Friday, August 29, 2008

User Fees as Law Enforcement Device?

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I would not be surprised if someone takes this story and adds it to a collection of "stupid criminal" stories, such as the Countr...
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Tax and Economics At the Movies

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There's a new movie hitting the theaters. It's not a romance, it's not a shoot-em-up, it's not a western (do they make those...
Monday, August 25, 2008

When Those Who Make Tax Law Don't Understand Tax Law

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The "property tax standard deduction" added to the Internal Revenue Code by the Congress in July, and initially discussed by me in...
Friday, August 22, 2008

Messing With Chocolate

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In my last post, in which I explored the scope of "sin" in the phrase "sin tax," I expressed disagreement with the class...
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Sin Stocks, Sin Taxes

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No tax practitioner worth his or her professional license is unaware of the concept of sin taxes. For years, governments have found it moral...
Monday, August 18, 2008

Unintended Beneficiaries of New Tax Provision?

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In Why This New Tax Provision? , I questioned the necessity for the new, one-year-only additional standard deduction reflecting $500 or $1,0...
Friday, August 15, 2008

Yet Another Questionable New Tax Provision

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Two more comments have arrived in response to Why This New Tax Provision . The first is from Wayne Brasch. The second will be shared in next...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Is This How Tax Laws Are Created?

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Last week, in Why This New Tax Provision? , I asked why Congress had complicated the Internal Revenue Code, tax return filing, tax forms, in...
Monday, August 11, 2008

Whether Tax or User Fee, What Does It Get Us?

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The Comparative Effectiveness Research Act of 2008, introduced last week in the Senate as S. 3408 (which can be found through a search at th...
Friday, August 08, 2008

Selling One's Place in a Class: Another Look at the Tax Issues

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Last week, in Selling One's Place in a Class: Part I: The Tax Issues , I suggested that the amount received by a student for selling a ...
Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Why This New Tax Provision?

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On July 30, the president signed into law the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, P.L. 110-289. In section 3012 of this legislation, ...
Monday, August 04, 2008

Selling One's Place in a Class: Part 2: The Legal Education Issues

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On Friday, I commented on the tax issues that were raised by the practice of law students at NYU buying and selling places in their law scho...
Friday, August 01, 2008

Selling One's Place in a Class: Part I: The Tax Issues

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Thanks to Paul Caron's TaxProf Blog , I learned that students at NYU are buying and selling places in their law school courses . Though ...
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...