TaxProf Blog

Brooklyn President Steps Down, Leaving Dean in Sole Charge of Law School Amidst Tenured Prof's ABA Complaint

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  New York Law Journal, Departure of President Leaves Dean in Charge at Brooklyn Law:

Joan Wexler [2011 salary: $658,471] will step down at the end of this month as Brooklyn Law School president, a position she took in 2010 after serving 16 years as the school's dean, the chairman of Brooklyn Law's board of trustees announced Thursday.

With her departure, the school is turning its back on a short-lived experiment under which it was governed by two top administrators: a president handling business affairs and fundraising and a dean overseeing academics.

Dean Nicholas Allard, who was hired last July, will now have sole responsibility for running the 1,000-student school.

Wexler will begin a two-year sabbatical on June 30, school officials said. She will remain as a tenured faculty member at Brooklyn Law although there are no immediate plans for her to teach. She will continue to assist the school on the planned sale of six "smaller" properties in Brooklyn, said Eric Riley, the school's director of communications. Wexler will assume the title of "dean and president emerita." ... Wexler was provided with a rent-free apartment in Feil Hall. Riley said she will retain the apartment after June 30, but not the car and driver that have been available to her as dean and president. ...

The change in her status comes shortly after Gary Minda, a tenured faculty member hired in 1978, filed a complaint with the ABA claiming, among other things, that having a separate dean and president wasted resources and created confusion among administrators and faculty about who was in charge.

Minda also contends that Brooklyn Law has allowed Allard to remain in full-time practice at Patton Boggs while also serving as dean in a possible violation of ABA standards. ...

"I am not going to comment on a matter that is pending before the ABA and I will not comment on personnel issues involving individual faculty members," Allard said in an interview. However, in response to mentions of Minda's complaint on law school blogs, the administration said in a May statement it was "unfortunate" that a professor the school didn't identify has "apparently chosen to attempt to gain leverage in what is essentially a personnel issue by complaining to the ABA and in the press. We look forward to addressing the matter with the ABA and are confident that the ABA will find the professor's claims to be wholly without merit." ...

Minda said he showed Allard and assistant dean Michael Cahill a draft of his complaint at a March 6 meeting. At that meeting, Minda said he was offered a $300,000 payment by Allard to take early retirement, which Minda said he refused.

Minda subsequently told Allard that he plans to keep teaching "into my late 70s" and asked for a lump sum buyout of $2.8 million or for the school to purchase an annuity that would pay him his salary and benefits until age 76. Minda also said that during the same meeting he was informed that his request to go on sabbatical next spring to work on a book was denied.

In an April 16 letter to Minda, Allard said he expected the ABA to find the professor's complaints "completely misplaced and erroneous." Allard called Minda's payment requests "unreasonable" and suggested that Minda was trying to gain leverage for his severance demands through his complaint.

Minda said that Allard told him that he had received unsolicited comments from several other faculty members regarding Minda's "less than adequate performance, lack of collegiality with your colleagues and your disrespect for me and others."

"I love teaching," Minda said in an interview. "I love my law school. I have no plans to retire from the law school. I think I have a responsibility to raise the issues that I have and if I am wrong, then I will be wrong. If they want to buy me out, then they can buy me out."

• Above the Law, How Many Deans Does It Take to Run a Law School?

Prior TaxProf blog coverage:

• Brooklyn Law School to Permit Dismissal of Tenured Faculty for Lack of Collegiality or Poor Student Evaluations (Apr. 26, 2013)
• Brooklyn Dean Responds to New Standards for Dismissal of Tenured Faculty (May 1, 2013)
• Tenured Brooklyn Law Prof Files ABA Complaint Against School (May 13, 2013)
• Brooklyn Law School Responds to Tenured Prof's ABA Complaint (May 14, 2013)

Tyson: A Ringing Defense of the Value Proposition of Higher Education

New York Times op-ed:  Getting More Bang for the Buck in Higher Education, by Laura Tyson (UC-Berkeley, Haas School of Business):

The rising cost of college and the soaring student debt burden have led some to conclude that a college education is a bad investment for young Americans. Don’t believe the naysayers. The value of a college education as a way to improve lifetime earnings is near an all-time high. The returns to a college education outpace the returns to other investments — stocks, bonds, housing and gold — by sizable margins. A college graduate is almost 20 percentage points more likely to be employed than someone with a high-school diploma. Although the cost of a college degree is 50 percent higher than it was 30 years ago, the increase in lifetime earnings associated with a college degree is now 75 percent higher.

Higher education is also a good investment for the country. In a recent study, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development compared the fiscal costs and fiscal benefits of higher education. The fiscal costs include government spending on higher education and forgone tax revenues while students are not working. The fiscal benefits include higher tax revenues from college graduates because of higher incomes and lower outlays for safety-net programs. The bottom line: on average across O.E.C.D. countries, the public return from higher education is about four to one — with a net public benefit of $100,000 per man and about $52,000 per woman. In the United States, the net public benefit is more than $250,000, or five to one for men and about three to one for women. A college degree has not closed the gender pay gap, but it does generate sizable returns for both men and women.

From a fiscal standpoint, cutting government spending on higher education may be penny-wise but it is undoubtedly pound-foolish. ...

Despite its rising cost, college education remains a great investment both for students and for the country. But there is much more that can be done to increase the value of this investment by improving completion rates through greater transparency and accountability, greater program flexibility and the growth of well-planned online courses and degree programs.

Morse: Startup Ltd.: Tax Planning and Initial Incorporation

Susan C. Morse (UC-Hastings, moving to Texas), Startup Ltd.: Tax Planning and Initial Incorporation, 14 Fla. Tax Rev. ___ (2014):

This Article analyzes the incorporation decisions of relatively new, U.S.-based private business enterprises with global ambitions. Such startup firms generally organize as U.S. corporations. This Article theorizes this dominant structure and its exceptions, drawing from prior literature and illustrating with informal interview results. It identifies explanatory factors including limited tax benefits of non-U.S. incorporation, legal benefits of U.S. incorporation, startups’ liquidity and other resource constraints, and investor preferences.

Baby Boomer Faculty Put Off Retirement

Inside Higher Ed:  Data Suggest Baby Boomer Faculty Are Putting Off Retirement:

At the height of the financial crisis, it was unclear how diminished 401(k)s and general economic uncertainty would impact retirement trends for baby boomer professors. But new data suggest that professors are either significantly -- or indefinitely -- putting off retirement, and not just for financial reasons. Experts say the trend is forcing institutions to rethink traditional faculty models.

Some 74% of professors aged 49-67 plan to delay retirement past age 65 or never retire at all, according to a new Fidelity Investments study of higher education faculty. While 69% of those surveyed cited financial concerns, an even higher percentage of professors said love of their careers factored into their decision.

Reasons Professors List for Delaying Retirement

Economic concerns (total)	69%
--Unsure whether they'll have enough to retire comfortably	55%
--Want to maximize Social Security payments	42%
--Will need to continue receiving health insurance benefits	42%
Personal/professional reasons (total)	81%
--Want to stay busy and productive	89%
--Love the work too much to give it up	64%
--Want continued access to and affiliation with institution	41%

[T]he idea of legions of aging professors is worrisome to people starting academic careers, to adjuncts longing for tenure-track slots and to some administrators, who already see this trend playing out on their campuses. ... That means delayed opportunities to reorganize the academic priorities of an institution and diversify its professoriate. ...

The trend may force higher education to rethink traditional faculty models, Mathews said, to those beyond the “three-legged stool” of assistant, associate and full professor. One idea that’s gaining traction is making more meaningful the role of the emeritus professor, “making it an alternative to retirement that keeps faculty engaged, and we’re not losing that intellectual capital.”

Roger Baldwin, professor of educational administration at Michigan State University, has studied retired faculty organizations and a growing, more formalized subset of such groups called “emeritus colleges,” such as the one at Emory University. Although retired faculty organizations can vary in their levels of activity, they can be effective in giving professors a sense of purpose and identity following retirement, he said. “I think many people are delaying retirement because there are no clear options as to how they’re going to continue and intellectually fulfilling life once they ‘drop off a cliff,’” he said. “That, coupled with the [recession of 2008], caused a lot of people to reassess retirement.”

Public Citizen: Industry Lobbyists Dominate Tax Reform Debate

Public Citizen, Lax Taxes: Industry Has Resource Advantage in Battle over Bills that Would Raise Revenue and Bring Fairness to Tax Code:

Legislation in Congress that would address tax loopholes, raise revenue, increase the fairness of the tax code and provide stability to the financial system are subject to lobbying efforts that are overwhelmingly lopsided in favor of industry interests, a new Public Citizen report shows. The report analyzes lobbying disclosure data to illustrate the number of lobbyists that are working on each of three bills: the Cut Unjustified Tax Loopholes Act (CUT Loopholes), the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act and the Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act – finding that 331 of the 383, or 86 percent, of lobbyists who have worked on these bills in the past two Congresses represent industry clients.

(Hat Tip: Citizens for Tax Justice.)

Yin: Joint Tax Committee Should Investigate the IRS

George K. Yin (Virginia), Former Chief of Staff Thinks JCT Should Investigate the IRS, 139 Tax Notes 1443 (June 107 2013):

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp, R-Mich., has reportedly rejected use of a joint committee to investigate the IRS because such a committee would not be authorized to access confidential tax return information. Yet Camp already heads a joint committee (the Joint Committee on Taxation), which has that specific authority under sections 6103(f) and 8023. Moreover, the JCT was created for the express purpose of investigating the tax agency's administration of the tax laws, following a lengthy Senate investigation of corruption charges against the agency and possible favoritism towards companies associated with then-Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. Congress wanted a permanent organization to conduct future tax investigations, oversee the agency, and make sure it was administering the law in the manner Congress intended. Camp should make use of this valuable resource to streamline Congress's efforts and prevent the integrity of its investigation from being undermined by political squabbling.  

All Tax Analysts content is available through the LexisNexis® services.

Fleischer: Using REITs to Avoid Corporate Tax

Following up on my previous posts:

• NY Times: REIT Conversions Skyrocket as Tax Avoidance Vehicle (Apr. 22, 2013)
• WSJ: IRS Puts Brakes on REIT Conversions (June 10, 2013)

New York Times DealBook:  Defining Real Estate Broadly to Avoid Corporate Taxes, by Victor Fleischer (Colorado; moving to San Diego):

Shares of the information storage company Iron Mountain dropped about 15% last week on the news that the IRS was “tentatively adverse” toward at least one aspect of its plan to convert into a Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT. The primary legal issue appears to be whether Iron Mountain’s racking storage units qualify as real estate assets. ...

Even though it seems like a stretch, Iron Mountain’s legal argument is not bad. Iron Mountain argues that the racking units are properly thought of as real estate, as they are affixed to the foundation of the building shell and intended to remain permanently in place. ...

The problem for the taxing authorities is that as the definition of REITs has expanded over time, the corporate tax base has eroded as more companies that look and act like ordinary businesses avoid paying the corporate tax.... The erosion of the corporate tax base is a problem for Congress and the Treasury Department to address through tax legislation, not for the IRS to change through its ruling policy. Congress shares responsibility for the problem thanks to its decision to allow taxable REIT subsidiaries to conduct activities that would otherwise jeopardize the qualifying status of REITs.

Hungerford: Corporate Tax Rates and Economic Growth Since 1947

Economic Policy Institute:  Corporate Tax Rates and Economic Growth Since 1947, by Thomas L. Hungerford:

This brief examines corporate income-tax rates, and the argument linking low corporate tax rates with higher economic growth. The principal findings are:

• Claims that the United States’ corporate tax rate is uniquely burdensome to U.S. business when compared with the corporate tax rates of its industrial peers are incorrect. While the United States has one of the highest statutory corporate income-tax rates among advanced countries, the effective corporate income-tax rate (27.7 percent) is quite close to the average of rich countries (27.2 percent, weighted by GDP).
• The U.S. corporate income-tax rate is also not high by historic standards. The statutory corporate tax rate has gradually been reduced from over 50 percent in the 1950s to its current 35 percent.
• The current U.S. corporate tax rate does not appear to be impeding corporate profits. Both before-tax and after-tax corporate profits as a percentage of national income are at post–World War II highs; they were 13.6 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively, in 2012.
• Lowering the corporate income-tax rate would not spur economic growth. The analysis finds no evidence that high corporate tax rates have a negative impact on economic growth (i.e., it finds no evidence that changes in either the statutory corporate tax rate or the effective marginal tax rate on capital income are correlated with economic growth).

 

(Hat Tip: Citizens for Tax Justice.)

The IRS Scandal, Day 39

• Linda Beale (Wayne State):  "Getting Rid of the IRS" -- Detroit's Nolan Finley's Wrong Solution to the Wrong Problem
• Cincinnati Enquirer:  IRS Agents Used Keywords Differently, Official Says
• Forbes:  Congress Has a Duty to Delay IRS Funding to Block ObamaCare's Implementation
• Forbes:  The Biggest Turnaround Job of 2013: The IRS
• Fox News:  IRS Scandals Threaten Funding for President Obama's Health Care Law
• Fox News;  IRS Supervisor in DC Scrutinized Tea Party Cases
• Fox News;  Trump: The IRS Scandal Has Stopped Resonating With the Public
• Mediaite:  Cheney Rejects Obama’s IRS Story on Fox: ‘Cannot Conceive’ of Agents Acting on Their Own
• National Review:  The IRS vs. Pro-Israel Groups: Their Applications for Tax-Exempt Status Are Routed to an Antiterrorism Unit
• New York Times editorial:  Release the Facts About the IRS Scandal
• Politico:  Hill Focus Turns to Disciplined IRS Leader
• Politico:  IRS Scandal Could Change Rules for Nonprofits
• Reuters:  The Real IRS Scandal
• USA Today:  At IRS, 'Tea Party' Could Mean 'Liberal,' Official Says
• Wall Street Journal;  IRS Inquiry Finds Problems, Puzzles 
• Washington Examiner:  Attorney for IRS Agent: Holly Paz Now on Administrative Leave 
• Washington Post;  Cummings Challenges Issa on IRS Transcripts
• Washington Post:  IRS Supervisor in Washington Reviewed Earliest Tea Party cases, Contradicting Agency Claims

Prior TaxProf Blog Posts:

Continue reading "The IRS Scandal, Day 39"

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• Caron Presents Law Professor Blogs Network 2.0 Today at the CALI Conference at Chicago-Kent
• Washington University Law School Offers $145k Scholarships -- But Only If Applicants Accept Within 24 Hours
• The IRS Scandal, Day 37
• State & Local Property Tax Collections Per Capita

Sunday:

• InfiLaw Shelves Plans for Law School in Arlington, Virginia
• Father's Day
• Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads
• The IRS Scandal, Day 38

InfiLaw Shelves Plans for Law School in Arlington, Virginia

InfiLaw, the owner of for-profit law schools Charlotte School of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law, and Phoenix School of Law, has shelved plans for a law school in Arlington, Virginia:

In April, the Arlington County Board quietly approved a site plan amendment for the vacant National Gateway building at 3500 and 3550 S. Clark Street, along Jefferson Davis Highway near Potomac Yard. The amendment was granted to allow the office building to be used for educational purposes. Specifically, the building was to be occupied by a new 1,300-student law school, complete with 22 classrooms, a law library, a bookstore, a moot courtroom and a cafe. Since April, however, no construction permits have been issued for the building.

InfiLaw System, a Florida-based consortium of independent law schools that was planning to open the new school, now says that plans have fallen through, at least for now. “The InfiLaw System was exploring opening a law school in Arlington, Virginia,” confirmed Kathy Heldman, the organization’s vice president of marketing, via email last night. “We have decided to put the initiative on hold.” 

(Hat Tip: Above the Law.)

Father's Day

Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat (2013):

In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who’s best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children—everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers’ communication skills (“they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news”), to the eating habits of four year olds (“there is no difference between a four year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor”). Reminiscent of Bill Cosby’s Fatherhood, Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.

Reviews:

• amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• CBS
• Good Reads
• Esquire
• Kirkus
• NPR
• USA Today

Wall Street Journal op-ed:  'Always Be a Gentleman' and Other Fatherly Advice, by Fay Vincent:

My father was definitely old school. He rarely swore, drank only an occasional beer in the high summer heat, and generally lived the solid decent life of what he called "a gentleman." From him I learned the values of decency, honor and pride.

During his lifetime I occasionally felt he was totally behind the times with his regular injunctions that I do my best and honor the family name. Yet now I realize the value of his legacy, which is summed up in the following set of commandments:

• Always be a gentleman
• Always keep your shoes shined
• Save your money
• Any week in which you do not put some money aside for a rainy day is a wasted week
• A car is the most expensive thing you can own
• A pension is important
• If your boss or employer is not making money on you, you will eventually lose your job
• It is more important to be able to write and speak well than it is to be able to succeed in athletics
• There is no such thing as an honest politician
• Don't get old
• The finest legacies are often not material things

Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads

There is quite a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new #1 paper and new papers debuting on the list at #3, #4, and #5:

1.  [379 Downloads]  Through a Latte, Darkly: Starbucks' Window into Stateless Income Tax Planning, by Edward D. Kleinbard (USC)

2.  [246 Downloads]  Corporate Governance, Incentives, and Tax Avoidance, by Chris Armstrong (University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School), Jennifer L. Blouin (University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School), Alan D. Jagolinzer (University of Colorado, Leeds School of Business) &  David F. Larcker (Stanford University, Graduate School of Business)

3.  [187 Downloads]  Emerging Countries and the Taxation of Offshore Accounts, by Itai Grinberg (Georgetown)

4.  [167 Downloads]  The Good, the Bad and the Poor Man's Prenup: An Analysis of the Ohio Legacy Trust Act and What Asset Protection Trusts Will Mean for Ohio, by Kevin R. McKinnis (J.D. 2014, Cleveland State)

5.  [135 Downloads]  Taxes and Religion: The Hobby Lobby Contraceptive Cases, by Steven J. Willis (Florida)

The IRS Scandal, Day 38

• American Spectator:  The IRS Mess
• American Spectator:  The IRS Ten: The New Keating Five
• Baltimore Sun:  Why the IRS Scandal Is Worse Than the Others
• Chicago Tribune:  Threats Made to Figures at Center of IRS Controversy
• Daily Beast:  Elijah Cummings: House’s Tea Party-IRS Probe Far From “The Full Story”
• Forbes:  IRS Tale of Two Cities, Cincinnati and DC, by Robert W. Wood
• The Hill:  House Republicans See Long Slog Ahead for Probes of IRS Targeting
• The Hill:  Threats Made Against IRS Officials
• National Review:  Palin Warns of ‘Perhaps Armed IRS Agents’ Implementing Obamacare
• Reuters:  Threats Made to Figures at Center of IRS Controversy
• Roll Call:  Finding Congressional Solutions to the IRS Scandal
• Washington Post:  IRS Scandals Jeopardize Agency Funding to Put in Place Obama’s Massive New Health Care Law
• Washington Times:  FBI Director Fails to Provide Details to Congress on IRS

Prior TaxProf Blog Posts:

Continue reading "The IRS Scandal, Day 38"

Caron Presents Law Professor Blogs Network 2.0 Today at the CALI Conference at Chicago-Kent

I am presenting Law Professor Blogs Network 2.0: Faculty, IT and Vendor Collaboration at 11:30 a.m. EST today (video here) at the 23rd Annual Conference for Law School Computing at Chicago-Kent College of Law:

The Law Professor Blogs Network is the nation's only network of legal blogs edited primarily by law professors. The network owns and operates forty legal blogs, edited by leading scholars and educators who are committed to providing the web destination for law professors, practitioners, government and nonprofit lawyers, legal information professionals, and students in their respective fields. Since the launch of TaxProf Blog on April 15, 2004, the network’s influence has continued to grow with roughly ten million annual page views in recent years. After nine years of operation, the network is undertaking a major re-design to provide the premier legal blogging platform to our editors. The re-design will (1) optimize each blog for viewing across a variety of platforms (desktop, laptop, tablet, and smart phone); (2) better integrate social media; (3) provide more robust analytics with richer and more accurate readership data; and (4) strengthen our partnership with Wolters Kluwer Law & Business/Aspen Publishers and provide additional avenues for monetization.

Washington University Law School Offers $145k Scholarships -- But Only If Applicants Accept Within 24 Hours

Above the Law reprints an email from the Washington University School of Law (St. Louis):

We are excited to announce that additional scholarship funds have become available. As an outstanding applicant, Washington University School of Law is able to offer you a full tuition scholarship of $48,345 for your first year of law school with the same amount guaranteed for your 2L and 3L years for a total of $145,035 for the three years of law school.

We can only keep this opportunity open for 24 hours because these funds are limited. If you are interested in accepting this offer and matriculating at Washington U Law this year, you will need to let us know by June 13, 5pm CT.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you here this fall!

The IRS Scandal, Day 37

• American Thinker:  Blaming Cincinnati for IRS Scandal Is So Wrong
• The Blaze:  First Head to Roll? New Report Claims Top IRS Official Fired, Has ‘Dropped Off the Edge of the World’
• Christian Science Monitor:  IRS Shakeup Needed After Scandal, Chairmen of Congress' Tax-Writing Panels Say
• CNN:  GOP Tries to Keep Focus on IRS Targeting Scandal
• Daily Caller:  Congressional Investigators Vow to Expand IRS Investigation
• Daily Caller:  FBI Hasn’t Contacted a Single Tea Party Group in IRS Probe
• Daily Caller:  IRS Official Holly Paz Reportedly Fired
• FactCheck.org:  A Botched Attack on IRS Budget
• FactCheck.org:  IRS Probe So Far Yields Partial, Partisan ‘Facts’
• Fox News:  Giuliani: FBI's Mueller "Terribly Disengaged" in IRS Scandal
• Huffington Post:  Darrell Issa's IRS Investigation Is Falling Apart
• Legal Insurrection:  Wag the IRS Scandal
• MSNBC:  It Looks Like the IRS Drama Is Not a ‘Scandal’ — More Like a ‘Screw Up’
• National Review:  Why the IRS IG Stopped with an Audit
• NPR:  More Information Emerges About IRS Targeting of Tea Party Groups
• Slate:  Finally a Campaign Ad Attacking the IRS for Enforcing "Obamacare"
• USA Today:  Tea Party Scandal Could Lead to IRS Restructuring
• Wall street Journal op-ed:  Think the IRS Is Bad Now? Just Wait, by Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
• Washington Examiner:  Most IRS, Government Lawyers Donated to Obama Campaign
• Washington Times:  IRS Agent at Heart of Scandal Believed Fired

Prior TaxProf Blog Posts:

Continue reading "The IRS Scandal, Day 37"

State & Local Property Tax Collections Per Capita

Winn: MOOCs Are Overhyped

In response to yesterday's post, Jane K. Winn (University of Washington), my colleague on the CALI Board of Directors, graciously agreed to publish this op-ed on TaxProf Blog: MOOCs Are Over-Hyped: Why Assume Faculty Aren’t Smart Enough to Adapt to Changing Conditions?:

Phillip Schrag (Georgetown) has just published a jeremiad on SSRN about the grim future of legal education, highlighting the emergence of MOOCs as a challenge to traditional law schools. While I agree that all US faculty members in higher education need to redouble our commitment to improving learning outcomes and looking for ways to reduce the price that our students pay for their of education, I don’t think Schrag’s hyperbole is very well informed or helpful. Legal education in particular has operated for too long like a cartel that competed only by offering more services and never lowering prices. Combined with subsidized student loans, that’s how we got into this mess. Schrag seems to be suggesting that the alternative to that cartel mentality is lowering quality which is clearly false--competing by offering better value is another option. The most obvious application for technological innovations like MOOCs is improving the quality of human-mediated instruction in existing institutions, not lowering the quality of instruction in existing institutions, or the creation of competing for-profit machine-mediated instructional institutions. Here are some specific points of disagreement I have with his analysis (quoting from his abstract): 

Continue reading "Winn: MOOCs Are Overhyped"

Collegiality: Legitimizing Tenure's Fourth Rail

Inside Higher Ed:  Tenure's Fourth Rail:

Collegiality can be a dirty word in higher education -- particularly in regard to tenure or promotion, where it frequently becomes a catchall for likability and other subjective qualities that some faculty advocates say can be used to punish departmental dissenters. But two researchers are trying -- through data-based definitions and metrics -- to sanitize collegiality enough for it to be a viable, fourth criterion in personnel decisions.

In academic departments, “what we want is productive dissent,” Robert Cipriano, professor emeritus and former chair of the department of recreation of leisure studies at Southern Connecticut State University, and author of Facilitating a Collegial Department in Higher Education: Strategies for Success, said during the American Association of University Professors’ annual meeting Thursday (where their push to formalize the role of collegiality in faculty employment decisions drew some skepticism from the assembled professors). “As passionate as the discussion is, it has to be respectful. You go to lunch and it’s over.”

Cipriano and his colleague, Richard Riccardi, director of Southern Connecticut State’s Office of Management Information and Research, have conducted several studies and written numerous articles about how department chairs deal with their jobs, including difficult personalities. Some 83 percent of department chairs in their current, national study of 528 chairs reported having or having had an uncivil or non-collegial professor in their department; in another, earlier study of 451 chairs, 79 percent said they would be in favor of having collegiality as a criterion for tenure and promotion if there was an “objective, validated tool” for assessing collegial behavior.

Clearly, Riccardi said, collegiality matters -- an idea outside research supports. Belonging to a collegial department figured higher in faculty satisfaction than did work and family policies, clear tenure policies and compensation, according to one cited study. Having just one “slacker or jerk” in the group can bring down the team’s overall performance by up to 40 percent, according to another.

Fostering a culture of productive dissent means first developing operational definitions of collegiality and civility -- lest they be subject to the “I know it when I see it” test, coined by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in reference to the hard-core pornography at issue in Jacobellis v. Ohio in 1964, Cipriano joked. As an adjective, “ 'collegial' indicates the way a group of colleagues take collective responsibility for their work together with minimal supervision from above.” Civility indicates politeness and courtesy, demonstrated by collaboration, speaking in a professional and respectful manner toward others and “stepping up” when needed, among other similar traits.

Yin: Comments on House Draft Reform on Taxation of Passthrough Entities

George K. Yin (Virginia), Comments on Selected Draft Reforms of the House Committee on Ways & Means on the Taxation of Passthrough Entities:

This paper is a slightly revised version of comments submitted to the House Committee on Ways & Means concerning four proposals to reform the taxation of passthrough entities. Among other things, the paper urges that passthrough entities be required to recognize gain on distributions of appreciated property to an owner of the entity. Adoption of this single proposal of the committee would be a meaningful step towards achieving the committee’s dual goals of simplification and reform.

Colinvaux: Charitable Contributions of Property

Roger Colinvaux (Catholic), Charitable Contributions of Property: A Broken System Reimagined, 50 Harv. J. Legis. 263 (2013):

On average, nearly $46 billion of property is given to charitable organizations each year, about twenty-five percent of the total charitable deduction. This makes the charitable contribution deduction for property a tax expenditure within a tax expenditure, yet it is rarely analyzed as such. It emerged as part of a noble effort to encourage contributions to worthy organizations. But the deduction for property has never worked well. The general rule allowing a deduction based on the fair market value of the property may have some intuitive appeal, but its implementation has yielded numerous exceptions and immense complexity. The Article argues that the extensive historical effort to allow a deduction for property contributions is a failure. Given the substantial direct and indirect costs involved, the uncertain benefit to the donee from property contributions, and the absence of any affirmative policy to favor property contributions as such, it is time to reverse the general rule and not allow a charitable deduction for property contributions. Reversing the general rule would provide many benefits — increased revenue, improved tax administration, fewer abusive transactions, a simpler and more equitable tax code, and a preference for cash. Exceptions to the general rule of disallowance may be warranted, but any exception should be analyzed and fashioned according to whether it provides a measurable benefit to the donee. By following a measurable benefit to the donee standard, emphasis will be placed on providing a tax benefit that is administrable and that is based on the goal — donee benefit. Any resulting complexity should be viewed as a cost of the incentive, and weighed accordingly in deciding whether it should be provided.

Senate Releases Tax Reform Option Paper on Tax-Exempt Organizations and Charitable Giving

The Senate Finance Committee  yesterday released its Ninth Tax Reform Option Paper on Tax-Exempt Organizations and Charitable Giving:

This document is the ninth in a series of papers compiling tax reform options that Finance Committee members may wish to consider as they work towards reforming our nation’s tax system. This compilation is a joint product of the majority and minority staffs of the Finance Committee with input from Committee members’ staffs. ... The paper sets out the following broad goals for reform in this area:

• Maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of any incentives for charitable giving that are retained or reformed;
• Consider whether the availability of tax incentives for charitable giving should be broadened to more taxpayers;
• More tightly align tax-exempt status with providing sufficient charitable benefits;
• Closely examine the relationship between political activity and tax-exempt status;
• Reconsider the extent to which tax-exempt organizations should be allowed to engage in commercial activity; and
• Improve the accountability and oversight of tax-exempt organizations.

The paper outlines the following broad policy options with more specific proposals detailed in the paper:

I.  CHARITABLE DEDUCTION

1. Repeal the charitable contribution deduction
2. Fundamentally reform the charitable contribution deduction
3. Attempt to increase the effect of charitable incentives on charitable giving
4. Incrementally reform the charitable contribution deduction

II. TAXATION OF BUSINESS ACTIVITIES OF NONPROFITS

1. Tax all commercial activities of tax-exempt
2. Revise the requirements for tax-exempt status for organizations engaged in commercial activity
3. Revise the UBIT rules for organizations engaged in commercial activity
4. Tighten rules on conversion from tax-exempt to for-profit status
5. General reforms to tax-exempt entities

III. POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND LOBBYING OF TAX-EXEMPTS

1. Limit political activity of 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) organizations
2. Change the categories of tax-exempt organizations that may engage in political activities
3. Reform reporting and disclosure rules
4. Clarify that payments to 501(c)(4) organizations are excluded from the gift tax
5. Expand the prohibition on 501(c)(4) organizations engaging in lobbying from receiving any federal funds to include contracts.

IV. BROAD TAX-EXEMPT ISSUES

1. Reform the taxation of private foundations
2. Reform the taxation of endowments
3. Ensure that donor-advised funds and supporting organizations are directing resources for charities
4. Limit executive compensation by tax-exempt organizations
5. Reform reporting requirements
6. Develop enforcement methods other than revocation of tax-exempt status as the only penalty for noncompliance

Taxes and the NBA and NHL Finals

A reader sent me a note about the NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup Finals:

NBA Finals:  The Miami Heat (founded in 1988) and San Antonio Spurs (1976) are in two of the nine states without an income tax. I have previously mined this topic in:

• The Impact of Taxes on Lebron James' Decision (July 8, 2010)
• NBA Salary Cap Gives No-Tax Dallas and Miami an Unfair Advantage (June 23, 2011)
• NBA Salary Cap Gives No-Tax Dallas and Miami an Unfair Advantage (Sept. 28, 2011)

See also:

• Tax Foundation, The Facts on Florida's Tax Climate
• Tax Foundation, The Facts on Texas' Tax Climate

NHL Stanley Cup Finals:  The Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks -- two of the NHL's Original Six franchises -- are in two of the highest tax states: Illinois and Massachusetts are tied with the fourth highest individual federal, state, and local tax burden.

• Boston Globe, Chicago vs. Boston: How We Match Up
• NESN, Super Bowl XX, Curses, 1918 World Series Highlight Top 10 Boston-Chicago Sports Moments
• Wall Street Journal, It’s Chicago vs. Boston for the Cup

See also:

• Tax Foundation, The Facts on Illinois' Tax Climate
• Tax Foundation, The Facts on Massachusetts' Tax Climate

California Bar Task Force Recommends Practical Skills Training, Pro Bono for New Lawyers

State Bar of California, Task Force Recommends Practical Skills Training, Pro Bono for New Lawyers:

The State Bar Task Force on Admissions Regulation Reform today recommended new competency skills training requirements for newly admitted lawyers that are designed to improve their readiness to practice law.

The draft proposal, which requires the approval of the State Bar Board of Trustees and possibly the California Supreme Court before adoption, calls for:

• 15 units of competency skills training during law school
• 50 hours of legal services devoted to pro bono or modest means clients, either pre- or post-admission
• 10 extra hours of post-admission Minimum Continuing Legal Education, specifically focused on competency skills training

The 22-member task force – comprised of academics, lawyers, judges and others – finalized the report today after holding eight public hearings in Los Angeles and San Francisco over the past year.

• ABA Journal, Want a California Law License? You Should Take 15 Units of Law-School Skills Training, Panel Says
• National Law Journal, Largest State Poised to Require Practical Skills Training

NY Times: Accessing Malibu's 'Public' Beaches: There's an App For That

Interesting articles about my new hometown of Malibu, California: New York Times:  In Battle Over Malibu Beaches, an App Unlocks Access:

The battle between Malibu beachfront homeowners and a less privileged public that wants to share the stunning coastline has been fought with padlocks, gates, menacing signs, security guards, lawsuits and bulldozers. There seems little question who is winning: 20 of the 27 miles of Malibu coastline are inaccessible to the public.

Yet this month, the homeowners — including some of the wealthiest and most famous people in the country, but also a hearty colony of surfers, stoners and old-fashioned beach lovers — are confronting what may be the biggest threat to their privacy yet.

The smartphone.

Jenny Price, an environmental writer who has pressed the battle to open hidden beaches, has developed an iPhone app offering a beach-by-beach battle plan for anyone wishing to explore what are, by design, some of the most secluded beaches around. It has maps to often hidden entry gates, house-by-house descriptions showing public property boundaries and spine-stiffening advice on dealing with counterfeit no-parking signs (“feel free to enjoy and then ignore”) and threatening property owners (“they’re welcome to call the sheriff”).

This latest escalation in a seemingly never-ending battle is stirring questions of land use, property rights and privilege that have long been a source of tension in Southern California, a fight made all the more alluring because long stretches of beachfront are owned by well-known Hollywood figures, including David Geffen, Michael D. Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. ...

The release of the “Our Malibu Beaches” app has set off waves of anxiety among homeowners here, fearful that a high-tech weapon in a long-fought war will open the gates on what has been a largely secret world. The despair cuts across demographic lines. Malibu is a more complicated place than is commonly portrayed, a mixture of the very wealthy and people who bought relatively modest homes and cabins here a generation ago and hung on.

• Los Angeles Times, Scouting Out Malibu Beaches? There's an App For That
• Los Angeles Times, Malibu Residents: Not in My Front Beach
• Malibu Times, Malibu Beaches App Draws in Donors, Criticism

Lionel Messi: Tax Cheat?

Barcelona soccer star Lionel Messi and his father are accused of evading $5.3 million in Spanish taxes in 2007-09.

• Above the Law
• BBC
• Forbes
• The Guardian
• L.A. Times
• New York Times
• Reuters
• The Sun
• The Telegraph
• USA Today
• Wall Street Journal
• Yahoo! Sports

The IRS Scandal, Day 36

• American Thinker:  Voices Rise From Under the Cincinnati Bus
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution:  Why the Right's Behavior in the IRS Case is the True Scandal
• Bloomberg:  Help-Wanted Ad Posted by Obama For Thankless IRS Position
• Daily Beast:  New Twist in IRS Scandal: Is Darrell Issa Hiding Something?
• Daily Caller:  201 IRS Employees Work Full-Time on Union Business
• Fox News:  FBI Director in the Dark About IRS Probe
• Fox News:  IRS Targeting Goes Back Decades, Houses of Worship Have Been Main Targets
• The Hill:  Cummings Steps Up Push for Full IRS Transcripts
• Huffington Post:  House Panel Widens Investigation Of IRS Tea Party Targeting
• Media Research Center:  Too Taxing? Big Three Networks Abandon IRS Scandal
• National Review:  Did the IRS Fire Holly Paz?
• National Review:  IRS’s Blanket Denial About Lerner’s Computer Access False, Documents Show
• National Review:  When Your W-2 Meets an AR-15
• Politico op-ed:  The Cincinnati Lie, by Rich Lowry
• Politico:  Elijah Cummings Presses Darrell Issa for IRS Transcript Decision
• Politico:  The ‘Very Serious’ Tradition of the IRS: Our Tax-Collecting Agency Has Been Called “an Invitation to Corruption” for Decades
• PolitiFact:  Did 1913 Revenue Act Prohibit Political Organizations From Claiming Tax Exempt Status? False.
• Reason:  IRS Targeting Was Intentional Effort to Punish Political Opponents, Say Most Americans
• Reason:  Rep. Cummings Backs Off Claims the IRS Scandal is 'Solved'
• Think Progress:  Democrat Dares Issa To Allow Release Of Documents That Contradict IRS Conspiracy
• Town Hall:  There's A Lot the FBI Doesn't Know About the IRS
• Town Hall:  Two-Thirds of Americans See IRS as Targeting Conservatives, Media Drops Coverage of the Scandal
• Town Hall:  Yet More Mismanagement at the IRS
• Wall Street Journal:  The Sum of All Fears: The IRS Audits and NSA Surveillance Flow Into the Same National Anxieties, by Daniel Henninger
• Washington Examiner:  The Fine Tradition of the IRS
• Washington Post:  Calling Darrell Issa’s Bluff
• Washington Times:  What IRS Scandal? Broadcast News Covered It Only ONCE This Week
• Weekly Standard:  IRS Bad, NSA Good
• George Will:  Lois Lerner: The Scowling Face of the State

Prior TaxProf Blog Posts:

Continue reading "The IRS Scandal, Day 36"

Colombo: The Federal Tax Exemption Aspects of Law Schools Running Their Own Law Firms

John D. Colombo (Illinois), The Federal Tax Exemption Aspects of Law Schools Running Their Own Law Firms:

A current hot topic in legal education is the law-school-sponsored law firm. Bradley T. Borden and Robert J. Rhee introduced the idea in a short article published in the South Carolina Law Review [The Law School Firm, 63 S.C. L. Rev. 1 (2011):] and the concept was soon picked up by articles in the National Law Journal, the ABA Journal and others. The purpose of this essay is to explore the federal tax-exemption and UBIT questions raised by the law-school-sponsored law firm. I conclude that a law firm operated as a single-member LLC with the sponsoring law school as the single member offers the best protection for the law school's underlying exempt status, and also should avoid issues with the UBIT.  

Update: Deborah Jones Merritt (Ohio State), Organizational Form for Postgraduate Law Firms:

I can’t pretend to evaluate Professor Colombo’s assessment; I’ve figured out relevant parts of the personal income tax, but don’t have a clue about the taxation of businesses or other organizations. Colombo, however, is a pro in this area, and his analysis is cogent–even readable for those of us who don’t commune daily with the Internal Revenue Code. Tax treatment is only factor in choosing organizational form, but it’s a significant one. Any law school considering creation of a postgraduate law firm should read Colombo’s concise perspective on organizational form and tax exemption.

Schrag: MOOCs: The Final Nail in Legal Education's Coffin

Philip G. Schrag (Georgetown), MOOCs and Legal Education: Valuable Innovation or Looming Disaster?:

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have spread across the landscape of higher education like an invasive plant species. Although few people had heard of MOOCs before 2012, these internet-based courses, taught by university professors, are now routinely offered simultaneously to tens of thousands or in some cases, hundreds of thousands of people. Most MOOCs are still provided free of charge, but the two companies and one non-profit entity that promote MOOCs and provide the software have recently created partnerships with institutions of higher education in order to realize substantial revenues by offering MOOCs for academic credit to tuition-paying students at colleges and universities. Despite resistance from professors at some institutions, MOOCs for credit are proliferating rapidly. This development has great significance for the future of legal education, because most law schools are experiencing an economic crisis and are searching for ways to cut costs and lower tuition so that they can fill their classes and remain viable. Already, some law schools are offering academic credit for distance learning, within limits permitted by the Section of Legal Education of the American Bar Association—limits that may soon be relaxed. Within ten years, MOOCs could replace traditional law school classes altogether, except at a few elite law schools that produce lawyers to serve large corporations and wealthy individuals. However, most law schools might survive by embracing rather than resisting internet-based learning. They could cut costs by reducing faculty and staff positions, using MOOCs for the delivery of most of the legal information that students need, hiring part-time lawyers to help students with exercises to supplement the MOOCs, and concentrating the remaining full-time faculty on first-semester offerings, writing seminars, and clinics. Sadly, the result will be a watered-down form of legal education compared to the three years of interactive experiences that law schools have offered students for the last century. But it may be the only way in which most law schools can survive.  

U.K. Lawmakers Slam Google Over ‘Contrived’ Tax Strategy

Bloomberg:  U.K. Lawmakers Slam Google Over ‘Contrived’ Tax Strategy, by Robert Hutton & Jesse Drucker:

U.K. lawmakers attacked Google for defending a “highly contrived” strategy of booking advertising sales through Ireland to reduce its tax liability in Britain.

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee said in a report [Tax Avoidance -- Google] published in London today that “public confidence” in the company “will only be restored when it establishes a corporate structure that ensures Google pays tax where it generates profit.”

The cross-party panel attacked British tax officials for not challenging Google, which it said paid $16 million in U.K. corporation tax between 2006 and 2011 on $18 billion of revenue. It urged leading accounting firms to “provide responsible advice” instead of focusing on “artificial structures which serve only to avoid tax.” U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is pushing for a global agreement to overhaul company taxes at next week’s Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland.

“Google brazenly argued before this committee that its tax arrangements in the U.K. are defensible and lawful,” the panel’s chairwoman, Margaret Hodge from the opposition Labour Party, said in an e-mailed statement. “It claimed that its advertising sales take place in Ireland, not in the U.K. The company’s highly contrived tax arrangement has no purpose other than to enable the company to avoid U.K. corporation tax.”

Even so, Hodge said she didn’t wish to “single out” Google, Amazon or Starbucks for criticism over their arrangement to minimize tax, as these are “illustrative of a much wider problem.”

Mountain View, California-based Google, the owner of the world’s most popular search engine, has avoided billions of dollars of income taxes around the world using a pair of shelter strategies known to lawyers as the “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich,” as first reported by Bloomberg in October of 2010.

Google’s overall effective tax rate dropped to 19.4 percent last year. That compares with the average combined U.S. and state statutory rate of about 39 percent.  

Faculty Are Not Dancing Bears

Inside Higher Ed:  'We Are Not Dancing Bears':

The man behind the Rate Your Lecturer website, which encourages British university students to publicly praise or censure their teachers, has defended the project against a glut of criticism from academics.

Michael Bulman, founder of the site, said he believed it would "help to redress the balance" between teaching and research in British universities, adding that too many institutions held the latter in higher regard than the former -- to the detriment of students.

"When I was at uni, people were comparing and contrasting their courses and lecturers, and saying how some were better than others," said Bulman, who graduated with a B.A. in history from Northumbria University last year.

"I also spent a year in the U.S., where they already have the Rate My Professors site, and the idea came from there. I just thought I could do it better."

His site ranks British universities and lecturers on the basis of feedback from users, who give scores out of 10. It also contains a section where students can list teachers' pros and cons.

One of those leading the protests against the site is Bill Cooke, head of the department of organization, work and technology at Lancaster University Management School. His blog post on the issue -- declaring that lecturers are human beings, "not dancing bears" -- has been accessed around 8,000 times.

Kadet: Full-Inclusion Is Better Than Territorial System

Jeffery M. Kadet (U. Washington), U.S. Tax Reform: Full-Inclusion Over Territorial System Compelling, 139 Tax Notes 295 (Apr. 15, 2013):

The territorial system strongly lobbied for by U.S. multinational corporations that stand to benefit from that system is not what’s best for our country or our society. It is bad tax policy for many reasons, including the strong motivation it provides our multinational corporations to continue moving operations, jobs, risks, and assets outside the United States to achieve double non-taxation. A worldwide full-inclusion system would severely curtail or completely eliminate that strong motivation because double nontaxation would no longer be possible because of a current federal tax on all earnings that cannot be eliminated through any tax schemes or creative avoidance. A worldwide system also would increase the tax base and help make possible the lower overall corporate tax rate that both political parties desire. 

All Tax Analysts content is available through the LexisNexis® services.

Off to the CALI Conference on Driving Innovation

I am spending the next three days at the 23rd Annual Conference for Law School Computing on Driving Innovation at Chicago-Kent College of Law:

Times are tough for legal education. We are in a crisis, but a politician (who now happens to be the Mayor of the city where this year's conference is being held) says that "every crisis is an opportunity." Can our crisis drive all kinds of innovation? New course structures, new tools and new content delivery models are driving innovation from pedagogy to practice, so come to Chicago in June to find out how you can drive innovation at your law school. At this conference, you will hear speakers from dozens of law schools talk about innovative projects, ideas and experience. There will be ample time between sessions for conversation and community-building.

I will be attending many of the wonderful sessions, as well as a meeting and retreat of the CALI Board of Directors (on which I serve as Vice-President).  CALI is doing wonderful work on a variety of projects for faculty, including A2J Author, Classcaster, eLangdell, Free Law Reporter, InstaPoll, Lawdibles, Legal Education Commons, LibTour, MediaNotes, and Webinars and Online Courses, in addition to their bread and butter CALI lessons for students (Jim Maule has produced over 250 tax lessons, which I highly recommend).  In many ways, this is my favorite conference of the year, as it is the only gathering of law school faculty, librarians, and IT folks.  I am looking forward to reconnecting and breaking bread with friends in all three spheres.

Law Prof Blog Traffic Rankings

Below are the updated quarterly traffic rankings (page views and visitors) of the Top 35 blogs edited by law professors with publicly available SiteMeters for the most recent 12-month period (April 1, 2012 - March 31, 2013), as well as the percentage change in traffic from the prior 12-month period:

	Blog	Page Views	Change
1	Althouse	19,876,719	+16.6%
2	Legal Insurrection	14,749,820	+64.7%
3	Hugh Hewitt	6,879,670	+25.1%
4	Leiter Reports: Philosophy	5,727,403	+0.1%
5	Patently-O	3,562,246	-3.9%
6	Jack Bog's Blog	3,308,120	+10.8%
7	TaxProf Blog	3,283,047	-4.3%
8	PrawfsBlawg	1,982,377	+14.0%
9	The Faculty Lounge	1,333,904	+6.8%
10	Sentencing Law & Policy	1,275,184	-15.0%
11	The Incidental Economist	1,262,139	+28.3%
12	Harvard Law  Corp Gov	1,176,588	+31.2%
13	Lawfare	1,111,240	+47.4%
14	Leiter's Law School Reports	1,038,175	-0.2%
15	Opinio Juris	1,035,833	14.0%
16	Concurring Opinions	1,025,108	-10.9%
17	Election Law Blog	956,577	+51.4%
18	Balkinization	895,739	-13.2%
19	Wills, Tr. & Est. Prof Blog	580,129	+7.7%
20	Turtle Talk	523,419	+1.6%
21	Constitutional Law Prof Blog	487,710	+58.7%
22	Mirror of Justice	423,032	+3.7%
23	Conglomerate	373,911	-0.5%
24	IntLawGrrls	359,504	-9.0%
25	Legal History Blog	333,750	-1.2%
26	Religion Clause	316,371	-14.1%
27	Sports Law Blog	299,884	-2.0%
28	ImmigrationProf Blog	279,077	-23.5%
29	Antitrust & Comp. Pol’y Blog	255,182	-22.4%
30	Workplace Prof Blog	253,211	-20.7%
31	Josh Blackman Blog	210,601	+70.8%
32	Truth on the Market	199,105	-40.0%
33	The Right Coast	190,240	-26.8%
34	White Collar Crime Prof Blog	189,389	-34.6%
35	Legal Profession Blog	188,613	-15.9%

 

	Blog	Visitors	Change
1	Althouse	11,925,565	+13.6%
2	Legal Insurrection	11,249,198	+79.2%
3	Hugh Hewitt	5,498,036	+27.7%
4	Leiter Reports: Philosophy	3,907,744	+1.9%
5	TaxProf Blog	2,494,801	-4.3%
6	Patently-O	1,930,885	-5.1%
7	Jack Bog's Blog	1,378,594	+7.1%
8	PrawfsBlawg	982,003	+11.1%
9	The Incidental Economist	793,673	+26.5%
10	Sentencing Law & Policy	771,146	+22.9%
11	Harvard Law  Corp Gov	728,265	+33.7%
12	The Faculty Lounge	727,745	+2.9%
13	Leiter's Law School Reports	714,757	-1.1%
14	Concurring Opinions	641,248	-13.3%
15	Lawfare	632,705	+32.0%
16	Balkinization	627,236	-8.2%
17	Opinio Juris	589,447	+8.7%
18	Election Law Blog	498,810	+46.0%
19	Wills, Tr. & Est. Prof Blog	394,400	+13.5%
20	Turtle Talk	347,996	+6.2%
21	Mirror of Justice	309,357	+22.5%
22	Conglomerate	228,834	-7.0%
23	IntLawGrrls	204,819	-13.8%
24	Constitutional Law Prof Blog	204,387	-5.2%
25	Legal History Blog	203,689	-2.9%
26	Religion Clause	193,873	-13.3%
27	Sports Law Blog	192,029	-9.4%
28	ImmigrationProf Blog	191,377	-19.3%
29	Workplace Prof Blog	180,069	-16.5%
30	Truth on the Market	174,806	-32.9%
31	Antitrust & Comp. Pol’y Blog	151,072	-22.1%
32	The Right Coast	141,285	-17.4%
33	Josh Blackman Blog	139,995	+56.8%
34	White Collar Crime Prof Blog	136,399	-29.2%
35	Legal Profession Blog	125,951	-14.5%

• These Law Prof Blog Traffic Rankings are drawn from Dan Solove's Law Professor Blogger Census, as updated by Colin Miller's Legal Educator Blog Census.  They include all blogs edited by law professors -- both law-related and non law-related.
• Please email me the names of any Law Prof Blogs with traffic over the past twelve months that would qualify for inclusion on the lists (188,614 page views and/or 125,952 visitors).  If necessary, I will re-publish the list to include all qualifying blogs.
• Several popular Law Prof Blogs do not have publicly available SiteMeters and thus are not included on the list:  e.g., California Appellate Report, Credit Slips, The Deal Professor, Dorf on Law, Feminist Law Professors, InstaPundit, Legal Theory, Point of Law, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Volokh Conspiracy. 
• These rankings cover only those blogs edited by law professors.  Other law-related blogs edited by practitioners, librarians, non-law school academics, and journalists are not included on this list:  e.g., Above the Law, How Appealing, Law Librarian Blog, Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
• Members of our Law Professor Blogs Network comprise, by both page views and visitors, two of the Top 10 and nine of the Top 35 blogs.

Massachusetts School of Law Calls for Changes to ABA Accreditation Standards to Reduce Costs

Massachusetts School of Law has filed this provocative nine-page Memorandum on Accreditation and Legal Education with the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education. The memorandum concludes:

Ever higher faculty salaries, ever greater faculty perks, ever-more-plush buildings, ever larger libraries, ever higher LSAT scores for entering students, ever higher scores on US News criteria, and ever more boasting about students' credentials, now constitute the coin of the realm in legal education. Lost in the process, and lost in ABA accreditation, are the societal fundaments: legal education should prominently include, as a major goal, the necessity and desirability of providing a means of social and economic mobility to everyone, including the have-littles and the have-nots of this society. Creating reforms that accomplish this is the most important thing that could be done by the 2012 Task Force on the Future of Legal Education. In this connection, we urge the Task Force to push for meaningful change to the ABA's accreditation standards so that the cost of a legal education can be substantially reduced while law schools can teach students how to be lawyers without putting students into financial straightjackets. To allow for this opportunity, we urge that the ABA's accreditation standards and their implementing rules (which are often the major problem) should be changed, among other ways, in regard to the methodology for counting numbers of faculty, the so-called student-faculty ratio, physical facilities, libraries, and other rules the currently cause costs and therefore tuitions to be high.

House Holds Hearing Today on Tax Havens, Base Erosion and Profit-Shifting

The House Ways & Means Committee holds a hearing today on Tax Reform: Tax Havens, Base Erosion and Profit-Shifting:

The hearing will examine different tax planning strategies used by multinational corporations to shift income out of the United States and into low-tax jurisdictions. The hearing also will consider when profit shifting truly is eroding the U.S. tax base and when companies are shifting profits amongst different foreign jurisdictions without affecting U.S. tax collections. (Hearing Advisory)

• Pascal Saint-Amans (Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD)
• Edward Kleinbard (Professor of Law, USC) (Testimony)
• Paul Oosterhuis (Partner, Skadden, Washington, D.C.)

The IRS Scandal, Day 35

• American Spectator:  Curbing the IRS: For Starters, Take Away its Power Over 501(c)(4) Applications
• Bloomberg:  Camp Says IRS Targeting Didn’t Originate in Cincinnati Office
• Daily Beast:  Issa’s Missing Testimony: Why Won’t the Right-Wing Congressman Release the Full Transcript of His IRS Investigation?
• Daily Beast:  When the Personal Becomes Political: IRS Agent Tells Pro-Life Group They Can't Bother People and Remain Tax Exempt, by Megan McArdle
• The Hill:  Cincinnati Dems Defend City from IRS Scandal
• The Hill:  Keep an Eye on the IRS
• Mother Jones:  Tea Partiers Don't Have a Good Legal Case Against the IRS
• National Review:  Blaming Cincinnati a ‘Nuclear Strike on Us,’ Says Cincy IRS Employee
• National Review:  Why the IRS IG Stopped with an Audit: Probably in Part Because the Obama Administration Intimidates Inspector Generals
• NBC News:  At the IRS, Bureaucratic Finger-Pointing Emerges
• Politico:  Ex-Mayor: Clear Cincinnati’s Name
• Politico:  House Tension Builds Over Politicizing IRS Probe
• Politico:  Jeff Duncan Questions IRS Rifle Usage
• Politico:  Rep. Elijah Cummings Clarifies: IRS Case Not 'Solved'
• PolitiFact:  Rep. Dave Joyce Says the IRS Must Carry Out 47 Provisions of the Health Care Law: True
• Reason:  Congressman Asks: Why Are IRS Agents Training With AR-15s?
• Town Hall:  Jay Leno: "Now That Tebow's Associated With the Word 'Patriot' He's Being Audited by the IRS"
• Wall Street Journal:  IRS Attorneys Gave Heavily to Obama, Says Professor
• Wall Street Journal:  IRS Scandal Could Boost Tax-Code Overhaul Efforts
• Washington Examiner:  IRS Employee: Top Officials Lied About Targeting of Conservatives
• Washington Post:  IRS Targeting Didn’t Start in Ohio, Ways and Means Chairman Says
• Washington Post:  Republicans Insist IRS Case Is Not Solved
• Washington Post;  Republicans Still Struggling to Connect Obama to IRS Scandal
• Washington Times:  Ex-Cincinnati Mayor: Don't Blame Us For IRS Scandal
• Washington Times:  IRS Misses a Legitimate Mark: Union Organizing Isn’t a Proper Nonprofit Function

Washington Post:  Fair Tax Group Launches ‘End the IRS’ Ads:

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

Continue reading "The IRS Scandal, Day 35"

Measuring the Racial Unevenness of Law School

Jonathan Feingold (Sidley, Los Angeles) & Doug Souza (Mercer, Tempe), Measuring the Racial Unevenness of Law School, 15 Berkeley J. Afr.-Am. L. & Pol'y 71 (2013):

The DAC Survey provides a new dimension to previous research on racial unevenness in higher education. With a focus on the campus racial climate at UCLA Law, the [Diversity Action Committee Survey on Diversity and Classroom Climate] reveals that hostile classroom climate is not limited to the undergraduate level. Racial unevenness and its concomitant burdens are a reality for Students of Color at UCLA Law. We should understand, however, that UCLA Law is likely far from unique in this regard. Similar to the undergraduate level, there is reason to believe that racial unevenness is endemic across law schools. 

The DAC Survey’s unambiguous results should be sufficient to warrant an institutional response. In order to prove an intervention to prove successful, the prescription must track the diagnosis. Thus, having diagnosed the problem as a racially hostile environment and an unequal learning environment, the response must focus on broad, institutional change. Four recommendations are provided.

1. Engage in robust institutional learning
2. Hire more faculty members interested in supporting student well-being and improving racial classroom climate
3. Admit more Students of Color
4. Change the internal conversation

We believe that concerted efforts to realize any of these recommendations will produce tangible benefits within any institution. As always, the ability to identify the correct prescription and actually implement it is always easier said than done. Still, the challenge should not prevent us from taking steps to realize the goal of producing educational institutions that treat all of our students equally.

Update: National Law Journal, Study Details Obstacles Confronting Minority Law Students

Creighton Law Review Tax Symposium

Tax Symposium, 46 Creighton L. Rev. 139-337 (2013):

• Lawrence B. Gibbs (Former IRS Commissioner; Miller & Chevalier, Washington, D.C.), Great Plains Federal Tax Institute: 50th Anniversary Dinner Speech, 46 Creighton L. Rev. 139 (2013)
• Gregory Scott Crespi (SMU), Correcting for the Wealth Bias of Cost-Benefit Analysis Through Use of "Percentage of Wealth"-Based Valuations, 46 Creighton L. Rev. 149 (2013)
• Jacob E. Dean (Procter & Gamble), "Do You Have That New Church App For Your iPhone?"--Making the Case For a Clearer and Broader Definition of Church Under the Internal Revenue Code, 46 Creighton L. Rev. 173 (2013)
• Edward A. Morse (Creighton), Lifting the Fog: Navigating Penalties in the Affordable Care Act, 46 Creighton L. Rev. 207 (2013)
• Wendy Marie Brown (J.D. 2013, Creighton), Note, Something Smells Sour: The Nebraska Supreme Court Misunderstands Occupation Taxes and Upholds a Rotten Restaurant Tax, 46 Creighton L. Rev. 259 (2013)
• Brittany J. Faulkner (J.D. 2013, Creighton), Note, "The Ugly Stepsister"--Inheriting the Defects of Nebraska's Inheritance Tax, 46 Creighton L. Rev. 285 (2013)
• Jose L. Rodriguez (J.D. 2013, Creighton), Note, United States v. Home Concrete & Supply, LLC: An Example of the Continuing Challenges in Applying Chevron Deference to Treasury Department Regulations, 46 Creighton L. Rev. 309 (2013) 

Belmont Is America's 203rd ABA-Approved Law School

The ABA has granted provisional accreditation to Belmont University College of Law in Nashville -- the 203rd ABA-approved law school. As a result, its inaugural class admitted in Fall 2011 will be able to sit for the bar exam in any state upon its graduation next year.  (The other provisionally accredited law schools are La Verne, UC-Irvine, and UMass-Dartmouth.)

• Above the Law
• Belmont Press Release
• Memphis Daily News
• Nashville Biz Blog
• National Law Journal
  

Monroe: Rethinking Partnership Distributions

Andrea Monroe (Temple), Taxing Reality: Rethinking Partnership Distributions, 47 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. ___ (2013):

Partnerships play an increasingly vital role in the federal income tax. Yet partnership taxation is deeply flawed, with complicated provisions that strain the voluntary compliance mechanism on which all federal income tax relies. This article considers one of the most difficult challenges facing partnership taxation: the treatment of distributions.

Distributions are ubiquitous transactions that transfer cash or property from a partnership to a partner. Although distributions vary dramatically in their purpose and the kind of property involved, their tax treatment follows a unitary approach. The principle of “nonrecognition” means that distributions do not produce any immediate tax consequences. This nonrecognition premise has caused great abuse and complexity, as partnerships have used distributions as tax shelter vehicles, and the government has responded with narrow anti-abuse “fixes” that are often counterproductive. Calls to reform these anti-abuse provisions have been a constant presence throughout a half-century of tax scholarship.

This article argues that the existing scholarship largely misconstrues the problem with partnership distributions. The core difficulty is the nonrecognition premise at the system’s foundation, the very problem that particular anti-abuse provisions were designed to combat. Meaningful reform of partnership distributions thus requires a fundamental rethinking of nonrecognition and its role in partnership taxation.

This article offers an alternative vision of partnership distributions, one without the imprint of nonrecognition. It reimagines partnership distributions from a recognition-based perspective, which would ground the tax treatment of these transactions in economic reality. Of particular importance are liquidating distributions that involve the complete or partial termination of a partner’s investment in the partnership. Consistent with their commercial substance, liquidating distributions should be treated as taxable exchanges in which the partner receives cash or property from the partnership in exchange for relinquishing her interest in the partnership and its underlying property. Under a recognition-based approach, partnership distributions would indeed look very different than they do today, simpler, more equitable, and more stable.

Black: Capital Gains Jabberwocky

Stephen Black (Texas Tech), Capital Gains Jabberwocky: Capital Gains, Intangible Property, and Tax, 41 Hofstra L. Rev. 359 (2012):

In the current US tax system, capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. What does that mean for the sale of IP and intangible assets? Is it possible to convert ordinary income to capital gain by changing the form of the transaction?

This article will address anomalies in the tax characterization of intangible assets. Four cases will be presented, each of which, arguably, could consistently produce capital gains. As will be shown, however, the treatment of these cases (and others) is anything but consistent. At the conclusion of the four cases, it should be clear that the inconsistency is systemic, which in turn will lead us to ask whether (1) none of these intangible assets should receive capital gains treatment or (2) whether all of them should.

Lavoie: A Tax Perspective on Balancing Gatekeeping and Zealous Advocacy

Richard Lavoie (Akron), Am I My Brother’s Keeper? A Tax Law Perspective on the Challenge of Balancing Gatekeeping Obligations and Zealous Advocacy in the Legal Profession, 44 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 813 (2013):

In recent years the question of whether lawyers have a general ethical obligation to serve a gatekeeping function has been raised in a number of legal contexts. The reaction of the practicing bar generally has been unenthusiastic. While asserting that a gatekeeping function should be generally applicable to all attorneys is a relatively recent stance, such an obligation historically has been acknowledged to various degrees in several specific practice areas, including particularly in the field of federal income taxation. This piece examines the gatekeeping question, and how the practicing bar should react to it, through an examination of the gatekeeping role historically asserted as applicable to tax lawyers, including how modern pressures (e.g., literalist statutory interpretation, profit maximization law firm models, changing business and societal ethical norms, etc.) have altered that historically asserted ethical norm. The article then suggests avenues for combating these modern trends in the tax arena in order to strengthen and reestablish the historic balance in a tax lawyer’s planning role (e.g., by creating intentional conflicts of interest to create a “divide and conquer” dynamic between clients and attorneys in aggressive transactions, emphasizing the ethical training of tax attorneys, clarifying the proper approach for statutory interpretation in the tax context, creating disincentives for a legal race to the bottom among attorneys competing for business, highlighting the importance of individual trend setters, channeling the competitive pressures in the legal marketplace in the government’s favor, etc.). The piece concludes with some closing thoughts regarding the lessons that the practicing bar might take from the tax gatekeeping example in their future reactions to gatekeeping initiatives in other areas of the law and accepting gatekeeping as a generally applicable ethical norm.

Symposium: Tax Advice for the Second Obama Administration

Symposium, Tax Advice for the Second Obama Administration, 40 Pepp L. Rev. 1143-1440 (2013):

Paul L. Caron (Pepperdine), Introduction, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1143 (2013)

Michael J. Graetz (Columbia), Keynote Address, 138 Tax Notes 631 (Feb. 4, 2013)

Panel #1:  Occupy the Tax Code:  The Buffett Rule, the 1%, and the Fairness/Growth Divide 

• Dorothy A. Brown (Emory), The 535 Report: A Pathway to Fundamental Tax Reform, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1155 (2013)
  
• Francine J. Lipman (UNLV), Access to Tax InJustice, 40 Pepp L. Rev. 1173 (2013)
• Kirk J. Stark (UCLA) & Eric M. Zolt (UCLA), Tax Reform and the American Middle Class, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1209 (2013) 

Panel #2:  Estate and Gift Tax

• Edward J. McCaffery (USC), Distracted from Distraction by Distraction: Reimagining Estate Tax Reform, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1235 (2013)
• Paul L. Caron (Pepperdine) & James R. Repetti (Boston College), Occupy the Tax Code: Using the Estate Tax to Reduce Inequality and Spur Economic Growth, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1255 (2013)
• Grayson M.P. McCouch (Florida), Who Killed the Rule Against Perpetuities?, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1291 (2013)

Panel #3:  Business/International Tax

• Steven A. Bank (UCLA), The Globalization of Corporate Tax Reform, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1307 (2013)
• Karen C. Burke (Florida), Passthrough Entities: The Missing Link in Business Tax Reform, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1329 (2013)
• Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts), A Proposal for the Tax Treatment of Interest in a Territorial System, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1345 (2013)

Panel #4:  Business/International Tax

• Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Corporate and International Tax Reform: Proposals for the Second Obama Administration (and Beyond), 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 1365 (2013)
• Allison Christians (McGill), Putting the Reign Back in Sovereign: Advice for the Second Obama Administration, 40 Pepp. L. 1373 (2013)
• Susan C. Morse (Texas), The Transfer Pricing Regs Need a Good Edit, 40 Pepp. 1415 (2013)

Videos of the welcome and introduction, keynote and luncheon addresses, panels, and closing remarks are available on iTunesU, YouTube, and LiveStream.

HuffPo: Marijuana Industry Lobbies Congress on Taxes

Huffington Post:  Marijuana Industry Lobbies Congress on Taxes:

As the feds weigh their response to the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington, members of the marijuana industry pressed lawmakers this week to change federal tax laws that make it extremely difficult to operate their businesses. ...

The use of medical marijuana is currently legal in 18 states and the District of Columbia, but medical marijuana dispensaries are still subject to strict tax restrictions under Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code. The law, enacted in 1982, prohibits "deductions incurred in the trade or business of trafficking in controlled substances." As a result, medical marijuana dispensaries are unable to write off standard business expenses, including the cost of rent, payroll, product or advertising, The Huffington Post reported last month. They are also ineligible to claim a tax credit for hiring veterans, and some of them have been hit with audits and heavy tax bills that could eventually force them out of business.

• Tax Vox Blog:  Let Legal Marijuana Dispensaries Deduct Their Business Expenses

(Hat Tip: Ann Murphy.) Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• IRS Tries to Bogart Medical Marijuana Club's Deductions (Mar 13, 2011)
• Tax Code May Kill Medical Marijuana Industry (Oct. 5, 2011)
• IRS Bogarts Medical Marijuana Pharmacy's Deductions, Drives Founder Into Bankruptcy (July 15, 2012)
• Tax Court: § 280E Precludes Deductions (But Not Cost of Goods Sold) for Medical Marijuana Supplier Who Underreported Gross Receipts (Aug. 3, 2012)
• Gangs, Ganjapreneurs, or Government: Marijuana Revenue Up for Grabs (Nov. 1, 2012)
• Voters Say Yes to Marijuana, IRS Says No (Nov. 8, 2012)
• Medical Marijuana Providers Face 75% Federal Tax Rate (Feb. 25, 2013)
• Leff: Medical Marijuana Providers Can Beat Oppressive Federal Taxes by Operating as Non-Profits (Mar. 5, 2013)
• Leff Presents Tax Planning for Marijuana Dealers Today at Harvard (Apr. 24, 2013)

The IRS Scandal, Day 34

• American Spectator:  IRS Agent Tells Another Pro-Life Group: No Abortion Clinic Protests
• American Spectator:  Lerner Still Accessing Taxpayer Data
• Bloomberg:  IRS Transcript Release Would Be Too Reckless, Issa Writes
• Daily Caller:  Cummings: Unnamed 'Conservative Republican' Behind IRS Abuse
• Forbes:  The IRS Is Enforcing ObamaCare? They've Got To Be Kidding!
• Forbes:  Why Hasn't IRS Director Lois Lerner Been Fired?
• Fox News op-d:  The IRS' Power to Tax Is Also the Power to Destroy, by James Dobson
• Fox News:  House Asks IRS About Purported Seizure of Millions of Medical Records
• The Hill:  Chairman Issa: Release of Full IRS transcripts Would be ‘Reckless’
• The Hill:  House Panel to Probe Alleged Seizure of Medical Records by IRS
• Huffington Post:  Darrell Issa on IRS Investigation: Releasing Full Transcripts Now Would Be 'Reckless', by Sam Stein
• National Review:  Computer Access Not Restricted, Lerner Continues to Log In to IRS System
• National Review:  Do Democrats Agree IRS Case is ‘Solved’?
• National Review:  Keep Your Faith to Yourself: Religious Liberty Confronts IRS Bureaucracy
• NewsMax op-ed:  Did the IRS Commit a Federal Offense?, by Reince Priebus
• Politico:  IRS Scandal Shows Agency Can’t Do its Job
• PolitiFact:  Progress Texas Says Two-Thirds of Groups Targeted for IRS Scrutiny Were Not Conservative: Pants on Fire Lie!
• Reason:  IRS Cans Another Official in Political Targeting Scandal
• Think Progress:  Darrell Issa Refuses To Release ‘Evidence’ That Obama Conspired With IRS To Target Tea Party
• USA Today:  Cincinnati IRS Agents First Raised Tea Party Issues
• Wall Street Journal:  Reps. Issa and Cummings Trade Jabs Over IRS Probe
• Washington Post:  Boehner Says 'inconceivable' Officials Didn't Tell Obama About IRS Scandal Before News Broke
• Washington Post:  Cincinnati IRS Employees Say Their Actions Started the Targeting Efforts

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

Continue reading "The IRS Scandal, Day 34"

Increasing Federal Income Taxes on Punitive Damages

Skyler M. Sanders (J.D. 2013, Pepperdine), Comment, Uncle Sam and the Partitioning Punitive Problem: A Federal Split-Recovery Statute or a Federal Tax?, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 785 (2013):

It is no secret that the doctrine of punitive damages has had a storied past in American jurisprudence, yet it has remained an integral part of both federal and state courts throughout the country. Most, if not all, attempts to restrict punitive damage awards have failed due to the over-inclusive or under-inclusive nature of the remedial measures; however, split-recovery statutes—another punitive damage regulatory tool—have been touted as striking a proper balance between limiting plaintiff windfalls while still punishing and deterring defendants. Even so, such statutes have been meet with vigorous constitutional criticism and fail to curtail punitive damage awards for federal law claims. This Article argues that, while the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Engquist v. Oregon Department of Agriculture provided the necessary constitutional approval for split-recovery statutes, because the statues can be easily circumvented by post-verdict settlement, the federal government should elect to expand the existing federal tax on punitive damages so that punitive damages may once again serve as a societal benefit.

Anderson: The Problem Is Not Just IRS Lawyers; The Problem Is All Federal Government Lawyers

Robert Anderson (Pepperdine), The IRS as Microcosm:

I searched the Federal Election Commission database for contributors with the term "lawyer" or "attorney" in thee occupation field. I then sorted the results by government agency (including the many permutations of agency names in the database). This produced a list of 20 federal agencies with at least 20 employees contributing to either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

The results for the IRS were striking. Of the IRS lawyers who made contributions in the 2012 election, 95% contributed to Obama rather than to Romney. So among IRS lawyers, the ratio of Obama contributors to Romney contributors was not merely 4-to-1 at previously reported, but more like 20-to-1. The ratio of funds to Obama was even more lopsided, with about 32 times as much money going to Obama as to Romney from IRS lawyers.

So has the IRS gone off the rails into hyper-partisanship, leaving behind other more balanced federal agencies? ... The data show, however, that the partisanship of the lawyers in the IRS is not unusual or even particularly extreme among federal agencies. In fact, the lawyers in every single federal government agency--from the Department of Education [100%] to the Department of Defense [68%] -- contributed overwhelmingly to Obama compared to Romney. The table below shows the results for all agencies with at least 20 employees who contributed to either Obama or Romney. ... 

AGENCY	NUMBER OF LAWYERS CONTRIBUTING TO		PERCENT OBAMA
	OBAMA	ROMNEY
NLRB	44	0	100.00%
UNITED NATIONS	23	0	100.00%
DEPT. OF EDUCATION	47	0	100.00%
DEPT. OF LABOR	66	2	97.06%
FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER	65	2	97.01%
FINRA	26	1	96.30%
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMM.	23	1	95.83%
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY	86	4	95.56%
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION	80	4	95.24%
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE	38	2	95.00%

... The IRS is near the top in terms of partisanship, but does not stand out as being markedly different from the other agencies. Some agencies, such as the Department of Education and the NLRB, did not have a single lawyer who contributed to Mitt Romney, even though dozens contributed to Barack Obama. The Department of Justice had the largest number of lawyer contributors of any federal agency, and 84% of those employees contributed to Obama. ...

The political contribution numbers of government lawyers show that the IRS controversy is really a symptom of a larger disease -- the rule by career bureaucrat lawyers. Lawyers as a group are not politically representative of the country as a whole, and neither are government employees, so the combination of the two of them creates a dramatic mismatch with the bulk of America. The result of the mismatch is that government agencies lack the political diversity that is necessary to effectively represent the American people. The idea that the Department of Justice, on which we depend for fair and impartial enforcement of the law, is so overwhelmingly tilted to one side should make everyone uneasy regardless of political viewpoint. Whatever the reason for the disparity,the numbers reveal a severely dysfunctional culture in government agencies, one that does not serve the country well.

The media and Congress have understandably focused on the IRS specifically in sorting out the controversy. The numbers, however, suggest that the problem is not with the IRS in particular, but with the federal government as a whole (and indeed, with state governments as well). The root of the problem is the rule by a class of career government employee lawyers who lack the diversity of opinion that is found in the non-lawyer private sector. The IRS inquiry, rather than focusing narrowly on "who knew what" within the agency, should lead to a top-to-bottom rethinking of who's doing the administration in the modern bureaucratic administrative state.

Occupy Wall Street Stylists Pursue U.K. Tax Dodgers

Bloomberg:  Occupy Wall Street Stylists Pursue U.K. Tax Dodgers, by Jesse Drucker:

UK Uncut has no offices and no formal leader, and key members often plot strategy over midnight pints of ale in London pubs.

Yet, with more than 60,000 Twitter followers and a sprawling network of college-educated volunteers, the Occupy Wall Street-style group has helped galvanize public opposition to corporate tax avoidance. It has demonstrated inside Starbucks coffee shops, sued Britain’s tax collection agency over a deal with Goldman Sachs and shut down London’s Westminster Bridge. It plans to target this month’s summit of the Group of Eight, the world’s eight wealthiest countries.

“Everywhere that’s facing austerity there’s been anger about the apparent unfairness of some companies or individuals not paying taxes,” said Alex Cobham, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development in London and the author of several studies on tax avoidance. “The difference in the U.K. is that UK Uncut crystallized it and put what people were feeling onto the front pages.”

UK Uncut and its offshoots in France, Ireland and the U.S. tap into public discontent with multinational companies that dodge taxes by shifting profits to subsidiaries in offshore havens. Corporate profit shifting costs the U.S. and Europe at least $100 billion a year in lost taxes, according to Kim Clausing, an economist at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.