Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Why Not Pay Off Debt?

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Senator Barack Obama has suggested that if NATO contributes more troops to the war in Afghanistan, the United States would incur a reductio...
Monday, July 28, 2008

Restricting Bridge Tolls to Bridge Care

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Back in March, in Soccer Franchise Socks It to Bridge User , I questioned why bridge tolls were being used to fund a professional soccer fra...
Friday, July 25, 2008

A Torrent of Tax Charts

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The supply of weather-related analogies to describe Andrew Mitchel's tax chart production is beginning to run dry. How ironic, consideri...
Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Why Bother Having Prerequisites?

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Once again, I was startled to learn something that a student shared on a course evaluation. According to this student, it is "unreasona...
Monday, July 21, 2008

Helping Students with Tax Problem Solving Processes: The Spurned Checklist

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Though I usually expect students to learn tax problem processes by following how a problem is solved in class, noting the sequence of the an...
Friday, July 18, 2008

Tax Rules and Tax Problem Solving Processes

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One of those epiphany moments happened to me when I read a complaint on a course evaluation filled out by a student in the Graduate Tax Prog...
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

America's Top 25 Heritage Sites and Me

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American Heritage Magazine, a subscription to which came to me as a gift from my younger sister the lawyer, recently published the results o...
Monday, July 14, 2008

If Lunch is Free, Are Taxes Waived?

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Recently, I finished reading David Cay Johnston's "Free Lunch," a powerful expose of how a small group of mostly wealthy indiv...
Friday, July 11, 2008

Tax Without Nuance

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It is said that teachers learn from students and that the students do not have a monopoly on the learning that takes place in a course. My e...
Wednesday, July 09, 2008

$4.50 or $45,000,000? You Do the Tax Return!

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In What is the Value of the Charitable Deduction for the Human Body? , David Brennan asks a good question. The standard answer is that one l...
Monday, July 07, 2008

Coordinating Income Tax Return Due Dates

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Several days ago, in IR-2008-84 , the IRS announced it was changing the due date for extensions of time to file returns from October 15 to S...
Sunday, July 06, 2008

Virtual Fireworks? What's Next? Virtual Oil?

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On Friday, in When Is a Shortage Not a Shortage? , I noted the decline in fireworks importation because of a shortage of shipping ports in C...
Friday, July 04, 2008

When Is a Shortage Not a Shortage?

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It's one thing after another, isn't it? A few weeks ago, in If Only It Were Prices Getting Depressed , I noted that hops and barley...
Wednesday, July 02, 2008

So What Are YOU Doing With Your Stimulus Payment?

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In Can a Tax Rebate Band-Aid Stop the Economic Bleeding? , I argued that the tax rebate, now with the fancy name of stimulus payment, wasn...
Monday, June 30, 2008

Killing the Revenue Idea That Won't Die

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Last week, in The Pennsylvania Legislature Gets It Right , I shared the news that the legislators in Harrisburg had convincingly rejected th...
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Was Someone on Capitol Hill Paying Attention?

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Earlier this month, in What is the Farm Bill's Date of Enactment , I suggested that Congress re-enact the bill in its entirety and that:...

When Less is More: Law School in Two Years

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The sound bites, once again, give a different impression than do the deep readings and analyses. Northwestern has announced that it is givi...
Monday, June 23, 2008

The Pennsylvania Legislature Gets It Right

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One reader thinks my posts criticizing the proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the most recent being last Wednesday's How Do To...
Friday, June 20, 2008

Helping Tax Clients Understand Taxes

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Julian Block has written yet another book. This time, it's "Ultimate Tax-Saving Resource '08." Like his three books in 200...
Wednesday, June 18, 2008

How Do Toll Road Lessees Make a Profit?

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One of the advantages of blogging is that I learn things I might not otherwise discover. In response to Turnpike Lease: Bad Policy and Now a...
Monday, June 16, 2008

When a Tax Statute Needs Fixing, Who Makes the Repair?

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Four years ago, Congress added section 409A in order to curtail a variety of abuses that were taking place with respect to deferred compensa...
Friday, June 13, 2008

Gasoline, Oil, and Windfall Profits Taxes

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On Tuesday, the Senate rejected an attempt to impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies. Why the proponents of such a tax think that i...
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Turnpike Lease: Bad Policy and Now a Bad Deal

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The Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board, in Take the Next Exit , has taken the same position on the unwise proposal to lease the Pennsylva...