Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Political News
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Hillary Clinton Condemns Private Equity Tax Break
Hillary for President Press Release: "As President I will reform our tax code to ensure that the carried interest earned by some multi-millionaire Wall Street managers is recognized for what it is: ordinary income that should be taxed at ordinary income tax rates." Bloomberg New York Times Reuters
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MySpace Political Reality Show Raises Serious Tax, Election Law Issues
Interesting article on Statesman.com: MySpace Plans Election Reality Show, by Mike Kelly: MySpace will launch a political reality show called "Independent." The show, expected to air in early 2008, is a reality-based competition in which MySpace users will select a candidate whom they think best represents the voice of Americans. Candidates for the show will…
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Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate Warren Buffet’s Tax Rate
Last week, I blogged Warren Buffet’s complaint (made at a Hillary Clinton fundraiser) that he paid a 17.7% tax rate on his $46 million of taxable income in 2006, while his employees paid an average 32.9% tax rate. Talking Taxes reports that the Democratic presidential candidates were asked at last week’s debate: This week, billionaire…
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FactCheck.org Criticizes John McCain’s “Supply-Side Spin”
The nonpartisan FactCheck.org criticizes Republican Presidential candidate John McCain’s supply-side spin: Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has said that the major tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 have "increased revenues." He also said that tax cuts in general increase revenues. That’s highly misleading. In fact, the last half-dozen years have shown us that…
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NY Times: Presidential Candidates Ignore Taxes
Interesting story in today’s New York Times: Candidates’ Tax Plans Are a Mystery, by Floyd Norris: Opportunities for real tax reform are rare. But when they do come along, something good can happen only if political leaders are prepared with a plan they can sell to a populace that knows the shortcomings of the present…
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Fred Thompson’s Tax Policy
Interesting article in U.S. News & World Report: What (Fred) Thompsonomics Might Look Like, by James Pethokoukis: For now with Thompson, analysts are left to examine his growing campaign team for clues as to what his policy agenda will be. So what does the likely addition of former Bush economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey reveal about…
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Congressman Jefferson (Georgetown Tax LL.M.) Indicted for Bribery
Congressman William J. Jefferson (D-LA) has been indicted on charges of receiving over $500,000 in bribes. The tax connection: he received his tax LL.M. from Georgetown in 1996. Press coverage: Associated Press CNN L.A. Times New York Times Reuters Wall Street Journal Washington Post
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Candidate Launches Campaign for District Attorney from Church Pulpit
Following up on recent posts (here and here) on the IRS’s new guidance on political activity by tax-exempt organizations: check out the remarkable three-minute video of Michele Purvis announcing her candidacy for District Attorney from her church’s pulpit. (Hat Tip: Donald Tobin.)
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IRS Asked to Investigate Florida Evangelist’s Sermon: “If You Vote for Mitt Romney, You Are Voting for Satan”
Following up on yesterday’s post on the IRS’s new guidance on what constitutes prohibited political activities by tax-exempt entities: today’s Washington Post item Separation of Church and State and Tax Exemptions: Florida evangelist Bill Keller says he was making a spiritual — not political — statement when he warned the 2.4 million subscribers to his…
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Both Parties Mischaracterize Tax Components of Democrats’ 2008 Budget
The nonpartisan FactCheck.org criticizes both Democrats and Republicans in their characterization of the tax components of the Democrats proposed 2008 budget in Counter-rotating Tax Spin: Does the Democratic budget contain the "largest tax increase in American history" or "not one penny" of increase? Answer: neither. Summary: The Democrats’ proposed 2008 budget is being spun by…
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Hillary’s Tax Plan
From today’s Reuters: Clinton Proposes Cutting Corporate Tax Breaks: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday she might seek to scrap certain corporate tax breaks and subject CEO pay to public scrutiny if elected president in November 2008. … She said she would advocate tax code changes that would keep jobs at home although she…
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Rudy’s Worst Grade in School: Tax
The Associated Press asked the presidential candidates to name their "best and worst grades or subjects in school." Here are the law school-related answers: Joe Biden: Favorite subject: American Jurisprudence at University of Delaware. Least favorite subject: Contracts at Syracuse Law School. Rudy Giuliani: Best: Constitutional Law and Contracts at NYU Law School. Worst: Tax…
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Only One Presidential Candidate (Obama) Releases Tax Returns
Interesting article on ABCNews: No Disclosure: Presidential Candidates Defy Tradition, Refuse to Release Taxes, by Jennifer Rubin: In a break with the tradition of recent presidential campaigns, most of the major presidential candidates aren’t releasing their income-tax filings. … That means voters are likely to know less about the income sources, personal wealth and charitable…
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L.A. Times: Big Political Donors Are Also Big Tax Shelter Players
Deep Pockets Can Hold Sticky Details; Billionaire Donors to Clinton, McCain Are Tied to Tax Avoidance Schemes, by Walter F. Roche Jr. & Michael A. Hiltzik What’s a politician to do upon discovery that a generous billionaire donor turns out to be a major tax dodger? It’s a dilemma already encountered by the Republican and…
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Barack Obama’s 2006 Tax Return
Following up on this morning’s post about the release of Barack Obama’s 2006 tax return: here is a copy of the return. Press commmentary: Associated Press Chicago Tribune
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Romney Adviser: Cut Taxes for Companies, Not Kids
Interesting article today on U.S. News & World Report: Romney Adviser: Cut Taxes for Companies, Not Kids, by James Pethokoukis: What kind of economic policy advice is Mitt Romney getting? One of the people doing some idea work for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and current 2008 GOP presidential hopeful, is Cesar Conda. Conda is…
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U.S. News: Giuliani, Taxes & Abortion
Interesting article in U.S. News & World Report: How Giuliani Can Use Taxes to Win Over Abortion Foes, by James Pethokoukis: Giuliani could use tax policy to appeal to social conservatives, say Republican insiders I’ve spoken with. So far on the tax issue, Giuliani has promised to permanently extend the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax…
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Remembering Richard Nixon’s Infamous Tax Evasion
The Washington Post’s obituary of Mary Livingston recounts the role that she played in one of oddest chapters in the tax law: Mary Walton McCandlish Livingston, 92, a federal archivist whose testimony before Congress revealed that President Richard M. Nixon’s donated papers were improperly backdated, died March 23 … Mrs. Livingston, a senior archivist in…
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U.S. News: Would Hillary Preserve the Capital Gains Tax Cuts?
On the U.S. News & World Report web site, James Pethokoukis asks: Would Hillary Preserve the Capital Gains Tax Cuts?: The new Democratic federal budgets, both House and Senate, floating around Congress put the kibosh on the 2003 cap gains cuts due to expire at the end of 2010. But a veteran Washington insider E-mails…
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Election Day Tax Issues
Election Day roundups of tax issues from tax policy groups at both ends of the political spectrum: Tax Foundation: Election Day Tax Issues: Proposed Gas Tax Increase in California Proposed Cigarette Tax Increases in California, Arizona, South Dakota and Missouri Tax Reform in Ohio’s Gubernatorial Race Property Taxes in Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Race Estate Taxes in…
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Democrats Blast Intuit’s Attempt to Kill California’s ReadyReturn Program
We previously have blogged the unfortunate demise of the California ReadyReturn pilot program, as well as Intuit’s financial contribution in the California Controller’s campaign to ensure that the program remains dead. Stanford Tax Prof Joe Bankman, the designer of the ReadyReturn program, joined Democratic Controller candidate John Chiang at a press conference today denouncing Intuit’s…
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Politics and the IRS
Wednesday: Commissioner Mark Everson announces that the IRS will postpone collection activities against taxpayers in areas struck by Hurricane Katrina until next year. (A one-year extension of filing deadlines expired October 16.) Thursday: David Cay Johnston reports in the New York Times (I.R.S. Going Slow Before Election) that four former IRS commissioners (Donald Alexander, Sheldon…
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Presidential Tax Lawyers
We previously blogged the "Shop Talk" column in the Journal of Taxation on John Cox, the long-shot 2008 Republican presidential candidate who bragged about reading "the entire Internal Revenue Code, the regulations and something called the BNA portfolios on taxes — all cover to cover." The column noted that, if elected, Cox would be the…
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Attack Ad: Phil Angelides as “The Tax Man”
The California Republican party has produced this attack ad, calling gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides "The Tax Man": (Hat Tip: Taxalicious.)