MauledAgain

• When It Comes to Taxes, How High Is High?

  With my curiosity tweaked by a TaxProf Blog posting, I took a look at the OECD’s recently issued Revenue Statistics 1965-2008, 2009 Edition. That report contains, among other things, a comparison of the “total-tax-to-gross-domestic-product-percentage” for 26 countries. What sparked my curiosity was the relatively low percentage for the [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Tax Loss? Tax Win?

  Last week, an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, that in some versions was accompanied by a “Yankees Lose” tagline, suggested that professional athletes were getting a bad deal and that Philadelphia and Pennsylvania were getting good deals because the latter impose income taxes on the former when the former [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• This Just Taxes My Brain

  I don’t understand it. After I read about it in this news item, I thought about it and concluded that it made no sense when viewed rationally and reasonably. How can something so simple become so convoluted?
  
  I’m talking about the reaction of Philadelphia’s Board of Revision of [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 10:15am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• The Obey War Tax Proposal: Sensible?

  David Obey, a representative from Wisconsin, has renewed his call for a war tax to fund any increase in expenditures to finance the war in Afghanistan. According to various reports, including this one, though he considers the war, as being presently fought, to be futile, he argues that his [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Poll on Tax and Spending Illustrates Voter Inconsistency

  In New Jersey to Follow in California's Tax Footsteps?, I noted that "Now New Jersey gets a chance to see what happens when tax revenues are reduced but demand for government spending continues unabated" and asked "how much spending will be cut from each New Jersey program on account" [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• An Orphan Tax Provision?

  Section 30B of the Internal Revenue Code provides a credit for alternative motor vehicles. Section 30B(h)(3) provides that, “The terms ‘automobile’, ‘passenger automobile’, ‘medium duty passenger vehicle’, ‘light truck’, and ‘manufacturer’ have the meanings given such terms in regulations prescribed by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for purposes [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Gratias Vectigalibus

  “Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I don't plan to post tomorrow, and I have a feeling many regular readers won't be checking in. So though it's a day early, here's my annual Thanksgiving litany.”
  
  That’s how I began my 2007 Thanksgiving offering, Actio Gratiarum. I spoke too soon, because my [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Do We Get What Our Taxes Pay For?

  My short essay on The Math of Tax and Spend brought a very perceptive response from Daniel Hoebeke, J.D., a reader who is Gift Planning Officer for the Jewish Home in San Francisco:As usual, I have found this column most thought-provoking. I wonder, though, if we aren't missing something' [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• The Devil’s in the Tax and Spending Details

  On Wednesday, in The Math of Tax and Spend, I noted that “The world continues to wait for an answer to the question, ‘So if state taxes are cut, what spending programs should be reduced or eliminated?’ I had asked that question in New Jersey to Follow in [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• The Math of Tax and Spend

  The world continues to wait for an answer to the question, “So if state taxes are cut, what spending programs should be reduced or eliminated?” This is a question I asked a few weeks ago in New Jersey to Follow in California’s Tax Footsteps?. At the federal level, there [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Who Appreciates This Tax Complexity?

  Last week, in Partnership Taxation, I alerted students to the trap that exists in section 751 and the need for them to be very careful when dealing with the identification of partnership assets subject to section 751. There is a wrinkle that seems to serve no purpose other than to [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 8:02am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Funding City Services to Tax-Exempt Schools: Impose User Fees, not Taxes

  Pittsburgh’s having tax problems again. In No One Drinks to This Tax, I explained how the governor of Pennsylvania tried to soothe the owners of small pubs and bars facing implementation of a newly-enacted drink tax in Pittsburgh by suggesting that Pittsburgh would follow the same selective enforcement approach [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:02am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• More on Tax-Free Beverages: Let Them Drink Chocolate?

  Earlier today, Mary O'Keefe reacted to my Tax-Free Beverages: Let Them Drink Chocolate? post with a question. Had I read the article, Nutrition: Chocolate Milk May Reduce Inflammation, in the New York Times? I had not. I am grateful for the tip from Mary.
  
  So there's [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 8:37pm EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Tax-Free Beverages: Let Them Drink Chocolate?

  Amidst the furor over children’s access to sugar, particularly sugar-laden beverages, in schools, and proposals to impose a tax on sugary drinks, another front has opened up in the battle for children’s taste buds and dietary intake. For my earlier thoughts on this tax idea, see What Sort of [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Taxes and Benefits: Territorial Mismatch

  One of the tax policy ongoing debates that tends to get little attention in mainstream media is the question of how the United States should tax income that its citizens and corporations derive from activities abroad. Part of the reason for the inattention is the complexity of the issue. Trying [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 8:03am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• New Jersey to Follow in California’s Tax Footsteps?

  So the “lower taxes” candidate won the governor’s race in New Jersey. That doesn’t mean taxes will be reduced, because the New Jersey legislature will have something to say about that. And the governor-elect may discover that reducing taxes isn’t necessarily the best choice.
  
  If the governor-elect succeeds in [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Tax Illiteracy as a Threat

  Friday’s post, Unmasking the Deductibility of Halloween Costumes got the sort of attention that wild costumes attract at off-the-wall Halloween parties. A quick google search picked up these mentions:Tax Prof Blog: Deductibility of Halloween Costumes
  The Wandering Tax Pro: What’s the Buzz? Tell Me What’s A Happennin’ [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• I’ll Show You My Taxes if You Show Me Yours?

  In How Can Asking Questions Improve Tax and Spending Policies?, I considered what would happen if the Norwegian practice of disclosing taxpayers’ incomes and tax liabilities were adopted in the United States. After suggesting some of the consequences that would follow, I predicted that it would not happen. Well, [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 8:01am EST
  by James Edward Maule

• Unmasking the Deductibility of Halloween Costumes

  Ah, yes, Halloween again looms, and once again it’s time to make MauledAgain particularly frightening. In years past, I have focused on sugar, candy, and, yes, pumpkins: In 2004, I looked at the idea of Taxing "Snack" or "Junk" Food. In 2005, I had some fun with Halloween [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Revamping Philadelphia’s Tax System

  Last week, the City of Philadelphia Task Force on Tax Policy and Economic Competitiveness delivered to the mayor and City Council its final report,Thinking Beyond Today: A Path to Prosperity. Although the report includes analyses of and recommendations with respect to things such as business activity regulations, zoning, [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• How Can Asking Questions Improve Tax and Spending Policies?

  One of the friction points in the debate between those advocating major tax reductions or even elimination and those advocating funneling money through government programs is the allegation that government involvement in projects and activities generates higher inefficiencies because of presumed waste. Another friction point is the contention by those [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 8:02am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Getting Ready for More Tax Errors of the Ominous Kind

  Thanks to Paul Caron’s TaxProf Blog post, I found my way to The Report of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Ensuring the Quality Assurance Processes Are Consistently Followed Remains a Significant Challenge for the Volunteer Program (Sept. 15, 2009). Fancy title aside, the report examines “whether [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• VAT Proposal Problematic Beneath Deceptive Surface

  On Sunday, the Philadelphia Inquirer printed an editorial that advocated enactment of a federal value-added tax as a source of revenue to fund health care reform. The authors argue that because slowing the growth of health care costs will take time, the only way to cover the cost of [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Why the Nation Needs Tax Education

  From time to time, more often than not, I point out the need for American citizens to become educated about the federal income tax system. My justification for that proposal is the combination of a fact and a premise. The fact is that very few Americans understand the federal income [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• You’ve Gotta Give ‘Em (a Tax) Credit?

  Lobbyists are quite skilled at persuading legislators to fork over the citizens’ money for the pet projects of the lobbyists’ clients. A good example of this ploy is the Pennsylvania tax credit for film making, which survived an attempt by some legislators to repeal it during the recent Pennsylvania budget [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• First Check the Tax Facts

  One of the basic principles I try to push into the brains of my tax students is that speculation about laws and outcomes wastes energy unless the facts are known, and unless the rules are understood. One of my former students, now a successful tax practitioner and an adjunct teaching [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Revising the Board of Revision of Taxes

  There is light at the end of the dreary, depressing, and disappointing tunnel of Philadelphia real property tax assessment and administration practices. The inefficiency and corruption of the current system has reached the point where city political leaders cannot continue the decades-long pattern of speaking platitudes and doing nothing. Though [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Who Doesn’t Pay Federal Income Tax?

  Recently, news reports have circulated data concerning the number of individuals who pay no federal income tax. For example, this CNN report summarizes and comments on the data. What grabs people’s attention, if assorted in-person, blog, and Facebook comments are any indication, is the fact that 47% of households [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Another Step Toward Elimination of All Taxes?

  A few days ago, a Philadelphia Inquirer article explained that one of the provisions in the Pennsylvania budget deal that is getting a rough reception among legislators and citizens is an exemption from the state sales tax for helicopters. Although, as described in Tax as a Measure of [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Tax as a Measure of Values

  So what does it mean when politicians decide that sales taxes should be imposed on tickets to cultural events but not sporting events, that sales taxes should be imposed on cigarillos and cigarettes but not cigars or smokeless tobacco, and that taxes should be imposed on raffles and small games [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Is It Going to Get Worse than Taxation?

  About a week ago, in It Could Be Worse Than Taxation, Worse Than Stimulus, I noted an English precedent for stimulating an industry, not through stimulus payments and not through tax credits, but through behavioral mandate. When the wool and textile industries fell on hard times, the English government [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Sales Taxes as Logically Illogical?

  This past Sunday, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an interesting front-page article, No Telling What’s Taxable (and What’s Not) in Pa., that directed readers’ attention to a sales tax phenomenon with which tax practitioners have long been familiar. Any tax practitioner, or any other person for that matter, who looks [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• A Win-Win Tax Information Reporting Plan?

  About two weeks ago, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) sent me a press release in which it shared a letter it had sent to Michael Mundaca, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy. The letter transmitted the AICPA’s comments on tax compliance revenue proposals in [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Evolutionary Changes in Legal Education

  The other day I had a conversation with a student concerning job searches, employment prospects, law practice realities, and the changes that have swept over the legal profession. I returned to my office to find an invitation to a brainstorming virtual conference on the challenges facing legal education. Unfortunately, the [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• It Could Be Worse Than Taxation, Worse Than Stimulus

  Those who object to using the tax system and the IRS administrative mechanisms to accomplish what should be undertaken by other federal agencies in a more direct way count me among their number. Those who object to the federal government transferring money to particular industries, directly or indirectly, count me [...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Taxes, Tobacco, and Tickets: Punching Through the Smoky Haze

  The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday that the governor of Pennsylvania is “cautiously optimistic” that he and the legislature will agree on a budget plan. The governor had threatened to veto the budget plan currently under consideration by the legislature, because he thinks that the numbers being used as revenue [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 8:02am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Undergraduate Majors and LSAT Scores: Chickens and Eggs

  Thanks to a tip from Paul Caron’s TaxProf Blog, I examined the data in Michael Niewswiadomy’s LSAT Scores of Economics Majors: The 2008-2009 Class Update, particularly the list of LSAT scores arrayed by undergraduate majors. Paul’s post generated a good bit of discussion among tax law professors, [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• What Do Salaries Tell Us About Our Society?

  Thanks to Paul Caron’s TaxProf Blog posting, I found myself reading the 2009 Payscale College Salary Report, particularly its “Best Underground College Degrees by Salary.” For the most part, it didn’t surprise me, and I doubt it surprised those who pay attention to this sort of information, [...]
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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• When Taxes Are Unfair

  Though I am an advocate of levying taxes sufficient to pay for what the people want to have, as discussed, for example in Another Reason Why There Are, and Need to Be, Taxes and User Fees, and disagree with those who think that cutting taxes when deficits exist [...]
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  Posted: September 14, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Words, Precision, and Federal Income Taxation

  According to the Internal Revenue Code:…. the term “taxable income” means gross income minus the deductions allowed by this chapter.See section 63(a) (emphasis added).
  
  According to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the predecessor of the IRS:The word “allowable” designates the amount permitted or granted by the statutes, as [...]
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  Posted: September 11, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• When Candy Isn't Candy: Life in a Sales Tax World

  Earlier this year, in Meals, Candy, Taxes, HoHos, and Lent, I tried to help readers digest a case in which the Supreme Court of Vermont faced the issue of whether popcorn and nachos served by a movie theater are taxable meals. The court had to deal with a regulation, [...]
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  Posted: September 09, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Another Reason Why There Are, and Need to Be, Taxes and User Fees

  There are two things guaranteed in New Jersey and some other states. No, I’m not referring to death and taxes. I’m referring to the certainty that everyone complains about the condition of the roads, and to the certainty that almost everyone opposes efforts to raise taxes or user fees to [...]
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  Posted: September 07, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Tax Consequences of Kidney Sales

  According to a recent CNN report, one of the individuals who supplied a kidney to the Brooklyn resident charged with organ trafficking has come forward to explain that he was paid for one of his kidneys. The CNN investigators who are looking into the scope of the black market [...]
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  Posted: September 04, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• The Fleeting Nature of Tax References in Popular Culture

  The first class in this semester’s basic tax course met on Friday. On Sunday, those paying attention – and I was not one – could have, if they so chose, marked the twentieth anniversary of the conviction of Leona Helmsley for tax evasion. There are lessons to be learned from [...]
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  Posted: September 02, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Tax Doomsday Looming for Philadelphia

  Like many cities and towns, Philadelphia is in dire financial condition. Even though the city has trimmed some expenditures and cut back on some programs, unless it finds a way to increase revenue, cut back spending, or both, it will run out of cash. Before that is permitted to happen, [...]
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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• State Tax Consequences of Cash-for-Clunkers

  Although the IRS has made it clear, following the language of the enacting statute, that the amounts paid by the government to auto dealers as part of the cash-for-clunkers program is gross income to the dealers but not the purchasers, there are some important questions to be answered with respect [...]
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  Posted: August 28, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Please, It's Not a Tax

  The headline in this editorial caught my eye: "'Curb tax' is gaining in appeal, like it or not." My first thought was that some jurisdiction had imposed a tax to pay for the installation or repair of curbs. It certainly wasn't listed in that long list of taxes that' [...]
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  Posted: August 26, 2009, 8:04am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Some Ramifications of the Pennsylvania Budget Impasse

  In previous posts, such as A Tax-and-Spend Conundrum, I have commented on the inability of the Pennsylvania legislature to enact a budget. It's long overdue, and it arises principally because one party holds fast to the idea that taxes must not be increased no matter the circumstances, although that [...]
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  Posted: August 24, 2009, 8:02am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Taxes as a Price Well Paid

  A story earlier this week about the new South Street Bridge caused me to think not so much about the point of the story, which was the fact that a final design had been selected, but about the tax policy lessons that can be learned from the tale. Those [...]
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  Posted: August 21, 2009, 8:01am EDT
  by James Edward Maule

• Tax Talk at the Gym

  On Monday, one of the retired guys at the gym asked me how my latest tax book project was going and if I was going to have it finished before classes resumed. I told him it was just about done and would be on its way before the semester begins. [...]
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  Posted: August 19, 2009, 8:02am EDT
  by James Edward Maule