Taxation & Estate Planning

Talk at Canadian Tax Policy Research Symposium

Posted on June 09, 2010
Off to Toronto tomorrow, just for a few hours with no overnight, to give a dinner talk at a Tax Policy Research Symposium in Toronto, featuring many of the leading tax academics north of the border. Alas, no dinner for me, as I'll have to fly home immediately afterward to attend a son's middle school graduation on Friday...

Invigorated by a change in projects

Posted on June 04, 2010
Although I like my foreign tax credits paper and think of it as making a significant contribution, the last stages of massaging the final version pre-edit (worse still, two final versions pending two edits) is never much fun. So I am relieved to have put it behind me for now...

Christian Science Monitor article on the "S-S-S" bank tax analysis

Posted on June 04, 2010
I've previously noted here my article draft (co-authored with Doug Shackelford and Joel Slemrod) concerning bank taxation in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. SSRN link is here. The Christian Science Monitor has just posted a blog entry, discussing the article and inviting readers to make comments, here...

Revised "album" version of my foreign tax credit article

Posted on June 04, 2010
I've also now posted here a revised and improved "long" version of my foreign tax credit article, the one that will be appearing in the Journal of Legal Analysis.

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Yes, another word on Getting It

Posted on June 03, 2010
While I await a review on a popular legal blog that should be up next week, here's what Nancy Matsumoto (my West View interviewer and reviewer) has to say on her blog:"NYU tax law professor Daniel Shaviro's new novel Getting It is the perfect summer read, in case you are looking for one...

Quasi-new paper now available on SSRN

Posted on June 03, 2010
I've previously posted word here of my SSRN paper, "The Case Against Foreign Tax Credits," a revised (and I think significantly improved / clarified) version of which should be available through SSRN shortly.But I have also now posted a much shorter version, less than half the length, with the title "Rethinking Foreign Tax Creditability...

The glass is 1% empty, not 99% full

Posted on June 02, 2010
Why am I already bemoaning that the summer is just too short? I don't find myself, on December 2, thinking that the winter will be over soon.Lately it's occurred to me that I could learn from Buddy. As you can see from the picture here, he generally just accepts things as they come (in this case, an upcoming ride in the car)...

International tax policy: domestic expenses that produce foreign income

Posted on June 02, 2010
The latest issue of the National Tax Journal contains a brief "Comment and Reply" section on Jim Hines' 2008 article, "Foreign Income and Domestic Deductions." The comment is by Johannes Becker of the Planck Institute in Munich and Clemens Fuest of the Said Business School at Oxford (coincidentally, two places I am going this summer), and Hines offers a very brief reply...

More on my Leuven trip

Posted on June 01, 2010
As previously noted, last Friday (May 28) I spent the day at the 12th (?) Annual Congress of the European Association of Tax Law Professors (EATLP). I suppose one might compare this organization to the AALS Tax Section in the U.S., except (a) it's not part of a broader umbrella organization such as the AALS, and (b) it plays a different role given distinctions between the U...

Traveling in Belgium

Posted on June 01, 2010
One striking thing about my just-completed trip to Belgium was that I never once needed to take a taxi. I arrived at Brussels International Airport at 8 am this past Thursday, and all I had to do to get to Leuven (about 20 miles away) was go down a couple of levels in the airport and take a train...

Memorial Day Weekend updates

Posted on May 31, 2010
Above the Law, a popular blog that bills itself "A Legal Tabloid - News, Gossip, and Colorful Commentary on Law Firms and the Legal Profession," may shortly be running an interview & feature on Getting It. Details to come.I'm back from Leuven, and seem to have conquered the jet lag fairly painlessly (lots of sunshine back in NYC probably helped)...

An afternoon in Leuven, Belgium

Posted on May 27, 2010
Whenever a trip I?ve agreed to months ago starts to loom as less than a week away, I start to wonder why I?m doing it. New York is pleasant at this time of year, I finally have plenty of time to write, and sixteen hours of plane travel across six time zones within a ninety hour span is not entirely idyllic, between the cattle car conditions on board and the jet lag on both ends...

Best ever literary description of the New York Mets

Posted on May 25, 2010
From one of my favorite books, Saki's very Oscar Wildean The Unbearable Bassington:"Comus," she said quietly and wearily, "you are an exact reversal of the legend of Pandora's Box. You have all the charm and advantages that a boy could want to help him on in the world, and behind it all there is the fatal damning gift of utter hopelessness...

Rumble in the jungle?

Posted on May 24, 2010
Muhammad Ali famously dubbed his 1974 heavyweight championship fight with George Foreman the "Rumble in the Jungle."I, by contrast, am participating later this week in the "Showdown in the Medieval University Town." This Wednesday night I take the red eye to Brussels, Belgium...

When will the U.S. fiscal crisis hit?

Posted on May 21, 2010
Bruce Bartlett thinks the "trigger ... will come from the credit rating agencies, such as Moody's and Standard and Poor's, which rate sovereign debt as well as that of private businesses and subnational governments."For at least five years these agencies have been warning that America's AAA bond rating isn't guaranteed...

Foreign aid

Posted on May 21, 2010
For some reason, Getting It, while down to a hideous # 600,000 in the highly volatile ratings of Amazon U.S., is around #45,000 in the U.K., and #135,000 in Canada. Can a foreign tour be far behind.

"Your Paper Makes SSRN Top Ten List"

Posted on May 20, 2010
When you post papers on the Social Science Research Network, you get a lot of e-mails headed "Your Paper Makes SSRN Top Ten List." I believe my most recent such notice came for the e-journal devoted to papers with 5-word titles and 2 co-authors by left-handed law professors who are between 5'10" and 6' tall.

Spring 2011 NYU Tax Policy Colloquium Speakers

Posted on May 19, 2010
Mihir Desai and I have finalized our speaker list for the NYU Tax Policy Colloquium next year (mid-January through late April 2011), though we generally haven't settled on specific dates for particular speakers yet. In alphabetical order, our presenters next year will be:Joseph Bankman, Stanford Law SchoolLeonard Burman, Maxwell School of Syracuse UniversityJoshua Blank, NYU Law SchoolCheryl Block, Washington University School of LawJennifer Blouin, Wharton School, University of PennsylvaniaAllison Christians, Wisconsin Law SchoolMichael Keen, International Monetary FundLeandra Lederman, Indiana University Law SchoolYair Listoken, Yale Law SchoolDavid Miller, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLPAdam Rosenzweig,Washington University School of LawKenneth Scheve, Yale University Department of Political ScienceKirk Stark, UCLA Law SchoolEric Zolt, UCLA Law School

We try harder

Posted on May 18, 2010
I'm still # 2 in Brian Leiter's rankings for most-cited tax faculty (behind Graetz; Kaplow not included because of his non-tax writings).The Emperor Tiberius (or was it Caligula) reportedly said "Let them hate me, so long as they fear me." I don't want to be either hated or feared, so my version of the quote would be "Let them cite me, but couldn't they also download me?" (My SSRN download rating is much lower, perhaps reflecting topic choice plus the fact that books aren't downloaded from SSRN...

And so it begins

Posted on May 17, 2010
Fresh strawberries have now begun showing up regularly in the NYC-area farmers' markets. A huge change for the better, but within a couple of weeks it will get monotonous, and I'll begin chafing for the start of the true summer cornucopia - of which I never tire - involving peaches, apricots, blackberries, red/black/yellow raspberries, blueberries, plums of all sorts, etc.

Another Getting It reader

Posted on May 17, 2010
This non-U.S. reader enjoyed Getting It and thought it very funny but was also disturbed by its dark side:"There is a feeling of Enron ... [We see the characters'] lack of morality, their dishonesty (e.g., with regard to billable hours), their lack of any interest in anything but their work (e...

New appointment

Posted on May 17, 2010
Congratulations to my colleague Lily Batchelder on being named Chief Tax Counsel of the Senate Finance Committee. She'll do a fantastic job there, although one has to hope the stars align properly so that she has a chance to make a difference. Her appointment seemingly raises the chances that something important and worthwhile will happen in tax on Capital Hill (the 2010 elections permitting), as otherwise why would they need her and why would she go...

PPT slides from my NTA talks concerning foreign tax credits and taxing financial institutions

Posted on May 17, 2010
I have now (after only a few false starts and with only moderate & sporadic levels of frustrated cursing) managed to upload to the NYU website, all by my little self, pdf versions of the ppt slides for the 2 talks I gave at the National Tax Association Annual Symposium last week, each relating to a draft paper that should be in print later this year...

Ursula rises to new heights

Posted on May 15, 2010
She's owling again (as we call it) - leaping somehow to a wood beam way up high where she perches, squinting down at the world below her.

Lost opportunity

Posted on May 14, 2010
I am at the moment taking the Acela from DC back to NYC, and I just saw someone exit at Philadelphia, clutching a copy of John Grisham's The Associate. I wanted to tell him: Getting It is on a similar subject but much more fun, interesting, and memorable...

National Tax Association Spring Symposium

Posted on May 12, 2010
I have made it, via Acela, to that supreme paradise among garden spots, the Holiday Inn Capital in southwest Washington, DC. I'll be presenting my foreign tax credit paper tomorrow (Thursday) and my coauthored financial institutions paper Friday, then scurrying back to NYC...

Greenwald versus Kagan

Posted on May 11, 2010
Glen Greenwald calls it "Washington intellectual dishonesty defined" that, whereas in 1995 Elena Kagan "rightly excoriated the Supreme Court confirmation process as a 'vapid and hollow charade' because nominees refuse to answer any meaningful questions about what they think or believe," now she wants to play by the usual rules...

Call me Zelig

Posted on May 10, 2010
From today's Washington Post photo gallery.Photo 9, after a very annoying 15 second ad intro.

Update: Wa Po interview

Posted on May 10, 2010
The Washington Post interview I noted in an earlier post has now appeared. The passage where I appear goes as follows:"Colleagues and students say she displayed intelligence and confidence in a high-wattage environment that had not always been friendly to women...

Challenge to the efficient market hypothesis?

Posted on May 09, 2010
OK, this isn't capital markets, but I am trying to figure out why Getting It costs about $10 more used (counting shipping) than new.

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.