Overlawyered » taxes http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:28:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 European roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/european-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/european-roundup/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:05:33 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27274
  • Overseas press excoriates new FATCA tax-Americans’-foreign-earnings law; some foreign banks now turn away American customers [Dan Mitchell, Cato, Reason] “The Fatca story is really kind of insane.” [Caplin & Drysdale's H. David Rosenbloom, NYT via TaxProf] Will Congress back down? [Peter Spiro/OJ, more]
  • Important new book from James Maxeiner (University of Baltimore) and co-authors Gyooho Lee and Armin Weber on what the U.S. can learn from legal procedure overseas: “Failures of American Civil Justice in International Perspective” [TortsProf]
  • Don’t do it: British administration mulls further move away from loser-pays rule in search of — what exactly, a yet more Americanized litigation culture? [Guardian, Law Society]
  • Apparently in Norway it’s possible to lose one’s kids by feeding them by hand [Shikha Dalmia, Reason]
  • Financial transaction tax? Ask the Swedes how that worked out [Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Business Insider]
  • Notes from conference on globalization of class actions [Karlsgodt] Related: Adam Zimmerman;
  • “Another conviction in Europe for insulting religion” [Volokh; Polish pop star] Campus secularists’ speech under fire in the U.K. as “Jesus and Mo” controversy spreads to LSE [Popehat] British speech prosecution of soccer star [Suneal Bedi and William Marra, NRO]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/european-roundup/feed/ 0     January 31 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:06:21 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26199
  • Latest of periodic Towers Watson (formerly Towers Perrin/Tillinghast) surveys: tort costs fell in 2010 excluding oil spill liability [Towers Watson]
  • “Will Newt Neuter the Courts?” [James Huffman, Defining Ideas] Obama’s high court appointees are fortunately friendlier toward civil liberties than he is [Steve Chapman]
  • Unanimous Cal Supremes: companies not legally responsible for other companies’ asbestos products used as replacement for theirs [Cal Biz Lit, Jackson, Beck, Mass Tort Prof]
  • Claim: jurors considered policy implications of verdict and you can’t have that [On Point; defense verdict in Baltimore, Maryland school-bullying case]
  • Airfare display mandate: “‘Protecting’ Consumers from the Truth About the Cost of Government” [Thom Lambert, TotM]
  • Critical assessment of AP-backed new copyright aggregator “NewsRight” [Mike Masnick] Promises not to be “Righthaven 2.0″ [Cit Media Law]
  • Restatement (Third) of Torts drafters vs. Enlightenment scientific views of causation [David Oliver in June]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/feed/ 2     “Passing along” our new tax? Tell it to the judge, mate http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/passing-along-our-new-tax-tell-it-to-the-judge-mate/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/passing-along-our-new-tax-tell-it-to-the-judge-mate/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:17:57 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25745 The official Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is menacing businesses with audits, “substantiation notices” and potentially stiff fines if they tell customers — even over the phone or in emails — that future price hikes on goods or services are the result of the nation’s newly adopted carbon tax. I discuss at Cato at Liberty (& Mark Hemingway, Weekly Standard).

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/passing-along-our-new-tax-tell-it-to-the-judge-mate/feed/ 4     October 27 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-27-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-27-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:41:10 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25293
  • “Table Saw without ’saw stop’ technology defective: First Circuit” [George Conk, Ted Frank, earlier here, here]
  • Court OKs burned patron’s flaming-rum suit against Bacardi [Reuters]
  • Feds won’t pursue Title IX complaint against 60 Oregon school districts [Oregonian]
  • IRS putting the squeeze on small tax preparers [WaPo]
  • How the incinerator (and decades of bad decisions) bankrupted Harrisburg [Bond Girl]
  • “The most thoughtful, reasonable guy in the whole symposium” — aw [Greenfield on law licensing, earlier] P.S. And similarly from David Lat;
  • Adam Freedman and readers on Florida “wrongful birth” case [Ricochet, earlier]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-27-roundup-3/feed/ 5     “Byzantium was far less complicated than any modern government.” http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/byzantium-was-far-less-complicated-than-any-modern-government/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/byzantium-was-far-less-complicated-than-any-modern-government/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:53:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25256 So maybe it’s time to find a new way of expressing the idea of our Byzantine tax code, the Byzantine regulations of federal agencies, and so forth. [Brian Palmer, Slate; link fixed now, thanks reader Bob]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/byzantium-was-far-less-complicated-than-any-modern-government/feed/ 4     No more tax avoidance strategy patents? http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/no-more-tax-avoidance-strategy-patents/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/no-more-tax-avoidance-strategy-patents/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:46:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24820 The new patent reform bill may end, or at least restrict, the odd practice of asserting patents on ways to reduce tax liability. [Legal Ethics Forum, earlier here, here, etc.]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/no-more-tax-avoidance-strategy-patents/feed/ 0     August 4 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-4-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-4-roundup-2/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:45:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24152
  • Burning Man, risk, and self-reliance [Claire Gordon, related]
  • Jacob Sullum challenges Mark “tax-the-snacks” Bittman [Reason; related, Rick Esenberg] “Fat tax” would be hard to target, hard to enforce, disliked by voters [David Gratzer]
  • “CSX claims racketeering in Pittsburgh law firm’s legal tactics” [Post-Gazette; earlier here, here, here, etc.] A different view: Max Kennerly.
  • Complaints over new class-action law in Canada [Reuters]
  • Minnesota preacher sues Rachel Maddow [TVNewser, Mother Jones]
  • Does the new Texas loser-pays bill go far enough? [Kyle Baum, WLF, earlier]
  • Tell us about it: “Why the Right to Criticize Lawyers is Vital” [Hans Bader, CEI]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-4-roundup-2/feed/ 4     Undoing a tax paperwork mistake http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/undoing-a-tax-paperwork-mistake/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/undoing-a-tax-paperwork-mistake/#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:22:57 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21167 Chris Edwards, Cato: The President in his speech last night “supported repealing an idiotic IRS requirement in the 2010 health care law that mandated hundreds of millions of additional 1099 tax forms. … Now it’s the GOP’s job to get him legislation to repeal this provision tomorrow.”

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/undoing-a-tax-paperwork-mistake/feed/ 6     Federal taxpayers vs. federal taxpayers http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/federal-taxpayers-vs-federal-taxpayers/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/federal-taxpayers-vs-federal-taxpayers/#comments Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:57:13 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20124 I’ve got a post up at Cato at Liberty on the Freddie-Mac-versus-IRS litigation that Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Weil calls the “stupidest lawsuit ever.”

    P.S. And welcome Mickey Kaus readers (”Stupidest lawsuit ever? Tough category”).

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/federal-taxpayers-vs-federal-taxpayers/feed/ 2     October 9 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/october-9-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/october-9-roundup-2/#comments Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:14:42 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19614
  • Update: “Tax Panel Rejects Lawyer’s Bid to Deduct Spending for Sex” [NYLJ, William Barrett/Forbes, earlier] And: “Musings on laws affecting adult entertainment, alcoholic beverages and other ‘vice’ industries” [Meeting the Sin Laws blog]
  • Mississippi: judge jails lawyer for not saying Pledge of Allegiance [Freeland]
  • More on much-written-about Israeli “rape by fraud” case [Volokh, more, earlier here and here]
  • “Tribune bankruptcy talks complicated by emergence of pugnacious hedge fund” [Romenesko; earlier on involvement of hedge funds in bankruptcies]
  • More disturbing tales from Connecticut probate court [Rick Green, Hartford Courant, earlier]
  • Marc Williams of the Defense Research Institute responds to Ted Frank’s criticism of many defense lawyers [PoL]
  • Advice for Australians: to fix your litigation system, look to Germany’s success [Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald]
  • Rep. John Hall (D-N.Y.) & ’70s band Orleans threaten suit against GOP remix ["Orleans Reunion Tour"]
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