Friday, November 30, 2012

Tax Rates and Deduction Caps

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In the flurry of news reports about some members of Congress who made the Norquist anti-tax pledge backing away from that promise, such as t...
Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Tithing and Taxing: What is (Gross) Income?

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Students in basic federal income tax courses throughout the country encounter the questions, what is income and what is gross income, early ...
Monday, November 26, 2012

Is Grover Norquist Singing a New Tax Tune?

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Readers of MauledAgain know that I am not a fan of Grover Norquist’s anti-tax-increase pledge tactics nor of the influence this unelected, s...
Friday, November 23, 2012

When the IRC Defines a Term, It Trumps Other Definitions

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On Monday, the Tax Court released an opinion, Cheung v. Comr. , T. C. Summary Op. 2012-114, in which it rejected a taxpayer’s argument that...
Thursday, November 22, 2012

A Thanksgiving Litany

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Like turkey, cranberry, and football, sharing a moment of thanks on the fourth Thursday of November has become a tradition on the MauledAgai...
Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A Not So Dopey Tax Question

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A recent news report highlights the confusion faced by Greenleaf Compassion Center when it has tried to determine whether the New Jersey sa...
Monday, November 19, 2012

Taxation of Medical Study Payments

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A recent Tax Court case, O’Connor v. Comr., , T.C. Memo 2012-317, makes it clear that amounts received by a taxpayer for participating in a ...
Friday, November 16, 2012

When Tax Meets the Demands of Law Practice

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One of the many things I try to get across to my students is that the demands of practice are many times the demands of law study. I don’t k...
Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Are Tax Dollars or Consumer Dollars the Best Source of Disaster Relief Funding?

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In a recent commentary , Sheldon Richman explains why FEMA should be abolished and governments should abandon disaster relief. According to ...
Monday, November 12, 2012

Taxes and Colors

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In a recent commentary , Jeffrey Frankel explores the correlations between the voting patterns of individual states and the social, cultural...
Friday, November 09, 2012

Tax Collection Obligation is Not a Taxing Power Issue

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Eight years ago, in Taxing the Internet , I pointed out that “when it comes to taxing transactions and activities conducted on or through th...
Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Government Spending, Hypocrisy, and Respect

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About a month ago, in Say One Tax-and-Spending Thing, Do Another , I criticized the politicians and government officials who claim to oppose...
Monday, November 05, 2012

Taxes, Governments, Budgets and Disasters

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During debates about taxes and government, one of the examples posed as justification for using taxes to fund a federal government big enoug...
Friday, November 02, 2012

Public Financing of Private Sports Enterprises: Good for the Private, Bad for the Public

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Once again, thanks to a reader, I have another opportunity to demonstrate why I object to spending tax dollars to finance the sports stadium...
Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween Takes on a New Meaning and It Isn’t Happy

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Since the inception of this blog, each year when Halloween rolled around, I have focused on a connection between that holiday and taxation. ...
Monday, October 29, 2012

When Privatization Fails: Yet Another Example

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About five months ago, in Are Private Tolls More Efficient Than Public Tolls? , I described why it is wrong to put public assets into the ha...
Friday, October 26, 2012

How Not to Spend Tax Revenues

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Though I have been accused of being a fan of raising taxes to support increased spending, the reality is that I favor spending reductions wh...
Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Defending the Mileage-Based Road Fee

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Sometimes it’s easy to determine when an idea is gaining traction. The signal is the increase in the frequency and intensity of criticism of...
Monday, October 22, 2012

The Expensing Deduction is an Expensive and Broken Idea

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It never stops. Usually it is a proposal to permit businesses to claim deductions for expenditures that otherwise would be capitalized and r...