Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
News
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NY’s Highest Court Rules 4-3: Lap Dances Are Not ‘Art’ and Thus Not Exempt From Sales Tax
677 New Loudon Corp. v. New York Tax Appeals Tribunal, No. 157 (NY Oct. 23, 2012) ABA Journal Associated Press BBC Forbes From the dissent: The ruling of the Tax Appeals Tribunal, which the majority upholds, makes a distinction between highbrow dance and lowbrow dance that is not to be found in the governing statute
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If Only Nixon Could Go To China, Maybe Only Romney Can Do Tax Reform
Wall Street Journal op-ed: Romney Should Release His Tax Returns, by Joseph J. Thorndike (Tax Analysts): Mr. Romney would be well advised to simply cough up a decade's worth of returns. In all likelihood, the only thing he's hiding is more of the sophisticated tax avoidance that he's already demonstrated and that rich people engage
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Three Swiss Bankers Indicted for Helping U.S. Taxpayers Hide $1.2 Billion From the IRS in Offshore Accounts
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York yesterday announced the indictment of three Swiss bankers with Wegelin & Co. for conspiring with U.S. taxpayers to hide more than $1.2 billion in assets from the IRS. U.S. Attorney press release Bloomberg CNN Financial Times New York Post (headline: "Swiss Bankers Had Fondue For
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South Korea Passes ‘Buffett Tax’ on Those Earning >$259,000
`Korean Buffett Tax` Passed Despite Ruling Party Chief`s Opposition: The National Assembly has passed a bill on the introduction of a 38% tax rate on the highest income bracket of 300 million won (259,000 dollars) or more. The bill was approved in a plenary session on Saturday, just 10 minutes before the start of the
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UK Uncut Challenges Sweetheart Tax Deals With Goldman Sachs, Others
UK Uncut, Reflections on the Report on Tax Dodging: A respected cross-party parliamentary committee released a damning report into dodgy tax deals struck between big business and bosses at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). It has made headlines, not just in the Guardian, but in the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Telegraph and as the
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Tax Planning for the Occupy Wall Street Movement
David van den Berg (Tax Analysts), Occupy Groups Would Face Burdens, Get Benefits From Tax Exempt Status, Practitioners Say, 2011 TNT 250-2 (Dec. 29, 2011): Some of the Occupy groups that have sprouted nationwide have taken steps toward becoming nonprofit organizations — something that would impose several requirements on the groups but would also provide some
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Does Apple Pay its Fair Share of U.S. Taxes?
San Francisco Chronicle, Apple’s ‘High’ Tax Rate May be Deceiving: Does Apple really pay its fair share of U.S. taxes? In a Nov. 3 report, Citizens for Tax Justice estimated that Apple paid an average effective U.S. tax rate of 31% between 2008 and 2010. That is close to the ostensible corporate income tax rate
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More on Warren Buffett’s Tax Hypocrisy
Following up on Friday’s post, Warren Buffett’s Tax Hypocrisy: Wall Street Journal editorial, Buffett’s Latest Tax Break: Once Again He Foils the IRS: For a guy who spends a lot of time advocating for higher taxes, Warren Buffett does a remarkably good job of minimizing his own corporate tax bill. This is all to the
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Beale: Using Tax Policy to Redress Gender Discrimination After Wal-Mart
Linda Beale (Wayne State), WalMart, Gender Discrimination, Corporatism, the Supreme Court — and, Yes, TAXES: The Supreme Court handed down its decision on whether the million and a half women who think they have been discriminated against by the corporate giant because of their gender can bring a class action suit. [Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v.
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NY Times: Companies Push for Repatriation Tax Holiday
New York Times, Companies Push for Tax Break on Foreign Cash, by David Kocieniewski: Some of the nation’s largest corporations have amassed vast profits outside the country and are pressing Congress and the Obama administration for a tax break to bring the money home. Apple has $12 billion waiting offshore, Google has $17 billion and
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S.F. Exempts Stock Options From 1.5% Payroll Tax in Bid to Keep High Tech Firms
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Mayor Ed Lee signed legislation on Friday to eliminate the city’s 1.5% payroll tax on stock options in an attempt to keep software companies like Yelp and Zynga from re-locating out of the city. San francisco was the only California city to levy a payroll tax on stock options. Prior
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Will the Gift Tax Save John Edwards?
With today’s indictment of John Edwards on charges that he violated campaign-finance laws by accepting $925,000 from donors to conceal an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter and resulting pregnancy, one element sure to be central to his defense is that his major donor treated the payments as gifts and reported them on gift tax returns. From the Los
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No-Tax ‘Zealot’ Norquist Emerges as Barrier to U.S. Debt Deal
Bloomberg, No-Tax ‘Zealot’ Norquist Emerges as Barrier to U.S. Debt Deal: When members of the House Budget Committee gathered over sandwiches to meet with the leaders of President Barack Obama’s debt commission in Washington, former Senator Alan Simpson delivered a warning. “If you are in thrall to Grover Norquist,” the Wyoming Republican who co-led the
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Tax News Roundup
Bloomberg, Free Money Claim Roils Dispute on One-Time U.S. Offshore Tax Holiday Bloomberg, IRS Fails to Collect $305 Million Tax on Overseas Contractors Bloomberg, Labor Unions, Nonprofits Seek Curbs on Corporate Tax Breaks Christian Science Monitor, Many Industries Reap Tax Breaks. Is Picking on Big Oil Unfair? Citizens for Tax Justice, Corporate Tax Reform: Consumer
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WSJ: Prosecution of Tax Lawyer Daugerdas Enters Home Stretch
Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Prosecution of Tax Lawyer Daugerdas Enters Home Stretch: The most unavoidable things in life, the saying goes, are death and taxes. But that didn’t stop tax lawyer Paul Daugerdas [right, featured in The American Lawyer December 2003 cover story, Helter Shelter]and others from trying to offer wealthy clients a way
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Tax Revenues Are Rising
Wall Street Journal editorial, Tax Revenues Are Rising: Politicians don’t want to tell you, so we will: Tax revenues are coming back smartly now that the economy is growing. California recently discovered $2 billion in unexpected tax revenue, even as Governor Jerry Brown promotes a referendum to raise taxes. Connecticut has raised its revenue estimates
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WSJ: Connecticut Tax Plan is the ‘Anti-Christie’
Wall Street Journal editorial, The ‘Anti-Christie’: What Connecticut Governor’s Tax Hike Plan Tells Us About Liberal Governance: That’s how Connecticut’s Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy describes himself in contrast to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and we’d have to say he’s right. Nutmeg State residents will pay for the appellation. Whereas Mr. Christie has vetoed tax
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NY Times: Gift of Non-Voting Bose Stock to MIT Raises Tax Questions
New York Times, Gift to MIT from Bose Founder Raises Tax Questions, by Stephanie Strom: The founder of the Bose Corporation, a privately held company that makes high-end audio products, has donated the majority of the company to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the university said Friday. But Amar G. Bose … placed some unusual restrictions
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CSM: Why ‘Taxes’ is a Dirty Word
Christian Science Monitor, Budget Stalemate: Why America Won’t Raise Taxes: Budget stalemate has many on Capitol Hill crunching numbers. With any new budget, taxes may be the real third rail of politics. Can the U.S. solve its fiscal woes without more revenue? For generations, Republicans have resisted tax increases. As far back as the 1920s,
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Former TV Anchor Glad She Challenged IRS
Following up on my earlier post, Tax Court Denies Deduction for TV News Anchor’s Clothing Expense: Columbus Dispatch, Former TV Anchor Glad She Challenged IRS: Even the IRS acknowledged that former television news anchor Anietra Hamper kept meticulous records of the clothes and other items she bought for business use. But detailed receipts weren’t enough.
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GE Flubs Tax Pushback Against the New York Times
Columbia Journalism Review, GE Flubs a Pushback Against The New York Times: The Company Can’t—or Won’t—Get its Story Straight on Taxes, by Ryan Chittum: General Electric went into full public-relations pushback mode after The New York Times’s damaging story Friday on how it avoids paying U.S. corporate income taxes. But in doing so, the company,
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Kleinbard: The Global Tax Avoidance Dance
Edward D. Kleinbard (USC), The Global Tax Avoidance Dance: America’s most successful multinationals make great products and offer superior services. But they have another, less enviable quality in common — they have become world leaders in tax avoidance. General Electric’s global effective tax rate for 2010 was 7.4%. Pfizer’s was 11.9%; Cisco came in at
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GE Responds to NY Times Criticism of its Tax Planning
Following up on last week’s post, NY Times: G.E.: Tax Imagination at Work (and commentary by Jon Stewart): Bloomberg, Immelt Says GE’s 2011 Tax Rate to Be ‘Much Higher’ as Losses End: General Electric Co. (GE)’s tax rate will rise this year and beyond after $32 billion of losses absorbed by the company’s financial-services business pushed
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Madoff: Federal Legislation Is Needed to Limit Post-Mortem Right of Publicity
New York Time sop-ed, The New Grave Robbers, by Ray D. Madoff (Boston College): Can a wild wig and a bushy mustache be packaged and called an Albert Einstein costume? According to Hebrew University of Jerusalem and its American marketing agent, the answer is no — at least not without permission. The university says that