Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Political News
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Romney Haunted by Missing Tax Returns as Campaign Draws to Close
Huffington Post: Mitt Romney Haunted by Missing Tax Returns as Campaign Draws to Close: As the GOP presidential candidate faced pressure over the past year to release more financial information, it was widely presumed that at some point he would buckle and follow a tradition started by his father, who released 12 years of tax…
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Economic Effects of the Obama and Romney Tax Plans
Tax Foundation: A Comparison of the Long-Term Economic Effects of the Obama and Romney Tax Plans: Over the past several weeks, Tax Foundation economists have published a series of studies that analyze the long-term economic and distributional effects of the tax plans outlined by President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. These comprehensive assessments were…
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Dems, GOP Trade Barbs After CRS Pulls Report on Tax Rates and Economic Growth
New York Times: Nonpartisan Tax Report Withdrawn After GOP Protest: The Congressional Research Service has withdrawn an economic report [Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945 (R42729) (Sept. 14, 2012), by Thomas L. Hungerford] that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth, a central tenet of…
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Law Profs: Obama 72%, Romney 19%
Law Profs back President Obama over Mitt Romney 72% to 19%, according to Brian Leiter's poll. Update #1: Brian Leiter closed the poll with 420 votes cast and a final tally of Obama 69%, Romney 22%. See The Law Professors Have Spoken: I'm impressed (or distressed) by the strong showing for the Republican, and surprised…
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Calvin Johnson ‘Skeptical’ of Mitt Romney’s Taxes
Huffington Post: Tax Expert Calvin Johnson 'Skeptical' Of Mitt Romney's Taxes: A respected tax attorney and deficit hawk wrote a letter to the editor of Tax Notes on Monday saying that, "There is good reason to be skeptical" of Mitt Romney's claim to have paid all the taxes he legally owes. The letter, by University…
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Romney Benefits From Zeroed-Out CRUT With Mormon Church
Bloomberg: Romney Avoids Taxes via Loophole Cutting Mormon Donations, by Jesse Drucker: In 1997, Congress cracked down on a popular tax shelter that allowed rich people to take advantage of the exempt status of charities without actually giving away much money. Individuals who had already set up these vehicles were allowed to keep them. That…
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Johnson: Romney Tax Plan Doesn’t Add Up, Helps Wealthy Too Much
Austin American-Stateman op-ed: Romney Tax Plan Doesn’t Add Up, Helps Wealthy Too Much, by Calvin H. Johnson (Texas): Mitt Romney has aggressively promised large tax cuts for the richest taxpayers. President Barack Obama opposes them. Romney has simultaneously promised not to increase the deficit or increase middle class tax, but he has not specified what…
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NY Times: Romney’s Tax Plan Doesn’t Add Up
New York Times: Romney’s Tax Plan and Economic Growth, by Bruce Bartlett: Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, are quite insistent that their tax plan is just the elixir that the economy needs to jumpstart growth. … In principle, a change that holds revenues constant while lowering marginal tax rates – the rate…
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Obama’s $49 Billion Tax Increase on Small Business in 2013
American Enterprise Institute: Obama’s Big Tax Increases on Small Business: It is quite a stretch for President Obama to argue that he wants to cut taxes for small businesses. In reality, he is proposing to increase taxes on small businesses by around $49 billion. … While in the strictest sense it is true that the…
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Tax Aspects of the Biden-Ryan VP Debate
Anthony J. Nitti (WithumSmith & Brown, Aspen, CO), Reactions to the Biden – Ryan Debate: What did voters learn about the future of tax policy? Joe Biden and the $500 Billion Tax Cut for the Wealthy How Do You Define Small Business? The Competing Goals of Focused Deduction Elimination and Tax Reform Update: Citizens for…
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Princeton Economist: Obama Is Misrepresenting My Study on Romney’s Tax Plan
The Weekly Standard: Princeton Economist: Obama Campaign Is Misrepresenting My Study on Romney's Tax Plan: Last night, the Obama campaign blasted out another email claiming that Mitt Romney's tax plan would either require raising taxes on the middle class or blowing a hole in the deficit. "Even the studies that Romney has cited to claim…
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WaPo Awards Three Pinocchios to Obama’s Claim That the Bush Tax Cuts Led to the Economic Crisis
Washington Post Fact Checker: Obama’s Claim That the Bush Tax Cuts Led to the Economic Crisis: “Now Governor Romney believes that with even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy, and fewer regulations on Wall Street, all of us will prosper. In other words, he’d double down on the same trickle-down policies that led to the…
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1,400 Pastors to Bait IRS Today on ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’
Today is the fifth annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday, as1,400 pastors plan to discuss politics and candidates in their sermons, flouting the law against campaigning by churches. CBS News, The Message Behind “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” CNN, Pastors Prepare to Take on IRS Over Political Endorsement Ban Daily Beast, ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’ Pastors Don’t Care…
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WSJ: Obama, Romney, and Territorial Tax Reform
Wall Street Journal editorial: Obama vs. Volcker, Et Al.: The President's Advisers Agree With Romney on a Territorial Tax Reform: Americans are learning that President Obama will do whatever it takes to win re-election, and that includes repudiating reforms that his hand-picked advisers support. The latest example is his opposition to a "territorial" corporate tax…
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Tax Whoppers in Last Night’s Presidential Debate
FactCheck.org: Dubious Denver Debate Declarations: Obama and Romney Swap Exaggerations and False Claims in Their First Meeting: Obama accused Romney of proposing a $5 trillion tax cut. Not true. Romney proposes to offset his rate cuts and promises he won’t add to the deficit. Romney again promised to “not reduce the taxes paid by high-income…
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Tax Foundation: Romney Plan Would Cut Middle Class Taxes (Using 1% Dynamic Scoring Model)
Tax Foundation: Would the Romney Tax Plan Necessarily Reduce After-Tax Incomes for the Middle Class?: In August, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC) released a report [updated here] claiming to show that Mitt Romney's tax reform plan would necessarily raise taxes on middle-class taxpayers and reduce their after-tax incomes, while giving a significant tax cut…
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NY Times: Offshore Tax Tactics Helped Increase Romneys’ Wealth
New York Times: Offshore Tactics Helped Increase Romneys’ Wealth, by Michael Luo & Mike McIntire: Buried deep in the tax returns released by Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign are references to dozens of offshore holdings with names like Ursa Funding (Luxembourg) S.à.r.l. and Sankaty Credit Opportunities Investors (Offshore) IV, based in the Cayman Islands. Mr. Romney,…
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Preview of a Second Obama Administration? French President Proposes 75% Tax Rate on Millionaires, Eschews Tax Reform
The Atlantic Forbes The Guardian Huffington Post New York Times
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Romney’s ‘I Dig It’ Trust Gives Heirs Triple Benefit
Bloomberg: Romney ‘I Dig It’ Trust Gives Heirs Triple Benefit, by Jesse Drucker: In January 1999, a trust set up by Mitt Romney for his children and grandchildren reaped a 1,000 percent return on the sale of shares in Internet advertising firm DoubleClick Inc. If Romney had given the cash directly, he could have owed…
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Romneys Reported Sharp Gain in Foreign Income in 2011 Tax Return
Reuters: Romneys Reported Sharp Gain in Foreign Income in 2011 Tax Return, by Lynnley Browning: Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, more than doubled their investment income from foreign sources in 2011 versus 2010, including some sources in tax havens around the world, according to tax returns released by the Republican presidential nominee's campaign. The Romneys…
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Why Mitt Romney Should Pay a Lower Tax Rate Than the Rest of Us
Slate: Why Mitt Romney's Effective Tax Rate Is So Low And Why It Probably Should Be, by Matthew Yglesias: The main reason Romney's effective rate is so low is that the American tax code contains a lot of preferences for investment income over labor income. That's something that strikes many people as unfair on its…