Taxation & Estate Planning

Tax Workers Win $276.3 Million PowerBall Lottery

Posted on March 19, 2008
AP reports that eight women who work in the Monongalia County, West Virginia sheriff's department tax office won the $276.3 million PowerBall lottery.

Government Files Brief in Opposition to Cert. Petition in Murphy

Posted on March 19, 2008
The Government yesterday filed its brief in opposition to the petition for certiorari filed by the taxpayer in Murphy v. IRS, 493 F.3d 170 (D.C. Cir. 7/3/07): The court of appeals correctly concluded that compensatory damages received for emotional distress...

Video on the Laffer Curve

Posted on March 19, 2008
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity has released a three-part series on how the Laffer Curve explains the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues: While the theory behind the Laffer Curve is widely accepted, the concept has become very...

ABA Tax Section Offers Teleconference and Webcast Today on § 162(m)

Posted on March 18, 2008
The ABA hosts a teleconference and webcast today on § 162(m): Have the Rules Changed for Termination Payments and Performance-Based Compensation: PLR 200804004, which caught practitioners and corporate taxpayers by surprise, has raised questions regarding the deductibility of certain termination...

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Call for Tax Papers: Duke Law Journal Symposium on Administrative Law in the Bush Administration

Posted on March 18, 2008
The 2009 Duke Law Journal symposium will focus on administrative law under the George W. Bush administration and the future of administrative law. The symposium will look retrospectively at the characteristics and accomplishments of the administrative state under the Bush...

Tax and "Gaudy, Preposterous Theories"

Posted on March 18, 2008
An unusual opening to yesterday's Tax Court opinion in Monk v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2008-64 (3/17/08): For many years, Raymond Monk reported his interest in a Baltimore bar called Chuck?s Place as a sole proprietorship on his tax returns. This...

Tenure, the Movie

Posted on March 18, 2008
Tenure, the Movie (Inside Higher Ed), by Scott Jaschik: Blowtorch Entertainment will next month begin filming on ?Tenure,? which is about a college professor coming up for tenure (Luke Wilson) and facing off against a female rival who recently arrived...

Rupert Murdoch Leaves 99-Year Old Mother Up Tax Creek

Posted on March 18, 2008
Murdoch Leaves Mother Up Tax Creek (Sydney Morning Herald), by Vanda Carson: Rupert Murdoch short-changed his now 99-year-old mother, Elisabeth, to the tune of $273 million, and in his attempts to make it up to her left her with a...

Call for Tax Papers: Athens Institute for Education and Research

Posted on March 18, 2008
The Athens Institute for Education and Research has issued a call for papers in a variety of areas (including tax) for its Fifth Annual International Conference on Law to be held July 17-20, 2008 in Athens, Greece. 300-word abstracts of...

Hirschfield on Estate Planning for Pets and Their Owners

Posted on March 18, 2008
Rachel Hirschfeld (Pet Trust Lawyer) has published Ensure Your Pet's Future: Estate Planning for Owners and Their Animal Companions, 9 Marq. Elder's Advisor 155 (2007). Here is part of the Conclusion: For a substantial number of pet owners, it is...

Harvard to Waive Tuition for 3Ls Who Agree to Work in Public Interest for 5 Years

Posted on March 18, 2008
Harvard Law, Hoping Students Will Consider Public Service, Offers Tuition Break (New York Times), by Jonathan D. Glater: Concerned by the low numbers of law students choosing careers in public service, Harvard Law School plans to waive tuition for third-year...

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

Posted on March 18, 2008
SSRN has updated its new monthly rankings of 457 American and international law school faculties and 1,500 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN data base. Here is the new list (through March...

Did Major League Baseball File an Incomplete Tax Return?

Posted on March 17, 2008
Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal last week examined Major League Baseball's Form 990 for the year ended October 31, 2006: MLB did not include the compensation amounts for its other top officers in its most recent return. The names...

Real Men of Law School

Posted on March 17, 2008
Check out the very funny Real Men of Law School series from George Washington: Summer Jobs Guy: Intramural Sports Guy: A racier, R-rated entry is below the fold:

Beale on the Coming Estate Tax Compromise

Posted on March 17, 2008
Interesting post on A Taxing Matter: CEO Pay and Taxes: I wonder why middle class taxpayers and those on even lower incomes ... haven't used their power to vote out of office the Congressional enablers who cut taxes for these...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on March 17, 2008
Saturday: SOI Releases Preliminary 2006 Individual Tax Data Secunda on Tales of a Law Professor Lateral Nothing Portfolio Choice with Capital Gain Taxation and the Limited Use of Losses On Tax and Justice Sunday: State Tax Treatment of Economic Stimulus...

Call for Participants: Third Annual Junior Tax Scholars' Workshop

Posted on March 17, 2008
The third annual Junior Tax Scholars' Workshop will be held this year at New York University from the evening of Thursday, June 5th through Saturday, June 7th. The workshop is an opportunity for junior tax faculty to meet each other...

IRS Releases Payment Schedule for Economic Stimulus Tax Rebates

Posted on March 17, 2008
The IRS today released (IR-2008-44) a schedule for distributing the 130 million economic stimulus rebates ($600 (single) or $1,200 (married), plus $300 per child under age 17): Direct Deposit Payments Last 2 Digits of Social Security Number: Stimulus Payment Deposited...

Washington & Lee Seeks Fall 2008 Tax Visitor

Posted on March 17, 2008
Washington & Lee is seeking a Fall 2008 tax visitor to teach basic tax (3 credits) and the basic trusts and estates course (3 credits). For more information or to apply, please contact Associate Dean (and Tax Prof) Bob Danforth.

IRS Releases 2007 IRS Data Book

Posted on March 17, 2008
The IRS on Friday released the 2007 IRS Data Book (Publication 55B), which provides an annual snapshot of IRS activities for Oct. 1, 2006 - Sept. 30, 2007. The Data Book includes information about returns filed, tax collections, enforcement, taxpayer...

The IRS and ADR

Posted on March 16, 2008
David Parsly (Pryor Cashman, New York) has published Note, The IRS and ADR: Moving From Infancy to Legitimacy, 8 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 677 (2007). Here is the Conclusion: Over the last six years, the IRS has permanently opened the...

Brennan & Jain on Capital Gains Taxes, Agency Costs, and Closed-End Fund Discounts

Posted on March 16, 2008
Michael J. Brennan (UCLA, Anderson School of Management) & Ravi Jain (National University of Singapore) have posted Capital Gains Taxes, Agency Costs, and Closed-End Fund Discounts on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We test two hypotheses about the determinants of...

State Tax Treatment of Economic Stimulus Rebates

Posted on March 16, 2008
The economic stimulus rebates ($600 (single) or $1,200 (married), plus $300 per child under age 17) are not treated as taxable income for federal income tax purposes. Several states have explained the state income tax treatment of the rebates: States...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on March 16, 2008
There is a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new #1 paper and a new paper debuting on the list at #5: 1. [263 Downloads] Income Effectively Connected with...

Portfolio Choice with Capital Gain Taxation and the Limited Use of Losses

Posted on March 15, 2008
Paul Ehling (Norwegian School of Management (BI), Department of Financial Economics), Michael F. Gallmayer (Texas A&M University, Mays Business School, Department of Finance), Sanjay Srivastava (Georgia State University) & Stathis Tompaidis (University of Texas at Austin, Red McCombs School of...

On Tax and Justice

Posted on March 15, 2008
Oxford University Press has posted On Tax and Justice, 23 Oxford J. Legal Stud. 711 (2003), by Winnie M.F. Chan (University of Warwick, School of Law) & A.P. Simester (University of Nottingham Law School), on SSRN ($38 per download).

SOI Releases Preliminary 2006 Individual Tax Data

Posted on March 15, 2008
The IRS's Statistics of Income Division has released Early Release of Preliminary Data, Individual Income Tax Returns, 2006, by Brian Balkovic: A data release that provides preliminary data for individual income tax returns filed for tax year 2006 is now...

Secunda on Tales of a Law Professor Lateral Nothing

Posted on March 15, 2008
Since today is the AALS deadline for faculty to accept a lateral offer (and for law schools to extend a visiting offer), I thought this paper is particularly timely: Tales of a Law Professor Lateral Nothing, by Paul M. Secunda...

TaxProf Blog Crosses 4,000,000-Visitor Mark

Posted on March 14, 2008
After less than four years in operation, TaxProf Blog has crossed the 4,000,000-visitor mark. (We crossed the 3,000,000-visitor mark eight months ago.) To put that number in perspective, it is the most visitors to any law-focused blog edited by a...

NYU Hosts Sympsosium Today on European Tax Policy

Posted on March 14, 2008
NYU today hosts the NYU-UConn-JKU Linz Symposium on EC Tax Policy: Keynote Address on Current and Future Developments in European Tax Policy, by Servaas van Thiel (Head of the Tax Policy Division, EU Council of Ministers; Visiting Professor, NYU; Director,...

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