My Advice to Bezos (And Gates, Buffett, Etc.): Pay Some Tax

Oxford University Press Blog:  My Advice to Mr. Bezos: Pay Some Tax, by Edward Zelinsky (Cardozo):

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, has asked on Twitter for advice about the use of his fortune for philanthropy. 

My advice is that Mr. Bezos should pay some tax.

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John Oliver Property Tax Scam Uses Loophole Created By Donald Trump

New York Observer, The John Oliver Property Tax Scam: HBO Comedian Secretly Buys Manhattan Mansion; Liberal Deity Avoids Taxes By Using Loophole Created By Donald Trump:

The hypocrisy really gets ratcheted up with John Oliver, the No. 1 darling to so many liberal anti-Trumpies, who regularly attacks GOP tax schemes as giveaways to the rich and detrimental to the poor. ... 

For years, Oliver has criticized the estate tax, which opponents, in a smart linguistic move dreamed up by Frank Luntz, long ago labeled the “death tax”; and the tax code’s raft of loopholes that benefit special interests he identified as oil companies and hedge fund managers. Oliver even briefly established the bogus Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption to draw attention to tax-exempt status granted to churches and charities.

Back in July 2014, in an episode in which he lamented the Wealth Gap in America” (which has resulted in the richest one percent of Americans controlling 20 percent of annual income), Oliver said, “At this point the rich are just running up the score…What sets America apart is that we are actively introducing policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy,” such as tax cuts and loopholes like trusts.

So it’s a little surprising to discover that just months before, Oliver had a tax attorney set up two revocable trusts, one for him and one for his wife, to hide the couple’s purchase of a $9.5 million Manhattan penthouse. Then he used a tax loophole created by Donald Trump himself back in the 1970s, when the current president was merely a prominent New York real estate developer and aspiring celebrity author.

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The Art Of Tax Havens

Artists Form Shell Company to Visit and Photograph Tax Havens (exhibit):

Artists Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti traveled to 13 tax havens in an attempt to visualize the fundamentally invisible networks corporations and the ultra-rich employ to hide their wealth.

Installation view of Les Paradis, Rapport annuel at Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas (photo by Joseph Nechvatal for Hyperallergic)

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Bill Gates: Robots That Displace Workers Should Be Taxed

Quartz, The Robot That Takes Your Job Should Pay Taxes, Says Bill Gates:

Robots are taking human jobs. But Bill Gates believes that governments should tax companies’ use of them, as a way to at least temporarily slow the spread of automation and to fund other types of employment.

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Michael Jackson Estate's $700 Million Tax Court Thriller Turns On Value Of Star's Name At Time Of Death

Wall Street Journal, Michael Jackson’s Estate Faces Demand for Big Tax Payment: Dispute With IRS Centers on Valuation of the Singer’s Name and Likeness Rights at Time of His Death:

When pop star Michael Jackson died in 2009, weeks before a planned comeback tour, how much was the man in the mirror worth? The answer is far from black and white.

After coming to agreements on the value of some of the King of Pop’s more concrete assets in a legal fight that began four years ago, the estate’s executors are facing off with the Internal Revenue Service in U.S. Tax Court on Monday, primarily over the valuation of the singer’s name and likeness rights at the time of his death.

Depending on the outcome of the case, the estate could be on the hook for more than $500 million in taxes and $200 million in penalties, according to the IRS’s notice to the estate of its deficiency.

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The Tax Implications Of Super Bowl LI

Forbes, Super Bowl Bet That's A Sure Thing:

It's also almost tax time, and we should all remember who gets a piece of every bet: the IRS. The IRS gets a piece, whether sports betting, rolling the dice, playing cards, or betting on the ponies. All gambling winnings are taxable income in the eyes of the IRS. And the IRS doesn't allow you to automatically reduce your winnings by your losses either. Here are 7 tips for casual gamblers.

Sports Illustrated, The Super Bowl May Be in 'Tax-Free' Houston, But Most of its Players' Pay Will Still be Taxed:

As Super Bowl LI nears, much has been made of Texas being a state without an income tax. The common refrain is that Super Bowl LI is a tax-free Super Bowl.

Not so fast. Taxes have a way of extending far and wide, and that is true for Super Bowl LI.

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Weekly Tax Highlight And Roundup: Mary Tyler Moore And The IRS

This week, Joe Kristan (CPA & Shareholder, Roth & Company (Des Moines, Iowa); Editor, Tax Update Blog) reminisces about a 1970 episode of The Mary Tyler Moor Show involving an IRS audit.

The bewitching glamor of the 1970s IRS.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a Saturday night childhood staple in the days of three TV channels. Through the miracle of Amazon, I revisited my 10-year-old viewing habits by downloading an episode from Season 1, 1040 or Fight, in which the heroine gets examined by the IRS.

The fictional tax world of 1970 is a fabulous place. For example, the IRS does evening house calls, scheduling the exam in Mary’s bachelorette pad at 8:03 p.m. The IRS agent shows up right on time with his calculator.

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Tom Arnold Calls On 'Gamers' To Get Trump's Taxes

CNET, Tom Arnold Calls on 'Gamers' to Get Trump's Taxes:

Will Nick Saban Sack The IRS In Tax Court?

Wall Street Journal, The Rise of Nick Saban Incorporated:

Over the past decade, Saban has created a modern football dynasty at Alabama, with four national titles in seven years and another possibly in the offing as it gears up for the annual showdown with archrival Auburn.

With considerably less fanfare, Saban has also built a business empire off the field, a collection of investments and projects that roughly traces the path of his 40-year career: A strip mall outside East Lansing, Mich. Apartment complexes around Houston, Texas. A pair of small apartment buildings in Baton Rouge, La. An upscale residential development in Tuscaloosa, Ala. And a growing collection of Mercedes-Benz dealerships. ... On a state disclosure form filed in May 2016, Saban listed 23 entities, some with names like Blitzmore LLC and First Down LLC, in which he or his wife, Terry—a licensed real estate professional—hold 5% or more of the stock, or serve as officers. ...

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NY Times: Gallery Owner Accuses Alec Baldwin of Dodging Tax in Disputed Art Purchase

New York Times, Gallery Owner Accuses Alec Baldwin of Dodging Tax in Disputed Art Purchase:

The art world feud between the actor Alec Baldwin and the gallery owner Mary Boone took another turn on Thursday when lawyers for Ms. Boone filed a motion in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan accusing Mr. Baldwin of committing fraud by failing to pay sales tax on a painting he bought from her six years ago.

The filing comes just over a month after Mr. Baldwin sued Ms. Boone, asserting she had defrauded him in 2010 by promising him a painting, “Sea and Mirror,” by the artist Ross Bleckner, for which he had paid $190,000, but supplying him another, similar Bleckner painting, also called “Sea and Mirror.” ...

In the motion to dismiss Mr. Baldwin’s suit, her lawyer said that when Mr. Baldwin bought the Bleckner painting in 2010, the actor left instructions to deliver it directly to his home in California, and then almost immediately after it arrived on the West Coast, had the painting shipped back to his apartment in New York.

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Chicago Law Profs And The Cubs

National Law Journal, Chicago Law Profs Don’t Need Lecture on Cubs’ Chances:

Chicagoans are abuzz with excitement over the possibility of a Cubs championship, which would be the first since 1908, and the legal academy is not immune. [David] Rudstein [(Chicago-Kent)] is just one of many professors at the city’s six law schools who are following the team with either sense of unbridled optimism or dread that it could fall apart at any moment. These are the Cubs, after all. ...

Ann Lousin, a professor at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, had the unenviable task of teaching her three-hour sales transactions class during the first night of the World Series. Students still showed up, but by hour two she noticed pleading looks in their eyes. “You try to teach the Uniform Commercial Code while the World Series is going on,” she said the following morning. “It’s brutal.”

Other Chicago Law Profs quoted in the story:

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Rumsfeld Sides With McGonagall Rather Than Snape On Taxes

Following up on this morning's TaxProf Blog op-ed:   McGonagall Replies to Snape on Taxes: 'Be Proud Of The Tax Law You Have, Rather Than The One You Wish You Had', by Alice G. Abreu (Temple):

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Abreu: McGonagall Replies to Snape on Taxes—'Be Proud Of The Tax Law You Have, Rather Than The One You Wish You Had'

TaxProf Blog op-ed:  McGonagall Replies to Snape on Taxes, by Alice G. Abreu (Temple):

Because Professor Minerva McGonagall is my favorite member of the Hogwarts faculty, particularly as played by the inimitable Dame Maggie Smith, and because she and Severus Snape led rival houses, here’s how I think she would reply to Adam Chodorow’s reimagined Snape, who as a TaxProf warns his students on the first day of class that because there is “little foolish argument by analogy here, many of you will hardly believe this is law.”

Humph . . . It’s high time you learned to be proud of the tax law you’ve got, rather than the one you think you ought to have.

Our rival houses are the House of Tax Exceptionalism and the House of Tax as Everylaw. Snape as a TaxProf may wish that the tax law were exceptional, different from other fields of law in such fundamental ways that it is perhaps not law at all, but that is not the tax law we actually have.

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Chodorow: Snape On Taxes

TaxProf Blog op-ed:  Snape on Taxes, by Adam Chodorow (Arizona State):

Every fall, as I prepare to teach again after a 3-month hiatus, I am reminded of a scene from the first Harry Potter book. The students, some bright-eyed, others fearful, file into Professor Snape’s dungeon classroom for their first Potions class. Glaring out at his students, he introduces them to the subject he loves, but which he fears they will barely comprehend. The passage reads as follows:

You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making,” he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. “As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses…I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.

What if Snape taught tax? Many of our students would likely equate the two subjects. Regardless, with apologies to J.K. Rowling, here’s what I imagine he would say:

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'Byzantine Tax Tactics' May Shield Gawker's Assets From Hulk Hogan's $140 Million Judgment

Fortune, Can Tech’s Tattle Tycoon Trump Thiel?:

A Fortune investigation into Gawker Media’s finances reveals that though [founder Nick] Denton is down, he is not out. As the company’s websites assailed tech giants like Alphabet, Apple, and Facebook for byzantine schemes meant to reduce their tax burden, Gawker Media quietly played the same game. Our investigation reveals that Denton is as much a creature of the tech industry as he is a critic—and that Gawker’s slippery but legal tactics may, in the end, help Denton survive Thiel’s crusade with funds to spare.

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NY AG Continues Crackdown On Sales Tax Abuse In Art World With Gagosian Gallery $4.3 Million Settlement

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Press Release, A.G. Schneiderman Announces $4.28 Million Settlement With International Art Dealer Gagosian Gallery For Failure To Collect And Remit New York Sales Tax:

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced today a $4.28 million settlement with international art dealer Gagosian Gallery following an investigation into sales tax collection practices. Gagosian Gallery is a leading dealer of contemporary art, with galleries in New York City, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, London, Paris, Geneva, Rome, Athens and Hong Kong. Its owner, Laurence Gagosian, is a prominent figure in the contemporary art scene, and it is estimated to sell over one billion dollars of art annually. ...

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Widow Of Indiana Pacers Owner Plays Hardball With IRS, Goes On Offense In Defending Against Subpoenas In $21 Million Gift Tax Case

Indianapolis Business Journal, Pacers’ Legal Tenacity on Display in IRS Fight:

The legal fallout stemming from Melvin Simon’s decision to unload his half of the Indiana Pacers to his brother Herb just a few months before his September 2009 death is getting crazier by the day.

Mel’s widow, Bren Simon, got the public spectacle rolling in March 2015 when she sued the IRS in an effort to overturn the agency’s determination that the terms of the deal were so tilted in Herb’s favor that Mel essentially gave him an $83 million gift.

That conclusion left Bren with a $21 million gift-tax bill, which she paid under protest but hopes to get refunded by winning the suit.

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Did Trump Violate IRS Rules By Using His Foundation's Money To Purchase Tebow-Signed Helmet (Now Worth $415) For $12,000?

Washington Post, Donald Trump Used Money Donated for Charity to Buy Himself a Tim Tebow-Signed Football Helmet:

Did Donald Trump violate IRS rules, by using a charity's money to buy himself a signed football helmet?

Four years ago, at a charity fundraiser in Palm Beach, Donald Trump got into a bidding war at the evening's live auction. The items up for sale: A Denver Broncos helmet, autographed by then-star quarterback Tim Tebow, and a Tebow jersey.

Trump won, eventually, with a bid of $12,000. Afterward, he posed with the helmet. ... But Trump didn't actually pay with his own money. Instead, the Susan G. Komen organization — the breast-cancer nonprofit that hosted the party — got a $12,000 payment from another nonprofit, the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

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The Influence Of State Taxes On NBA Free Agency

NBA free agency kicked off at midnight.  How important are state tax considerations to players in choosing which team to join?  Kevin Durant reportedly is courting six suitors, two of whom are in states without an income tax: Miami and San Antonio (the others are Boston, Golden State, Los Angeles (Clippers) and Oklahoma City.)  Given his recent tax troubles, Durant may be particularly sensitive to tax considerations in making his free agency decision.  See Slam Online, The Influence of State Taxes on NBA Free Agency:

Modern athletes seem to be more financially literate and are aware of the so-called “Jock Tax” and state taxes. As such, more athletes are signing with teams that are located in states that don’t tax income, like the Miami Heat, the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs.

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Floyd 'Money' Mayweather Sends Form 1099 To Strip Club After Making It Rain $20,000

Larry Brown Sports, Floyd Mayweather Sends Strip Club $20,000 Tax Bill After Making It Rain:

Floyd Mayweather Jr. made it rain so hard at a Las Vegas strip club a couple years back that he thinks he deserves a tax break for it.

Tax documents obtained by the Daily Mail show that Mayweather’s company, Mayweather Promotions LLC, has sent Larry Flint’s Hustler Club a 1099 IRS form for more than $20,000 he spent on strippers on May 25, 2014. Apparently The Money Team believes the Hustler Club is responsible for paying taxes on the $15,000 in singles and additional $5,000 cash Floyd and his crew spent that night.

Not surprisingly, club owner Jason Mohney is furious. He says the Hustler Club didn’t receive a dime of the $20,323.18 and that it all went to the dancers, who are independent contractors.

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WSJ: Judge Hands Entrepreneur Sam Wyly $1.1 Billion Tax Bill

Wall Street Journal, Judge Hands Entrepreneur Sam Wyly a $1.1 Billion Tax Bill:

A federal judge has ordered Texas entrepreneur Sam Wyly to pay $1.1 billion in taxes and penalties for committing tax fraud using offshore accounts, even though the former billionaire’s net worth has fallen to a fraction of that amount.

The payment demand from Judge Barbara Houser on Monday was made for federal taxes due as far back as 1992. In a court opinion filed last month, she admitted that the money “may now be more difficult for the government to collect given the passage of time and the dissipation of Sam’s wealth.”

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NY Times: A Noah’s Ark in Kentucky, Dinosaurs Included — But No Taxes

New York Times: A Noah’s Ark in Kentucky, Dinosaurs Included, by Laurie Goodstein:

In the beginning, Ken Ham made the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky. And he saw that it was good at spreading his belief that the Bible is a book of history, the universe is only 6,000 years old, and evolution is wrong and is leading to our moral downfall.

And Mr. Ham said, let us build a gargantuan Noah’s ark only 45 minutes away to draw millions more visitors. And let it be constructed by Amish woodworkers, and financed with donations, junk bonds and tax rebates from the state of Kentucky. And let it hold an animatronic Noah and lifelike models of some of the creatures that came on board two-by-two, such as bears, short-necked giraffes — and juvenile Tyrannosaurus rexes.

And it was so.

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Former Qwest CEO Nacchio Denied Tax Deduction For $45 Million Forfeiture Of Insider Trading Profits

Nacchio v. United States, Nos. 2015-5114 & 2015-5115 (Fed. Cir. June 10, 2016):

This is a tax case arising out of a criminal conviction for insider trading. Joseph P. Nacchio and Anne M. Esker (“Nacchio”) filed this action in the Court of Federal Claims seeking an income tax credit of $17,974,832 for taxes paid on trading profits of $44,632,464.38, which Nacchio was later ordered to forfeit to the United States following his conviction for insider trading with respect to those profits. The government opposed Nacchio’s request, contending that his forfeiture payment was a nondeductible penalty or fine and that he was estopped from seeking tax relief because of his criminal conviction. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment.

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The Story Of Tonight: With Billion-Dollar Hamilton Poised To Sweep Tony Awards, Broadway Pushes For Tax Break Extension

Bloomberg, As ‘Hamilton’ Enriches Backers, Broadway Wants Tax Break Extended:

Alexander Hamilton introduced the idea of federal taxes. Broadway producers enjoying a record season buoyed by his namesake musical are lobbying Congress to limit what they owe.

The industry, which will celebrate its success tonight at the Tony Awards, is fighting to keep a provision that allows live-theater backers deductions in a show’s first year. That means they’d pay tax on income only after turning a profit. The provision passed in 2015, yet needs to be extended by Congress this year to survive.

In an industry where four of five performances close without recouping startup costs, producers say such a sweetener will keep the hits coming. While the provision was tacked onto a list of tax breaks last year at the behest of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., there’s no guarantee it will be continued, producers and their lobbyists say. Some lawmakers don’t like the idea. Nor do advocates of tax cuts, who say such breaks make it more difficult to reduce the burden on everyone else. ...

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Taxes Could Wipe Out Half Of Prince's $250 Million Estate

Following up on my previous posts (links below) on the estate planning aspects of Prince's death: People Magazine, Taxes Could Wipe Out Half of Prince's $250 Million Estate and Force Early Sale of His Unreleased Songs, Trustee Says:

Prince's estate is getting hit with a hefty tax bill that could end up taking half of his estimated $250 million fortune – and force the early sale of some of the vast troves of unreleased music that the Purple One had locked up in his vault, the trustee for the estate revealed.

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The Tax Consequences Of John Oliver's Forgiveness Of $15 Million Of Medical Debt

Washington Post, John Oliver Just Made Talk Show History by Forgiving Nearly $15 million Worth of Debt:

John Oliver is known for demystifying complicated issues to get his “Last Week Tonight” audience riled up. He’s explained major problems with credit reports and the bizarrely undemocratic side of primaries and caucuses. In that way, last night’s episode devoted to debt buyers wasn’t all that different. He started out, in his entertainingly enraged way, by explaining how banks sell debt to other business for pennies on the dollar. Those companies have little knowledge of those owing money, but they can be terrifyingly predatory, taking advantage of consumers’ fear of legal action. Some of these debts are erroneous; some are “zombie debts” that have already been paid. And yet, debt collectors will persist, even employing dirty tactics to get cash.

But Oliver did more than educate last night. He explained to his viewers that he undertook the surprisingly easy task of starting a debt buying company, Central Asset Recovery Professional, Inc. — “or CARP, for the bottom-feeding fish,” he explained. No sooner had he set up a CARP web site, but another debt buyer was offering to sell Oliver nearly $15 million worth of medical debt for less than $60,000.

So CARP bought the debt of nearly 9,000 people — just so Oliver could forgive it. According to the host, this is the largest one-time giveaway ever on television, beating out Oprah Winfrey’s famous “you get a car! You get a car!” episode, which cost that show $8 million.

(Click on YouTube button on bottom right to view video directly on YouTube to avoid interruption caused by blog's refresh rate. The most relevant discussion begins at 17:15.)

What are the tax consequences?

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How Will I Know? IRS Claims Whitney Houston's Estate Undervalued Her Right Of Publicity By $11.5 Million

Following up on my previous posts (links below) on the IRS's battle with the estate of Michael Jackson over the value of the singer's publicity rights:  Hollywood Reporter, Whitney Houston Estate Challenges $11 Million Tax Bill:

The heirs of late pop star Whitney Houston are now in Tax Court over what the Internal Revenue Service claims is owed in estate taxes.

In a May 23 petition, now sealed and first reported by Bloomberg, the Whitney Houston estate objected to the determination that $22.6 million has been underreported, which the IRS claims means that more than $11 million is owed, including $3 million in penalties.

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Winston Churchill: 'Serial Tax Avoider'

The Telegraph, Churchill a 'Serial Tax Avoider':

Sir Winston Churchill was a serial tax avoider who exploited loopholes and faked his own retirement in collusion with the chairman of Inland Revenue, his biographer has claimed.

David Lough, a historian and author, said Churchill had learned to use Inland Revenue as a "beast who can be tamed and bent" after finding himself in financial difficulties.

Not only did the politician pretend to retire in order to halve his tax bill, the author claimed, he persuaded the Revenue's young chairman to help him figure out a way to save his earnings for himself. ...

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WSJ: What Is Prince’s Legacy Worth? The Tax Man Wants To Know.

Following up on my previous post, Prince Died Without A Will, According To Court Documents:  Wall Street Journal, What Is Prince’s Legacy Worth? The Tax Man Wants to Know:

After the doves cry, there’s IRS Form 706.

Estate-tax attorneys for Prince, who died [April 21], must attempt to put a precise financial value on his name, image and likeness.

That Prince-ness could make him one of America’s top-earning deceased celebrities, and it may be one of his estate’s largest assets—subject to a 40% federal tax.

The Internal Revenue Service is used to putting price tags on tradeable assets and is well-trained in taking existing revenue streams and capitalizing them into a value. It is much trickier to divine the worth of a unique niche business—marketing Prince’s legacy—that doesn’t really exist yet.

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NY Times: AG Dings Developer Aby Rosen For $7 Million In Unpaid Taxes On Art

Following up on my previous posts:

• NY Times: Buyers Evade State Taxes by Loaning Purchased Art to Museums in Non-Tax States
• NY Times: Art Collectors Find Safe Harbor In Delaware’s Tax Laws

New York Times, Developer Aby Rosen to Pay $7 Million in Suit Over Unpaid Taxes on Art:

Aby J. Rosen, the Manhattan real estate developer and art collector, is well known for exhibiting works from his collection at the landmark Seagram Building and at Lever House, both on Park Avenue, as well as at 530 Park Avenue, a 19-story residential condominium. He also has five pieces by Picasso in his Manhattan home, and a controversial, 33-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a pregnant woman with an exposed fetus on the grounds of his estate in Old Westbury, on Long Island.

That $2.5 million, 13-ton sculpture by Damien Hirst [right] is one of 200 artworks that have put Mr. Rosen at the center of another controversy — this one involving unpaid taxes.

The New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, announced a $7 million settlement with Mr. Rosen on Tuesday for failing to pay taxes on $80 million in artwork that he had bought or commissioned since 2002.

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LeBron James Pays All Of His Social Security Taxes Before Halftime Of His First Game

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How To Win $17M At Backgammon, Until The IRS Intervenes

The Daily Beast, How To Win $17M At Backgammon, Until The IRS Intervenes:

A legendary Irish gambler took a celebrity-obsessed American private equity honcho to the cleaners, winning over $17 million from him in the course of a 72-hour backgammon session.

Had he been Irish, Alec E. Gores, who nurtures friendship with celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Tobey Maguire, and Ben Affleck, and was caught up in the Anthony Pellicano wire-tapping scandal after he apparently set the private dick on his wife who was having an affair with his brother, might have known better than to get into a game of chance and skill with JP McManus. ...

McManus is famous for traveling with a portable backgammon set and, sources acquainted with him tell The Daily Beast, has been known to start games with strangers on airplanes in a (usually successful) attempt to win back his airfare.

But when he sat down with Gores, who is worth $2.1 billion, in November 2012 for what has been described as a “serious backgammon match” he walked away with enough to buy not a plane ticket but a private jet—his winnings were a stunning $17.4 million.

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Prince Died Without A Will, According To Court Documents

New York Times, Prince Died Without a Will, According to Court Documents:

Prince died without a will, according to court documents filed by his sister, which may cause complications for his financial estate and musical legacy.

In probate documents filed on Tuesday with the court in Carver County, Minn., Tyka Nelson, 55, Prince’s sister, said that her brother died without a spouse, children or surviving parents, and that “I do not know of the existence of a will.” ...

In addition to Ms. Nelson, the document lists five half-siblings of Prince as interested parties: his half-brothers John Nelson, Alfred Jackson and Omar Baker, and his half-sisters Norrine and Sharon Nelson. According to Minnesota law, surviving half-siblings are treated the same as full siblings. ..

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Michael Jackson's $1 Billion Tax Court Thriller: IRS Values His Name At $434,000,000, Estate Says $2,105

Hollywood Reporter, Michael Jackson Estate Faces Billion-Dollar Tax Court Battle:

Of all the befuddling legal matters in the entertainment business, there's perhaps none that causes attorneys to scratch their heads like the battle between Michael Jackson and the Internal Revenue Service over what the late entertainer should be paying in estate taxes. In the years after his death in 2009 at age 50, Jackson has experienced a commercial rebirth thanks to the savvy executors who have managed his assets. The 2009 documentary This Is It grossed $261 million, a Cirque du Soleil tribute show packs in fans, and there have been albums, video games and other lucrative memorials. Now the IRS wants its share, claiming the value of Jackson's name and image upon death amounted to more than $434 million. The estate's own valuation? Just $2,105.

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A Taxing Oscars: $232,000 Swag Bags (40% Increase Over Last Year's), Tax Incentives For Best Picture Nominees

• Bazaar, Here's Everything Inside the $232,000 Oscars Gift Bag
• Forbes, The $200,000 Oscars Gift Bag: The Business Of Vibrators, Breast Lifts And More Absurd Swag
• Forbes, Oscar Academy Sues Over Racy $230,000 Gift Bags
• Hollywood Reporter, Academy Sues Over Oscars Gift Bag With Vape Pens and Vibrators
• Quartz, Inside the $232,000 Oscar “Gift Bag” That Requires Multiple Suitcases to Deliver
• Slate, Swag Reflex: This Year’s Oscars Goodie Basket Is Worth a Record $230,000. Even the Academy Is Disgusted.
• TMZ, Oscars Swag Suite $20k Worth of Vacays, Fat Burning ... And Schmancy Gum
• USA Today, Oscar Sues Over Unauthorized (And Unsavory) Swag Bags
• USA Today, The Taxability of Oscars Gift Bags
• Variety, Academy Sues Over Oscar Gift Bags That Include Sex Toys, Vaporizers
• Vox, The Weird, Contentious Tradition of Oscars Gift Bags, Explained

IRS, Gift Bag Questions and Answers:

Q: What are the federal income tax consequences to a person who accepts a gift bag in recognition of involvement in an awards show?
A: In general, the person has received taxable income equal to the fair market value of the bag and its contents and must report that amount on his or her federal income tax return. ...

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The Big Winner In Today's Super Bowl: The California Tax Man

Forbes, California Taxes Will Eat Up All Of Cam Newton's Super Bowl Earnings:

Remember when Peyton Manning paid New Jersey nearly $47,000 in taxes two years ago on his Super Bowl earnings of $46,000? Manning has nothing on the state taxes facing Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton for Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, Calif. Newton is looking at a tax bill more than twice as much, which will swallow up his entire Super Bowl paycheck, win or lose, thanks to California’s tops-in-the-nation tax rate of 13.3%. ...

If the Panthers win the Super Bowl, Newton will earn another $102,000 in playoff bonuses, but if they lose he will only net another $51,000. ... Win on Sunday, and Newton will pay California a total of $159,560 in taxes in 2016. Lose, and he will pay $159,200, based on an income reduction of $51,000.

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David Bowie: A Tax Oddity

New York Post Page Six, David Bowie Leaves Iman Roughly Half of His Fortune:

David Bowie’s dying wish was to have his ashes scattered on Bali — in line with the island’s Buddhist customs — and his riches sprinkled on his wife and kids, according to his will filed Friday in Manhattan court. ...

Bowie also directed that his property and money be divided among his model wife Iman, his two children, Duncan Jones and Lexi Zahra Jones, a personal assistant and a former nanny.

The music icon was worth around $100 million when he died this month of cancer at 69, according to court papers.

Iman will receive roughly half of his fortune, plus the couple’s apartment on Lafayette Street in Manhattan. ...

By rock standards, David Bowie was a real tax oddity — because he was so savvy with his money.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. And The IRS

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day:  Tallahassee Democrat, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the IRS:

This past year, much ado was made about the so-called “IRS-Gate” and concerns that the Obama administration may have used the agency to target Tea Party and other right wing groups. ... [W]hat often is not stated during the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend is that King, early in his leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was routinely subjected to IRS audits of his individual accounts, SCLC accounts as well as accounts of his lawyers, first starting during the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower and continuing through the Kennedy administration. ...

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Tax Exempt San Francisco Super Bowl Committee Raises Millions, With Little Transparency

San Francisco Chronicle, Tax Exempt Super Bowl Committee Raising Millions, With Little Transparency:

The Super Bowl 50 Host Committee — the organization charged with raising money to produce events around the Bay Area leading up to and including February’s big game — has already raised $50 million from leading Bay Area corporations.

It also has pledged $12 million to more than 100 Bay Area nonprofits, a major step toward its goal of being “the most philanthropic Super Bowl ever.”

But because the NFL requires its host committees to be structured as nonprofit organizations — claiming the same tax-exempt status that the National Football League enjoyed for decades — it doesn’t have to reveal its contributors or how much each donor gave.

That opacity is raising concerns in an era of “dark money,” where politicians use the tax code to hide contributions. Watchdog groups, which also question why wealthy professional sports leagues get to classify themselves as nonprofits, say any entity that’s raising and spending millions — with little transparency — needs to be monitored closely.

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5th Circuit: Texas Can Deny Tax Breaks To Films It Doesn’t Like

Wall Street Journal Law Blog:  Texas Can Deny Tax Breaks to Films it Doesn’t Like, Appeals Court Rules, by Jacob Gershman:

Texas has leeway under the First Amendment to deny tax breaks to films deemed insulting to the state, a federal appeals court ruled [Machete Prooductions LLC v. Page, No. 15-50120 (5th Cir. Dec. 28, 2015)] ...

Last year the producers behind the sequel to the 2010 gory action comedy “Machete” sued Texas for denying them tax breaks under a state program that encourages film production in the state. ...

The state denied it infringed on any constitutional speech rights. And a lower court agreed in a ruling handed down earlier this year. On Monday the Louisiana-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision.

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Tax Court: 92 Year Old Sumner Redstone Liable For Gift Tax On 1972 Gift

Hollywood Reporter, Sumner Redstone Loses to IRS in Tax Case Four Decades in the Making:

As the 92-year-old billionaire Sumner Redstone witnesses a vicious court fight over his mental condition, the U.S. Tax Court has released a decision [Redstone v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2015-237 (Dec. 9, 2015)] that delves into the beginnings of his media empire, his connection to the early-1970s Watergate scandal and four decades of in-fighting in the Redstone family.

The case is extraordinary, to say the least. The core question in Redstone's dispute with the Internal Revenue Service pertains to whether his 1972 transfer of stock to his children was a taxable "gift" or not. Ultimately, the Tax Court affirms a tax deficiency of $737,625, but lets him off the hook for fraud. ...

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Herzig: Why We Should Stop Slamming Mark Zuckerberg And Priscilla Chan’s Philanthropic Plans

Washington Post op-ed:  Why We Should Stop Slamming Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s Philanthropic Plans, by David Herzig (Valparaiso):

For people who voluntarily decided to part with some $45 billion, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are getting absolutely skewered in the press. ... The promised donation has been questioned by both the conservative and liberal press. Both seemingly demonizing their decision to give 99 percent of their wealth to an entity engaged in charitable giving. Much of the vitriol directed toward them focuses on the preconceived notion of what charitable giving should look like. ...

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NY Times Debate: Mark Zuckerberg's Use Of A LLC Rather Than A Foundation For His $45 Billion Charitable Giving

Following up on yesterday's post, The Tax (And Insider Trading) Benefits Of Mark Zuckerberg's Pledge To Donate 99% Of His Facebook Shares (Worth $45 Billion) To Charity:  New York Times Room for Debate, Welcome or Wariness for Zuckerberg’s Legacy Plan?:

Facebook's founder pledged 99 percent of his stock to a corporation for charitable giving. But he'd avoid taxes on it, and he'd call the shots.

• Joseph Bankman (Stanford), Charitable Deductions Generate Giving
• Jack A. Blum (Tax Justice Network USA), Zuckerberg Is Setting a Bad Precedent
• Catherine Bracy (Code for America Relax), Philanthropists Do Good Work
• Josh Hoxie (Institute for Policy Studies), Zuckerberg’s Philanthropy Isn’t a Substitute for Taxation

Additional press and blogosphere coverage:

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The Tax Origins Of Star Wars

Syd Gernstein (Bloomberg BNA), We Have Taxes to Thank For Star Wars:

Before there could be a clone war, a Skywalker losing some limbs in a light saber duel, a Death Star, a Death Star blowing up, another Skywalker losing a limb in a light saber duel and another Death Star blowing up, there was—and, believe me, the Star Wars fan in me wishes I was making this up—a tax controversy. ...

This first episode of Star Wars started with a tax dispute. The “trade federation” did not like the fact that the republic had imposed a tax on its trade routes, and protested the tax by staging a blockade, and ultimately an invasion, of the peaceful planet of Naboo.

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The Tax (And Insider Trading) Benefits Of Mark Zuckerberg's Pledge To Donate 99% Of His Facebook Shares (Worth $45 Billion) To Charity

The Daily Beast, Mark Zuckerberg’s Charity Windfall:

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday, Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg announced that he would gift “substantially all of his shares of Facebook stock” to “further the mission of advancing human potential and promoting equality by means of philanthropic, public advocacy and other activities for the public good.” The vehicle for his beneficence will be the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, a charity that he controls and through which he will maintain control of Facebook for “the foreseeable future.”

Like great capitalists before him, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie, Zuckerberg is saving a lot of money by intending to do a lot of good. But there’s plenty in it for him.

Back in 2008, David Yermack a professor of finance at the NYU Stern School of Business, published a paper called Deductio Ad Absurdum: CEOs Donating Stock to Their Own Family Foundations. In it, Yermack questions the value of public subsidies for CEO stock gifts. He even points to such gifts as a mechanism for executives with highly appreciated stock to dispose of their holdings without running afoul of insider trading laws. It also allows those CEOs to maintain control of their companies in the future, but through their newfangled organizations.

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Cris Collinsworth: 'The NFL Rulebook Is As Complicated As The Tax Code'

Opportunity Live, Collinsworth: NFL Rule Book Is As Complicated as the IRS Tax Code:

NBC’s Sunday Night Football color commentator Cris Collinsworth expressed how complicated the National Football League’s rulebook is by comparing it to the tax code of the IRS, saying, “you just have no idea what’s in there.”

Tax Foundation, Sorry, Chris Collinsworth: The NFL Rulebook Is Nothing Like the IRC:

NFL Rulebook: 55,000 words
Internal Revenue Code: 3.9 million words. ... [M]uch of the word count is internal citations, appendices, enactment clauses, and the like, but a reasonable estimate with all this stripped away is still over 2.4 million words. Add in case law, guidance, and other supplementary material needed to actually understand the tax code and you wind up with CCH's 74,000 page Standard Federal Tax Reporter. The NFL Rulebook, including tables and diagrams, runs 79 pages.

Good Tax Hunting: How Robin Williams Restricted The Use Of His Likeness For 25 Years After His Death, Saving Estate Taxes

Forbes, Why Robin Williams Won't Be Making Millions Beyond The Grave:

When beloved actor Robin Williams died in August 2014, he left behind a $100 million estate—and a potential fortune in image licensing. But a clause filed in a trust agreement made public this year means his likeness won’t make money for decades to come.

Williams, best-known for films such as Mrs. Doubtfire and Good Morning, Vietnam, filed a deed to put a restriction on the use of his likeness for 25 years after his death. This prevents his name, photograph, voice or signature from being used in any film, advertisement or endorsement until 2039–and limits his future earnings.

The estates of entertainers featured on our list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities are able to charge upwards of $500,000 for the use of their image in advertisements, with rare deals climbing into the seven figures. Some, such as James Dean and Bettie Page, also earn royalties from clothing sold with their name attached. Busy cultural icons including Dean and Page tally up a number of licensing deals which inch their posthumous paydays into the many millions.

By restricting the exploitation of his right of publicity, Williams, who died by suicide aged 63, has ensured no one cannot profit from his untimely death—at least not yet. ...

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BP Settlement Generates $15 Billion Tax Deduction

Fusion, The Gulf Oil Spill Settlement Lets BP Get Away With Not Paying $5.35 Billion in Taxes:

In announcing the final $20.8 billion settlement with BP over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Monday, “BP is receiving the punishment it deserves.”

What she didn’t mention is that BP—which was found grossly negligent for the 2010 disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history—will likely only pay about three fourths of that punishment once tax deductions are taken into account.

Just $5.5 billion of the settlement is a penalty under the Clean Water Act. The other $15.3 billion is other damages and payments that BP can treat as a cost of doing business, said Michelle Surka, an analyst with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. That means that the oil giant can legally deduct 35% of this $15.3 billion from its taxes, for a total windfall of $5.35 billion. ...

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Yogi Berra's Tax Wisdom

Forbes:  Yogi Berra's Sayings Worked Their Way Into Tax Decisions, by Peter J. Reilly:

Yogi Berra besides being a great baseball player and manager is also known as something of a common man philosopher for his sayings sometimes called Yogi-isms not all of which he actually said. As is my habit when the prominent pass, I had to check whether he had been involved in tax litigation. I didn’t find anything and my Thomson Reuters Checkpoint is pretty comprehensive and my research skills are pretty good. After all, tax blogging is 90% good research; the other three-quarters is creativity.

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NY Times: The Tax Consequences Of Dennis Hastert's Payments To Alleged Child Abuse Victim

New York Times:  When It’s a Crime to Withdraw Money From Your Bank, by Josh Barro:

Dennis Hastert has not been indicted on a charge of sexual abuse, nor has he been indicted on a charge of paying money he was not legally allowed to pay. The indictment of Mr. Hastert, a former House speaker, released last week, lays out two counts: taking money out of the bank the wrong way, and then lying to the F.B.I. about what he did with the money. ...

Paul Caron, a tax law professor at Pepperdine University, noted that the person who was paid money by Mr. Hastert may have owed income tax on the payments, whether they constituted a settlement, extortion or something else. Yes, even proceeds from extortion are taxable income; there was a Supreme Court case about the matter in 1952.

New York Times:  If Hastert Was Extorted, He Could Deduct Some Losses From His Taxes, by Josh Barro:

When I was researching my article about Dennis Hastert’s indictment on charges that he improperly withdrew large sums of money from a bank, one question I had was whether any tax was owed on the payments Mr. Hastert was said to have made.

For tax purposes, were the payments gifts? Fees? A settlement? Hush money? Any of these options would have tax implications — implications that could provide additional justification for the prosecution, since one of the key motivations of anti-money laundering laws is to prevent people from evading taxation by making large payments in cash.

Tax experts I spoke with agreed that the payments would constitute a settlement or extortion. In either case, the responsibility for reporting the payments would lie not with Mr. Hastert but with the payments’ recipient, identified in the indictment as “Individual A.”

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