Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
News
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Federal Judge Orders IRS to Turn Over Data to TRAC
Update: Here is a copy of the court order in Long v. United States, No. 2:74-cv-00724 (W.D. WA 6/13/08). From today’s Seattle Times: Judge Orders IRS to Turn Over Data; A Federal Judge Has Found the IRS in Defiance of a 2006 Court Order Telling It to Turn Over Tax Data to a Researcher, by
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Impact of McCain & Obama Tax Plans on Single Women
Glamour: Tax Plans And The Single Girl, by Megan Carpentier: In the end, despite the stereotype that my taxes should go up under a Democratic tax plan and down under a Republican, it seems that Obama’s tax plan is most likely to lower my tax bills and McCain’s plan will do little or nothing at
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Group Calls on IRS to Increase Standard Mileage Rate in Light of Record Gas Prices
In light of record gasoline prices, the National Treasury Employees Union has called on the IRS to increase the 2008 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business (50.5 cents per mile), charitable (14 cents per mile), and medical or moving purposes (19 cents per mile). Since
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International Taxation: America’s Berlin Wall
The Economist: International Taxation: America’s Berlin Wall: Congress increases the ransom expats must pay to escape the taxman. Queues of frustrated foreigners crowd many an American consulate around the world hoping to get into the United States. Less noticed are the heavily taxed American expatriates wanting to get out—by renouncing their citizenship. In Hong Kong
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NLJ: Father’s Day and Young Lawyers
From Monday’s National Law Journal: Work/Life Balance: Fathers Seek It, Too, by Phoebe Taubman & Yolanda Wu: It’s June again, the time of year when florists and greeting card companies exhort us to honor our favorite "grads and dads" with bouquets and cheery sentiments. Although newly minted male law school grads are surely happy to
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Good Luck, Joe Kristan
Joe Kristan, the CPA behind the wonderful Roth & Co. tax blog, has had to vacate his Des Moines, Iowa office because of the horrendous flooding.
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NY Times: IRS Changes in Tax-Exempt Bond Rules Imperil New Stadiums for Mets, Nets, and Yankees
New York Times: A Question Mark Looms Over 3 Expensive Projects, by Charles V. Bagli: More than two years ago, the Bloomberg administration came up with an aggressively creative way to use tax-exempt bonds to finance two of the most expensive stadiums in the world, one for the Yankees in the Bronx and another for
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Law Firm Files First $4 Billion Tax Whistleblower Submission with IRS
I previously blogged the first $1 billion, and then $2 billion, Tax Whistleblower submissions to the newly created IRS Whistleblower Office, filed by The Ferraro Law Firm (Miami, FL & Washington, D.C.). The firm today announced that it has filed the first $4 billion Tax Whistleblower submission: Today, The Ferraro Law Firm filed a new
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Is Myanmar Taxing Cyclone Aid?
The Associated Press reports that Myanmar denies allegations that it is imposing a 10% tax on all donations to aid the victims of last week’s horrific cyclone. Myanmar’s ruling military junta denied reports Wednesday that it was deducting a 10% tax from foreign donations to cyclone victims, saying all incoming money is being spent on
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WaPo on War and Taxes
I previously blogged War and Taxes (Urban Institute Press, 2008), the new book by Steven A. Bank (UCLA), Joseph J. Thorndike (Tax Analysts) & Kirk J. Stark (UCLA). Today’s Washington Post discusses the book in Billing The Grandkids, by Ruth Marcus: "This contrast — between an active war effort on one hand and substantial tax
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Tax Time Bomb for Faculty Paid Over 12 Months
The AAUP has issued a Tax Alert on the impact of § 409A on faculty on 10-month contracts who elect to be paid over a 12-month period: Section 409A, a relatively new provision that became law in 2004 (but with a delayed effective date), imposes federal income tax on deferred compensation—amounts earned in one year
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NY Times: When Sex Is Like Listening to Your Tax Lawyer
New York Times: Yes, Dear. Tonight Again, by Ralph Gardner: LET’S say you and your spouse haven’t had sex in so long that you can’t remember the last time you did. Not the day. Not the month. Maybe not even the season. Would you look for gratification elsewhere? Would you file for divorce? Or would
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WSJ: IRS Targets Billionaire’s Variable Prepaid Forward Contract Tax Strategy
Front page story in today’s Wall Street Journal: IRS Targets Billionaire’s Lucrative Tax Strategy, by Jesse Drucker, which discusses the IRS’s attack on Variable Prepaid Forward Contracts: The IRS is fighting with billionaire Philip Anschutz to force the Denver-based mogul to pay back taxes totaling $143.6 million. The court battle is part of a broad
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Law Schools Visited by Supreme Court Justices, 2007
The Supreme Court on Friday released the Justices’ 2007 financial disclosure forms. From a law school perspective, there are several interesting aspects of the forms: (1) law school payments to Justices for teaching courses, (2) the 36 law schools visited by the Justices, and (3) the number of law schools visited by each Justice: Law
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WaPo: 5 Steps to a Better Tax System
Washington Post: 5 Steps to a Better Tax System, by Roger Lowenstein: How would a conscientious president deal with the deficit and also make the system fairer? Here are five relatively painless ways. End preferential treatment for private equity fund managers. Raise the cap on the payroll tax. Reinstate a meaningful inheritance tax. End unfair
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NY Times: Tax Laws Popularize the Small Foundation
New York Times: Tax Laws Popularize the Small Foundation, by Geraldine Fabrikant: The number of smaller foundations and other charities… has exploded recently. According to the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics, there were 76,849 private foundations — of all sizes — at the end of 2005, the latest year for which data is
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NLJ: States, Cities Step Up Efforts to Tax Internet Sales
From next week’s National Law Journal: Clash Over Taxing ‘e-Tailers’ Intensifies: States, Cities Stepping Up Legal Efforts to Tax Internet Sales, by Tresa Baldas: Towns and states eager to collect taxes from booming Internet sales are increasingly turning to litigation — and online retailers are putting up a fight. In a case that has reached
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NY Times: Wealthy Americans Under Scrutiny in UBS Case
Today’s New York Times: Wealthy Americans Under Scrutiny in UBS Case, by Lynnley Browning: [A]s the federal authorities intensify an investigation into offshore bank accounts, the secrets of this rarefied world are being dragged into the open — and UBS’s privileged clients are running scared. Under pressure from the authorities, UBS is considering whether to
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Tax Consequences of Continental Airlines’ CEO & President’s Decision to Forego Salaries
Bryan Camp (Texas Tech) notes the potential assignment of issue raised by the decision today by Continetal Airlines Chairman & CEO Lawrence Kellner and President Jeff Smisek to forego their salaries and incentive pay for the remainder of 2008 in light of the airline’s elimination of 3,000 jobs in light of record fuel costs. One
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WSJ: Tax-Shelter Users Get Some Rare Good News
Today’s Wall Street Journal Tax Report: Tax-Shelter Users Get Some Rare Good News, by Tom Herman: Don’t rush into that tax shelter just yet. Many investors battling the IRS in high-stakes tax-shelter cases may take some hope from the government’s defeat in a recent court case. [Sala v. United States, No. 05-cv-00636 (D. CO 4/22/08).]
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Tax Court Issues New Whistleblower and Electronic Service Rules
The Tax Court yesterday issued a press release and a notice of proposed amendments to its Rules of Practice and Procedure on whistleblower award actions and electronic service. Written comments on the proposed amendments are due by July 31.
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Grassley: Wealthy Colleges Must Make Themselves More Affordable
Chronicle of Higher Education: Wealthy Colleges Must Make Themselves More Affordable, by Charles Grassley: We Americans have decided that the work of nonprofit colleges and universities is so invaluable that they should be exempt from taxes. So John Doe pays taxes. John Deere pays taxes. But Johns Hopkins does not. Those tax exemptions involve a
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Who Was Most Responsible for Reagan Tax Cuts? Jodie Foster
Chronicle of Higher Education: Is Jodie Foster Responsible for Reaganomics? What was the greatest wealth-creating film of all time? That question was answered by Robert Mundell, a Nobel Prize-winning professor of economics at Columbia University. His answer: Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic starring Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster. Mundell’s explanation, according to a
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Mankiw: Raise Gas Tax, Cut (or Eliminate) Corporate Tax
Today’s New York Times: The Problem With the Corporate Tax, by N. Gregory Mankiw (Harvard University, Department of Economics): At this point in the presidential campaign, Senator John McCain is the candidate of ideas on issues of tax policy. Too many ideas, in fact. While some of his ideas are great, others are almost laughable.
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Slate: A Secret Tax on Teenagers
Slate: A Secret Tax on Teenagers, by Tim Harford: Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, did something rather strange recently to baffling applause from his own supporters and cries of "bribery" from the opposition: He announced a tax on teenagers. Darling’s plan is to cut income taxes temporarily for all but the most prosperous