Author: Paul Caron
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Donald Marron Named Director of Tax Policy Center
The Tax Policy Center announced today that Donald Marron, who served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and as acting director of the Congressional Budget Office, will become the director on May 17, succeeding Rosanne Altshuler, who will be returning to Rutgers University after nearly two years with the Tax Policy
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Fleischer: Charitable Tax Subsidies and Distributive Justice
Miranda Perry Fleischer (Colorado) has published Theorizing the Charitable Tax Subsidies: The Role of Distributive Justice, 87 Wash. U. L. Rev. 505 (2010). Here is the abstract: Distributive justice plays a starring role in many fundamental tax policy debates, from the marginal rate structure to the choice of base to the propriety of wealth transfer
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California’s Top 250 Tax Deadbeats
The California Franchise Tax Board has released its annual list of the 250 biggest California tax deadbeats. Among the notable names on the list are: Pamela Anderson (actress) ($493,144) Timothy Blixseth (Yellowstone Club founder) ($894,058) Ron Isley (singer) ($303,411) Halsy Minor (CNet founder) ($13,120,479)
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Still More on the Future Ed Conference
Following up on my prior posts (here and here) on Friday's conference on Future Ed — New Business Models for U.S. and Global Legal Education hosted by Harvard Law School and New York Law School: Above the Law, Just How Crappy Is Legal Education Today? American Lawyer, The Future of Legal Education: Get Real
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Law Prof Blog Rankings
Below are the updated quarterly traffic rankings (page views and visitors) of the Top 35 blogs edited by law professors with publicly available SiteMeters for the most recent 12-month period (April 1, 2009 – March 31, 2010), as well as the percentage change in traffic from the prior 12-month period: Blog Page Views Change 1 InstaPundit
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Per Capita Income Has Fallen 3.2% Since Obama’s Inauguration; 47 of 50 States See Decline in Income
Washington Times, Income Falls 3.2% During Obama's Term: Real personal income for Americans — excluding government payouts such as Social Security — has fallen by 3.2% since President Obama took office in January 2009, according to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. For comparison, real personal income during the first 15 months in office
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Rasmussen: 66% Say America Is Overtaxed
Rasmussen Reports, 66% Say America Is Overtaxed: Sixty-six percent (66%) believe that America is overtaxed. Only 25% disagree. Lower income voters are more likely than others to believe the nation is overtaxed. Not surprisingly, the tax issue provokes a wide gap between the Political Class and Mainstream Americans. 81% of Mainstream American voters believe the nation
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Government Files Brief Opposing Cert. in Textron Tax Work Papers Case
I previously blogged the eleven amicus briefs filed in January in the U.S. Supreme Court (No. 09-750), supporting Textron's certiorari petition 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
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Blank & Levin Present Tax Enforcement Publicity Peaks April 1-15 Today at Rutgers-Newark
Joshua D. Blank (NYU) & Daniel Z. Levin (Rutgers Business School) present When Is Tax Enforcement Publicized?, 30 Va. Tax Rev. __ (2010), today at Rutgers-Newark as part of its Faculty Colloquium Series. Here is the abstract: Every spring, the federal government appears to deliver an abundance of announcements that describe criminal convictions and civil injunctions
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Leviner Presents Tax Enforcement and Tax Return Preparers Today at Hebrew University
Sagit Leviner (Ono Academic College, Israel) presents Bridging the Gap Between Tax Theory and Reality: The Story of Tax Return Preparers at the Hebrew University Law School today as part of its Tax Law & Policy Colloquium. Here is the abstract: This paper brings together the theoretical analysis of tax enforcement and the corresponding need
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Walker Presents Business Deductions in a Net Income Tax Today at Florida State
David I. Walker (Boston University) presents Suitable for Framing: Business Deductions in a Net Income Tax System at Florida State today as part of its Faculty Enrichment Series hosted by Gregg D. Polsky. Here is the abstract: The federal income tax code includes numerous provisions disallowing or curtailing income tax deductions related to such disparate activities as providing non-performance based compensation
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Yale Prof: In Praise of the U.S. News Rankings
Heather K. Gerken (Yale) has published In Praise of Rankings, 19 Widener L.J. 1 (2009). Here is the Introduction: Like all right-thinking law professors, I have tut-tut-tutted the law school rankings put out by the U.S. News & World Report. Students accord it an objectivity it does not deserve! Ranking leads law schools to compete
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2009-10 Faculty Salary Increase Lowest in 50 Years
The AAUP today released its annual survey of faculty salaries, reporting an average increase of 1.2% in 2009-10, the lowest in the 50-year history of the survey. Here are the Top 10 national universities and liberal arts colleges in average salaries for full professors: National Universities: Harvard ($191,200) Columbia ($188,600) Chicago ($184,100) Stanford ($181,400) Princeton ($181,000) Yale ($174,100)
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Murphy Redux? Commentators Decry Federal Circuit’s Harmless Error Rule
Jeremiah Coder (Contributing Editor, Tax Analysts), Did the Federal Circuit Just Issue Another Murphy?, 127 Tax Notes 143 (Apr. 12, 2010): When an appellate court is universally denounced for its legal reasoning, a hasty retreat and a withdrawn opinion usually follow. Everyone remembers the D.C. Circuit’s original opinion in Marrita Murphy v. IRS, holding that
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TRAC: IRS Audit Rate of Large Companies Continues to Plummet
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University today released a report, Despite Rising Deficits, IRS Audits of the Largest and Richest Corporations Decline: Despite a growing federal deficit, IRS audit efforts aimed at the nation's largest corporations have precipitously declined in the last few years and now are at an all time low….
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Dorf on the 2011 U.S. News Law School Rankings
Michael C. Dorf (Cornell), US News "Faculty Hotness" Controversy Generating More Heat Than Light (April 1, 2010): The announcement that US News would include a new category of "faculty hotness" in its 2011 law school rankings continued to generate controversy yesterday, as law school deans scrambled to position themselves as above the fray while secretly
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Tax Student Writing Competition
The National Law Review is sponsoring the 2010 Law Student Writing Competition for tax articles. The deadline for submisisons is April 23, 2010: The National Law Review (NLR) consolidates practice-oriented legal analysis from a variety of sources for easy access by lawyers, paralegals, law students, business executives, insurance professionals, accountants, compliance officers, human resource managers,
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Gordon: Global Governance and Offshore Financial Centers
Richard K. Gordon (Case Western) has published On the Use and Abuse of Standards for Law: Global Governance and Offshore Financial Centers. 88 N.C. L. Rev. 501 (2010). Here is the abstract: Current trends in international legal scholarship have shifted from a paradigm of state actors working within recognized sources of international law to one
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TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup
Saturday: Tax Lawyer Steve Carell More Moot Court Rankings More on the Future Ed Conference: Graduating 3Ls are 'Worthless' Providing Competitors With Standing to Challenge Favorable IRS Actions Transfer Pricing Methodology in the Wake of Roche Paying Taxes Improves the Quality of Government Sunday: Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads Tax Planning for the Obama Tax
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Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads
There is a bit of movement in this week’s list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with new papers debuting on the list at #1 (which I highly recommend) and #3: 1. [782 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. [561 Downloads] Ten
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Tax Planning for the Obama Tax Hikes
Forbes, The Obama Tax Hikes–What to Do, by Ashlea Ebeling: Buy munis, book losses, avoid marriage, consider a Roth conversion now and get your Lasik eye surgery next year.
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Motro: In Praise of Open Windows
Wall Street Journal, In Praise of Open Windows, by Tax Prof Shari Motro (Richmond): Last spring, the Obamas planted a White House vegetable garden. This year, why not follow up by cutting the air conditioning and opening the windows? They might also set a temperature range for the White House within which neither artificial heating
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Forbes: Congress Blocks e-Filing by Requiring Paper Filing of Certain Forms; But PDF Attachments to e-Filing Coming in 2012
Forbes, When the IRS Says ‘Mail It In’, by Ashlea Ebeling: Congress has instructed the IRS to get 80% of all individual taxpayers filing their 1040s electronically by 2012. But at the same time, it keeps creating special credits and provisions that mean some taxpayers still can’t file electronically–or at least can’t do so without
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Farber: The Taxation of Derivative Gains and Losses
Michael S. Farber (Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York) has posted Capital Ideas: The Taxation of Derivative Gains and Losses, 126 Tax Notes 1493 (Mar. 22, 2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This report explores the history of the taxation of derivative gains and losses — primarily § 1234A — as well as the capital
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Tax Lawyer Steve Carell
In the new movie Date Night, Steve Carell plays tax lawyer Phil Foster, who is married to Claire (Tina Fey): [A] New Jersey married couple with two children whose domestic life has become routine. In an effort to reignite romance, Phil takes Claire, with whom he usually has a weekly "date night" at a local steakhouse,