The Tax Lawyer's Blog

Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson’s Starts Blog

My favorite IRS employee has started a blog. Paul Caron reports: National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson has started a blog: Welcome to the National Taxpayer Advocate’s blog about taxpayer  rights and taxpayer burden. For starters, let me explain that I use the  term “taxpayer rights” here to mean not only statutory rights but also  the…

Great New Tax Blog from Knox Marlow

One of my frequent and most well-informed readers, Knox Marlow, has started his own tax blog Tax Didactic. Here is his tag line: A “retired” tax attorney comments on developments in tax law and tax policy — with frequent digressions into politics and economics. If the quality of the comments Mr. Marlow leaves on my…

Blogging Drought

Sorry for the dearth of posts here this month. We are in the middle of relocating our offices and things have been quite hectic. I expect to make up for it in October. Thanks for your patience.

Tax Bloggers Maule and Kristan: Today’s Required Reading

Two of my favorite tax bloggers have published posts today that should be read by everyone. They illustrate nicely the tenor of our times. In Taxes and Disgust Professor James Maule illustrates the absurd complexity of our federal and state tax laws. In Aviva Girls in Tax Trouble  CPA Joe Kristan sounds a warning about the ubiquitous dangers of the Internet.…

Online Poll: Your Favorite Tax Blog

Seth Godin on Online Arguments

Eight stellar tips  from Seth Godin today in How to Lose an Argument Online. I particularly agree with 3, 4, 6 and 7: 3.  Use faulty analogies. If someone is trying to make a point about, say, health care, try to make an analogy to something conceptually unrelated, like the space shuttle program, and you’ve lost. 4.  Question…

Update: Law Professor Drops Lawsuit Against Blog

Yesterday we blogged about University of Miami Law School Professor D. Marvin Jones’ $20,000,000 defamation lawsuit against Above the Law (ATL) blog. Well, today Mr. Jones did the wise thing and withdrew his complaint. Here’s what David Lat, a named defendant in the lawsuit, wrote today at ATL: Pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i)(B), the dismissal is without…

Law Professor Sues Law Blog

Professor D. Marvin Jones, a University of Miami law professor, has filed a lawsuit seeking damages of $20,000,000 against Above the Law.com  (ATL) for insinuating that he had committed the crime of solicitation of a prostitute and for posting a photo-collage that: 1) portrayed him in a false light; 2) invaded his privacy; 3) and infringed on a copyright based on the…

Bloggers Beware: FTC Fines for Improper Product Endorsements

Tim Manni of the excellent HSH Associates Financial News Blog reports about a new FTC regulation: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a new set of guidelines today that deal with online advertising and endorsements. As a true sign of the times, today’s announcement addresses bloggers  in particular. Fines could be as high as $11,000…

Judge to Google: Disclose Blogger’s Identity

CNN reports of a potentially groundbreaking court ruling ordering Google to identify the IP and email addresses of an anonymous blogger: A model who was slammed with derogatory terms by an anonymous blogger has the right to learn the identity of her online heckler, a judge ruled.Google complied with the court’s ruling, submitting the creator’s IP…

Surtax Talk, Or Around the Taxosphere in 80 Seconds

The hot topic around the taxosphere the last few weeks is the House’s talk of imposing a special surtax on the rich to help pay for healthcare reform. I have written about why I think this idea is absurd and why I think it won’t improve the health of Americans. P.S. It’s already made me sick.…

5 Best Tax Nerd Blogs: The Second Annual Rick Moranis Awards

The Internet is an egalitarian’s paradise.  It has leveled the playing field for professionals of all stripes by allowing the little guy to compete on an equal footing with the big boys. Mostly this is accomplished through blogging.  I have been tracking tax blogs for several years and have discovered for myself that there is nothing equal…

CPA vs. Unenrolled Preparer: Tax Code Requires Good Books and Records

Bill is the author of the tax and financial blog April15.Com. The blog’s tag line is, [P]roviding news and sometimes irreverent commentary on today’s tax and financial issues.  I hate to drag Bill into the ongoing debate about whether and why CPAs are more suited than others to engage in quality tax return preparation, but I really have no choice. That’s because he has…

Rupert Murdoch’s CEO Wants to Criminalize Bad Blogging!

We recently wrote in Death of Blogging and Death of Blogging II about a proposal by the highly revered libertarian, Judge Richard Posner, to eliminate the right of bloggers to include properly attributed quotes and excerpts from mainstream media outlets in their online posts. Now here’s another shot across the blog-bow. This one is from the ubiquitous…

The Death of Blogging?

Slashdot reports today that, An article at TechCrunch discusses a blog post from Richard Posner, a US Court of Appeals judge, about the struggling newspaper industry.   Posner explains why he thinks the newspapers will continue to struggle, and then comes to a rather unusual conclusion:    “Expanding copyright law to bar online access to…