by Linda Beale Paul Moreno’s “short history” of the taxing power At the May meeting of the American Bar Association Tax Section, Jaspar (Jack) Cummings (a well-renowned tax practitioner who has written extensively on the Supreme Court’s tax jurisprudence) and I gave a joint keynote speech for the Tax Section’s Diversity Committee. Our address covered […]
by Mike Kimel Variations on “Only Nixon Can Go to China” This is not a short post. Be forewarned. A few years ago, I co-authored a book called Presimetrics with Michael E. Kanell, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In the book, we tried to take an objective look at how Presidents performed on […]
by Linda Beale One in 189 of those with $200,000 or more in AGI paid no federal taxes in 2009 [edited 5/30 to correct “one in four” goof] The IRS recently released another “statistics of income” report. This one has news that should make most ordinary Americans think twice about the GOP agenda of reducing […]
by Linda Beale Another US District Court finds no rational basis for DOMA treatment of same sex couples In a case that will add weight to the likelihood that the Supreme Court will finally take a case to decide the constitutionality of the so-called “defense of marriage act” (DOMA), the U.S. district court for Northern […]
by Linda Beale Calculating the Cost of Bailouts A recent New York Times includes a piece on the Treasury’s study of the various bailouts or “rescues” of distressed financial and other institutions. Gretchen Morgenson, Seeing Bailouts Through Rose-Colored Glasses, New York Times (May 19, 2012). The Treasury study, The Financial Crisis Response–in charts (April 13, […]
by Linda BealeEITC: Mulligan (economic theory) vs. Seto (empirical evidence) TaxProf today noted the article in the New York Times about the EITC: Casey Mulligan, Do Tax Credits Encourage Work? New York Times ( 2012). Mulligan, an econ prof at the University of Chicago (home, of course, to Milt Friedman’s “free” market theories) noted that […]
by Linda Beale Nurses Support Financial Transactions Tax Perhaps the JPMorgan Chase debacle has caught enough attention to alter the debate. JPMorgan of course claimed to be entering a type of hedge that would be permitted under the Dodd Frank reforms. ( Apparently there were hedges on overall portfolio positions, and then those hedges were […]
by Linda Beale Ten tax tricks (non-rich need not apply) Back on tax day in April, Bloomberg.com ran a good story on the tax tricks the rich can use to reduce, defer or avoid altogether federal income taxation. Jesse Drucker, How to Pay No Taxes: Ten Strategies Used by the Rich, Bloomberg.com (Apr. 17, 2012). […]
by Linda Beale US inequality is getting worse The Congressional REsearch Service released a report in March showing that US inequality is getting worse. Linda Levine, US income distribution and mobility: trends and international comparisons, Congressional Research Service (Mar. 7, 2012). Here’s an excerpt from the summary provided in the report itself. Approaching three years […]
by Linda Beale The worm in Apple (and the US tax code)–offshoring of US Profits Citizens for Tax Justice has focused on Apple’s ability to lower its US effective tax rate by offshoring its profits to tax havens. See, e.g., Robert McIntyre, What Apple Pays in Taxes and Doesn’t, NY Times Letters to the Editor, […]