A Special Day for Tax Profs

July 24 is indeed an important day for Tax Profs:  Sarah Lawsky (George Washington) waxes eloquently on her receipt of the new  CCH 2008-2009 Federal Income Tax Code and Regulations Selected Sections book:

It's purple! It's not that I love purple so much, but I absolutely love getting the new code and regs. I'm a CCH gal myself, though certainly opinions can differ about whether CCH is the best source for the code and regs, but seriously, opinions cannot differ about whether it's awesome to get the new code and regs.

True conversation from a recent trip to NY to visit a friend of mine--let's call him Jeff.

• Jeff: "Jeez, why is your suitcase so heavy? You're only here for three days."
• Me: "Because it has tax law in it."
• Jeff: "You brought the code? Why?" [Note: He may actually have said "Loser!" but I prefer to remember it as "Why?"]
• Me: "You never know when you might need it. And of course I didn't bring the code--only selected sections!"

Yeah, it's true I didn't need the code on that trip. But you never know! Really!

Sarah is what we like to call a true "tax jock" (although I conceded in my Tax Myopia article (13 Va. Tax Rev. 517, 519 (1994), that the outside world prefers to call us "tax geeks"). Here is my true story along similar lines:  Last fall, I went to another law school to lead a faculty workshop.  While there, a young tax professor took me and another faculty member out to lunch.  I knew I was with a kindred spirit when I got in her car and noticed a tax code in the back seat.  When I commented on it, she said that she keeps a second copy of the code in her car "just in case."