Great post on Res Ipsa Blog:  Become an Efficient Researcher: Top Twenty Firefox Add-ons that Make Firefox the Researcher’s Browser of Choice: Firefox was introduced in 2004 as a free open-source replacement for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Firefox offered improved security and introduced tabbed browsing, an integrated spell checker, and a download manager. Today, Firefox is…

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This is a bittersweet day for me, as I leave San Diego after seven weeks to return home to Cincinnati.  This was my fifth summer teaching at the University of San Diego School of Law, and I have had a wonderful time. My thanks to the kind folks at USD for having me back again,…

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TaxProf Blog has been named one of the The Top 100 Law and Lawyer Blogs by Criminal Justice Degrees Guide.  In particular, TaxProf Blog is one of the fifteen blogs named in the Law Professors category along with über blogs such as InstaPundit, Lessig, and The Volokh Conspiracy.  I am particularly proud that six of…

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Last fall, I blogged the incredibly moving last lecture of Randy Pausch, a 46-year old computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and father of three pre-school children who is dying of pancreatic cancer.  The lecture has become a worldwide phenomenon, spawning over 2.6 million YouTube views and a new best-selling book. (For an update…

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I am off to San Diego for the summer to teach Tax I at the University of San Diego School of Law.  It is a wonderful city and school, and I am looking forward to renewing acquaintances with the many friends I have made in my four previous summers there.  I am especially excited at…

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CollegeDegrees.com has named TaxProf Blog one of the Top 50 Law School Blogs: This popular, informative, and easy to read tax law blog, written by Paul Caron, a professor at the University of Cincinnati Law School, offers topics touching on a range of issues that will be of interest to students, professors, and practicing lawyers…

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Jayne, 16 years ago today you entered this world, enriching our lives beyond measure. The years have flown by, and my heart aches that we will never again play basketball in the driveway, hit baseballs in the park, or go to Fall Out Boy concerts together.  But the void is filled with a different kind…

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Growing up in Boston, my goal was to play first base for the Red Sox.  After a mediocre high school and college career, I hung up the spikes for good.  It turns out the my failing owed more to my July 27 birthday than to my inability to hit a curveball:  The Boys of Late…

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Application Rules

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I have written before of moments of special joy as a father to a 15-year old daughter — our times together at two Fall Out Boy Concerts, a coming-of-age camp in Northern California, and various business trips and sports activities through the years.  Today, my daughter embarked on a 17,000 mile, 10-day adventure to Mamelodi,…

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As regular readers of the blog know, I turned 50 this year (and endured this rite of passage for folks my age).  The Weekend Wall Street Journal says this should be the worst year of my life: This week a massive American-British study of some two million souls throughout 80 countries confirms, empirically, that middle…

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Check out the original and legal versions of the classic poem, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas [click on chart to enlarge]:

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From the Treasury Department Historical Association: Eleven Christmas Tree Tax Ornaments, including my favorite: the 1993 ornament issued on the 80th Anniversary of 16th Amendment: THA’s fifth annual ornament depicts the first Form 1040 as a commemorative of the 80th Anniversary of the authorization to collect tax on income. The ornament measures approximately 3-1/4 by…

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For sale on eBay:  an IRS action figure — Irwin R. Schyster: The action figure is modeled after WWF wrestler Mike Rotunda: In the WWF, Rotunda became Irwin R. Shyster (I.R.S.) and he is perhaps best known for this role, more than any other role he has played during his career. Irwin R Shyster was…

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Nothing says "I love you" better than IRS chocolates: Bite Back at the IRS Bar (left) Bite Back at the IRS Cookie CPA Coin IRS 1040 Bar (right) Mini IRS 1040 Bar (Hat Tip: Linda Galler.)

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Check out the various I Love Tax products from Cafe Press: If you work in the Tax Industry – whether as a Beanie or a Lawyer, you’ll know what it is to REALLY love tax. We love thinking about tax, talking about tax, and especially ways of avoiding tax. Tax. Live it. Tax Teddy Bear…

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Nothing says "I love you" better than paraphernalia from a Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service!  Check out this autographed picture and signed original letter from Donald C. Alexander, Commissioner of the IRS from 5/25/73 – 2/26/77 [click on items to enlarge]:                        

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Check out this postcard on eBay: If 10% Is Enough For God, It’s Enough For The IRS 4×6 inches in size, full color. 18 are available Cost:  $1.00 Shipping:  $1.00.

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Continuing a TaxProf Blog holiday tradition, I will offer this week some gift ideas for that special tax person in your life.  Today’s suggestion:  For Counsel (Products and Gifts for Lawyers) sells an exact reproduction of the original 1913 Form 1040: Four pages long, including one page of instructions. Impressively framed in classic mahogany with…

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Jim Chen started on Jurisdynamics a Truly Bad Movie Meme — the "worst film I’ve ever paid money to see."  (For more on the concept of a meme, see here).  His choice:  Caligula. He then tagged Nancy Rapoport of Nancy Rapoport’s Blog, who responded with A Stranger Among Us and tagged Ann Bartow of Feminist…

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From the Tax Foundation: "A person doesn’t know how much he has to be thankful for until he has to pay taxes on it."  — Author Unknown

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Greg Mankiw (Harvard, Department of Economics) says The Lost Lesson of Thanksgiving is the importance of property rights:  The Tragedy of the Commons, by John Stossel Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. "Isn’t sharing wonderful?" say the teachers.…

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