Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Celebrity Tax Lore
-
Amy Winehouse: A Better Estate Planner Than Sophisticated Louisiana Lawyer
MSNBC, Amy Winehouse Got Her Will Right: The late Amy Winehouse was many things to many folks — fabulous talent, an inspiration to Lady Gaga, an addict who couldn’t quite shed her demons all come to mind. Add to that list: wise estate planner. Winehouse’s revised will reportedly prevents any of her fortune, estimated at…
-
Miller Beer Offers to Pay Tax Bill of Fan Who Caught Derek Jeter’s 3,000th Hit
Miller High Life issued a press release yesterday offering to pay the tax bill of Christian Lopez, the fan who caught Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit. CNBC ESPN New York Gothamist NPR USA Today Wall Street Journal
-
NY Times: Tax Consequences to Fan Catching Derek Jeter’s 3,000th Hit
Following up on yesterday’s post, Tax Consequences to Fan Catching Derek Jeter’s 3,000th Hit: New York Times, Returning Jeter’s Big Hit: No Good Deed Goes Untaxed (Perhaps), by John Leland: For Christian Lopez, the 23-year-old fan who came up with Jeter’s 3,000th hit at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, the ramifications of his gift from above…
-
Tax Consequences to Fan Catching Derek Jeter’s 3,000th Hit
Don’t Mess With Taxes, Tax Implications of Derek Jeter’s Historic 3,000th MLB Hit: Christian Lopez, who was celebrating his 23rd birthday at new Yankees Stadium Saturday afternoon, gave the historic baseball to Jeter…. The good news for Lopez, aside from retrieving Jeter’s hit and seeing his team win, is that he didn’t leave empty-handed. The…
-
Grover Norquist Sticks to His No Tax Guns on Colbert
The Colbert ReportGet More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
-
Activists Disrupt U2 Concert, Tell Bono: ‘U Pay Your Tax 2’
Daily Mail, Violence Breaks Out as Protesters Seek to Shame Bono Over Failure to Pay Tax in Ireland as He Headlines Glastonbury: Violent scenes broke out in the crowd at U2’s long-awaited Glastonbury debut last night as a protest against the Irish band’s tax status was foiled by security guards. As Bono and his bandmates…
-
Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Ring to be Sold to Pay $1.7m Tax Debt
Green Bay Press Gazette, Former Green Bay Packers G Fuzzy Thurston’s Super Bowl II Ring Being Sold to Settle $1.7M Tax Debt: Fuzzy Thurston’s Super Bowl II ring will be sold at auction in August as part of the government’s 28-year battle over taxes with the former Green Bay Packers lineman. U.S. marshals seized Thurston’s…
-
Maule: The Tax Consequences of Being Paid for a Date
Jim Maule (Villanova) has a great post on the tax consequences to the (mostly) women who “sell” dates to (mostly) men on What’sYourPrice.com, whose tagline is “Buy a First Date With Anyone”: For the Generous: DATE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE® GUARANTEED. You have high standards and you won’t settle for less. You’re willing to pay to date…
-
The NBA Salary Cap Gives No-Tax Dallas and Miami an Unfair Advantage
Mitchell L. Engler (Cardozo) has posted The Untaxed King of South Beach: Lebron James and the NBA Salary Cap, 49 San Diego L. Rev. ___ (2011), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In contrast to major league baseball, the National Basketball Association has a salary cap designed to provide every team an equal and fair…
-
Dilbert: Let’s Tax Stupidity So We Have Less Of It
Scott Adams Blog, A Stupidity Tax: Tax policy has two purposes. One goal is to collect money to operate the government. The other goal is to promote public policy. For example, mortgage deductions are meant to encourage home ownership. Tax incentives are a proven way to change behavior. This makes me wonder if we could…
-
NY Post: Odd Bulge in Weiner Tax Form
New York Post, Odd Bulge in Weiner Tax Form: Anthony Weiner likes to do things big — especially when it comes to his tax deductions. The disgraced former congressman’s 2010 tax return shows he took $40,521 in unspecified itemized deductions on an income of $156,117. “It’s definitely a very large deduction,” said Manhattan CPA Jonathan…
-
IRS Sets Trap at US Open, Seeks Slice of Foreign Golfers’ Endorsement Income
Following up on last week’s post, Retief Goosen Birdies at FedEx St. Jude Classic, Bogeys in Tax Court: the MSM and blogs have picked up the story: The Age, Tax Case is the Talk of the U.S. Open Bloomberg, Goosen’s Tax Case Tests Principle That Image Is Everything Forbes, IRS Sand Trap For Pro Golfers Forbes, Tax Court…
-
Conan O’Brien’s Dartmouth Commencement Speech
I previously blogged Conan O’Brien’s wonderful 2006 commencement speech at Stuyvesant High School. Even better is last week’s Dartmouth College commencement speech. It is of course hilarious, but stay until the end — his closing advice is heartfelt and profound. There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized. I went…
-
Tax Court to Decide: Are Documentaries Hobbies for Tax Purposes?
The International Documentary Association has filed this amicus brief in the Tax Court in Storey v. Commissioner, No. 10230-10, involving the IRS’s treatment of losses incurred in making the documentary film Smile ‘Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story as hobby losses under § 183. The case was tried before Judge Kroupa in Phoenix on March…
-
Tax Court Rejects Private Equity Manager’s ‘Blame the Accountant’ Defense
The Tax Court yesterday denied the request of Stephen G. Woodsum, founding managing director of Summit Partners, a private equity firm, to waive a $104,000 penalty assessed by the IRS for his failure to report on his return $3.4 million of income from the termination of a swap transaction by Deutsche Bank for which he received a Form 1099-MISC.…
-
Strip Club Liable for $125k Sales Tax; Lap Dances Are Not Tax-Exempt as ‘Musical Performances’ or ‘Theater-in-the-Round’
Albany Times-Union, Court: Lap Dances Aren’t Tax-Exempt: While a lap dance might prompt a strong reaction from an audience, it doesn’t rise to the level of art — at least according to a state appellate court. Thursday’s ruling said entertainers at a local strip club are subject to sales taxes, and their expressions are not considered…
-
Retief Goosen Birdies at FedEx St. Jude Classic, Bogeys in Tax Court
Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen had a mixed day yesterday: he shot 2-under par, good for 8th place in the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Classic, but lost crucial parts of his Tax Court case, Retief Goosen v. Commissioner, 136 T.C. No. 27 (June 9, 2011): P, a professional golfer, entered into endorsement agreements with sponsors…
-
Activists to Protest Bono’s ‘Tax Hypocrisy’
Daily Mail, ‘Saint Bono’ the Anti-Poverty Campaigner Facing Huge Glastonbury Protest – For Avoiding Tax: He is the rock legend dubbed ‘Saint Bono’ for his long-running campaign against global poverty. But when Bono’s band U2 perform at Glastonbury later this month, protesters are planning to accuse them of avoiding taxes which could have helped exactly…
-
Casey Anthony Hit With $69k IRS Tax Lien
Casey Anthony, the Florida mother standing trial for murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee, has been slapped with a $68,520 tax lien by the IRS, perhaps arising from $200,000 paid by ABC for family photos and videos. Accounting Today Forbes National Examiner Orlando Sentinel TMZ
-
New Yorker Tax Cartoon
Great tax cartoon in the May 30, 2010 issue of The New Yorker: “We’ve agreed to count it as both a wave and a particle for tax purposes.”(Three scientists in a lab.) (Hat Tip: Randall K.C. Kau.)
-
Marlee Matlin, Celebrity Apprentice, and the IRS
A tough week for acress Marlee Matlin: she lost last night’s Celebrity Apprentice finale, and she owes the IRS $50,000 in back taxes. From Reuters: Actress Marlee Matlin says she is selling her Los Angeles-area house and taking her four children out of private school to ease a cash crunch that has left her owing…
-
California Bar Confirms Disciplinary Proceedings Against ‘Tax Lady’ Roni Deutch
Following up on yesterday’s post, ‘Tax Lady’ Roni Deutch to Close Law Firm, Surrender Law License: California State Bar Association press release: The State Bar today said it has intiated disciplinary proceedings against Roni Deutch, the nationally known television “Tax Lady” from Sacramento who was sued by the state Attorney General’s office concerning her law office…
-
‘Tax Lady’ Roni Deutch to Close Law Firm, Surrender Law License
California tax lawyer Roni Deutch, the self-described “Tax Lady”, announced today that she is broke, surrendering her law license, and closing down her law firm that once employed 200 people, on the heels of the California Attorney General’s $34 million lawsuit against her alleging that she swindled clients facing IRS problems. ABA Journal ABC News 10…
-
Burman: Jon Stewart, Barack Obama, and Tax Expenditures
Following up on my post, Jon Stewart on President Obama’s ‘Spending Reductions in the Tax Code’: Leonard Burman (Syracuse University, Maxwell School), Jon Stewart’s Fake News on Tax Expenditures: I know you say it’s fake news, but when you riff on policy, people take you seriously. And, with respect, in this case, you don’t know what the…
-
IRS Launches Tax Evasion Investigation of L.A. Kabbalah Centre
Los Angeles Times, The Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles Is the Focus of an IRS Investigation Into Tax Evasion: The Kabbalah Centre, the Los Angeles-based spiritual organization that mingles ancient Jewish mysticism with the glamour of its celebrity devotees, is the focus of a federal tax evasion investigation probing, among other things, the finances of…