Friday, May 14, 2010
Hemingway and Tax
The new issue of the Journal of Legal Education has a funny article, Why Am I Here? Six-Word Stories About the First Month of Law School, 59 J. Legal Educ. 653 (2010). The article riffs off Hemingway's six-word story -- "For sale: baby shoes. Never worn." -- which he called his best work. Several books and web sites have been spun off the 6-word story idea.
Some of my favorite six-word stories about the first month of law school:
- Trained by socratic assault. Professors acquitted.
- Dear Mom, School's fine. Send highlighters.
- Came smart. Stayed scared. Ended confused.
- I didn't know I needed luggage!
- I know the answer--it depends.
I put the call out for six-word stories about tax:
- 1040: my 10, IRS takes 40. (Chris Hoyt (Missouri-Kansas City))
- Apartment building. Shopping mall. Like kind. (Jim Maule (Villanova))
- Cheated on taxes. Went to jail. (Jim Maule (Villanova))
- Code is my friend. It's heavy. (Bridget Crawford (Pace))
- Deduct it. Fight Later. Then Settle. (Bruce Shnider (Minnesota))
- Expensing means no reduction of IRR. (Calvin Johnson (Texas))
- First for love, then for money. (Farid el-Sultaneh) (Bryan Camp (Texas Tech))
- For sale: Tax Code. Never opened -- from an A student. (Meredith Conway (Suffolk))
- For sale: Tax Code. Heavily used -- from a C student. (Meredith Conway (Suffolk))
- I work. I file. I pay. (Bryan Camp (Texas Tech))
- In tax, NOL is single word. (Calvin Johnson (Texas))
- IRS is my involuntary 35% partner. (Chris Hoyt (Missouri-Kansas City))
- Let's do a delayed three-way. (Jack Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark))
- Lost substantiation. Lost deduction. Lost money. (Jim Maule (Villanova))
- Negative basis -- a crime against nature. (Roberta Mann (Oregon))
- Partnership taxation. Entity. Aggregate. Very confusing. (Jim Maule (Villanova))
- Prime directive: adjusted basis equal FMV. (Calvin Johnson (Texas))
- Really? Money found in piano income. (Cesarini) (Ann Murphy (Gonzaga))
- Stupid deals done by smart people. (Definition of a tax shelter) (Bryan Camp (Texas Tech))
- Tasty puu-puu platters, tax-free. (Jack Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark))
- The dog is not a dependent. (Jim Maule (Villanova))
- Went to tax class. Got Mauled. (Jim Maule (Villanova))
- What are you? Check the box. (Jack Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark))
- What happened to Glenshaw Glass: Income. (Jack Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark))
- You can't deduct your inner child. (Chris Hoyt (Missouri-Kansas City))
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2010/05/hemingway-and-tax.html
Comments
Studied tax. Got confused. Stayed confused.
Only thing as certain as death.
Posted by: Jefferson VanderWolk | May 16, 2010 12:09:10 AM
No patriotic duty to pay taxes.
or
Paying taxes isn't a patriotic duty.
(With thanks to Judge Learned Hand.)
Posted by: tax guy | May 15, 2010 8:23:26 PM
Don't go. No jobs. Die alone.
Posted by: MostLawGrads | May 20, 2010 9:06:14 PM