Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
News
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Oracle’s Larry Ellison Gets Home Assessment Reduced by $100 Million; School District Suffers
Larry Ellison’s Tax Cut Breaks School’s Budget (WSJ Buisness Technology Blog), by Ben Worthen: The Portola Valley School District has to cut six positions–thanks in part to Larry Ellison. The Oracle chairman, who is the fourteenth richest person in the world, recently had the value of his 23-acre Woodside, Calif., home reassessed from $173 million
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Money Magazine: How to Pay Zero Taxes
How to Pay Zero Taxes: Nearly 50 Million Americans Do It; But Once You See How, You’ll be Glad You’re Not One of Them (Money Magazine), by Marlys Harris: Last year 49.2 million U.S. households filed returns that obligated them to pay absolutely no federal income taxes — and they didn’t necessarily do anything illegal.
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TurboTax, But Not TaxCut, Allows Civil-Union Returns
Last week, I blogged several rankings naming TurboTax the #1 tax preparation software, over TaxCut and its other competitiors. Today’s news brings another reason to favor TurboTax: it allows civil-union returns by gay and lesbian couples, while TaxCut does not in certain states. Same-Sex Couple Blocked By H & R; Tax Preparer Says Its Computer
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KPMG Tax Shelter Prosecutors Take Appeal to Second Circuit
Associated Press: US Government Tries to Revive KPMG Case, by Larry Neumeister Bloomberg: KPMG Prosecutor Asks Court to Reinstate Charges, by Carlyn Kolker & David Glovin National Law Journal: No Coercion in KPMG Case, Prosecutor Says, by Mark Hamblett Reuters: U.S. Tries to Revive Ex-KPMG Employees Tax Case, by Emily Chasan Wall Street Journal: KPMG
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Tax Services v. Legal Services
On our sister Legal Profession Blog, Michael S. Frisch (Georgetown) quotes a Virginia state bar discipline matter in which the court distinguishes tax services from legal services: On March 19, 2008, a three-judge panel of the Fairfax County Circuit Court imposed a public admonition with terms on Ernest Kenneth Wall. Mr. Wall violated the Rule
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The Impact of Children on Lawyer Productivity
Jean Wallace & Marisa Young (both of University of Calgary, Department of Sociology) have published Parenthood and Productivity: A Study of Demands, Resources and Family-Friendly Firms, 72 J. Vocational Behavior 110 (Feb. 2008). Here is the abstract: We examine how the presence of children is related to women’s and men’s productivity. We hypothesize family demands,
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The Wrongful Convictions Tax Relief Act of 2007
Improve Remedial Laws (National Law Journal), by Vivian Berger: The Wrongful Convictions Tax Relief Act of 2007, S. 2421, recently introduced by senators Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., would furnish certain tax benefits to exonerated prisoners without prior felony convictions. Most important, for 15 years or the number of years of incarceration
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NY Times: How to Be a Blog Star
So You Want to Be a Blogging Star? (New York Times), by Paul Boutin: Here’s what a number of successful bloggers with successful nonblogging careers say are the ways to think about getting into the business of blogging. Don’t expect to get rich. … Write about what you want to write about, in your own
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Tax Preparation Software Rankings: TurboTax Is #1
And the Best Tax-Preparation Program Is … (Wall Street Journal), by Tom Herman: Recently, I have been road-testing versions of Intuit Inc.’s TurboTax, long the nation’s top-selling brand, and H&R Block Inc.’s TaxCut. … Of the two programs, I prefer TurboTax, as I did last year. TurboTax also is #1 with these reviewers: Abby’s Guide
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Ex-KPMG Partner Indicted in Tax Shelter Case
Indictment Civil Forfeiture Complaint U.S. Attorney Press Release New York Times Reuters Wall Street Journal
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Did Major League Baseball File an Incomplete Tax Return?
Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal last week pointed out a potential problem with Major League Baseball’s tax return for the year ended October 31, 2006: MLB did not include the compensation amounts for its other top officers in its most recent return. The names of MLB President Bob DuPuy and four executive vice presidents
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State Tax Treatment of Economic Stimulus Rebates
The economic stimulus rebates ($600 (single) or $1,200 (married), plus $300 per child under age 17) are not treated as taxable income for federal income tax purposes. Several states have explained the state income tax treatment of the rebates: States that exempt economic stimulus rebates from state income tax: California Connecticut Iowa Louisiana Missouri New
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WSJ: New Tax Rules Unlikely to Cause Exodus of “Non-Doms”
Interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal: Exodus Unlikely in U.K. Tax Shift; new Rules Close Loopholes on Froeigners Living There, by Jeanne Whalen & Alistair MacDonald: The United Kingdom’s new rules for taxing foreigners are causing some trepidation and confusion among expatriates here but don’t appear likely to trigger an exodus of bankers and
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NY Times Opposes Kyl Estate Tax Bill
Interesting editorial in today’s New York Times: New Hope for the Rich: Starting in 2009, the estate tax will apply to Americans with property at death worth more than $7 million per couple, or $3.5 million for individuals — a whopping 0.3 percent of people who die each year. As part of the 2009 budget
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Real Estate Investors Abandon § 1031 Exchanges in Face of Possible Capital Gains Tax Increase
Interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal: Property Investors Fear Gains-Tax Rise, Shift 1031 Strategy, by Arden Dale: Real-estate investors worried that a new administration will raise capital-gains tax rates are starting to abandon a popular tax-deferral strategy to pay taxes now while rates are low. The trend is more pronounced when bare land is
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Japanese Sisters Hid $58m in Shed to Evade Inheritance Tax
Interesting article on the BBC: Sisters "Hid Stash From Taxman": Two Japanese sisters have been arrested for allegedly trying to evade paying a fortune in inheritance tax. Tax officials say the sisters hid almost 6b yen ($58m) in cardboard boxes and paper bags at their home in the city of Osaka. … The National Tax
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U.K. Companies Seek Corporate Tax Overhaul
Interesting article in The Deal: U.K. Business Seeks Tax Overhaul, by Jonathan Braude: British business is demanding a radical change of the corporate tax system to reduce the burden on U.K. companies, improve the country’s competitiveness and ease the pressure on global businesses to relocate to friendlier jurisdictions. In a week in which the government
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WSJ: The Inequality Myth
Interesting op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal: The Inequality Myth, by Brad Schiller: The annual release of census data on household incomes provides the foundation for the "two Americas" thesis. The latest figures tracked changes in incomes all the way back to 1967. Two observations grabbed the headlines. First, the data indicate that the top-earning
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NY Times: Moneyball and Charitable Giving
Interesting article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine: What Makes People Give?, by David Leonhardt: What makes people give their money away? [John List and Dean Karlan] considered the usual answers (to make the world a better place, to see your name printed in the back of an annual report and the like) too
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The Best Tax Lawyers in NY, NJ & CT
New York Magazine lists the best tax lawyers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. For the methodology, see here. (Hat Tip: Above the Law.)
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More on Why Stock Gifts Precede Large Value Declines
Yesterday, I blogged the new paper by David Yermack (NYU, Stern School of Business), Deduction ad absurdum: CEOs Donating Their Own Stock to Their Own Family Foundations. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal picked up the story today: New York Times: Study Says Gifts of Stock Precede Sharp Price Dips, by Stephanie Strom.
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David Cay Johnston to Leave New York Times
Tax Notes is reporting that David Cay Johnston, the Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter, is accepting a buyout from the New York Times after thirteen years at the newspaper. (He is the second high profile New York Times legal reporter to accept a buyout in recent days, following award-winning Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse.)
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L.A. Times: Inflated Art Appraisals Cost IRS Untold Millions
Interesting article in today’s L.A. Times: Inflated Art Appraisals Cost U.S. Government Untold Millions, by Jason Felch & Doug Smith: Each year, the IRS audits donations claimed on only a handful of the 100,000 or more tax returns that allow art donors to reap nearly $1 billion in tax write-offs. Half of the donations checked
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PowerPoint Karaoke
Interesting article in the Sunday Boston Globe: PowerPoint Karaoke, by Erin McKean: If you’ve never heard of PowerPoint Karaoke, that probably means you’re neither German nor a hardcore techie. The phenomenon has been spreading geek to geek and conference to conference since it was invented by a German artists’ group in 2005. PowerPoint Karaoke sessions
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Chicago Gets Highest Sales Tax in U.S.: 10.25%
From the Associated Press: [A]fter the Cook County Board voted Saturday to double the county sales tax to 1.75%, … the county increase has the cumulative effect of setting a 10.25% sales tax on goods bought in Chicago. … The rates in New York and Los Angeles are below 8.5%. The next highest rate in