Taxation & Estate Planning

IRS Agent Indicted for Using First-Time Home Buyer Credit to Commit Tax Fraud

Posted on March 25, 2011
An IRS agent is among 14 people indicted for using the first-time homebuyers tax credit to commit tax fraud. From the Department of Justice press release: An eighth individual, Michael Doyle, 44, of Hudson, NH, was also indicted for filing false, fictitious and fraudulent claims with the IRS and faces...

NY Times: G.E.: Tax Imagination at Work

Posted on March 25, 2011
New York Times, G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether, by David Kocieniewski: General Electric, the nation?s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010. The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States...

U.S. News Law School Rankings: Yield (Popularity)

Posted on March 25, 2011
U.S. News & World Report has released a list of the law schools with the highest yield (the percentage of accepted students who enroll in the school): In all, 190 law schools surveyed by U.S. News reported both acceptance and enrollment data for the class beginning in the 2010 academic...

Man Accused of Killing

Posted on March 24, 2011
Boston Globe, Mass. Man Accused of Killing Wife After IRS Visit: A Webster man charged with killing his wife about an hour after two IRS agents seized their car for nonpayment of taxes has been ordered held without bail.

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Lindsey: Encouraging Savings Under the EITC

Posted on March 24, 2011
Vada Waters Lindsey (Marquette) has published Encouraging Savings Under the Earned Income Tax Credit: A Nudge in the Right Direction, 44 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 83 (2010). Here is the abstract: During 2007, 3.6 million or 9.7% of people in the United States age 65 or older were below the...

2009-10 Tax Developments Affecting Family Businesses

Posted on March 24, 2011
Rose L. Bailey (East Carolina University College of Business, Department of Accounting) has published Challenges and Opportunities for the Tax Professional Guiding Closely-Held Entities: 2009 & 2010 Regulatory and Judicial Developments Impacting Fourth Circuit Tax Practitioners, 33 Campbell L...

Forbes: No Day Trading When You Owe the IRS

Posted on March 24, 2011
Forbes, Judge: No Day Trading When You Owe The IRS, by Janet Novack: A U.S. Tax Court judge ruled Tuesday that the IRS could rightly refuse to cut a deal with a tax delinquent because the man had ?dissipated? assets he could have used to pay off his tax bill...

ABA Proposes Changes to Accreditation Standards

Posted on March 24, 2011
From the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar: Rule 20. Major Change in the Organizational Structure of a Provisionally or Fully Approved Law School Standard 105. Standard 105. Major Change in Program or Structure The proposed changes to Standard 105 and Rule 20 conform to new...

Stark Presents Bribing the States to Tax Food Today at NYU

Posted on March 24, 2011
Kirk J. Stark (UCLA) presents Bribing the States to Tax Food and The Federal Role in State Tax Reform, 30 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2010), at NYU today as part of its Colloquium Series on Tax Policy and Public Finance convened by Daniel Shaviro (NYU) and Mihir Desai (Harvard Business...

Saying Farewell to a Dog Is Never Easy

Posted on March 24, 2011
Longtime readers will recall the family trauma we endured almost five years ago when we had to put down our beloved dog, Sandy. Those memories came flooding back when I read of the similar situation in today's New York Times, My Dog Days Are Over.

GOP Tax Leaders Side With Obama, Oppose Cantor's Repatriation Tax Holiday

Posted on March 24, 2011
Following up on yesterday's post, Administration, GOP Spar Over Repatriation Tax Holiday: Bloomberg, Republican Tax Chiefs Cool to Cisco, Google Offshore Tax Plan: The top Republican tax writers in the U.S. Congress aren?t endorsing a call by Cisco, Google and other multinational corporations for a temporary tax break on repatriating...

Omaha Mayor Proposes Federal Toilet Paper Tax to Fund Local Sewer Project

Posted on March 24, 2011
Omaha World-Herald, Suttle Unrolls Toilet Paper Tax: Mayor Jim Suttle went to Washington Tuesday flush with ideas for how federal officials could help cities like Omaha pay for multibillion-dollar sewer projects. Among the items on his brainstorming list: a proposal for a 10-cent federal tax on every roll of toilet...

Citation Advantage of Open Access Legal Scholarship

Posted on March 24, 2011
James M. Donovan (Kentucky) & Carol A. Watson (Georgia) have posted Citation Advantage of Open Access Legal Scholarship on SSRN. Here is the abstract: To date, there have been no studies focusing exclusively on the impact of open access on legal scholarship...

NY Times Debate: Rising Wealth Inequality -- Should We Care?

Posted on March 23, 2011
New York Times, Room for Debate -- Rising Wealth Inequality: Should We Care?: Many studies have shown that income inequality is rising. In several different types of communities, median family income is lower now than 30 years ago. Yet an intriguing survey by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely found that...

Polsky: The ObamaCare Individual Mandate as an Escrow Account

Posted on March 23, 2011
Gregg D. Polsky (North Carolina) has published Reconstructing thr Individual Mandate as an Escrow Account, 109 Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions 73 (March 2010). Here is the Introduction: The recent health care reform law's most controversial provision is the individual mandate, which imposes a fine on individuals who fail to...

Conglomerate Masters Forum on Legal Education

Posted on March 23, 2011
Deborah DeMott (Duke), Justifying Tenure Requirements -- An Analogy Dave Hoffman (Temple), Accreditation After the Bubble Has Burst Christine Hurt (Illinois), Should the ABA Mandate Tenure? Sarah Lawsky (UC-Irvine), Optional Standardized Testing: The LSAT and the SAT Usha Rodrigues (Georgia), Legal Education - Is It Our Job to Discourage the...

TPC Resource Guide to the Tax Provisions of Obama's 2012 Budget

Posted on March 23, 2011
The Tax Policy Center has released a resource guide to the tax provisions of President Obama's 2012 Budget: The guide includes descriptions of the proposals, links to more detailed commentary on key provisions, and a new TPC distributional analysis of the overall proposal as well as major elements of the...

ABA Approves Law School Accreditation Rule Changes

Posted on March 23, 2011
From the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar: At its meeting on February 14, 2011, the ABA House of Delegates concurred in changes to the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools. The changes became effective immediately...

IRS UTP FAQ

Posted on March 23, 2011
The IRS today released frequently asked questions (FAQs) for corporate taxpayers required to file the uncertain tax position (UTP) schedule: Beginning January 1, 2010, certain corporate taxpayers are required to file Schedule UTP with the Form 1120. Instructions for completing the schedule and other information related to the filing of...

Smith Posts Tax Papers on SSRN

Posted on March 23, 2011
Patrick J. Smith (Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Washington, D.C.) has posted several tax papers on SSRN: Mayo and Chenery: Too Much of a Shift in Rationale?, 129 Tax Notes 454 (Oct. 25, 2010) Gaps in the Seventh Circuit's Reasoning in Lantz, 128 Tax Notes 1375 (Sept...

Fennell: Unbundling Risk

Posted on March 23, 2011
Lee Anne Fennell (Chicago) has published Unbundling Risk, 60 Duke L.J. 1285 (2011). Here is the abstract: Scholars have explored many ways to rearrange risk outside of traditional insurance markets. An interesting literature addresses a range of innovative alternatives, including the sale of unmatured tort claims or chances at windfalls,...

Administration, GOP Spar Over Repatriation Tax Holiday

Posted on March 23, 2011
Eric Cantor (House Majority Leader), The Repatriation Choice Michael Mundaca (Assistant Treasury Secretary, Tax Policy), The Costs of a Repatriation Tax Holiday Bloomberg, Cantor Backs Cisco, Apple Call for Tax Break on Offshore Profit Bloomberg, Cantor to Administration: Corporate Tax Holiday Not a Distraction Bloomberg, Treasury Pushes Back at Cisco,...

ABA Softens Proposal to Eliminate Faculty Tenure as Accreditation Standard

Posted on March 22, 2011
In advance of its April 2 meeting, the Standards Review Committee of the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar has released a revised draft of its proposal to eliminate faculty tenure as an accreditation standard. Although the revised draft apparently is in response to criticism of...

Kleinbard: Stateless Income

Posted on March 22, 2011
Edward Kleinbard (USC) has posted Stateless Income and The Lessons of Stateless Income on SSRN: Stateless Income and its companion, The Lessons of Stateless Income, together comprehensively analyze the tax consequences and policy implications of the phenomenon of ?stateless income...

Google Questioned by SEC Over Earnings in Low-Tax Countries

Posted on March 22, 2011
Bloomberg, Google Questioned by SEC Over Earnings in Low-Tax Countries, by Brian Womack & Jesse Drucker: Google received questions from the SEC in December about earnings in other countries that may have reduced the company?s tax bill, according to regulatory filings released today...

Tax Foundation: No Country Leans on Upper-Income Households as Much as U.S.

Posted on March 22, 2011
The Tax Foundation yesterday released No Country Leans on Upper-Income Households as Much as U.S.: [T]his table shows the share of taxes paid by the richest 10% of households, the share of all market income earned by that group, and the ratio of what that 10% percent of households pays...

Sen. McCaskill Owes $287k in Back Taxes on Private Plane

Posted on March 22, 2011
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) admitted yesterday that she has failed to pay nearly $287,000 in presonal property taxes on her usage of a private plane. The Hill New York Times NPR Politico Real Clear Politics Wall Street Journal Washington Post

Danilack Delivers 11th Annual NYU/KPMG Tax Lecture Today on Transparency in the U.S. Self Assessment Tax System

Posted on March 22, 2011
Michael Danilack (Deputy Commissioner (International), United States Competent Authority, Large Business and International Division) delivers the 11th Annual NYU/KPMG Tax Lecture on Increasing Transparency in the U.S. Self Assessment Tax System: A Paradigm Shift: Recent changes to the legislative, judicial, and administrative landscape have revealed an emerging focus on transparency...

Prebble & Huang: The 'Tax Mulligan' Doctrine

Posted on March 22, 2011
John Prebble (Victoria University of Wellington, Faculty of Law) & Chye-Ching Huang (University of Auckland, Business School) have published The Fabricated Unwind Doctrine: The True Meaning of Penn v. Robertson, 7 Hastings Bus. L.J. 117 (2011). Here is part of the Introduction: Also referred to as the ?rescission doctrine,? a...

Governor Proposes That Ohio Faculty Teach 1 Additional Course Every 2 Years

Posted on March 22, 2011
Inside Higher Ed, A Heavier Load in Ohio: A proposal for Ohio?s faculty members to teach more classes has drawn fire -- even though similar plans have been attempted elsewhere successfully. In his budget address last week, Governor John Kasich unveiled a plan that included a mandate that professors at...

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