Taxation & Estate Planning

Worster: The Constitutionality of Taxing the Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship

Posted on June 25, 2010
William Thomas Worster (The Hague University) has published The Constitutionality of the Taxation Consequences for Renouncing U.S. Citizenship, 9 Fla. Tax Rev. 921 (2010). Here is the abstract: Individuals that renounce their U.S. citizenship are held to a special taxation regime as a consequence for their expatriation that is unique...

The Forthcoming

Posted on June 25, 2010
Robert Morse, Director of Data Research at U.S. News, Some News About the New, Upcoming Best Law Firms Rankings: Here is an update on the highly anticipated U.S. News-Best Lawyers Best Law Firms rankings, which are scheduled to be released in the October 2010 issue of U...

Off to the CALI

Posted on June 24, 2010
Although I hate to leave the paradise of San Diego (especially for Camden, New Jersey), I am spending the next three days at the 2010 CALI Conference for Law School Computing on Reboot Legal Education at Rutgers. I will be attending many of the wonderful sessions, as well as a...

Responsible Estate Estate Tax Includes $3.5m Exemption, 55% Top Rate & 10% Billionaire's Surtax

Posted on June 24, 2010
Sensators Bernard Sanders (II-VT), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today plan to introduce the Responsible Estate Tax Act, which would provide a $3.5 million exemption, a progressive rate structure, and a 10% surtax on billionaires: Exempts the first $3...

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Levi & Weiss on Nontraditional Deans

Posted on June 24, 2010
Board of Editors, Introduction: Essays by Dean David F. Levi and Chancellor Jack M. Weiss, 70 La. L. Rev. 911 (2010): The following two essays address the recent trend in law schools throughout the country in selecting deans with ?nonacademic? backgrounds...

Faulhaber: Sovereignty, Integration, and Tax Avoidance in the European Union

Posted on June 24, 2010
Lilian V. Faulhaber (Harvard; moving to Boston University) has published Sovereignty, Integration and Tax Avoidance in the European Union: Striking the Proper Balance, 48 Colum. J. Transnat'l L. 117 (2010). Here is the abstract: As the need to raise revenue becomes more pressing and public opposition to tax avoidance increases,...

Lehavi: The Taking/Taxing Taxonomy

Posted on June 24, 2010
Amnon Lehavi (Radzyner School of Law, Israel) has published The Taking/Taxing Taxonomy, 88 Texas L. Rev. 1235 (2010). Here is the abstract: Takings jurisprudence is engaged in a constant paradox. It is conventionally portrayed as chaotic and muddy, and yet attempts by the judiciary to create some sense of order...

Cauble: DOI Income and Tax-Exempt Organizations

Posted on June 24, 2010
Emily L. Cauble (Illinois) has published Cancellation of Indebtedness Income and Tax-Exempt Entities, 127 Tax Notes 1381 (June 21, 2010). Here is the abstract: Significant uncertainty exists under current law regarding the tax treatment of cancellation of indebtedness income realized by tax-exempt entities...

UBS Tax Whistleblower Asks Obama to Commute His Sentence

Posted on June 24, 2010
Bloomberg, Banker Who Blew Whistle on Secrecy Over Tax Cheats Seeks Pardon: Bradley Birkenfeld, once a UBS AG banker who handled a $200 million investment for a billionaire client, now makes 12 cents an hour mopping floors at the federal prison in Minersville, Pennsylvania...

WSJ: Carried Interest Tax Hike Will Hit Family Partnerships

Posted on June 24, 2010
Wall Street Journal editorial, The Family Business Revenue Act: A Tax on the Wealthy Becomes a Tax on Mom and Pop: Class-warfare politics has a way of doing damage well beyond its intended targets. Consider how the Democratic plan to raise taxes on "carried interest" will also sock it to...

How to Get Your Dean to Buy You an iPad

Posted on June 24, 2010
Forbes, A Financial Advice Wonk Falls for the iPad: No Reading Glasses Needed and Three Downloadable Versions of the U.S. Tax Code. That's True Love, by Deborah L. Jacobs: I had very different ideas about how to fill up my iPad's 64 gigabytes of memory...

Reggie Bush

Posted on June 23, 2010
The NCAA's University of Southern California Public Infractions Report (June 10, 2010) details over $300,000 in benefits from agents provided to former Trojan Heisman Trophy Winner (and current New Orleans Saint) Reggie Bush. FOX News reports that the IRS and California tax authorities may seek over $200,000 in back taxes,...

Symposium on the Law of Philanthropy in the Twenty-First Century, Part I: Governance

Posted on June 23, 2010
The Chicago-Kent Law Review has published Symposium on the Law of Philanthropy in the Twenty-First Century, Part I: Governance, 85 Chi.-Kent. L. Rev. 469-717 (2010): Anne-Marie Rhodes (Loyola-Chicago), The Law of Philanthropy in the Twenty-First Century: An Introduction to the Symposium, 85 Chi...

Fleischer: Private Equity and the 'Enterprise Value Tax'

Posted on June 23, 2010
Vic Flesicher (Colorado) has revived A Taxing Blog -- the first academic tax blog that went on hiatus in October 2003. He has a detailed post on Private Equity and the So-called ?Enterprise Value Tax": The current version of the carried interest legislation contains no ?enterprise value tax?...

Americans Are Suffering From Tax Break Fever

Posted on June 23, 2010
Dallas Morning News, Tax Breaks Americans Savor Are Costing Uncle Sam Big: Almost all lawmakers support the mortgage interest deduction, which has been called "America's favorite tax shelter," and homebuilders and real estate agents say it's critical for promoting homeownership...

Tax Court Rejects Geithner/TurboTax Defense

Posted on June 23, 2010
The Tax Court on Monday again rejected the Geithner/TurboTax defense. Parker v. Commissioner, T.C. Summ. Op. 2010-78 (June 21, 2010): It is petitioner's position that the accuracy-related penalties at issue "should be waived." In support of that position, petitioner asserts: During the period under question I worked as a contractual...

TIGTA Uncovers Widespread Fraud in First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Program, Including by Prisoners Serving Life Sentences

Posted on June 23, 2010
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Additional Steps Are Needed to Prevent and Recover Erroneous Claims for the First-Time Homebuyer Credit (2010-41-069): In its new report, TIGTA estimates that 14,132 individuals received erroneous credits totaling at least $26...

Marian: The Discursive Failure in Comparative Tax Law

Posted on June 23, 2010
Omri Y. Marian (S.J.D. candidate, Michigan) has published The Discursive Failure in Comparative Tax Law, 58 Am. J. Comp. L. 415 (2010). Here is the abstract: Tax comparatists tend to bemoan about the grim status of their chosen field of studies. Complaints are aimed both at the scarcity of decent...

Tax Court Says Fisherman's Claimed Losses Were Bass-Ackwards

Posted on June 23, 2010
Dow Jones, Fish Tale Fails To Impress Tax Court, by Arden Dale: The angler called them professional losses. The IRS tossed them back. Now, a U.S. Tax Court judge isn't biting, either. The judge this week upheld an IRS decision that a taxpayer's efforts to write off around $166,000 in...

The Tax Court, Tim Geithner, and Jack Webb

Posted on June 23, 2010
Following up on this morning's post, Tax Court Rejects Geithner/TurboTax Defense: from a reader:

NY Times on Law School Grade Inflation

Posted on June 22, 2010
New York Times, In Law Schools, Grades Go Up, Just Like That, by Catherine Rampell: One day next month every student at Loyola Law School Los Angeles will awake to a higher grade point average. But it?s not because they are all working harder. The school is retroactively inflating its...

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

Posted on June 22, 2010
SSRN has updated its monthly rankings of 650 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 June 18, 2010) of the Top 25 U...

SOI Releases Estate and Gift Returns, 1917-1923

Posted on June 22, 2010
The IRS's Statistics of Income Division has released an Estate and Gift Tax Achive: 1917 Estate and Gift Returns 1918 Estate and Gift Returns 1919 Estate and Gift Returns 1920 Estate and Gift Returns 1921 Estate and Gift Returns 1922 Estate and Gift Returns 1923 Estate and Gift Returns

Winchester: Corporations That Weren't: The Taxation of Firm Profits in Historical Perspective

Posted on June 22, 2010
Richard Winchester (Thomas Jefferson) has published Corporations That Weren't: The Taxation of Firm Profits in Historical Perspective, 19 S. Cal. Interdisc. L.J. 501 (2010). Here is the abstract: This article examines the nation's earliest income tax laws, focusing on the provisions that tax business profits in a way that disregards...

Leiter's Student Quality Ranking v. U.S. News Overall Ranking

Posted on June 22, 2010
Brian Leiter (Chicago) has released Ranking of Top 40 Law Schools by Student (Numerical) Quality 2010. These are the schools whose student quality ranking most exceeds their overall U.S. News rankings, as well as the schools whose overall U.S. News rankings most exceeds their student quality rankings: School Difference Student...

$20b Gulf Coast Disaster Payments: Income to Victims, Deductible by BP

Posted on June 22, 2010
Unless Congress enacts special tax legislation in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the $20b in disaster payments would be income to the Gulf Coast residents and deductible by BP: Associated Press, Gulf Coast Residents Unsure If Claims Are Taxed: [P]eople up and down the Gulf Coast reeling...

ABA Forms Group to Examine Domestic Partner Tax Issues

Posted on June 22, 2010
Nicole Duarte, ABA Forms Group to Examiner Domestic Partner Community, 2010 TNT 118-6127 (June 21, 2010): In response to questions raised by recent informal IRS guidance [blogged here], the ABA Section of Taxation Teaching Tax committee has begun a project to examine community property issues related to registered domestic partnerships...

Corn Products to Acquire National Starch

Posted on June 22, 2010
The companies behind two famous tax cases are in the business news: Corn Products is acquring National Starch for $1.3 billion: Associated Press Bloomberg MarketWatch New York Times Wall Street Journal (Hat Tip: Marty McMahon.)

Waggoner Posts Tax Papers on SSRN

Posted on June 22, 2010
Lawrence W. Waggoner (Michigan) has posted three papers on SSRN: The American Law Institute Proposes a New Approach to Perpetuities: Limiting the Dead Hand to Two Younger Generations The American Law Institute Proposes Simplifying the Doctrine of Estates Curtailing Dead-Hand Control: The American Law Institute Declares the Perpetual-Trust Movement Ill...

OLC: Federal Workers' TSP Accounts Are Subject to Tax Levy

Posted on June 21, 2010
The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel has issued an opinion to the IRS Chief Counsel concluding that Thrift Savings Plan accounts (401k-like plans of federal employees) are subject to federal tax levies under I.R.C. §§ 6331 and 6334, even though 5 U...

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