Taxation & Estate Planning

TIGTA: IRS Refuses to Stop Issuing $1 Billion in Erroneous Refund Checks

Posted on September 21, 2010
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Better Use of Available Third-Party Data Could Identify and Prevent More Than One Billion Dollars in Potentially Erroneous Refunds (2010-40-062): The IRS should make better use of the third-party data it receives from employers, government agencies and financial institutions to reduce...

Sinai: Cap Gains Taxation -- Less Means More

Posted on September 21, 2010
Wall Street Journal op-ed, Cap Gains Taxation: Less Means More, by Allen Sinai (President, Decision Economics Inc): A new study suggests a zero cap gains rate could create millions of jobs at a fraction of the cost of the spending stimulus. Congress is deliberating on what to do about the...

The Billionaire's 2010 Death Club

Posted on September 21, 2010
The recent death of television mogul John Kluge brings the number of billionaire deaths in 2010 to five, providing additional resources to wage a constitutional fight against any retroactive imposition of the estate tax: Mary Janet Cargill (Feb. 5, 2010) Dan L...

Democrats Push Retroactive 65% Estate Tax Rate

Posted on September 21, 2010
Wall Street Journal, A Very Grim Reaper: Another Tax That Democrats Want to Raise From the Dead: While Washington debates whether to raise taxes on incomes and dividends next year, another huge tax increase looms as an even grimmer reaper: The death tax, which is currently zero, but will return...

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The Deductibility of M.B.A. Expenses

Posted on September 21, 2010
CPA Journal, A Reexamination of the Deductibility of Graduate Business Educational Expenses, by Homer L. Bates & Bobby E. Waldrup (both of University of North Florida, College of Business): Recent activity in the courts has increased interest in the deductibility of graduate business educational expenses by the IRS...

Gamage Named Stanley S. Surrey Fellow in the Office of Tax Policy

Posted on September 20, 2010
David Gamage (UC-Berkeley) has been named Special Counsel and Senior Stanley S. Surrey Fellow in the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy. His primary responsibility will be drafting the tax regulations for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the healthcare reform legislation)...

Oprah: I'll Pay the Taxes for My Aussie Giveaway

Posted on September 20, 2010
TMZ, Oprah -- I'll Pay the Taxes for My Aussie Giveaway: Oprah Winfrey doesn't want her all-expenses-paid Australian trip giveaway to turn into the tax trap that soured her "Everybody gets a car!" show ... in fact, O is making sure none of her new "guests" pay an extra cent...

Newsweek College Rankings

Posted on September 20, 2010
Newsweek has published twelve Top 25 college rankings (methodology here). The 25 Most Desirable Schools: When students get an acceptance letter from these schools, they are likely to send in their security deposit the next day. We scored desirability based on yield (the percentage of accepted students who enroll), admissions,...

NY Times: Your Coming Tax Cut (or Not)

Posted on September 20, 2010
New York Times, Your Coming Tax Cut (or Not): The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 are set to expire at the end of this year, and the fight is on to renew some or all of them. Many Democrats want to scrap future cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers...

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Posted on September 20, 2010
Saturday: State Migration Trends, 1993-2008: From Blue States to Red States Pillsbury Tax Associate Killed in Domestic Violence Murder-Suicide Average Retirement Plan Account = $62,600 ObamaCare's 1099 Reporting Requirement & The Coming Dividend Tax Increase China's Golden Tax Project: Using Technological to Reduce VAT Fraud Sunday: 2010-11 World University Rankings...

Gamage Presents Tax Salience Today at Loyola-L.A.

Posted on September 20, 2010
David Gamage (UC-Berkeley) presents On Tax Salience: Market-Salience and Political Salience (with Darien Shanske (UC-Hastings)) at Loyola-L.A. today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series. The commentator is Sarah Lawsky (UC-Irvine). Here is part of the Introduction: This Article analyzes the normative implications of tax salience...

WSJ Special Report: What Should We Do With the Estate Tax?

Posted on September 20, 2010
Wall Street Journal Special Report, What Should We Do With the Estate Tax?: Michael J. Graetz (Columbia), It's Fair, and We Need the Revenue Ed McCaffery (USC), It's Unfair, and There's a Better Way Charles Passy (Dow Jones), What You Should Do Now

Growth Consequences of Estate Tax Reform

Posted on September 20, 2010
The American Family Business Foundation has released Growth Consequences of Estate Tax Reform: Impacts on Small and Family Businesses, by Douglas Holtz-Eakin & Cameron T. Smith (both of the American Action Forum): This paper examines the impacts of a higher estate tax rate on asset accumulation, small and family businesses?...

WSJ: The 1099 Stonewall

Posted on September 20, 2010
Wall Street Journal editorial, The 1099 Stonewall: You can do a lot with 59 Senate votes, and that was certainly clear this week as Majority Leader Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats slammed the door on a bipartisan attempt to repeal ObamaCare's new 1099 reporting requirement on small business.

TIGTA: IRS Should Do More to Protect Taxpayer Social Security Numbers

Posted on September 20, 2010
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released Target Dates Have Not Been Established to Eliminate or Reduce Taxpayer Social Security Numbers From Outgoing Correspondence (2010-40-098): More than 130 million taxpayers entrust the IRS with sensitive financial and personal data, much of it on paper documents requiring protection...

Tenured Professor by Day, Phone-Sex Dominatrix by Night

Posted on September 19, 2010
Chronicle of Higher Education, In Professor-Dominatrix Scandal, U. of New Mexico Feels the Pain: In some ways, working as a phone-sex dominatrix is a lot simpler than being on a college faculty. Your relationship with others is clearly defined, no one formally complains about anything you say to them, and...

The Great Tax Cut Debate

Posted on September 19, 2010
Bloomberg, The Great Tax Cut Debate, by Ryan Donmoyer & Andy Cinko: The tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 under President George W. Bush expire Dec. 31. President Barack Obama and most congressional Democrats want to renew all the measures, except those affecting the highest incomes...

NYU Profile of Josh Blank

Posted on September 19, 2010
NYU Law Alumni Magazine, Introducing Joshua Blank, Associate Professor of the Practice of Tax Law Faculty Director of the Graduate Tax Program: It is not enough for Joshua Blank (LL.M. ?07) to teach courses, write thoughtful scholarship, and, as faculty director of the graduate tax program, administer a program for...

2010-11 World University Rankings

Posted on September 19, 2010
London-based Times Higher Education on Thursday released its seventh annual World University Rankings, based on this methodology of 13 variables in five categories: Teaching: 30% Research Influence (citations): 32.5% Research (volume, income, and reputation): 30% Internationalization (student and staff ratios): 5% Knowledge Transfer and Innovation (industry income): 2...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on September 19, 2010
There is quite a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new #1 paper and new papers debuting on the list at #4 and #5: 1. [221 Downloads] The Ethics of Tax Lawyering: An Introduction, by Michael Hatfield (Texas Tech)...

ObamaCare's 1099 Reporting Requirement & The Coming Dividend Tax Increase

Posted on September 18, 2010
Curtis S. Dubay (Heritage Foundation) has published two reports: Health Care Bill?s 1099 Reporting Burdens Businesses: "One the most troubling policies in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a new requirement that businesses report more information on their activities to the Internal Revenue Service...

China's Golden Tax Project: Using Technological to Reduce VAT Fraud

Posted on September 18, 2010
Jane K. Winn (Washington) & Angela Zhang (University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law) have posted China's Golden Tax Project: A Technological Strategy for Reducing VAT Fraud on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Unlike the United States, where sales tax is a common form of indirect tax, almost all countries...

State Migration Trends, 1993-2008: From Blue States to Red States

Posted on September 18, 2010
The Tax Foundation has released a State to State Migration Data calculator: The Tax Foundation has launched an interactive tool that shows state-to-state migration data, including the number of taxpayers that move into and out of a particular state, along with changes in the flow of income to and from...

Pillsbury Tax Associate Killed in Domestic Violence Murder-Suicide

Posted on September 18, 2010
ABA Journal, Pillsbury Winthrop Tax Attorney May Have Been Victim of Domestic Murder-Suicide, Authorities Say: A 35-year-old tax associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman has been found slain, apparently shot to death, in her Washington, D.C.-area home...

Average Retirement Plan Account = $62,600

Posted on September 18, 2010
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released Statistical Trends in Retirement Plans (2010-10-097): Retirees may not have enough income from retirement plans alone to cover their financial needs during retirement. ... , TIGTA found that: (1) a higher percentage of American workers are participating in employer-sponsored retirement plans;...

A CPA's Advice for Professors Wanting to Deduct Research Expenses

Posted on September 17, 2010
Following up on my posts (here and here) on last week's Tax Court decision denying a professor's claimed deductions for research expenses: Joe Kristan, Tax Traumas of the Tenured: Some academics are choking on their brie and wine over a case we mentioned last week...

TIGTA: IRS Should Issue More Timely PLRs and More Published Guidance

Posted on September 17, 2010
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration yesterday released Chief Counsel Can Take Actions to Improve the Timeliness of Private Letter Rulings and Potentially Reduce the Number Issued (2010-10-106): [T]he IRS can take additional actions to more timely provide taxpayers with responses to their requests for PLRs...

Law Schools Flamed in Graduates' 'Scam Blogs'

Posted on September 17, 2010
Connecticut Law Tribune, Law Schools Flamed in Growing Number of Graduates' 'Scam Blogs': There's nothing like a scorned law school graduate with mounting debt and a niche in cyberspace to stir up a great debate about the merits of a legal education. At a time when hundreds of junior associates...

Fleming & Peroni: Tax Expenditure Analysis and the Normative Tax Base

Posted on September 17, 2010
J. Clifton Fleming, Jr. (BYU) & Robert J. Peroni (Texas) have posted Can Tax Expenditure Analysis Be Divorced from a Normative Tax Base?: A Critique of the "New Paradigm" and its Denouement, 30 Va. Tax Rev. 135 (2010). Here is the abstract: Tax expenditure analysis (TEA) requires a baseline for...

Bill Would Force

Posted on September 17, 2010
Washington Post, Bill Would Force U.S. Lawmakers to Disclose Owed Taxes, Have Wages Garnished: As senators debate tax legislation this month, Sen. Tom Coburn wants to make sure that senators themselves are paying taxes.Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced legislation Wednesday night that would require U...

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