Temple Law Prof, Kostelanetz Atty To Lead ABA Tax Section
Law360 reports on Professor Alice Abreu’s election as Chair of the ABA Section of Taxation. Read More
Author: Alice Abreu
Davids, Adkins endorse popular, but contrasting, ideas for cutting high gas prices – Kansas Reflector
Kansas Representative Sharice Davids is pushing for a federal gas tax holiday as part of her re-election bid. Prof. Alice Abreu says it’s terrible tax and environmental policy, but “terrific politics.” Read more in the Kansas Reflector.
Lawmakers want to suspend the federal gas tax. Is that a good idea?
Policymakers have raised the idea of a federal gas tax holiday to offset rising prices at the pump. Prof. Alice Abreu explains why such a move is “terrible policy…. but terrific politics.” Read more at Marketplace.
The Great Inheritors: How Three Families Shielded Their Fortunes From Taxes for Generations
Dynastic wealth has shaped American tax policy – and poses an urgent threat to democracy, warns Prof. Alice Abreu in this long read from ProPublica.
Tax day horror story: King of Prussia firm says its accountant failed to file taxes for years
A dispute between a resin manufacturer and its former accounting firm has erupted into a legal brawl. It appears to hinge on a section of the tax code described by Professor Alice Abreu as a “minefield.” Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer
Trump’s Payroll Tax Deferral Leaves Big Questions for Treasury
Professor Alice Abreu is quoted in this article from Bloomberg Law. Read the Full Article
Was I Wrong About the ‘Sweeping-ness’ of the Tax Bill?
Professor Alice Abreu’s scholarship on tax reform was discussed in this blog post from Dorf on Law.
Embracing the TBOR
Professors Alice Abreu and Rick Greenstein have published a special report for Tax Notes, Embrace the TBOR, in which they argue that codification of the TBOR, or Taxpayer Bill of Rights, has the power to transform tax practice and the relationship between taxpayers and the IRS. (subscription required)
Why Take Tax?
Recall what happened at last year’s Superbowl: Tom Brady received the keys to a brand new Chevy truck when he was named MVP of the Superbowl game, and then said “Oh, no, not me Chevy; you should give the truck to Malcolm Butler for making the game-winning interception instead.” And Chevy did that. If you’d been taking tax then you might have immediately thought: we just did this in class – who’s got income? Brady, because he received a prize? Are prizes income? But in any event, he gave it away, so what does that mean? And what about Butler? Did he receive a prize? Or a gift from his teammate? Are gifts income? And what’s a gift? These are all real live tax issues – indeed, this fact pattern was the first question on the tax exam last year. What about Kim Kardashian, who was robbed in Paris? She lost over 10 million Euros worth of jewelry. Can she deduct that loss? How can the deduction help her? What if she sues the owners …
Abreu: McGonagall Replies to Snape on Taxes—’Be Proud Of The Tax Law You Have, Rather Than The One You Wish You Had’
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. Our actual tax law has reveled in analogical reasoning from the early days in which some of …
