Author: Paul Caron
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Do As the IRS Says, Not As It Does
Washington Examiner editorial, Do As the IRS Says, Not As It Does: Important government documents are often shielded from Freedom of Information Act requests because of an exemption in the law that allows federal departments and agencies to withhold materials created before the issuance of an official policy. It's known as the "internal deliberative process"
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KPMG: U.S. Total Tax Burden Increased in 2010
KPMG has released Competitive Alternatives 2010 Special Report: Focus on Tax: Mexico remains in the number one spot for having the lowest total taxes, but that changes to the tax systems in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands that have enhanced their attractiveness as tax friendly environments. The report assesses the general tax competitiveness of 95
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TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup
Saturday: Go Cincinnati SOI Releases Spring 2010 SOI Bulletin GAO: IRS Can't Track Nonresident Alien Tax Noncompliance Resolving the Conflict Between Jewish and Secular Estate Planning Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads Five Questions with the Tax Prof Kagan and the Textron Tax Work Papers Case Greek Doctors Have Big Fat Tax Headache
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Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads
This week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's, with some reshuffling of the papers' positions in #2 – #5: 1. [1341 Downloads] Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree: Why and When?, by Paul L. Caron (Cincinnati), Jennifer M. Kowal (Loyola-L.A.) & Katherine Pratt (Loyola-L.A.) 2. [334 Downloads] Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree: Where?,
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Five Questions with the Tax Prof
I was pleased to be featured on Caleb Newquist's Going Concern in Five Questions with the Tax Prof: Why do you blog? How long have you been blogging? If someone had to read just one post of yours which one would it be? What is the biggest benefit you’ve gotten from starting your blog? If
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Kagan and the Textron Tax Work Papers Case
I previously blogged the Government's brief in opposition to Textron's certiorari petition in the U.S. Supreme Court (No. 09-750), which is seeking review of the First Circuit's 3-2 en banc decision in United States v. Textron, Inc., No. 07-2631 (1st Cir. Aug. 13, 2009), which reversed the 2-1 panel decision and held that Textron's tax accrual work papers were
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Greek Doctors Have Big Fat Tax Headache
New York Times, Fed Up, Greece Lists Tax Dodgers: Trying to crack down on rampant tax evasion, the Greek authorities have made good on promises to name — and shame — some of the worst offenders. The Finance Ministry made public a list of 57 Athens doctors who officials believe are guilty of a variety
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Go Cincinnati
My wife, daughter, and I spent part of the day today with 7000 other people participating in our church's Go Cincinnati event: Each year, an army of volunteers impact Cincinnati through various service projects in a one-day, citywide blitz of compassion. Working alongside other churches, we show love to hundreds of community-based organizations throughout our
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SOI Releases Spring 2010 SOI Bulletin
The IRS's Statistics of Income Division has released the Spring 2010 SOI Bulletin (Vol. 29, No. 4) with these four articles: High-Income Tax Returns for 2007, by Justin Bryan Individual Noncash Contributions, 2007, by Pearson Liddell & Janette Wilson 2007 Gifts, by Melissa J. Belvedere Fiduciary Income Panel, Tax Years 2002 Through 2006, by Lisa Schreiber Rosenmerkel & Joseph Newcomb
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GAO: IRS Can’t Track Nonresident Alien Tax Noncompliance
The Government Accountability Office yesterday released IRS May Be Able to Improve Compliance for Nonresident Aliens and Updating Requirements Could Reduce Their Compliance Burden (GAO-10-429): For tax year 2007, nonresident alien individuals filed about 634,000 Forms 1040NR, the U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return. IRS has not developed estimates for the extent of nonresident alien
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Resolving the Conflict Between Jewish and Secular Estate Planning
Benjamin C. Wolf (J.D. 2010 Hofstra) has published Note, Resolving the Conflict Between Jewish and Secular Estate Law, 37 Hofstra L. Rev. 1171 (2009). Here is part of the Introduction: The purpose of this Note is to recommend a solution to the conflict that observant Jewish clients face in estate planning between their adherence to
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The End of an Era
Today marked my daughter's last day of high school — congratulations, Jayne! My wife has written Jayne a daily note of encouragement throughout high school; here is a portion of today's message: What a milestone day! Reflecting back on your past 4 years, I want you to know what an AMAZING!!! person you have become (and have always
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Maine Presents Equity and Efficiency in Intellectual Property Taxation Today at Maine
Jeffrey A. Maine (Maine) presents Equity and Efficiency in Intellectual Property Taxation, 76 Brooklyn L. Rev. ___ (2010) (with Xuan-Thao Nguyen (SMU) today at Maine. Here is the abstract: The article critiques the federal income tax regime governing intellectual property using normative criteria in evaluating taxes: equity and efficiency. Identifying numerous inequities and inefficiencies in
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SMU Offers to Pay Law Firms $3,500 to Hire its Grads (and Goose its U.S. News Ranking)
Above the Law, SMU Will Pay You To Hire Their Graduates, by Elie Mystal: SMU Dedman School of Law is now officially willing to pay law firms to hire SMU graduates. The school is calling its new program “Test Drive.” … This program is a shameless attempt to game the U.S. News rankings. SMU essentially
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Bloomberg: Companies Dodge $60 Billion in Taxes Even Tea Party Condemns
Bloomberg, Companies Dodge $60 Billion in Taxes Even Tea Party Condemns, by Jesse Drucker: Tyler Hurst swiped his debit card at a Walgreens pharmacy in central Phoenix and kicked off an international odyssey of corporate tax avoidance. Hurst went home with an amber bottle of Lexapro, the world’s third-best selling antidepressant. The profits from his
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Hemingway and Tax
The new issue of the Journal of Legal Education has a funny article, Why Am I Here? Six-Word Stories About the First Month of Law School, 59 J. Legal Educ. 653 (2010). The article riffs off Hemingway’s six-word story — “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” — which he called his best work. Several books
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Seton Hall Dean to Allow Gov. Christie to Speak at Law School Graduation, Despite Alumni and Faculty Protests
Newark Star-Ledger, Seton Hall Law Alumni, Faculty Pushed to Remove Gov. Christie as Graduation Speaker: Gov. Chris Christie will remain the speaker at Seton Hall University School of Law’s graduation ceremony later this month despite a push by some alumni and professors to rescind the invitation, school officials said today. The law school faculty discussed canceling
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2nd Symposium on European Tax Policy
New York University, the University of Connecticut, and Johannes Kepler University Linz host the second Second Symposium on EC Tax Policy today in Austria: The 2010 symposium will deal with current and developing issues in the area of tax evasion, harmful tax competition, exchange of information and countering tax haven abuse. U.S. Tax Prof speakers include: Walter
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Infanti: Taxing Civil Rights Gains
Anthony C. Infanti (Pittsburgh) has published Taxing Civil Rights Gains, 16 Mich. J. Gender & L. 319 (2010). Here is the abstract: In this article, I take a novel approach to the question of what constitutes a "tax." I argue that the unique burdens placed on same-sex couples by the federal and state "defense of marriage"
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The Gulf Oil Spill and the Estate Tax
From a letter sent to the Senate Finance Committee by Conrad Teitell (Cummings & Lockwood, Stamford, CT): The oil spewing into the Gulf can’t be stanched by legislation. But you can by legislation immediately calm the troubled waters created by Congressional inaction on the estate tax…. Oil spills are unimaginably difficult to clean up. But you
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Tax Revenues Fall in 45 States
The Tax Foundation reports today that state tax revenues fell 8.9% in 2009 from 2008, with 45 states collecting less tax revenues. (In contrast, federal tax revenues fell 16.6% in 2009.) State revenues fell in four of the five taxes: Property Tax: +3.6% Selective Sales Tax: -2.7% General Sales Tax: -5.5% Individual Income Tax: -12.5 Corporate Income
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Airline Frequent Flier Program Rankings
As a captive member of Delta's frequent-flier program (Cincinnati is a Delta hub), I am not surprised by the results of this survey of the availability of free seats in 22 airline frequent-flier programs: From the study: "IdeaWorks made 6,160 booking queries at the websites of 22 frequent flier programs during February and March 2010. Travel
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Assault Continues on Tulane Law Clinics
Following up on my prior posts: Legislature Takes Aim at Maryland Law School Clinics (Mar. 26, 2010) ABA Sides With Maryland Law School's Clinic in Attack by Legislature (Apr. 2, 2010) NY Times: Law School Clinics Face a Backlash (Apr. 5, 2010) Proposed Legislation Would Kill Clinics at Louisiana's Four Law Schools (May 1, 2010) National
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Batchelder Posts Tax Papers on SSRN
Lily L. Batchelder (NYU) has posted several of her tax papers on SSRN: Government Spending Undercover: Spending Programs Administered by the IRS (with Eric J. Toder) Household Income Volatility and Tax Policy: Helping More and Hurting Less, Testimony Before the U.S. Joint Economic Committee Reform Options for the Estate Tax System: Targeting Unearned Income, Testimony
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Elena Kagan’s Tax Problem?
Wall Street Journal, Grading Kagan as Dean: Charles Fried, solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan and a Harvard Law faculty member since 1961, credits her with arranging a faculty lounge so it offered free lunch and large tables, where faculty could sit and get to know one another. "It was an absolute stroke of genius,"