Taxation & Estate Planning

Random thought while on the elliptical machine

Posted on February 20, 2010
While working out I listen to music, but set the TV screen to ESPN. This morning, less sports highlights than usual because yesterday was the latest Tiger Woods press conference.It occurred to me - what would ESPN do if Tiger Woods had an affair with Brett Favre? (Favre is the other one they cover incessantly, with hours of wall-to-wall coverage of his latest re-retirement, un-retirement, etc...

On the road again

Posted on February 16, 2010
Weather permitting - a very important qualification this winter - I'm off to a session in Washington this Friday, and another at Northwestern Law School next Monday, in both cases to present my foreign tax credit paper.BTW, by correcting a typo in the abstract, I appear to have wiped out the SSRN system's memory of 50 or so downloads...

NYU Tax Policy Colloquia Past and Non-Future

Posted on February 16, 2010
Last Thursday at the Tax Policy Colloquium, David Walker presented his paper, "Suitable for Framing: Business Deductions in a Net Income Tax System." In the paper, David extends ideas that many of us have written about, concerning the fiscal illusion reasons for politicians' frequent preference for "tax expenditures" over equivalent direct spending, to deduction disallowance...

Musical fan note

Posted on February 12, 2010
Two undeservedly obscure albums from the early 1990s, both by Robert Forster of the Go-Betweens (from during their long hiatus) are "Danger In the Past," and "I Had a New York Girlfriend." Dylan-Gram Parsons-early 70s Stones territory countrified, at times up-tempo rock, but with a really distinctive (offbeat and very dour) sensibility, also one of the great tuneless & deadpan (alternately sincere and ironic, if you can tell them apart) vocalists...

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Winter

Posted on February 10, 2010
It's nature's way of reminding us how utterly indifferent to our welfare it is.It also always reminds me that we're biologically a tropical species, living in a wider range of climates due to cultural adaptations. That's fine, but when you're out in something that you know would kill you in under an hour but for heat, clothing, and shelter, it makes you (or at least me) feel somehow unwelcome.

Paul Ryan's "shadow budget" for the House Republicans

Posted on February 09, 2010
Perhaps I should address Paul Ryan's shadow budget, proposed on behalf of the House Republicans (although in public they are keeping as far away from it as they can).To see the details, check out the first 4 pages of this CBO letter scoring it.Key features, with my reaction to them, are as follows:1)REDUCE BENEFITS FOR PEOPLE BORN IN 1956 OR LATER - Hey, unfair, I just missed being grandfathered here...

More events at NYU Law School

Posted on February 06, 2010
On Thursday at the Tax Policy Colloquium, Michael Devereux presented his paper, Taxation of Outbound Direct Investment. He, my co-convenor Mihir Desai, and I all agree that, if you think about tax policy going forward on a fresh start basis, exemption is the most rational system for outbound investment by resident corporations, reflecting (in Michael's and my way of thinking about it, more than Mihir's) the point that newly becoming a U...

Newly posted paper

Posted on February 04, 2010
I've just posted on SSRN my new paper, occasionally discussed here, called "The Case Against Foreign Tax Credits."Here is the link.Abstract is as follows:In international tax policy debate, it is usually assumed that, if one chooses not to exempt residents? foreign source income, the preferred system would offer foreign tax credits...

UNC Tax Conference last week

Posted on February 03, 2010
One but not both of these photos is from the UNC Tax Conference last week. I prefer the rogue, which was distributed to the group by another conference attendee, not just for artistic and sentimental reasons, but also because the actual photo makes me look too short...

My e-mail interview with a Polish news magazine

Posted on February 03, 2010
Here are their questions and my answers, the latter composed more or less at the limit of my typing speed. My answers are shown here in italics:1. USA has to deal with budget problems, so does Germany, Greece, Poland, France, Japan, Russia, etc? it seems the public finance is now the main interest of world?s politicians and economist...

I'm just a boy who can't say no

Posted on February 02, 2010
Though over-the-top busy, I've agreed to two perhaps not terribly high-profile Media Appearances.First, tomorrow (Wednesday 2/3) from 10:06 to 10:30 AM on the Kathleen Dunn show on Wisconsin Public Radio, I'm being interviewed live on such topics as "the broader implications of the current tax code, the Bush tax cuts, what tax cuts (if any) are a good idea right now, and the current/anticipated budget deficit...

Continental Airlines good, American Airlines bad

Posted on January 31, 2010
Perhaps I am tempting fate by saying this before I actually board my flight. But purely as a matter of their own self-interest, all readers are urged to prioritize Continental Airlines far, far ahead of American Airlines when making travel plans. Ignore my words, and you may be sorry...

One darn thing after another

Posted on January 30, 2010
It's been hurry-up-and-wait for me the last few days. First I was hurrying up, and now I am waiting.I seem to have overbooked myself a bit. On Wednesday, I presented my new paper "The Case Against Foreign Tax Credits" at Penn Law School. On Thursday, tax policy colloquium day at NYU, featuring Ruth Mason and Michael Knoll with their paper, "What is Tax Discrimination?" On Friday, I presented my foreign tax credits paper at a UNC Tax Symposium featuring mostly economists and accountants...

Busy times ahead

Posted on January 25, 2010
This Wednesday (1/27) I am presenting my new draft paper, "The Case Against Foreign Tax Credits," at the U of Penn Law School's tax colloquium. Thursday is our colloquium, with an international tax paper by Ruth Mason and Michael Knoll. Then on Friday I present my foreign tax credit paper again at the University of North Carolina Tax Symposium...

More cowardice?

Posted on January 25, 2010
I am probably not the only person who has been wondering if the word "cowardice" fits Democratic behavior, in the White House and/or on Capital Hill, since the Massachusetts election news. I agree with others who find it overwhelmingly obvious that having the House pass the Senate healthcare bill, even without mutually agreed changes through reconciliation, both (1) is in the Democrats' electoral self-interest for this November and thereafter, given the votes already on record, and (2) for anyone who supported the House bill, is far superior as policy to doing anything less...

Getting It

Posted on January 25, 2010
Here is the cover (back cover to the left of the fold in the middle, front cover to the right) of my novel Getting It, which should be out via iUniverse sometime this year.

NYU Tax Policy Colloquium of January 21, 2010

Posted on January 23, 2010
This past Thursday, we discussed Kim Brooks' recently published paper, "Tax Sparing: A Needed Incentive for Foreign Investment in Low-Income Countries, or an Unnecessary Revenue Sacrifice?"A bit of background may help here, as the term "tax sparing" is generally known only to international tax cognoscenti...

The Joint Committee on Taxation's (lack of) institutional independence

Posted on January 19, 2010
Howard Gleckman of the Urban Institute suggests that former Joint Committee on Taxation chief Edward Kleinbard may be hinting at support for abolition of the JCT, or more specifically at transferring its revenue estimating function (and perhaps other functions) to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)...

First NYU Tax Policy Colloquium of 2010

Posted on January 15, 2010
Yesterday was our first colloquium session of the year. I've been doing this for 15 years now. The institution has come a long way, and we now have 25+ very strong students. The total audience at the PM session was about 50, with the students (who participated actively) being joined by people from several types of academic institutions as well as practice...

Upcoming conference at NYU Law School on financial institutions

Posted on January 15, 2010
Rethinking the Taxation of the Financial Sector in the Light of the Recent CrisisA Workshop co-sponsored by the Office of Tax Policy Research at the University of Michigan and the UNC Tax CenterCo-organizers:Douglas Shackelford, University of North CarolinaDaniel Shaviro, NYU Law SchoolJoel Slemrod, University of MichiganFebruary 5, 2010NYU Law School [room assignment TBA]Agenda Revised as of 1/15/10Session 1: The Basic Rules: Accounting, Regulation, and Taxation 8:30-9:20 AccountingPresenters:Stephen Ryan, NYU Stern School of Business Douglas Shackelford, University of North Carolina9:20-10:10 Regulation Presenters:Viral Acharya, NYU Stern School of Business Douglas Elliott, Brookings Institution10:10-10:25 Break10:25-11:15 TaxationPresenters:Edward Kleinbard, USC Law SchoolTimothy Edgar, University of Western Ontario Faculty of LawSession 2: Issues with Existing Regimes11:15-12:05 Are the objectives of the three regimes compatible and the consequences in harmony? Presenters:Daniel Shaviro, NYU Law SchoolJoel Slemrod, University of Michigan12:05-1:00 Lunch1:00-1:50 Taxes, regulation, and financial sector externalities Presenters: Michael Keen and Victoria Perry, International Monetary FundDiscussant: Mihir Desai, Harvard Business School and NYU Law School1:50-2:40 Cross-border mobility, tax and regulatory havens Presenter: Michael Devereux, University of OxfordDiscussant: Julian Alworth, Bocconi University and EIC, Milan2:40-2:50 BreakSession 3: Rethinking Taxation of the Financial Sector in Light of Crisis and Reform2:50-3:40 Transaction taxesPresenter: Isaias Coelho, ConsultantDiscussant: Len Burman, Syracuse University3:40-4:30 Observations from practicePresenters: Douglas Breeden, Duke UniversityTom Brantley, Bank of America4:30-4:40 Break4:40-5:30 International coordination issuesPresenter: Jack Mintz, University of CalgaryDiscussant: Geoffrey Lloyd, OECD

Two steps forward, two steps back

Posted on January 12, 2010
When Ed Kleinbard was the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, he led an effort to update tax expenditure analysis and make it more intellectually coherent as well as useful. See, for example, the pamphlet here and the speech here.I have self-centeredly tended to view this as influenced by my work on tax expenditures, which I confess to regarding as a major intellectual step forward...

Taxing the banks

Posted on January 12, 2010
I don't know the details yet, but it certainly makes sense in principle to impose a tax on companies that can expect to be bailed out if they lose big bets. Relating the tax to the costs they impose (via risky bets) also potentially makes sense. And even though the federal government may have done OK ex post on some of the TARP transactions, this doesn't change the fact that ex ante it took uncompensated risks to the banks' benefit due to the financial system externalities.

My favorite news item of the day

Posted on January 11, 2010
Neanderthals wore makeup.

Book award

Posted on January 06, 2010
I gather that my 2009 publication, Decoding the Corporate Tax, was named a Choice magazine outstanding academic title for 2009. There's a link here, but it appears to be for subscribers only.The full review, which I may have posted at some earlier point, was as follows:Lawyers and economists have grave concerns about the corporate income tax because of its complexity, distributional inequities, and, particularly, economic distortions...

Gruesome New Year's Eve thought

Posted on December 31, 2009
Somewhere in this country tonight, on New Year's Eve, an old, dying man or woman is being kept alive through undue "heroic measures," when he or she is ready to go, because the next of kin want him/her to make it to 2010 so they can avoid the estate tax (if the one-year repeal isn't called off through legislation in the new year)...

Best albums of the decade - missing entry

Posted on December 30, 2009
I was looking over various best-albums-of-the-decade lists, and couldn't seem to find the Wrens' Meadowlands (from 2003) anywhere. Very strange, as it was rightly acclaimed upon release and would certainly be at or very near the top of my personal list, if I were to perform the due diligence needed to make one...

Queen of the roost

Posted on December 30, 2009
The last 3+ months have been at times tense in our household - not for the humans, fortunately, but for our cats. Having added Seymour in early September to join Buddy and Ursula (replacing the sadly fallen Shadow), we had front row seats at a series of tense face-offs between the two boys, Seymour and Buddy...

Republican healthcare blunder?

Posted on December 20, 2009
Assuming Lieberman doesn't bolt and the Democrats get healthcare reform through Congress, Jonathan Chait thinks this shows an enormous blunder (at least ex post) by the Republicans. Democrats were so desperate for a "bipartisan" bill that they would have made massive concessions to get it through with Republican help...

Will Lieberman bolt?

Posted on December 19, 2009
Even if it weren't so important both substantively (a major healthcare bill passes, or else not) and politically (the Democrats avoid disaster, or run headfirst into it), it would still be of great interest novelistically whether or not Lieberman suddenly announces that he is not supporting the healthcare bill after all...

Another semester ends

Posted on December 18, 2009
Put it in the books, as the New York Mets announcers would say after an all too rare win. The fall 2009 semester is now over, with the exception of grading.That would be a pretty big exception to how over it feels if I had exams to grade. Nearly all law professors will agree, I think, that grading exams is BY FAR the worst part of our jobs (although writing exams isn't that much fun either)...

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