Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
New Cases
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LSAC dodges lawsuit (for now)
Karen Sloan and Mike Scarcella of Reuters report here on U.S. District Judge John Murphy of Philadelphia tossing an anti-monoply suit against the LSAC. Plaintiffs claim the Council facilitates collaboration on such items as application fees and more broadly that LSAC has monopolized the admissions process. Murphy found these claims might have merit but as…
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Spain Supreme Court Rules Wealth Tax Discriminatory
Bloomberg: Spanish Supreme Court Rulings on Wealth Tax Benefit Nonresidents “The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled in two recent cases that the country’s wealth tax discriminates against nonresident individuals because, unlike residents, they couldn’t apply a crucial benefit known as the ‘tax shield.’”
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Meta Contests $16 Billion in Deficiencies in U.S. Tax Court
Tax Notes: “Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., is challenging $15.95 billion in deficiencies and penalties in the U.S. Tax Court, saying that the IRS’s periodic adjustments are barred by estoppel and contravene the arm’s-length standard.”
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New York Law Professor Continues Remote Work Taxation Fight
Tax Analysts: Professor Ed Zelinsky “is continuing his challenge against New York’s taxation of income he earned while working remotely from Connecticut during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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Fourth Circuit: Maryland Law Barring Disclosure Of Costs Of Internet Advertising Is Unconstitutional
Jonathan H. Adler (William & Mary), Maryland Can Tax Internet Advertising, But It Cannot Prevent Advertisers from Disclosing Cost of Tax: On Friday, in Chamber of Commerce v. Lierman, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concluded that Maryland’s law barring internet advertisers from disclosing the costs of Maryland’s internet advertising tax to…
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Facebook Decision Enables IRS To Seek Commensurate With Income Enforcement Against Meta
Stephen L. Curtis (Cross Border Analytics), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan; Google Scholar) & David G. Chamberlain (Cal Poly; Google Scholar), Facebook Decision Enables IRS to Seek CWI Enforcement Against Meta, 188 Tax Notes Fed. 709 (Aug. 4, 2025): In this report, the authors explain how the Tax Court’s recent decision in the Facebook transfer pricing case —…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The Difference Between Tax Assessments And Tax Liabilities
When I teach Tax Practice and Procedure, my students regularly confuse the concepts of assessment and liability. They think that taxpayers have no liabilities until-and-unless the IRS properly assesses those liabilities. No assessment, no liability! And if the IRS abates an assessment, why that nukes the liability as well. No assessment, no liability! The taxpayers…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The New Regulation On Supervisory Approval Of Penalties
Section 6751(b) requires supervisory approval before the IRS can assess certain penalties. The statute is untouched by the recently enacted BBBA. In late December Treasury published these final rules on how the IRS must comply with the statute. Professor Caleb Smith shared some good thoughts on them on this Procedurally Taxing post. This Lesson is an…
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NY Times Op-Ed: Justice Jackson Just Reset The DEI Debate
New York Times Op-Ed: Justice Jackson Just Helped Reset the D.E.I. Debate, by David French (Author, Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation (2020)): At the heart of the debate over diversity, equity and inclusion is a question: How much should the law treat a person as an individual rather than as a…
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Tax Prof Must Pay New York Non-Resident Income Tax On Days He Taught Law Students On Zoom From His Connecticut Home When Cardozo Was Closed During Covid
Bloomberg, NY Wins Another Round in Challenge to Taxation of Remote Work: New York was right to tax a Cardozo Law School professor’s wages earned while working from his Connecticut home, even when pandemic restrictions barred him from the New York campus, a state tax tribunal affirmed. The state’s convenience-of-the-employer rule “boils down to whether…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: No Equitable Tolling For Brain Farts
Tax practice is like comedy: timing is critical. In tax, however, messing up timing is no laughing matter. As the sainted Justice Holmes once wrote (in a tax case, nach): “Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.” Rock Island R.R. v. United States, 254 U.S. 141, 143 (1920). That is especially…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: A Captivating Lesson On Insurance
I still don’t carry dental insurance. I have not found a plan where the numbers make sense. The benefits are so limited that by the time I would need them I will have paid more in premiums than the benefits are worth. The game is not worth the candle. So I take the money I…
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11th Circuit Poised To Uphold Constitutionality Of Tax Court Despite President’s Ability To Fire Judges Only For Cause
Bloomberg Law, Eleventh Circuit Eyes Tax Court History Amid Constitutional Test: The Eleventh Circuit appeared ready to side with the government in a case challenging the legitimacy of the judges of the US Tax Court, but not without considering the court’s place in the government. A US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit panel…
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Wallace & Davis: Brief Of Amici Curiae Tax Professors In South Carolina Amazon Case
Clint Wallace (South Carolina; Google Scholar) & Tessa Davis (South Carolina), Brief of Amici Curiae Tax Law Professors for the South Carolina Supreme Court in Support of Respondent: In this appeal, Petitioner Amazon Services, LLC challenges the holding of the Administrative Law Court, as affirmed by the Court of Appeals, that Amazon is a “retailer”…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: After Loper-Bright, Hold The Mayo?
How much deference should courts give Treasury regulations? Until 2011, courts answered that question differently from how they evaluated deference to regulations issued by other federal agencies. In that year, however, the Supreme Court decided that Treasury regulations should be treated the same way as all federal regulations. Mayo Foundation v. United States, 562 U.S.…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The Difficult Path To Equitable Tolling
When a taxpayer contests IRS collection actions in a Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing, the hearing is officially over when the Office of Appeals issues a formal Notice of Determination. Section 6330(d)(1) gives taxpayers 30 days from the date of that Notice to petition the Tax Court for judicial review of the Office of Appeals…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The 150 Day Rule For Filing Tax Court Petitions
Section 6213 generally gives taxpayers 90 days after the IRS mails them a Notice of Deficiency (NOD) to petition the Tax Court for review. That’s the 90-day rule. But some lucky taxpayers get 150 days instead of the usual 90. That’s the 150-day rule. Who are those lucky taxpayers? Well, the statute says the 150-day…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The Limits Of IRS Assessment Powers
Many people imagine the IRS as a kind of huge and powerful being, “whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” regularly oversees enforcement of what many believe are outrageous penalties for errors in complying with increasingly twisted reporting requirements. Today we learn a lesson about possible limits of the IRS powers to…
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Vanguard Settles Class Action Lawsuit Over Capital Gains Distributions That Accelerated Investors’ Tax Liabilities
Following up on my previous posts: Wall Street Journal, The Huge Tax Bills That Came Out of Nowhere at Vanguard (Jan. 24, 2022) New York Times, Holders Of Vanguard Target Funds File Class Action Over Massive Capital Gain Tax Bills (Apr. 12, 2022) Bloomberg, Vanguard Reaches $40 Million Settlement to End Investor Tax Suit: Vanguard…
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5th Circuit Affirms Tax Court: Tax Rule In Political Donations Tightened
Wall Street Journal, Tax Rule In Political Donations Tightened: A federal appeals court narrowed the tax rule that has let conservative and liberal groups pour billions of dollars into political campaigns without disclosing their donors, and the case could restrict the flow of so-called dark money into politics [Memorial Hermann Accountable Care Organization v. Commissioner,…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: To Get Deductions For Criminal Activity, Make It Your Business
I was going to blog today on a great case involving application of the Cohan rule to help a taxpayer establish their basis in property when they had lost their records. Pak v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2024-86. I decided not to because Les Book did such a nice job blogging about it here on Procedurally…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: Form Trumps Substance On Phantom S Corp Income
This past June, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Moore v. United States, 144 S.Ct. 1680 (June 20, 2024). There, the taxpayers were shareholders of an American-controlled foreign corporation called KisanKraft and were being taxed on a portion of the corporation’s income that had been earned long ago and far away but never actually…
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Bogdanski: Supreme Court’s Tax Decisions (Moore, Estate Of Connelly) Undercut By Non-Tax Decisions (Loper Bright, Cover Post, Jarkesy)
Jack Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark), After the Sigh, a Gasp: I wrote back in June about how relieved some of us were that the U.S. Supreme Court decided two tax cases this term in favor of the IRS. To have ruled in favor of the taxpayers in either of the cases would have wreaked havoc on the federal…