TaxProf Blog

• NPR: The Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

  Check out the 6-minute segment on NPR's All Things Considered, Is Tax Deduction for Home Mortgages a Bad Idea?: The tax deduction for mortgage interest is a cherished benefit for millions of Americans, but most economists think it's a bad idea. One of those economists, Dennis Ventry of the University... [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 3:50am EST
  by Paul Caron

• SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

  SSRN has updated its monthly rankings of 620 American and international law school faculties and 1,500 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN data base. Here is the new list (through November 18, 2009) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two... [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 3:48am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Sholk: A Guide to Election Year Activities of § 501(c)(3) Organizations

  Continuing a TaxProf Blog tradition (see prior 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 versions), Steven H. Sholk (Gibbons, Newark, NJ) has made available to readers his wonderful 182-page A Guide to Election Year Activities of Section 501(c)(3) Organizations, in Tax Strategies for Corporate Acquisitions, Dispositions, Spin-Offs, Joint Ventures, Financings, Reorganizations &... [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 3:40am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Call for Papers: 3rd Annual Harvard-Stanford International Junior Faculty Forum

  Harvard and Stanford have issed a call for papers for their 3rd Annual International Junior Faculty Forum to be held at Stanford in October 2010: Junior scholars whose home institution is outside the United States and who have held an academic position for less than seven years, as of 2010,... [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 2:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Heritage Foundation: The Estate Tax is a Killer for Family-Owned Businesses and Their Workers

  The Heritage Foundation has published Estate Tax a Killer for Family-Owned Businesses and Their Workers, by Curtis S. Dubay: The death tax is a drag on America's family-owned businesses, destroys jobs, and lowers wages while raising little revenue. As such, Congress should repeal the estate tax once and for all... [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 1:21am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Rosenzweig Presents Why Are There Tax Havens? Today at SMU

  Adam Rosenzweig (Washington University) presents Why Are There Tax Havens? at SMU today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series: This paper directly confronts the question: “Why Are There Tax Havens?” – contending that the focus on neutrality in the international tax laws of countries, such as the United... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 3:01pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Death of Ward M. Hussey

  Ward M. Hussey, who worked for 42 years in the Office of Legislative Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives and was the primary drafter of the Internal Revenue Codes of 1954 and 1986, died on November 16 at the age of 89. He began work in the Office of... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 3:00pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Sanchirico Presents Two Tax Papers Today at Loyola-L.A.

  Chris William Sanchirico (Pennsylvania) presents A Critical Look at the Economic Argument for Taxing Only Labor Income and Tax Eclecticism at Loyola-L.A. today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series. The commentator is Dorothea Herreiner (Loyola-L.A., Department of Economics). Here are the abstracts: A Critical Look at the Economic... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:51pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• State Tax Revenues Plummet 10.7%

  The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government today released a report showing that state tax revenues dropped in the third quarter in each of the 44 states that submitted data. The average decline was 10.7%: The biggest declines were in corporate income tax revenues (-19.4%) and personal income tax revenues... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:14pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• New Issue of The Law Teacher: 'Sometimes, We Really Do Suck'

  The Institute for Law Teaching and Learning has published the Fall 2009 issue of The Law Teacher. Stewart Harris (Appalachian) offers advice for those soon to hand out student evaluation forms in Sometimes, We Really Do Suck: While I don’t try to influence my written student evaluations — other than... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:00pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Gerzog: From the Greedy to the Needy

  Wendy C. Gerzog (Baltimore) has published From the Greedy to the Needy, 87 Or. L. Rev. 1133 (2008). Here is the abstract: In some instances when the taxpayer makes a charitable donation, the loss of revenue to the government, and the corresponding gain to the taxpayer, far exceeds the benefit... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 1:00pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• The Give Blog

  As we enter Thanksgiving week and the time of Christmas and year-end giving, I want to give a shout-out to a new blog started by Illinois Law Prof Suja Thomas and her husband Scott Bahr, The Give Blog: Conscious Living and Giving. From their mission statement: We’re doing this blog... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 6:30am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Crane: Honoring Expectations About Taxes: Are Roth IRAs Different?

  Charlotte Crane (Northwestern) has posted Honoring Expectations About Taxes: Are Roth IRAs Different? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Beginning in January 2010, taxpayers may make convert balances in traditional IRAs into tax prepaid Roth IRAs. Those who decide to do so will be relying on current law that allows... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 6:05am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Public University Rankings by % of Out-of-State Students

  U.S. News & World Report has published a ranking of the public universities in its 2010 ranking of the Best National Universities by the percentage of out-of-state students in the freshman class that entered in Fall 2008. Of the 67 public universities in the First Tier of Best National Universities,... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 5:45am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Taxes Proposed to Pay for Health Care Reform

  Following up on Thursday's post, 17 Tax Increases in Senate Health Care Bill = $370.2 Billion: the Heritage Foundation has published Taxes Proposed to Pay for Health Care Reform, by Curtis S. Dubay: The paper includes a list of the tax increases Congress and the Administration have proposed to finance... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 4:28am EST
  by Paul Caron

• TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

  Saturday: Tax Notes to WaPo: "We Are Not an 'Obscure' Journal" Madoff: Estate Tax Reform to Protect Family Farms and Business ($10m Exemption), Not Wealthy Heirs ($1-2m Exemption) IRS Issues Rules Implementing 5-Year NOL Carryback Federal Judicial Clerkship Applications Up 66% Closing the Tax Gap: Encouraging Voluntary Compliance Through Mass-Media... [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 12:39am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Can Government Extend Statute of Limitation in Tax Shelter Cases Because of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars?

  Jack Townsend asks: Is the Criminal Statute of Limitations Suspended Under the Wartime Suspension Act?: There are rumors that the government in a tax shelter case is seeking to suspend the criminal statute of limitations under the "wartime suspension act", 18 U.S.C. § 3287. ... The concern, of course, is... [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 12:00pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

  This week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads is the same as last week's list. The #1 paper is now the #30 tax paper in all-time downloads out of 6167 tax papers: 1. [1209 Downloads] To Roth or Not to Roth: Analyzing the Conversion Opportunity for 2010... [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 11:12am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Tax Court to Accept e-Filing in All Cases, Starting Jan. 1

  The Tax Court announced on Friday that it has adopted new Rule 26 to permit electronic filing in all cases, beginning January 1, 2010. [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 11:05am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Court Refuses 2L's Request to Change "C" Grade or to Order NYLS to Adopt Pass/Fail Grading System

  The New York Supreme Court has refused a New York Law School 2L's request to change his "C" grade in Legal Writing II and to order the school to change its letter grading system to a pass-fail grading system like Yale's. Keefe v. New York Law School, No. 109484/09 (N.Y.... [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 9:19am EST
  by Paul Caron

• House to Extend 40 Expiring Tax Provisions Through 2010

  The House Ways & Means Committee on Friday released a 7-page summary of the Tax Extenders Act of 2009: The Tax Extenders Act of 2009 would provide individuals and businesses with approximately $30 billion in tax relief in 2009 by extending for one year (through 2010) more than forty provisions... [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 7:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• More on Brainard Nomination

  Following up on last week's post on the Senate Finance Committee's considerations of the nomination of Lael Brainard to be Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs: Wall Street Journal, Another Nominee’s Tax Troubles Irk Sen. Grassley: Sen. Charles Grassley expressed exasperation over another Obama nominee’s tax problems. “We do... [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 6:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Tax Notes to WaPo: "We Are Not an 'Obscure' Journal"

  Following up last week's post, which quoted the observation in a Washington Post article on Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward Paul Jones that "[h]e labored for years as a proofreader or columnist for an obscure journal called Tax Notes": Christopher Bergin, President and Publisher of Tax Analysts, responds today in... [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 2:36pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Madoff: Estate Tax Reform to Protect Family Farms and Business ($10m Exemption), Not Wealthy Heirs ($1-2m Exemption)

  New York Times op-ed, Protect the Farm, Tax the Manor, by Ray D. Madoff (Boston College): How do you tell a wealthy heiress from a family farmer? It sounds like the setup for a joke. But in fact it is the fundamental problem underlying sensible reform of the federal estate... [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 2:00pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• IRS Issues Rules Implementing 5-Year NOL Carryback

  The IRS yesterday issued rules implementing the new 5-year NOL carryback provision: IR-2009-105 Rev. Proc. 2009-52, 2009-49 I.R.B. ___ (Dec. 7, 2009) [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 12:00pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Federal Judicial Clerkship Applications Up 66%

  The Blog of the Legal Times, Online Federal Clerkship Applications at All-Time High: The federal judiciary saw a huge spike in online applications for clerkships from last year, according to a release from the judiciary. The Web site used by about two-thirds of all federal judges to find clerks saw... [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 10:08am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Closing the Tax Gap: Encouraging Voluntary Compliance Through Mass-Media Publication of High-Profile Tax Issues

  Elizabeth Branham (J.D. 2009, UC-Hastings) has published Note, Closing the Tax Gap: Encouraging Voluntary Compliance Through Mass-Media Publication of High-Profile Tax Issues, 60 Hastings L.J. 1507 (2009). Here is the Conclusion: The issue of voluntary compliance is essential to any discussion of methods of closing the tax gap. Because of... [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 4:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Erasmus Posts Tax Papers on SSRN

  Daniel N. Erasmus II (Thomas Jefferson) has posted several tax papers on SSRN: How Robust is Your Structured Finance Transaction? Let’s Hope the New OECD Guidelines on Money Laundering Will Not Create More Unnecessary Tax Auditing Proactive Tax Risk Management Submission on IASB Income Tax Statement Draft EB/2009/02 Summary of... [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 3:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Stanford Hosts Northern California Tax Roundtable Today

  Stanford hosts the Fall 2009 Northern California Tax Roundtable today with these papers and commentary: David M. Hasen (Penn State), Financial Options in the Real World: An Economic and Tax Analysis Commentator: David S. Gamage (UC-Berkeley) David S. Gamage (UC-Davis) & Darien Shanske (UC-Hastings), Shedding Some Light on Hidden Taxes:... [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:30pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Lawsky Presents Declining Marginal Utility and Tax Policy Today at Virginia

  Sarah B. Lawsky (George Washington; visiting at Virginia) presents On the Edge: Declining Marginal Utility and Tax Policy at Virginia today as part of its Faculty Workshop Series. Here is the abstract: Tax policy and scholarship generally assume that income has declining marginal utility (that is, that the next dollar... [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:15pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Conference on Empirical Legal Studies at USC

  The two-day Fourth Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies kicks off today at USC. The tax panel is chaired by Scott Altman (USC): Dhammika Dharmapala (University of Illinois College of Law), C. Fritz Foley (Harvard Business School) & Kristin J. Forbes (MIT, Sloan School of Management), Watch What I Do,... [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:00pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• The 70% Discount on Goldman's $500m Gift

  Smart Money, The 70% Discount on Goldman's $500M Gift, by Diana Ransom: It’s been dubbed the apology with a half-billion-dollar gift attached. In an attention-grabbing move this week, Goldman Sachs said it would launch a $500 million initiative to help small businesses with Warren Buffett as a key adviser, an announcement... [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 1:24pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Tough Week for 'Girls Gone Wild' Founder Joe Francis: $34m Tax Lien, Mocked by Stanford Band

  Following up on my prior post: the IRS has filed a $34 million tax lien against Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis', two weeks after U.S. District Judge S. James Otero sentenced Francis to 301 days time served following his guilty plea to two misdemeanor counts of filing false tax...' [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 1:00pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Gender Diversity in Law Stories Series

  Following up on Wednesday's post, Foundation Press Publishes 30th Law Stories Book, in which I expressed my pride in serving as series editor and helping to recruit 50 incredibly talented faculty to edit books in the series: Tax Prof Bridget J. Crawford (Pace) highlights another point of pride in this...' [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 6:05am EST
  by Paul Caron

• 11th Circuit Hears Oral Argument Today in Wesley Snipes' Tax Appeal

  The 11th Circuit hears oral argument at 9:00 a,m, in actor Wesley Snipes' appeal of his conviction on three misdemeanor tax fraud counts. The panel is Judge Stanley Marcus (a "movie buff') and Senior Circuit Judges R. Lanier Anderson (a former tax lawyer) and Peter Fay. Update: The AAssociated Press..." [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 6:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Senate Finance Committee Meets Today on Brainard and Mundaca Nominations

  Following up on Wednesday's post, Senate to Move Forward on Lael Brainard's Nomination Despite Tax Problems: the Senate Finance Committee meets today to vote on her nomination to be Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Following up on Tuesday's post, Mundaca Responds to Senate Finance Committee Questions: the Senate... [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:12am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Fishman: Stealth Preemption -- The IRS's Nonprofit Corporate Governance Initiative

  James J. Fishman (Pace) has posted Stealth Preemption: The IRS's Nonprofit Corporate Governance Initiative, 29 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The IRS, the primary federal regulator of charities, has initiated a corporate governance initiative. The intervention by the IRS into an area traditionally the... [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• TIGTA: 372,000 Taxpayers Erroneously Claimed Education Tax Credits

  The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration yesterday reported that 372,000 taxpayers erroneously claimed education tax credits in 2006 and 2007, totaling $532 million (an average of over $1,400 improper credit per taxpayer). Improvements Are Needed in the Administration of Education Credits and Reporting Requirements for Educational Institutions (2009-30-141). [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 4:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• More 'Fiscal Blood on the Tax Tracks'

  Following up on my previous post, NY Times: LILOs & SILOSs Cause "Fiscal Blood on the Tracks": Business Week, Wall Street Plays Hardball: Across the nation, local governments and related public entities, already reeling from the recession, face another fiscal crisis: billions of dollars in fees owed to UBS, Goldman... [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 12:40am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Galle Receives Honorable Mention in AALS Scholarly Paper Competition

  Brian D. Galle (Florida State) received honorable mention in the 2010 AALS Scholarly Paper Competition for his paper, Foundation or Empire? The Role of Charity in a Federal System, 88 Tex. L. Rev. ___ (2010). Brian will present the paper at the AALS Annual Meeting on Friday, January 8, at... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 4:02pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Desai Presents Investor Taxation in Open Economies Today at Columbia

  Mihir A. Desai (Harvard Business School) presents Investor Taxation in Open Economies (with Dhammika Dharmapala (Illinois)) at Columbia today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series. Here is the abstract: Despite the rise of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) as a dominant international capital flow, existing international tax policy norms... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 3:30pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• 17 Tax Increases in Senate Health Care Bill = $370.2 Billion

  The Joint Committee on Taxation has published a list of the 17 tax increases in the Senate health care bill, which are estimated to raise $370.2 billion in revenues over ten years: 40% excise tax on health coverage in excess of $8,500/$23,000 ($149.1 billion) Employer W-2 reporting of value of... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 2:49pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Madoff Presents Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead Today at BC

  Ray D. Madoff (Boston College) presents her forthcoming book, Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead (Yale University Press, 2010), at Boston College today as part of its Legal History Roundtable. Here is the publisher's description: This book takes a riveting look at how the law...' [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:53pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• More 'Super Lawyer' Per Capita Law School Rankings

  Following up on my prior post, Law School Rankings by 'Super Lawyers', which blogged the Top 50 law schools by the number of "Super Lawyers" that are graduates of each school, as well as Super Lawyer ranking of the 50 largest law schools and the 50 smallest law schools. Here... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:44pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Philadelphia Tax Conference

  The two-day 20th Annual Philadelphia Tax Conference kicks off today. For a list of speakers and their topics, see here. [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:17pm EST
  by Paul Caron

• Caron: Section 2036 Ruling May Force Bengals Out of Cincinnati

  With the Cincinnati Bengals now alone in first place in the AFC North Division, I thought it would be an opportune time to follow up last week's post (Tax Court Fumbles Substance-Over-Form Ball in Estate of Brown) and upload my article, Section 2036 Ruling May Force Bengals Out of Cincinnati,... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 6:15am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Court Lacks Jurisdiction to Order IRS to Apologize to Taxpayer

  The Tax Court yesterday ruled that it lacks jurisdiction to order the IRS to apologize to a taxpayer. Caldwell v. Commissioner, T.C. Summ. Op. 2009-169 (Nov. 18, 2009): The part of Caldwell's motion which we characterize as a "Request for Apology" asks that we require the IRS to enter into... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 6:03am EST
  by Paul Caron

• A Distributional Analysis of the 50 State Tax Systems

  The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy yesterday released Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States: Ten states—Washington, Florida, Tennessee, South Dakota, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Alabama—are particularly regressive. These “Terrible Ten” states ask poor families—those in the bottom 20% of the... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 6:00am EST
  by Paul Caron

• Galle: Hidden Taxes

  Brian D. Galle (Florida State) has published Hidden Taxes, 87 Wash. U. L. Rev. 59 (2009). Here is the abstract: The idea of hidden taxes is as old as John Stuart Mill, but convincing evidence of their existence is new. In this Article, I survey and critique recent studies that... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 5:15am EST
  by Paul Caron

• How the Tax Code Encourages Debt

  The New Yorker (Nov. 23, 2009), The Debt Economy -- How the Tax Code Encourages Debt, by James Surowiecki: John Kenneth Galbraith wrote that all financial crises are the result of “debt that, in one fashion or another, has become dangerously out of scale.” The recent financial crisis was no... [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 1:19am EST
  by Paul Caron