The Code Itself Washington Examiner, The Bottom Line on Taxes for...

ABA Committee Meeting on Law School Placement Data

Posted on December 19, 2010
Here are the comments and submissions to the ABA Section of Legal Education Questionnaire Committee meeting on Collection and Reporting of Placement Data last week in Ft. Lauderdale, FL: Dean Allan Vestal (Drake) Dean Brad Toben (Baylor) Brian D. Lewis (PDF) (Assistant Dean Career Services, North Carolina) Dean Hanna R...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on December 19, 2010
This week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's list: 1. [413 Downloads] 2010 Federal Tax Update, by Samuel A. Donaldson (U. Washington) 2. [313 Downloads] Oy Yes, the Healthcare Penalty is Unconstitutional, by Steven J...

Tax Lawyer 'Lap Dance Lou' Disbarred for Promoting Prostitution at Strip Bar

Posted on December 19, 2010
ABA Journal, Tax Lawyer Loses Disbarment Appeal After Strip Club Guilty Plea: A tax lawyer dubbed ?Lap Dance Lou? by one tabloid has been disbarred for promoting prostitution at his Manhattan strip club. Louis Posner was disbarred because of his March guilty plea to promoting prostitution at the Hot Lap...

NYSBA Releases Tax Reports

Posted on December 18, 2010
The New York State Bar Association Tax Section has issued tax reports on: Notice 2010-60 (No. 1224) (Nov. 16, 2010) Section 909 (No. 1223) (Nov. 8, 2010) Section 367(d) (No. 1222) (Oct. 12, 2010) Net Investment Income Under Medicare (No. 1221) (Sept. 29, 2010) Securities Partnerships and Subchapter K (No...

Virtual World, Real Taxes

Posted on December 18, 2010
J. Robert Schlimgen (J.D. 2011, Minnesota) has published Note, Virtual World, Real Taxes: A Sales and Use Tax Adventure Through Second Life Starring Dwight Schrute, 11 Minn. J. L. Sci. & Tech. 877 (2010). Here is the Conclusion: Admittedly, states and localities will face many challenges in attempting to collect...

Kleinbard: The Health Care Law Is Constitutional (Still)

Posted on December 18, 2010
L.A. Daily Journal, The Health Care Law Is Constitutional (Still), by Edward D. Kleinbard (USC): Little attention was paid when two federal District Courts recently concluded that the new federal health care law was constitutional, but Monday?s ruling by a federal District Court Judge, Henry Hudson, in Commonwealth of Virginia...

IRS Agent Charged With Stealing $160k of Tax Refunds

Posted on December 18, 2010
NBC New York, IRS Agent Accused of Stealing Tax Refunds: Fern Stephens, a revenue officer at the IRS, is being charged by the U.S. Attorney's office for stealing more than $160,000 in unclaimed tax funds from 12 taxpayers, according to federal court documents...

Court: FedEx Drivers Are Independent Contractors, Not Employees

Posted on December 17, 2010
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana has held in a consolidated, multi-district class action that most FedEx drivers are independent contractors rather than employees. In re FedEx Ground Package System, Inc., No. 3:05-cv-00390 (Dec...

2011 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Best (and Worst) Teaching Faculties

Posted on December 17, 2010
I previously blogged the lists of the Top 10 law schools in eleven categories posted on Princeton Review's web site in connection with its publication of the 2011 edition of Best 172 Law Schools (with the University of Cincinnati College of Law again on the cover)...

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