Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Uncategorized
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WSJ: Using Shared Appreciation Mortgages to Solve the Housing/Mortgage Crisis
Wall Street Journal: We Can Keep People in Their Homes: Let Lenders Profit Later For Easing Terms Now, by Andrew Caplin (NYU), Thomas Cooley (NYU), Noel Cunningham (NYU) & Mitchell Engler (Cardozo): The world's turned upside down. For generations of Americans, family homes were assets to be bequeathed to our children. Today, instead, we are proposing to…
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SOI Releases 2004 Personal Wealth Data
The IRS’s Statistics of Income Division has released 2004 Personal Wealth Data: Tables that present personal wealth data for 2004 are now available. Five tables show data on the asset portfolio, debts, and net worth of individuals with gross assets of $1.5 million or more. These tables are classified by size of net worth, age…
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New Deanships at Michigan State and Minnesota
July 1 marked the beginniing of new deanships at Michigan State (Joan Howarth) and Minnesota (David Wippman).
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NLJ: Is the Country Ready for Ten New Law Schools?
From next week’s National Law Journal: A Deluge of Law Schools: As Many as 10 Are in the Works — But Are They Needed?, by Leigh Jones: As many as 10 new law schools are in the works, with the majority of them proposed in the eastern part of the country. While their proponents insist…
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IRS Releases Spring 2008 SOI Bulletin
The IRS has released the Spring 2008 Statistics of Income Bulletin (IRS Publication 1136): Individual Income Tax Returns, Preliminary Data, 2006, by Brian Balkovic High-Income Tax Returns for 2005, by Brian Balkovic Individual Noncash Contributions, 2005, by Janette Wilson Accumulation and Distribution of Individual Retirement Arrangements, 2004, by Victoria L. Bryant The One-Time Received Dividend…
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Banks & Diamond: The Case for Direct Taxation
James Banks (MIT, Department of Economics) & Peter A. Diamond (MIT, Department of Economics) have posted The Case for Direct Taxation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The traditional starting place for a study of tax reform is a definition of an ideal tax base, which is then adjusted in light of additional issues. After…
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DOJ Announces National Tax Defier Initiative
The Department of Justice yesterday announced that it has created a National Tax Defier Initiative: Nathan J. Hochman, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, announced the creation of the National Tax Defier Initiative or TAXDEF. The purpose of this initiative is to reaffirm and reinvigorate the Tax Division’s commitment to investigate, pursue…
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Call for Papers: New Voices in Trusts & Estates at 2009 AALS Annual Meeting
2009 AALS Annual Meeting Call for Papers and Participation, Section on Donative Transfers: New Voices in Trusts & Estates Trusts and Estates has long been a central part of the law school curriculum. But it is not a static field. On the contrary, as the law and the social policies that underpin the law continue…
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The Obama Tax Hike
Interesting op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal: The Obama Tax Hike, by Andrew G. Biggs: Until recently, Sen. Barack Obama took a responsible position on Social Security, noting the urgency of reform and saying all options should be on the table. But having cornered himself among Democratic activists whose attitudes toward Social Security reform range…
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Total Effective Tax Rate by Household Quintile, 1979-2005
Michael Kruse has a detailed post on the total effective tax rate (including income, payroll, and excise taxes) by household quintile, 1979-2005, based on CBO data. Here is one of many interesting charts: (Hat Tip: Greg Mankiw and InstaPundit.)
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IRS Warns of E-mail Scam Soliciting Donations to California Wildfire Victims
The IRS on Friday warned taxpayers of an e-mail scam soliciting donations to victims of the California wildfires (IR-2007-183): The IRS today warned taxpayers to be on the lookout for a new e-mail scam that appears to be a solicitation from the IRS and the U.S. government for charitable contributions to victims of the recent…
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CTJ Publishes Weekly Tax Digest
Citizens for Tax Justice has published its weekly Tax Justice Digest with a number of interesting pieces on: Battle Only Beginning Over the "Carried Interest" Tax Loophole for Billionaire Fund Managers Carlyle Group, Beneficiary of Carried Interest Loophole, Embarrassed by Protest Republicans Call for Replacing Alternative Minimum Tax with Alternative Maximum Tax House Votes to…
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Schumacher on The Value of Using Legal Writing Exercises to Teach Tax Law
Scott Schumacher (Washington) has published Learning to Write in Code: The Value of Using Legal Writing Exercises to Teach Tax Law, 4 Pitt. Tax Rev. 103 (2007). Here is the abstract: Traditionally, law school tax courses have been taught using a mix of problems, class discussion, the Socratic method, and one end-of-term exam. The goal…
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Camp Named to Editorial Board of The Practical Tax Lawyer
Bryan Camp (Texas Tech) has been named to the Editorial Board of The Pactical Tax Lawyer: Produced with the cooperation of the ABA Tax Section, this useful magazine offers concise, practice-oriented articles to assist lawyers with all aspects of tax law. The articles are written by practitioners and are reviewed by an expert board of…
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UK Law School Rankings
UK Law School Rankings from The Times (London) and The Guardian (Manchester). (Hat Tip: Nancy Rapoport.)
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OECD Opines on U.S. Tax Reform
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development yesterday published its annual Economic Survey of the United States. Here is the tax discusison: Tax Reform Would Enhance Efficiency. On the revenue side, it may be difficult to sustain the recent reductions in marginal tax rates, while meeting the fiscal burden from entitlement programmes, although this would…
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Fall Out Tax Prof
Following up on last week’s post on taking my daughter and three of her friends to the Fall Out Boy concert here in Cincinnati: here is the picture of the four of us with the band at the pre-show meet and greet:
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David Schizer’s Advice to Columbia’s Graduates
Tax Prof & Dean David Schizer offered a four-part plan for a happy life to the Class of 2007 at Columbia’s graduation yesterday (via the WSJ’s Law Blog): Will you find happiness? I want to share some thoughts with you on this crucial subject. After all, you have so many paths open to you. How…
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God in the Faculty Lounge
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that New Survey Finds Widespread Belief in God on University Faculties, by Thomas Bartlett: Maybe professors aren’t so godless after all. A new survey by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research has found that 65% of faculty members say they believe in God. In addition, it found that…
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Taxes Gone Wild: Joe Francis Indicted on Tax Charges
Joe Francis, founder of the Girls Gone Wild video series, was indicted yesterday by a grand jury in Reno, Nevada, on charges of deducting more than $20 million in false business expenses on the 2002 and 2003 corporate income tax returns of his California-based Mantra Films Inc. and Nevada-based Sands Media Inc. Associated Press Reuters…
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IRS Publishes 2006 Data Book
The IRS today released 2006 IRS Data Book (Publication 55B). From IR-2007-63: The report describes activities conducted by the IRS from October 1, 2005, through September 30, 2006, and includes information about returns filed and taxes collected, enforcement, taxpayer assistance and the IRS budget and workforce. During Fiscal Year (FY) 2006, the IRS collected more…
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Law Prof Consultants
Interesting article in this week’s National Law Journal: More Law Profs Consult at Firms; But Moonlighting Can Raise Red Flags, by Leigh Jones: [Laurence] Tribe is just one of many high-profile legal scholars who have outside jobs with law firms in addition to working as full-time faculty members. The positions not only provide professors with…
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Caron on Are Scholars Better Bloggers?
I have posted Are Scholars Better Bloggers?, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. ___ (2007), my Introduction to the Symposium on Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship held at Harvard Law School on April 28, 2006, on SSRN Here is the abstract: These are the opening remarks I delivered at the Symposium on Bloggership: How…
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Gay Tax Protest
Charles Merrill and his same-sex partner Kevin Boyle have launched a Gay Tax Protest, refusing to pay federal income tax because they cannot have the same tax benefits as other married couples. They have launched a web site (www.gaytax.org) after being featured on Page Six of the February 18 New York Post (Wall St. Scion…