Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Celebrity Tax Lore
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What’s FATCA Got To Do With It? Tina Turner Renounces U.S. Citizenship
The Daily Mail: Let's Stay Together? Tina Turner Renounces Her U.S. Citizenship to Become Swiss (So How Much Tax Will She Now Pay?): Tina Turner is renouncing her American citizenship to become Swiss, it was revealed today. The American rock diva has lived in the Zurich suburb of Kuesnacht since the mid-1990s and speaks fluent…
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Golfer Phil Mickelson Takes a Tax Mulligan
Following up on Monday’s post, Golfer Phil Mickelson Plans ‘Drastic Changes’ in Response to His 63% Marginal Tax Rate: Wall Street Journal editorial, The Mickelson Vote: Lefty Offends the Lefties: California golfer Phil “Lefty” Mickelson says he will no longer publicly criticize the government for taking most of his paycheck. That’s a shame. But even…
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Martin Luther King Jr. and Tax
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: reports on how some southern officials tried to use state tax laws to stop King and the nascent civil rights movement: “In Alabama, … Governor John Patterson in early 1960 directed state revenue authorities to charge Martin Luther King, Jr., with tax evasion and perjury in completing…
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Golfer Phil Mickelson Plans ‘Drastic Changes’ in Response to His 63% Marginal Tax Rate
Sports Illustrated: Mickelson Plans 'Drastic Changes' in Response to Tax Hikes: Phil Mickelson said he will be making "drastic changes" because of recent tax increases, including California's new, highest-in-the-nation income tax on the wealthy, and he suggested that the tax was one of the reasons he withdrew from the investment group that purchased the San…
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Facebook Shifted $700 Million to Cayman Islands in ‘Double Irish’ Tax Reduction Strategy
Press reports state that Facebook shifted more than $700 million to the Cayman Islands last year as part of its "Double Irish" tax reduction strategy. Business Insider, Facebook Funneled Nearly Half a Billion Pounds Into the Cayman Islands Last Year The Guardian, Facebook Paid £2.9m Tax on £840m Profits Made Outside US The Telegraph, Big…
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Prince Charles: Tax Deadbeat?
CNN, Prince of Wales Defends Tax Status The Daily Mail, Prince Charles Reported to the Revenue Over 'Well Entrenched Tax Avoidance Scheme' on £18m Earnings The Daily Record, Prince Charles Attacked Over 'Tax Avoidance' Claims The Guardian, Prince Charles's £700m Estate Accused of Tax Avoidance The Independent, Prince Charles Attacked Over Tax Payments
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Stephen Baldwin Charged With Failure to File and Pay NY Taxes
Actor Stephen Baldwin was arrested today in New York charged with failure to file state income returns and failure to pay over $350,000 in state income taxes for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Huffington Post Los Angeles Times New York Daily News (Hat Tip: Bob Kamman.)
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The Impact of Tax Reform on Major League Baseball
Fox News: Tax Increases Could Factor in MLB Negotiations, by Ronald Blum: As free agents negotiate deals this offseason, tax policy is an area that comes up along with the usual issues. Some players are wrangling for as much money as they can get before the end of the year to avoid a take hike…
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Charlie Sheen Paid Lindsay Lohan $100,000 to Help Cover IRS Tax Debt
TMZ: Charlie Sheen Paid Lindsay Lohan $100K to Cover Tax Debt: Don't ever say Charlie Sheen's not the charitable type — because he recently cut Lindsay Lohan a $100,000 check to cover the actress' six-figure tax bill. … [S]he and Charlie became close pals while on the set of "Scary Movie 5" back in September. ……
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Tax Consequences of Janeane Garofalo’s Forgotten 20-Year Marriage
Slate: Does Janeane Garofalo Have To Amend 20 Years of Tax Returns?: Comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo revealed on Saturday that she was married, unbeknownst to her or her husband, for 20 years. Garofalo wed writer and producer Rob Cohen in what they both thought was a sham ceremony in Las Vegas in the 1990s.…
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Colbert on The Joys of Tax Planning (and Personal Enrichment) With a 501(c)(4) Organization
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive (Hat Tip: Bob Kamman.)
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To Avoid 21% Ticket Tax, Theater Sells $16 Carrots, Gives Away Free Tickets
WGBH: To Get Around Tax Hike, Spanish Theater Sells Carrots Not Tickets: In Spain, new austerity measures mean higher sales tax on everything from beer and wine to clothing and movie tickets. But in Bescanó, a small town in the country's northeast, the local theater director has come up with a rather creative way to…
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The Science Is In: Men Cannot Be ‘Just Friends’ With Women
Confirming the advice I have been giving my daughter for 20 years (“All men are pigs”): Scientific American: Men and Women Can’t Be “Just Friends”: Can heterosexual men and women ever be “just friends”? Few other questions have provoked debates as intense, family dinners as awkward, literature as lurid, or movies as memorable. Still, the…
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Colbert on NY Court Ruling: Lap Dances Are Not ‘Art’ and Thus Not Exempt From Sales Tax
Following up on my previous post, NY’s Highest Court Rules 4-3: Lap Dances Are Not ‘Art’ and Thus Not Exempt From Sales Tax: The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
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Brunson: Lance Armstrong and the Race for Deductibility
Samuel D. Brunson (Loyola-Chicago), Lance Armstrong and the Race for Deductibility: As a result of the doping scandal, Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France wins. In addition to being erased from the record books, Armstrong will have to return up to $16 million in purses and bonuses he received as…
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George Lucas’s Jedi Tax Planning
Following up on yesterday’s post, Owners Race to Sell Their Businesses by Year-End to Avoid 67% Capital Gains Tax Increase: MarketWatch: George Lucas’s Jedi Estate Planning San Francisco Business Times, George Lucas Saves Hundreds of Millions in Taxes by Selling Before Year-End
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The Tax Implications of Donald Trump’s $5 Million Offer to President Obama
Forbes: Trumping The Donald's $5M Offer For Obama Doc, by Robert W. Wood: Tax lawyers, especially aging men losing their hair, should be forgiven for looking past the numerous other aspects of this latest little Trump tempest in a teapot to taxes. Surely Mr. Obama will ignore Mr. Trump’s offer, but if he didn’t, who…
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The Tax Implications of Lance Armstrong’s Banishment From Cycling
Forbes: The Tax Implications of Lance Armstrong's Banishment From Cycling, by Anthony J. Nitti (WithumSmith & Brown, Aspen, CO): What will be the tax consequence if Armstrong repays race winnings and bonus amounts that were previously included in his taxable income as compensation? The issue is not one of deductibility. Because the bonuses were originally earned in…
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Joseph Hémard: The Art of Taxation
Yale Law Library New Exhibit: The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard: It would take a genius to illustrate one of the most boring books imaginable, a code of tax laws, and create a comic tour-de-force. That genius was Joseph Hémard (1880-1961), who in his lifetime was probably France’s most prolific book illustrator. His illustrations are…
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Newspaper to France’s Richest Man Leaving Country to Avoid 75% Tax Rate: ‘Get Lost, You Rich Bastard!’
The News Statesman: French Newspaper to France’s Richest Man: “Get Lost, You Rich Bastard”: In response to the news that France’s richest man has applied for Belgian nationality, the country’s leading left-wing daily has declared: “get lost, you rich bastard!”* The forthright headline, emblazoned across today’s front page of Libération, is aimed at Bernard Arnault,…
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Porn Publisher Offers $1 Million for Romney’s Tax Returns
This ad appeared in Sunday’s Washington Post: The ad also will run Tuesday's USA Today. CNN Hollywood Reporter Huffington Post NewsBusters Washington Examiner
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Does Flavor Flav Have a $900k Tax Problem? Yeah Boy!
Rap singer (Public Enemy) and reality TV (The Surreal Life, Strange Love, Flavor of Love) star Flavor Flav owes over $900,000 in unpaid taxes to the IRS for 2004, 2005, and 2006. TMZ Accounting Today Forbes (Hat Tip: Bob Kamman.)
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Wealthy Italians Take Tax Lesson From John Kerry
NPR, Italian Yacht Owners Weigh Anchor to Dodge Taxes: Italy has a public debt of nearly 2 trillion euros, and it's cracking down on its notoriously wily tax evaders. Owners of luxury yachts are a prime target, with tax police launching dockside raids to see how individual tax files line up with owning and maintaining…
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Usain Bolt Sprints From the British Tax Man
Wall Street Journal editorial: Usain Bolt's Tax Lesson: As the post-Olympics glow fades, U.K. policy makers are trying to figure out how to keep the flame of British sports burning. They could start by changing Her Majesty's tax laws. After Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won his third gold in London last week, reporters asked him…