Taxation & Estate Planning

Staudt Presents If Major Wars Affect (Judicial) Fiscal Policy, How & Why? Today at BC

Posted on February 28, 2008
Nancy Staudt (Northwestern) presents If Major Wars Affect (Judicial) Fiscal Policy, How & Why? today at Boston College today as part of its Tax Policy Workshop Series. Here is the abstract: This paper seeks to identify and explain the effects...

IRS Investigates Church Over Obama's Speech

Posted on February 28, 2008
According to this letter, the IRS has opened an investigation to determine whether the United Church of Christ has engaged in prohibited political activity in support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama: Our concerns are based on articles posted on...

Shaviro Presents The Optimal Relationship Between Taxable Income and Financial Accounting Income Today at NYU

Posted on February 28, 2008
Daniel Shaviro (NYU) presents The Optimal Relationship Between Taxable Income and Financial Accounting Income at NYU today as part of its Colloquium Series on Tax Policy and Public Finance. Here is the abstract: The persistence of the book-tax gap, or...

McCain-Obama Tax Calculator 2.0

Posted on February 28, 2008
On Tuesday, I blogged the spreadsheet created by Ted Frank (American Enterprise Institute) to calculate your tax bill under a President McCain or a President Obama. Ted has updated the spreadsheet to "permit[] one to enter in different salaries, deductions,...

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Law School Rankings: The Play

Posted on February 28, 2008
Jeff Sovern (St. John's) has posted Rankings: A Dramatization of the Incentives Created by Ranking Law Schools on SSRN. The abstract is here. Robert Ambrogi provides a nice review: His belief, as he writes in the play's introduction, is that...

Online Peer-Reviewed Journals

Posted on February 28, 2008
Interesting article in today's inside Higher Ed: Abandoning Print, Not Peer Review, by Scott Jaschik There are hundreds of scholarly journals published online, plenty of them free. But what makes Museum Anthropology Review?s launch notable is that it is being...

90 Law Firms Ask IRS to Reverse its Position on § 162(m) Performance-Based Compensation

Posted on February 28, 2008
I previously blogged the IRS's recent private (PLR 200804004 (1/25/2008)) and public (Rev. Rul. 2008-13, 2008-10 I.R.B. ___ (3/10/08)) rulings on § 162(m) performance-based compensation. The National Law Journal reports that ninety prominent law firms have banded together in a...

AP: Who Gets the Biggest Mortgage-Interest Tax Break?

Posted on February 28, 2008
Interesting Associated Press article: Who Gets the Biggest Mortgage-Interest Tax Break? Wealthy Homeowners: Despite the mortgage interest deduction?s reputation as a boon to the middle class, the group that takes the deduction most often is the wealthy...

Kofler & Mason on Double Taxation: A European Switch in Time?

Posted on February 28, 2008
George Kofler (NYU) & Ruth Mason (UConn) have published Double Taxation: A European Switch in Time?, 14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 63 (2008). Here is the abstract: This article considers whether the fundamental freedoms of the EC Treaty encompass an...

Law Prof Dresses Up As a Chicken in Class

Posted on February 28, 2008
Ethan Leib dressed up as chicken to teach his UC-Hastings contracts class Frigaliment Importing Co. v. B.N.S. Int?l Sales Corp, 190 F. Supp. 116 (1960). Details (and photos) here.

IRS Further Endorses Cornell's Onine Tax Code

Posted on February 27, 2008
Since its inception, TaxProf Blog has always included in its left column permanent resources a link to the wonderful online Internal Revenue Code provided to the public free of charge by Cornell's Legal Information Institute. The IRS itself has linked...

ABA Tax Section Offers Teleconference and Webcast Today on Report of National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson

Posted on February 27, 2008
The ABA Tax Section offers a teleconference and webcast today on Report of National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EST: The Tax Section is pleased to present a special 90-minute teleconference featuring Nina Olson, IRS National...

Becker & Posner Debate Desirability of Forcing Colleges to Spend 5% of Their Endowments Annually to Curb Rising Tuition

Posted on February 27, 2008
Gary Becker and Richard Posner debate Senator Grassley's concerns about the rising college tuition in the face of burgeoning college and university endowments: Becker: I do not deny that colleges invite criticism when they increase tuition while their endowments are...

Hillary Clinton Continues to Stonewall on Releasing Her Tax Returns

Posted on February 27, 2008
On Sunday, I blogged the controversy over Hillary Clinton's refusal to follow Barack Obama's lead and release her tax returns prior to the nomination. Here is the exchange between NBC's Tim Russert and Senator Clinton on the issue at last...

Tax Angle in National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Posted on February 27, 2008
There is a tax angle to the current hit movie, National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Supporting character Riley Poole (played by Justin Bartha) did not pay taxes on his share of the Declaration of Indepence he helped find in the...

Polito on Trade or Business Within the United States as an Interpretive Problem

Posted on February 27, 2008
Anthony P. Polito (Suffolk) has posted Trade or Business Within the United States as an Interpretive Problem Under the Internal Revenue Code: Five Propositions, 4 Hastings Bus. L.J. ___ (2008), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Whether a particular set....

Cotet on The Impact of Income Taxation on Health

Posted on February 27, 2008
Anca Maria Cotet (Ball State Uiversity) has posted Death and Taxes: The Impact of Income Taxation on Health on SSRN. Here is the abstract: More progressive taxes, holding tax liability constant, generate disincentives for health investment by decreasing benefits for...

A Liechtenstein Tax Scandal Reader

Posted on February 27, 2008
The IRS announced yesterday (IR 2008-26) that it is initiating enforcement action with respect to more than 100 U.S. taxpayers in connection with growing scandal involving off-shore accounts in Liechtenstein used to hide assets and avoid tax. Press and blogosphere...

Chronicle: Anti-Plagiarism Software Vexes Some Faculty

Posted on February 27, 2008
Interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Anti-Cheating Crusader Vexes Some Professors; Software Kingpin Says Using His Product Would Cure Plagiarism Blight, by Brock Read: John Barrie probably doesn't have many fans at Princeton University...

Ainsworth on Zappers: Tax Fraud, Technology and Terrorist Funding

Posted on February 26, 2008
Richard T. Ainsworth (Boston University) has posted Zappers: Tax Fraud, Technology and Terrorist Funding, 2008 St. & Local Tax Law. ___, on SSRN. Here is the abstract: "Zappers," or automated sales suppression devices, have brought unheard of efficiencies and economies...

For All You Young Fathers

Posted on February 26, 2008
For all the young fathers out there:

Calculate Your Tax Bill Under a President McCain or a President Obama

Posted on February 26, 2008
Ted Frank (American Enterprise Institute) has created this spreadhseet you can modify to calculate your tax bill under a President McCain or a President Obama. Ted blogs that an average mid-level BigLaw associate would pay $15.048 of additional tax each...

Mayer Presents Public Benefits, Private Benefits, and Charities Today at Notre Dame

Posted on February 26, 2008
Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer (Notre Dame) presents Public Benefits, Private Benefits, and Charities at Notre Dame today as part of its Faculty Workshop Series. Here is the abstract: This presentation explores the role of charities in society as compared to the...

Hoffer on Adopting the Family Taxable Unit

Posted on February 26, 2008
Stephanie R. Hoffer (Northwestern) has published Adopting the Family Taxable Unit, 76 U. Cin. L. Rev. 55 (2007). Here is the abstract: In recent years, scholars have suggested that population stability plays an important role in countries' economic health...

Wallace Reviews Fiscal Reform in Columbia

Posted on February 26, 2008
Sally Wallace (Georgia State University, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies) has published Book Review: Fiscal Reform in Columbia: Problems and Prospects, 60 Nat'l Tax J. 843 (2007). Here is the abstract: Fiscal Reform in Columbia: Problems and Prospects...

Green Bag Launches New Law School Rankings to Measure Faculty "Deadwood"

Posted on February 26, 2008
The Green Bag has announced a forthcoming annual ranking of law schools -- the "Deadwood Rankings": Fair Warning to Law Schools ... And an invitation to 1Ls, 2Ls & 3Ls, 11 Green Bag 2d 139 (Spring 2008). Here is the...

Clinton, Obama, & McCain: The Good, Bad, & Ugly Tax Views

Posted on February 26, 2008
Roni Deutch outlines the good, the bad, and the ugly of the tax views of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain.

Law School as Lake Wobegon: The Gentleman's C Becomes the Gentleman's B

Posted on February 26, 2008
Interesting article in The Recorder: Hastings Law Students Look to Stay Ahead of the Grading Curve; But Some Say a Revamped Grading System Would Do More for Morale at Hastings Than for Law Students' Job Prospects, by Petra Pasternak: The...

Welcome to the Blogosphere: LII Announce and Tom Bruce

Posted on February 26, 2008
A hearty welcome to the blogosphere to LII Announce, from Cornell's acclaimed Legal Information Institute, which provides "announcements, featured content, and the occasional bizarre legal information factoid." Thomas R. Bruce (Research Associate, Cornell Law School, and Director, Legal Information Institute)...

Measuring Scholarly Impact of Faculty

Posted on February 25, 2008
Interesting article in Inside Higher Ed: Measuring "Impact" of B-School Research, by Andy Guess: [B]usiness schools expect their faculty to produce peer-reviewed research. The relevance, purpose and merit of that research has been debated almost since the institutions started appearing,...

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