Taxation & Estate Planning

Federal Government's Accountants 'Do More Complex Work' and 'Have More Skill' Than Private Sector Accountants

Posted on March 07, 2010
USA Today, Federal Pay Ahead of Private Industry: Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds. Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors are among the wide range of jobs that get...

Harvard Law Prof Bill Stuntz Talks of His Impending Death, Faith

Posted on March 07, 2010
Please check out the gripping interview with, and testimony of, William J. Stuntz, Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, a 51-year old father of three, who has lived with intense chronic pain for ten years and is dying of stage IV colon cancer...

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

Posted on March 07, 2010
There is a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new paper debuting on the list at #3: 1. [369 Downloads] The Regulatory Systems for Employee Benefits, by Brian A. Benko (McDermott Will & Emery, Washington, D...

Oscar Swag Bags to Result in $91k Income to Celebrity Presenters

Posted on March 07, 2010
Tonight's Oscars have lost a bit of their buzz -- not because of the expansion of the Best Picture nominees from five to ten, but because the tax consquences of the swag bags received by the celebrity presenters -- worth a record-setting $91,000 this year -- are well settled...

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3rd Circuit: IRS and H&R Block Cannot Be Sued Over E-Filing Fees

Posted on March 06, 2010
3rd Circuit: IRS and H&R Block Cannot Be Sued Over E-Filing Fees (The Legal Intelligencer): The fees charged by H&R Block and other tax preparers for electronic filing of federal tax returns are not illegal and the IRS's agreement with the preparers didn't violate antitrust laws, the 3rd U...

A Law Student's Life Via Google Search

Posted on March 06, 2010

District Court Rules on Government's Challenge to Expert Testimony of David Weisbach & Ethan Yale in Son of BOSS Tax Shelter Case

Posted on March 06, 2010
A federal district judge in Texas yesterday ruled on the Government's motion to disqualify Tax Profs David Weisbach (Chicago) and Ethan Yale (Virginia) from testifying as expert witnesses in a Son of BOSS tax shelter case involving billionaire investor Andrew Beal, Belmont Investments, LLC v...

Lawsky: Obama's Proposal to Limit Itemized Deductions to 28% Rate

Posted on March 06, 2010
President Obama proposes to fund his health care bill in part by limiting the tax rate at which itemized deductions reduce tax liability to 28%: The Administration proposes to limit the tax rate at which high-income taxpayers can take itemized deductions to a maximum of 28 percent, affecting only single...

Charitable Donations by Artists

Posted on March 06, 2010
Sean Conley (J.D. 2010, DePaul) has published Paint a New Picture: The Artist-Museum Partnership Act and the Opening of New Markets for Charitable Giving, 20 DePaul J. Art, Tech. & Intell. Prop. L. 89 (2009). Here is the Conclusion: Since 1969, artists have not been able to take a fair...

Democrats Pull Bill Firing 678 Congressional Staff Tax Deadbeats; 'Just Because You?re Fighting with the IRS Doesn?t Mean You?re Wrong'

Posted on March 05, 2010
Following up on yesterday's post, Fire All 678 Congressional Staffers Who Are Tax Deadbeats?: Politico, Democrats Pull Tax Cheat Bill: Legislation that would force government and Hill staffers to pay back taxes or lose their jobs was pulled from House committee markup today after Democrats hit the brakes...

Kahng: The Single Taxpayer in a Joint Return World

Posted on March 05, 2010
Lily Kahng (Seattle) has published One Is the Loneliest Number: The Single Taxpayer in a Joint Return World, 61 Hastings L.J. 101 (2010). Here is the abstract: The United States is one of the few developed countries to retain the joint return, available for heterosexual married couples only...

Field: Explicit Elections in the Federal Income Tax System

Posted on March 05, 2010
Heather M. Field (UC-Hastings) has published Choosing Tax: Explicit Elections as an Element of Design in the Federal Income Tax System, 47 Harv. J. on Legis. 21 (2010). Here is the abstract: Taxpayer choice pervades the federal income tax system. This choice can be made either implicitly, whereby the taxpayer...

Avi-Yonah: Citizens United and the Corporate Form

Posted on March 05, 2010
Tax Prof Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan) has posted To Be or Not to Be? Citizens United and the Corporate Form on SSRN. Here is the abstract In Citizens United vs. FEC, the Supreme Court struck down a Federal ban on direct corporate expenditures on political campaigns...

David Cay Johnston: Tax Favors, IBM, and the Murder of Vernon Hunter

Posted on March 05, 2010
David Cay Johnston has republished Tax Favors, IBM, and the Murder of Vernon Hunter, 126 Tax Notes 1137 (Mar. 1, 2010), on the website of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University: David Cay Johnston examines how a 1986 tax favor for IBM led a Texas man to crash...

The Paul R. McDaniel International Tax Scholarship

Posted on March 05, 2010
I previously blogged the sad news that Paul McDaniel, James J. Freeland Eminent Scholar in Taxation and Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, is seriously ill with stage IV mesothelioma. Marty McMahon, Paul's long-time friend and colleague, presented Paul with a plaque announcing the...

IRS Suspends One of Boston's 'Most Highly Regarded' Tax Lawyers for 48 Months for Failing to File Tax Returns

Posted on March 05, 2010
The IRS today announced (IR-2010-27) the 48-month suspension of former Foley Hoag tax partner Kevin J. Kilduff for failing to file one federal tax return and for filing another five returns late. From the Office of Professional Responsibility's decision (No...

Ryznar: The Tax Disincentives for Married Women

Posted on March 05, 2010
Margaret Ryznar (Law Clerk to Myron H. Bright, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit) has published To Work, or Not to Work? The Immortal Tax Disincentives for Married Women, 13 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 921 (2009). Here is the abstract: Among the most fundamental barriers to the...

Tom Bost Named Interim Dean at Pepperdine

Posted on March 02, 2010
Tax Prof Thomas G. Bost has been named Interim Dean at Pepperdine. From the press release: Pepperdine University President Andrew K. Benton and Provost Darryl Tippens have jointly named Thomas G. Bost Interim Dean of the Pepperdine School of Law. Bost, former Chair of the University's Board of Regents, has...

The Four Best Public Service Law Schools

Posted on March 02, 2010
The February 2010 issue of The National Jurist has an article on the four best public service law schools: Using data collected by The Equal Justice Works Guide to Law Schools, The National Jurist selected four schools for its Public Service honor roll: Boston University School of Law, Brooklyn Law...

Zelinsky: Reducing the Deficit Through the No COLA Year

Posted on March 02, 2010
Edward A. Zelinsky (Cardozo), Reducing the Deficit Through the No COLA Year: I propose that we designate 2011 as the No COLA year. Under this proposal, in 2011 no cost-of-living adjustments would be implemented in the federal budget or tax law. When COLAs resume for 2012, any inflation which occurred...

TPC Hosts Conference Today on Desperately Seeking Revenue

Posted on March 02, 2010
The Tax Policy Center hosts a conference today in Washington, D.C. from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Desperately Seeking Revenue (webcast here): The numbers are, simply put, mind numbing. The federal deficit will total $6.7 trillion this decade under current law, the Congressional Budget Office projects...

The 10 Best (and 10 Worst) Law School Websites

Posted on March 02, 2010
Roger V. Skalbeck (Associate Law Librarian for Electronic Resources & Services, Georgetown) has published Top 10 Law School Home Pages of 2009, 13 Green Bag 2d 289 (2010). Here is the abstract: The website home page represents the virtual front door for any law school...

Lederman Presents Basketing and Corporate Tax Shelters Today at Toronto

Posted on March 02, 2010
Leandra Lederman (Indiana-Bloomington) presents A Tisket, a Tasket: Basketing and Corporate Tax Shelters at the University of Toronto today as part of the James Hausman Tax Law and Policy Workshop Series. Here is the abstract: In an income tax system comporting with the Haig-Simons norm, deductible expenses would not face...

Kwall: WSJ Was Wrong ? Tax on Dividends to Increase 164% in 2011

Posted on March 02, 2010
Wall Street Journal, The Right Way To Squirrel Money From the Taxman (emphasis added): If the administration's proposals pass, the 2011 tax rate on gains will rise by a third, more than any other. If Medicare taxes are added as well, it will increase by half...

College Rankings by Median Salary of Graduates

Posted on March 02, 2010
PayScale.com has published a 2009 College Salary Report, ranking colleges by their graduates' salaries right out of college and ten years later (full methodology here). Here are the Top 10 colleges by mid-career median salary (college, starting median salary, mid-career median salary) 1...

Kwon: The IRS Whistleblower Program and Taxpayer Confidentiality

Posted on March 02, 2010
Michelle M. Kwon (Texas Tech) has posted Whistling Dixie About the IRS Whistleblower Program Thanks to the IRC Confidentiality Restrictions, 29 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The IRS has been authorized for many years to pay awards to individuals who blow the whistle on...

Damages Received by Customer Abused by Car Dealer Are Not Excluded From Income Under § 104(a)(2)

Posted on March 02, 2010
Following up on my prior post, Why Are We Bailing Out These Guys?: the Sixth Circuit yesterday affirmed the Tax Court (Stadnyk v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2008-289 (Dec. 22, 2008)) in holding that $49,000 received by a customer abused by a car dealer after purchasing a used Geo Storm that...

Tax Exemption Questioned for Christian Congressional Man Cave

Posted on March 01, 2010
New York Times editorial, Render Unto C Street: It is not unusual for members of Congress to arrange group rentals in Washington to share housing costs and, for some, underline their continuing ?outsider? status. What is highly unusual, and unjustifiable, is the tax-exempt status as a religious institution enjoyed by...

Subscribing to TaxProf Blog

Posted on March 01, 2010
We offer two ways for you to have TaxProf Blog content automatically delivered to your computer, cell phone, or mobile device, as explained in the left column of the blog under the banner, "Subscribe to TaxProf Blog Via RSS Feed or Email": RSS Feeds: You can subscribe to one of...

NY Times: States Move to Revoke Charities? Tax Exemptions

Posted on March 01, 2010
New York Times, States Move to Revoke Charities? Tax Exemptions, by Stephanie Strom: Faced with steep declines in tax revenue, an increasing number of states and localities are considering eliminating various tax exemptions for nonprofit groups.

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