Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Political News
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David Cay Johnston: Five Tax Questions for Mitt Romney
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Tobin: The Tax Treatment of Ann Romney’s Dressage Horse Activity
Donald Tobin (Ohio State), Ann Romney’s Tax Deductible Horse Activity — The Tax Code Got This Right!: Ann Romney’s love of horses and Steven Colbert’s infatuation with Rafalca, one of her dressage horses, have created a buzz about horses, money, and taxes. Romney owns a one-third interest in Rafalca, and Rafalca will be competing, with…
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Winners of ‘Dinner With Barack’ Will Face a $560 Tax Bill
William Jacobson (Cornell) blogs the tax consequences of the Obama campaign’s Dinner With Barack fundraising raffle. Three winners and their guests will receive: Roundtrip airfare (valued at $1,200) One night in a hotel ($200) Dinner with President Obama ($200) The rules state that “all federal, state and local taxes associated with the receipt or use…
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IRS Denies 501(c)(4) Status to Emerge America — Is Crossroads GPS Next?
Bloomberg, IRS Denial of Tax Exemption to U.S. Political Group Spurs Alarms: An IRS decision revoking the tax-exempt status of a small political nonprofit organization may foreshadow an investigation into groups such as Crossroads GPS and Priorities USA that spend millions on the 2012 U.S. presidential election. At risk would be the groups’ nonprofit status,…
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Sen. Hatch Demands Investigation of IRS’s Leak of Mitt Romney’s Contribution to Pro-Marriage Group
Following up on my prior post, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, has sent this letter to the IRS, demanding an investigation into whether the IRS leaked an official tax form listing a $10,000 contribution by Mitt Romney's PAC to the National Organization for Marriage during NOM's campaign to repeal…
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Is Mitt Romney’s Plan to Release Only Two Years of Tax Returns Consistent With John Kerry’s Approach?
New York Times, Was Romney Right About John Kerry?: George Romney released 12 years of income tax returns when he ran for president in 1968. George Romney’s son, Mitt, plans to release just two, so his campaign’s looking outside the family for precedent. Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney spokesman, told The Huffington Post: “John Kerry released…
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Eric Zolt Launches Repledge to Divert Political Contributions to Charity
Washington Post, New Group Hopes to Divert Campaign Contributions to Charities: Eric M. Zolt [a tax professor at UCLA] has come up with a unique approach to getting money out of politics: Instead of contributing to their favorite candidates, donors would send their money to charities instead. Zolt is co-founder of a company called Repledge,…
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National Organization of Marriage Demands Investigation of IRS’s Leak of Mitt Romney’s Contribution
The National Organization of Marriage has sent this letter to the Treasury Inspector General of Tax Administration demanding an investigation of the IRS's leak of an official tax form listing a $10,000 contribution by Mitt Romney's PAC to NOM during NOM's campaign to repeal California's gay marriage law: Last week, NOM became aware that its…
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Mitt Romney’s New Tax Plan
Restore America’s Promise: More Jobs, Less Debt, Smaller Government: Mitt Romney’s Bold, Pro-Growth Tax Cut Proposal Reducing and stabilizing federal spending is essential, but breathing life into the present anemic recovery will also require fixing the nation’s tax code to focus on jobs and growth. To repair the nation’s tax code, marginal rates must be…
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More on Presidential Charity
Following up on yesterday's post, Which of the Presidential Candidates Is Most Charitable?: Len Burman (Syracuse), Stingy Rich People, Santorum-Gingrich Edition:
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WaPo: Which of the Presidential Candidates Is Most Charitable?
Washington Post, Romney and Obama Vie for Title of Most Charitable; Santorum Gave Least to Charity: President Obama and his wife, Michelle, despite having the second-lowest income of the four candidate/spouse combos, gave the highest percentage of their $1.8 million income to charity in 2010. … He and Michelle gave 14.2% of their AGI, while…
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Rick Santorum Releases Tax Returns
Rick Santorum yesterday released his 2007-2010 tax returns: 2010 Return 2009 Return 2008 Return 2007 Return Press and blogosphere coverage: Bloomberg CNN The Hill MSNBC New York Times Politico USA Today Wall Street Journal Washington Post
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More on the Tax Portions of President Obama’s 2013 Budget
Bloomberg, Geithner Says ‘Modest’ Tax Increases Better Than Deeper Cuts Bloomberg, Obama Aims $1.4 Trillion Tax Increase at Highest Earners Bloomberg, Obama's Budget Misses an Opportunity to Tackle Tax Reform Citizens for Tax Justice, President Obama’s 2013 Budget Plan Reduces Revenue by Trillions, Makes Permanent 79 Percent of Bush Tax Cuts Financial Times, Obama Targets…
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Side-by-Side Comparison of the Obama and Romney Tax Plans
Washington Post, Comparing Taxes Under Obama’s and Romney’s Budget: Anthony J. Nitti (WithumSmith & Brown, Aspen, CO), A Comprehensive Comparison of the Obama/Gingrich/Romney Tax Proposals): )Hat Tip: David Herzig.)
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Sullivan: Apple Paid a Lower Tax Rate in 2011 Than Mitt Romney
Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts), Apple Reports High Rate but Saves Billions on Taxes, 134 Tax Notes 777 (Feb. 13, 2012): By taking advantage of lax U.S. transfer pricing rules, Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable company, cut its federal tax bill by billions of dollars in 2011. Moreover, by taking advantage of flexible accounting…
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Bartlett: Only Obama’s Re-election Can Prevent a Massive Tax Increase on Jan. 1, 2013
Fiscal Times, Election 2012: Obama Is Misplaying the Tax Card, by Bruce Bartlett: Barack Obama has a potentially strong hand on the tax issue, but is misplaying it. An enormous opportunity was missed when he ignored the issue of tax reform in his State of the Union address on Jan. 24. But it’s not too…
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Gingrich’s Tax Plan v. Romney’s Tax Plan
Following up on last week's post, Laffer: Gingrich's Tax Plan Beats Romney's: Anthony J. Nitti (WithumSmith & Brown, Aspen, CO), Gingrich Versus Romney, the Tax Proposals: [W]e’ve culled through each candidate’s published proposals and campaign rhetoric in an attempt to create a comprehensive comparison of their respective plans for tax reform, culminating in this “Tale of the Tax…
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Johnston: How Romney Would Tax Us
Reuters, How Romney Would Tax Us, by David Cay Johnston: The Republican frontrunner’s 160-page plan for jobs and economic growth, which he released in September, contains some sound ideas. He would encourage more Americans to save and invest. And one of his proposals would strengthen America’s status as a technological powerhouse. But there’s a side…
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NPR: Our Coverage of Romney’s Taxes Was Fair
NPR Ombudsman, Reporting On Romney's Taxes: Economics, History And Morality: Is Mitt Romney being treated unfairly in the coverage of the taxes he pays? Hardly. Some might find it rich even to raise the question, but many NPR listeners have, and it is journalistically and intellectually a valid question. … [M]any listeners wrote to complain…
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The Politics of Envy Is Contrary to the Bible
Wall Street Journal op-ed, What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism, by Aryeh Spero (Caucus for America): As the Ten Commandments instruct, envy is corrosive to the individual and to those societies that embrace it. Who would have expected that in a Republican primary campaign the single biggest complaint among candidates would be that the front-runner…
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Kleinbard: Mitt Romney’s Marvelously Unburdened Income
Edward Kleinbard (USC), Mitt Romney’s Marvelously Unburdened Income: Presentations like Romney and the Burden of Double Taxation, by John Berlau and Trey Kovacs in the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal on January 24th, have suggested that it is wrong to conclude that Governor Romney’s effective tax rate in 2010 was 13.9%, as widely…
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NY Times: Mitt Romney Paid More Taxes Than He Owed
New York Times, Romney Paid More Than He Owed, by Floyd Norris: Mitt Romney’s tax returns tell us some things about him. They tell us a lot more about the sad state of the tax laws in this country. When the candidate released his tax returns this week, the fact most noted was the low…
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Warren Buffett’s Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 – $500,000/Year
Forbes, Warren Buffett's Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year: Warren Buffet’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the President’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss. Bosanek’s…
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More on Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Romney’s Tax Returns Show Extent, Complexity of Wealth Linda Beale (Wayne State), Obama's State of the Union vs Romney's Tax Returns Chris Bergin (Tax Analysts), Romney’s Returns: Wrong Point Beltway Confidential, Romney Needs No Apology on Tax Returns Don't Mess With Taxes, Romney Releases 2010, 2011 Tax Returns Going Concern, What Are People…