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TaxProf Blog

Paul L. Caron
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Pepperdine Caruso
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  • Paul Caron

    Remembering David Bradford

    Bradford_2Daniel Shaviro (NYU) has posted on his blog two tributes to David Bradford (Princeton):

    Memorial contributions in David’s memory may be made to:

    • Tthe Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, 237 N. Harrison St., Princeton, NJ 08540
    • The Nature Conservancy, Attn: Treasury, 4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203
    • The Borough of Princeton, 1 Monument Drive, Princeton, NJ 08542 to fund improvements to a neighborhood park on Pine Street (memo line on checks should read: "Dr. David Bradford Trust Fund")

    For prior TaxProf Blog coverage of David’s tragic death, see here, here, and here.

  • Paul Caron

    Pakenham & Mulvey on New York’s Tax Shelter Legislation

    Pakenham_kathleen_c_silo_web Tax_analysts_105 Kathleen M. Pakenham & Timothy V. Mulvey (both of White & Case, New York) have published An Analysis of New York’s Tax Shelter Legislation, also available on the Tax Analysts web site as Doc 2005-9111, 2005 STT 93-18.  The article analyze New York state’s recently enacted AB 6845, which is aimed at curbing tax shelter transactions. 

        

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  • Paul Caron

    IRS to Release Regs on Transfers of Equity Interest in a Partnership in Exchange for Services

    Irs_logo_90 The IRS on Tuesday will release proposed regulations (REG-105346-03) providing guidance on the transfer of an equity interest in a partnership in connection with the performance of services.  The regs provide that the transfer of a partnership interest in connection with the performance of services is subject to § 83 and provide rules for coordinating § 83 with partnership tax principles. The reg provide that no gain or loss is recognized by a partnership on the transfer or vesting of a partnership interest in connection with the performance of services for the partnership. Additionally, the regs modify the § 704(b) regs regarding revaluations, the maintenance of the partnerships’ capital accounts, and provide for allocations upon the forfeiture of a partnership interest.

  • Paul Caron

    IRS to Release Regs on Qualified Intellectual Property Contributions

    Irs_logo_89 The IRS on Monday will release temporary (T.D. 9206) and proposed (REG-158138-04) regulations providing guidance to donees of qualified intellectual property contributions.  The effective date of the regulations is Monday, and they apply to donees receiving net income from qualified intellectual property contributions made after June 3, 2004.  The IRS also will issue Notice 2005-41, advising donors how to qualify for additional deductions for contributions of qualified intellectual property.

    Section 882 of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 amended § 170(m)(2), (8) & (9).  A donor’s initial charitable contribution deduction for contributions of qualified intellectual property is limited to the lesser of the fmv of, or the donor’s adjusted basis in, the qualified intellectual property.  However, the donor is allowed to deduct certain additional amounts based on a percentage of the qualified donee income received by or accrued to the donee with respect to the qualified intellectual property. To qualify for the additional deductions, the donor must notify the donee at the time of the contribution of the donor’s intention to take the additional deductions.  The Act further amended § 6050L to require the donee to file an information return with respect to each qualified intellectual property contribution.

  • Spotlight_2Robert T. Danforth (Washington & Lee)

        • A.B. 1980, Washington University
        • J.D. 1986, Duke

     

    Danforth_1Two persons bear the principal blame for my entry into the world of tax law. First, my mother, who — after earning a degree in economics and before she had children — worked briefly for the IRS. (My mother also for many years ran the local VITA program in my home town, Paris, Kentucky.) Second, Rich Schmalbeck, my tax professor at Duke, whose instilled in me a fascination with the language of the Code and with the ways in which taxes affect all elements of financial and commercial life.

    Following graduation from Duke in 1986, I had a one-year clerkship with the Honorable Stephanie K. Seymour on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. I then joined the law firm of Arnold & Porter, in Washington, D.C., commencing with a brief stint in the litigation department, before moving to the tax department. Once in the tax department, I almost immediately began to concentrate my practice on trusts & estates matters. To this day I consider trusts & estates to be one of the most satisfying of practice areas – it involves a unique combination of working closely with individuals concerning matters of great personal importance to them, while at the same time being engaged and challenged intellectually. Tax lawyers in general, and trusts & estates lawyers in particular, are a "scholarly" bunch, and I very much enjoyed that aspect of my practice. To this day I consider the tax lawyers at Arnold & Porter to be among the most gifted lawyers I know. My colleagues included Pat Dilley, now a professor at Florida.

    After approximately four and a half years at Arnold & Porter, I joined the Charlottesville office of McGuireWoods, where for the next five years I continued to focus my practice on trusts & estates matters. McGuireWoods has one of the preeminent trusts & estates practices in the country, and my time with the firm brought tremendous professional satisfaction. At the Charlottesville office, I was fortunate to be associated with terrifically smart and talented colleagues – including Eric Chason, now a professor at William & Mary, and Nancy McLaughlin, now a professor at Utah – as well a plentiful supply of clients with sophisticated estate planning needs. Being in the Charlottesville office also afforded me the opportunity to teach as an adjunct at Virginia, where for several years I taught a course on Estate Planning and Administration. While at Virginia, I enjoyed my relationship with a number of tax folks, including especially Mildred Robinson, George Yin, and Tom White, and I continue to be a member of Ed Cohen’s Virginia Tax Study Group.

    My adjunct experience at Virginia gave me the teaching bug and, after ten years of practice, I decided to enter the market for a tenure-track position. I was lucky enough to receive an offer from Washington & Lee, where I’ve taught now since 1997, earning tenure in 2002. My teaching package at Washington & Lee has centered entirely around my background in practice: I’ve taught courses on trusts & estates, estate & gift taxation, Subchapter J, basic income tax, and estate planning. My scholarship, too, has focused on those subject areas. I’m also fortunate in being involved in significant bar-related activities. I do occasional consulting work, and have served as an expert witness on a number of occasions.

    Washington & Lee is a wonderful place to teach. I’ve been blessed over the years with many engaging and supportive colleagues, including especially Ned Henneman, who is retiring this year after 30 some-odd years of teaching trusts & estates, estate & gift taxation, and related courses. My other two tax and trusts & estates colleagues are Dorothy Brown (in tax) and Tom Gallanis (in trusts and estates), relative newcomers to Washington & Lee, who have significantly raised our profile in the tax and trusts & estates worlds. The students at Washington & Lee are a pleasure to teach – they’re incredibly smart and remarkably conscientious. Our classes are small, which means that I get to know my students well.

    I’m married to Lee-Anne Swanson, and we have a two-year-old son. I also have two daughters from a prior marriage, one seventeen and the other almost thirteen. So I’m looking at colleges for the eldest and changing diapers for the youngest! My principal hobby is sailing, though I haven’t done much of that since my son was born. My wife and I were both music majors in college, and we enjoy musical activities of various sorts and genres.

    Each Saturday, TaxProf Blog shines the spotlight on one of the 700+ tax professors in America’s law schools. We hope to help bring the many individual stories of scholarly achievements, teaching innovations, public service, and career moves within the tax professorate to the attention of the broader tax community. Please email me suggestions for future Tax Prof Profiles. For prior Tax Prof Profiles, see here.

  • Paul Caron

    Silverman, Zarlenga & Giles on Proposed Regs Permit Cross-Border “A” Reorgs for First Time in 70 Years

    Tax_analysts_102Mark J. Silverman, Lisa M. Zarlenga & John J. Giles (all of Steptoe & Johnson, Washington, D.C.) have published Proposed Regs Would Permit Cross-Border "A" Reorganizations for First Time in 70 Years, 107 Tax Notes 881 (May 16, 2005), also available on the Tax Analysts web site as Doc 2005-8326, 2005 TNT 94-31:

    Recently released proposed regulations would permit certain mergers effected under foreign law, including certain mergers involving foreign disregarded entities, to qualify as reorganizations under § 368(a)(1)(A). Those proposed regulations offer additional flexibility for corporate restructurings while preserving requirements that limit the potential for abuse.

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  • Paul Caron

    ABA Tax Section Concludes May Meeting Today in Washington, D.C.

    Aba_tax_15The ABA Tax Section concludes its 3-day May meeting today at the Grand Hyatt Hotel (1000 H Street NW ) in Washington, D.C.  Of particular interest to Tax Profs today is the Individual Income Tax Program (9:00 – 11:00 am): 

     

    Chair:  Mona Hymel (Arizona)

    • 9:10 – 10:10 am:  Simplification Efforts and the Report of the National Taxpayer Advocate
      • Moderator:  Charlene Luke (Florida State)
      • Panelists:
        • Nina E. Olson (National Taxpayer Advocate)
        • Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz (LSU)
    • 10:10 – 11:00 am:  Collection Due Process
      • Moderator:  Bryan T. Camp (Texas Tech)
      • Panelists:
        • Leslie Book (Villanova)
        • Nina E. Olson (National Taxpayer Advocate)
        • Jeffrey C. Allison (Office of Appeals, IRS)
    • 11:00 – 11:30 am:  Individual Income Tax Update
      • Moderator:  Christopher C. Fairchild (Union Pacific Railroad)
      • Panelists:
        • Mona L. Hymel (Arizona)
        • Roberta Mann (Widener)
        • Gail Richmond (Nova)

    Tax Profs participating in other programs include:

    7:00 – 9:00 am:  Low Income Taxpayers

    Chair:  Diana Leyden (Connecticut)

    • 7:05 – 7:15 am:  Important Developments
      • Speaker:  Ljubomir Nacev (Chase)
    • 7:50 – 9:00 am:  Interpreters: Working with English as Second Language or Limited English Proficiency Clients
      • Moderator:  Diana Leyden (Connecticut)

    8:30 – 11:30 am:  Fiduciary Income Tax

    • 9:35 – 10:30 am:  Income Tax Aspects of Family Limited Partnerships
      • Speaker: Sam Donaldson (University of Washington)

    8:30 – 11:45 am:  Sales, Exchanges and Basis

    • 10:25 – 11:15 am:  Sales and Exchanges:  Current Developments
      • Moderators:  Bradley T. Borden (Washburn) & Erik Jensen (Case Western)

    8:30 – 11:30 am:  Value Added Tax and Other Consumption Taxes

    Chair:  Alan Schenk (Wayne State)

    • 8:40 – 10:15 am:  Comparison of European VAT and Other Consumption Tax Proposals
      • Speakers:  Alan Schenk (Wayne State)

    9:00 – 10:30 am:  Pro Bono

    • 9:05 – 9:25 am:  Low Income Taxpayer Clinics
      • Moderator:  Diana Leyden (Connecticut)

    12:00 – 1:30 pm:  Employee Benefits Luncheon

    • Speaker:  Michael J. Graetz (Yale)

    2:00 – 5:00 pm:  Standards of Tax Practice

    Chair:  Michael B. Lang (Chapman)

    • 4:10 – 5:00 pm:  What Estate Planners Need to Know about Circular 230
      • Panelist:  Linda Galler (Hofstra)

    For the full list of today’s programs, see here.

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  • Paul Caron

    New York Telecommuter Tax (Continued)

    Regular readers of this blog know that we have extensively covered the twists and turns concerning the controversy over New York’s telecommuter tax (here, here, here, and here).  Here are this week’s developments:

    The National Law Journal published an article on the subject, New York Loses Bid to Assess Tax on Telecommuter From Connecticut (5/18).  Here is the opening:

    In a rare victory for a telecommuter in a "convenience of the employer" rule case, an administrative law judge has held against the state Division of Taxation and said New York has no business taxing all of the income of a man who worked from his home in New Canaan, Conn. Matter of C. Gregory Devers, 819751, illustrates that while the controversial test used to determine if out-of-state residents can allocate earnings between New York and another jurisdiction is a high hurdle, it is not insurmountable.

    Jim Maule (Villanova) has an extensive discussion of the article on his blog.  He rightly asks:

    The idea that New York thinks it can tax a person who has no employment contact with New York other than being employed by a company with contacts in New York is startling. Theoretically, what’s to stop New York from trying to impose income tax on all the employees, no matter where located, of Citibank, NBC, or any other company with New York employees or even just New York contacts?

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  • Paul Caron

    NTA Holds Annual State & Local Tax Program on The Political Economy of Intergovernmental Tax Administration and Compliance Today in Washington, D.C.

    The National Tax Association holds its annual State & Local Tax Program on The Political Economy of Intergovernmental Tax Administration and Compliance this afternoon in Washington, D.C. at the Holiday Inn Capitol.  Here are today’s panels:

    12:30 – 1:30 pm:  Luncheon

    • Presiding:  Jane G. Gravelle (President, National Tax Association)
    • Speaker:  Charles E. McLure, Jr. (Stanford University)

    1:45 – 3:15 pm:  The Political Economy of Intergovernmental Tax Administration and Compliance

    Moderator:  Gary C. Cornia (Brigham Young University)

    • W. Bartley Hildreth (Wichita State University), Matthew N. Murray (University of Tennessee) & David L. Sjoquist (Georgia State University): Multistate Tax Commission
    • Dwight Denison (Wagner School, New York University) & Rex L. Facer, II (Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University):  International Fuel Tax
    • Walter Hellerstein (University of Georgia) & John Swain (University of Arizona):  Streamlined Sales Tax

    3:30 – 4:45 pm:  Roundtable Discussion

    • Harley T. Duncan (Federation of Tax Administrators)
    • David Brunori (Tax Analysts & George Washington University)
    • Kirk J. Stark (UCLA)
    • R. Bruce Johnson (Utah State Tax Commission & Chair, Multistate Tax Commission)
    • William F. Fox (University of Tennessee)
    • Thomas S. Neubig (Ernst & Young)
    • Douglas L. Lindholm (Council on State Taxation)
    • Robin Capehart (Marshall University)
  • Paul Caron

    IRS Improves Tax Stats Web Site

    Irs_logo_88 The IRS has announced (IR-2005-60) that it has made various improvements to it Tax Stats web site to include more statistical information on individuals, businesses, charities, and IRS operations:

    The new design features an expanded home page that allows users to directly access the most frequently requested statistical information. Popular publications and products are featured prominently. Many more detailed offerings are available from easily accessed “all topics” pages. In addition to improving the structure of the site, the Statistics of Income Division (SOI) has added helpful information to each page so that users will better understand the sometimes complex products available on the site. Newly organized pages expand offerings to include more archival data, as well as new products. SOI is also introducing revised table formats — nearly all in Microsoft Excel format and offered with a free Excel Reader — and updated report formats, offered with a free Adobe Reader.

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