Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Political News
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Left v. Right on Katrina
Neil H. Buchanan (Rutgers-Newark), Left2Right: Tell Us Again. Here is the opening: Tell us again that government is the problem, that things will be perfect if we just shrink our governments down to nothing and allow the wonders of private enterprise to solve all of our problems. As we look in horror at the grisly…
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Bogdanski on President Bush in New Orleans
Tax Prof Jack Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark) ran on his blog yesterday a pretty funny photoshop of President Bush in New Orleans (via Rob Salzman):
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Another Casualty of Katrina: Tax Reform Panel Cancels Meetings, May Delay Report
The President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform has cancelled its next two meeting, previously scheduled for today and September 15, and may delay the issuance of its final report previously scheduled for September 30. According to the press release: "There is mutual agreement among the Chair, Vice-Chair, Panel members, Treasury Department and the White…
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Judge John Roberts: Flat Tax Supporter
With many trolling for dirt on Judge Roberts in hopes of derailing his confirmation as Chief Justice, one wonders whether much will be made of this tidbit in Sunday’s Washington Post (Midwestern Scholar With a Steady Conservative Bent Roberts’s Worldview Seemed Set at Early Stage, Friends Recall): As a second-year law student, he startled his…
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Hurricane Katrina Shows Need to … Repeal the Estate Tax
In what may be the most bizarre tax policy argument of my lifetime, Grover Norquist is using Hurricane Katrina to argue that the Senate should vote next week to repeal the estate tax. From his memo yesterday (Death Tax Repeal/Katrina): The 2003 tax cut lifted economic growth far beyond what most people expected. We know…
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FactCheck.org Assails Club for Growth’s Anti-Estate Tax Ads
The nonpartisan FactCheck.org yesterday assailed the Club for Growth’s TV ad in New Hampshire (home, of course, to the nation’s first presidential primary in 2008) claiming that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) wants to “keep the death tax," as well as similar ads running in states of swing Democratic senators. The McCain ad The swing…
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Political Tax News: Base Broadening and Estate Tax Repeal
Interesting items from yesterday’s political tax news: The Wall Street Journal reports that the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform is considering eliminating five popular deductions in order to fund AMT repeal: Employer-Provided Health Insurance State and Local Taxes Home-Mortgage Interest 401(k) Contributions Charitable Contributions But some question whether any relief from the AMT…
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Cindy Sheehan’s Tax Problems
Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an Army soldier killed in Iraq who is camping out in Crawford, Texas until President Bush meets with her, is all over the news. On Friday, her husband filed for divorce (see the divorce papers here). She will have a problem with the IRS if she follows through on this…
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Forbes Defends Flat Tax
Yesterday, we blogged Michael Kinsley’s Washingon Post column blasting Steve Forbes’s new book, Flat Tax Revolution: Using a Postcard to Abolish the IRS. Steve Forbes makes the flat tax case in an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, One Simple Rate: A major domestic battle looms this fall, when tax reform — a centerpiece of…
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How Far Can Tax-Exempt Groups Go in Roberts Confirmation Battle?
The IRS recently posted on its web site Attempts to Influence Judicial Appointments by Exempt Organizations, which outlines the rules pertaining to tax-exempt organizations when they attempt to influence the nomination or confirmation of a judicial appointment. The rules on such lobbying vary, depending on the section of the Code under which the exempt organization…
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NY Times Favors $2 Million Exemption and 45% Estate Tax Rate
Today’s New York Times editorializes against Republican efforts to repeal the Estate Tax: A critical mass of senators has apparently realized, to their credit, that abolishing the estate tax would be unforgivably reckless, in large part because it would cost an estimated $745 billion during the first 10 years of repeal – revenue that would…
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Bush on Taxes
From President Bush’s speech about his second term accomplishments and priorities: I want to thank former Senator John Breaux from Louisiana for joining us. John, thanks for being here. I asked Breaux to help out on simplifying the tax code. It needs to be simplified, and — Looking forward to seeing your report. But thanks…
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Democrats Propose 25% Internet Porn Tax
Nine Democratic Senators (Thomas Carper (DE), Mark Pryor (AR), Mary Landrieu (LA), Joseph Lieberman (CT), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Ken Salazar (CO), Debbie Stabenow (MI), Evan Bayh (IN) & Kent Conrad (ND)) have proposed a 25% tax on Internet porn. Text of Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005, S.1507 Press reports (here, here, here,…
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Hill on Auditing the NAACP: Misadventures in Tax Administration
Frances R. Hill (Miami) has published Auditing the NAACP: Misadventures in Tax Administration (Aug. 2, 2005), also available on the Tax Analysts web site as Doc 2005-16368, 2005 TNT 147-21. The article argues that "the IRS’s probe of the NAACP to determine whether the civil rights group engaged in partisan politics in violation of section…
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Judge Roberts’ Supreme Court Record in Tax Cases
Supreme Court nominee John Roberts argued four tax cases before the Court and prevailed in three of them: Roberts Victories: Alaska v. Nature Village of Venetie Tribal Government, 522 US 329 (1998) Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U.S. 868 (1991) United States v. Centennial Savings Bank, 499 U.S. 573 (1991) Roberts Defeat: Cottage Savings Ass’n v.…
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President’s Tax Reform Panel Releases Agenda and PowerPoint Presentations from Today’s Meeting
The President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform has released the agenda and PowerPoint presentations from its tenth meeting today: PowerPoint Presentation by Chairman Mack Staff PowerPoint Presentation on Complexity and Stability Staff PowerPoint Presentation on Distribution Tables Staff PowerPoint Presentation on Revenue Neutrality Staff PowerPoint Presentation on Alternative Minimum Tax Staff PowerPoint Presentation on…
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President’s Tax Reform Panel Holds Tenth Meeting Today in Washington, D.C.
The President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform holds its tenth meeting today at 9:00 am at the Renaissance Hotel, 999 Ninth Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. According to the press release: The Panel has held nine meetings where witnesses testified about problems with the current tax system and various options for reform. At this…
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Tax Foundation Urges Reform Panel to Avoid Mistakes Made in 1986 Tax Act
The Tax Foundation has published a new Fiscal Fact, Tax Reform and Revenue Neutrality: President’s Panel Should Avoid the Redistribution of 1986, warning panel members not to repeat several mistakes made during the last major tax reform effort: The Tax Reform Act of 1986 substantially reduced income tax rates and broadened tax bases. However, it…
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The Tax Code: “A Model of Clarity and Simplicity”
Something you do not hear every day, from the self-proclaimed "People’s Tax Lawyer": It seems to be a generally accepted belief that our Internal Revenue Code (the Code) is too complex. But this belief has no foundation in reality. The Code is a model of clarity and simplicity for all it is to accomplish….Having spent…
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Sheppard on Tax Treatment of Hedge Fund Investments
Lee A. Sheppard (Contributing Editor, Tax Analysts) has published Offshore Investments: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, 108 Tax Notes 171 (July 11, 2005), also available on the Tax Analysts web site as Doc 2005-14577, 2005 TNT 132-4. The article discusses a congressional initiative to investigate the tax treatment of hedge fund investments.
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Geisler on The AMT Trap That Caught Teresa Heinz Kerry
Gregory Geisler (University of Missouri-St. Louis, College of Business Administration) has published An AMT Trap That Caught Teresa Heinz Kerry in 2003, also available on the Tax Analysts web site as Doc 2005-14687, 2005 TNT 133-35.
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More on the Estate Tax
Interesting estate tax stuff that accumulated while I was away: New York Times (David Cay Johnston), Few Wealthy Farmers Owe Estate Taxes, Report Says (7/10): The number of farms on which estate tax is owed when the owners die has fallen by 82% since 2000, to just 300 farms, as Congress has more than doubled…
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Hill on Partisan Campaign Activity by Charities
Frances R. Hill (Miami), Tax Program Director of the Campaign Legal Center, sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson noting that plans by some § 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations to conduct joint interviews of Republican presidential candidates could violate the ban on partisan campaign activity by charities. See here for a related Roll Call article. …
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Big
Eight Seven Six Five FourThree?With KPMG’s continued existence very much up in the air as the Feds contemplate indicting the entire firm for their tax shelter work in the late 1990s, Taxable Talk asks if folks remember the names of the original Big Eight accounting firms? [Answer below the fold.]
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AALU Provides Revenue Estimates and Number of Taxable Estates Under Current Law, Estate Tax Repeal, and Reform Alternatives
The Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) has prepared Revenue Estimates of Estate Tax Repeal and Revenue Estimates and Number of Taxable Estates Under Current Law, Estate Tax Repeal, and Reform Alternatives ($1m – $3.5m Exemption and 15% – 45% Top Rates). There is a separate page for each state with three tables: Table 1…