March 06, 2012
On THURS., MARCH 8th at 1:00 PM in FURMAN 216, the Graduate Tax Program will host a meeting for all J.D. students interested in learning about the J.D./LL.M in Taxation program and related scholarship opportunities.
At the meeting, we will discuss the following:
• J.D./LL.M. IN TAXATION: Current NYU J.D. students can receive up to 12 credits of LL.M. advanced standing for certain tax courses taken at NYU School of Law and may qualify to obtain a Tax LL.M. with only one additional full-time semester of post-J.D. study. NOTE: For 3Ls who may be interested in this program, THE DEADLINE TO APPLY IS APRIL 2, 2012.
• TAX POLICY FELLOWSHIP: A small number of 3L J.D./LL.M. in Taxation candidates will be selected to spend up to six months as interns at the U.S. Department of the Treasury or the Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation during Summer 2012 and Fall 2012. A stipend is available, absent outside funding. The fellows will complete the LL.M. in Taxation during the Spring 2013 semester and may receive a scholarship for their semester as LL.M. students.
• TAX LAW REVIEW SCHOLARSHIP: The Tax Law Review (TLR), the premier law school journal for tax policy scholarship, often awards a one-half tuition, merit-based scholarship to a J.D./LL.M. student. The winners of the TLR Scholarships serve as student editors, who do cite checking, proofreading, etc. This involves a commitment of approximately 15 hours a week. Students who are eligible to apply are current 2Ls interested in the J.D./LL.M. in Taxation program. A student must have completed Income Taxation and priority will be given to a student who has taken an additional tax course(s).
If you are unable to attend, please feel free to direct any questions to John Stephens, Director of the Graduate Tax Program, at john.stephens@nyu.edu or Professor Joshua Blank, Faculty Director of the Graduate Tax Program, at joshua.blank@nyu.
January 26, 2012
Alumni Tax Luncheon in Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday, February 8 at 12:00 p.m.
Beverly Hills Hotel, Sunset Ballroom,
9641 Sunset Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA
The Office of Alumni Relations invites you to a luncheon for tax alumni in Los Angeles on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 hosted by Charles P. Rettig (LL.M. ’82), principal at Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez, P.C. The event features Professor Joshua Blank who will present a paper titled “Corporate Tax Abuse in the Supreme Court” (co-authored with Professor Nancy Staudt of USC School of Law). Click here to register!
November 18, 2011
On Monday, November 28th, from 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM in Furman Hall Room 216, the Graduate Tax Program will host a discussion titled Accounting for Tax Uncertainty. A brief description is below:
Knowledge of how tax results will be presented in the financial accounts of a business enterprise is a valuable attribute of a tax lawyer. US GAAP contains rules specific to the financial accounting for tax consequences. This lecture will address one of these rules: the financial accounting for uncertain tax positions taken on a return.
David Spencer, ‘99, LL.M. ’00, a tax lawyer at BNP Paribas and Adjunct Professor of Law at NYU Law, will conduct the discussion. Mr. Spencer has worked for the last ten years in both tax and banking, first in the tax department of Sullivan & Cromwell and then as a business-line investment banker with Bank of America, HSBC, Fortis and currently with BNP Paribas. His transactional work has been wide ranging, and has consistently involved the interplay of taxation and tax-intensive transactions with other areas such as accounting, finance, legal, bank regulatory, derivatives, currency, compliance, risk management and operations.
Please RSVP for this event by clicking here.
UPDATE: Video link available here.
October 26, 2011
On Thursday, November 3rd, the Graduate Tax Program will host a reception for the American Association of Attorney-CPAs (AAA-CPA). The AAA-CPA is the only association of professionals who are both attorneys and certified public accountants. This organization has close ties to the Law School, as many of their members are alumni of our program. It will be holding its annual meeting in New York this year and its members would love to meet the students and faculty of the Graduate Tax Program. This should be a great opportunity for you to meet practicing attorneys from all over the country in an informal environment.
The AAA-CPA reception will take place in the Faculty Library of Vanderbilt Hall (3rd floor) on Thursday, November 3rd from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. Wine and cheese and light refreshments will be served. If you would like to participate in this event, please RSVP at the following link as soon as possible: https://its.law.nyu.edu/rsvp/taxevent/20111103/ .
September 27, 2011
Prof. Reuven Avi-Yonah
On Tuesday, October 4th, from 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM, in Greenberg Lounge, Vanderbilt Hall (40 Washington Square South) the Graduate Tax Program will host a panel discussion titled “The Future of Corporate Tax Reform.”
Corporate tax integration, the elimination of a two-tiered system of business taxation, is a perennial topic of discussion among tax scholars and practitioners alike. At this event, Professor Reuven Avi-Yonah, University of Michigan Law School, will present a new proposal regarding the tax treatment of corporate dividends. Professor Dan Shaviro, NYU School of Law, and Deborah Paul, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, will provide commentary. Professor Deborah Schenk, NYU School of Law, will moderate the discussion.
Please RSVP for the event by clicking here .
Light refreshments will be served. Please feel free to bring your lunch.
September 26, 2011
Dr. Jeffrey Owens
On Tues., September 27th at 6:00 PM, Dr. Jeffrey Owens, Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD, will deliver the 16th Annual David R. Tillinghast Lecture on International Taxation.
Dr. Owens’s lecture is titled “”Tax Competition: To Welcome or Not?” Dr. Owens will deliver the lecture in Greenberg Lounge (1st floor of Vanderbilt Hall). This year’s lecture will be dedicated to the memory of Professor James S. Eustice, who passed away earlier this year.
The Tillinghast lectures are presented through the cooperation of NYU School of Law and the New York law firm Baker & McKenzie to honor David R. Tillinghast , a partner in the firm and a leading international tax lawyer. To register to attend the event, please click here .
Update: A video of the event is available here .
September 06, 2011
The Hon. David Gustafson
On Monday, Sept. 12, 2011, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM, in Lipton Hall, D’Agostino Hall (110 W. 3rd Street), the Federal Bar Association Section on Taxation, in partnership with the Graduate Tax Program will host a discussion with Hon. David Gustafson of the U.S. Tax Court. The talk will be followed by a reception featuring wine and cheese. The program will be introduced by Professor Blank and will be moderated by Brian Power of Mayer Brown LLP and Timothy Mulvey of White & Case LLP.
Please RSVP by September 9, 2011 to Jenny Bosak at jbosak@fedbar.org or (571) 481-9118.
August 26, 2011
During the week of August 29th, we will welcome all incoming Tax LL.M. students at the following tax orientation events (NOTE: Tax orientation events originally scheduled to take place on Monday, August 29th have been rescheduled to Tuesday, August 30th as a result of the suspension of New York City mass transit due to Hurricane Irene):
- Tax Alumni Advising Breakfast (Tuesday, August 30th, 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM, Lipton Hall and the Faculty Club, D’Agostino Hall, 110 West 3rd Street). Recent alumni of the Graduate Tax Program will join us for a light breakfast to answer your questions and offer advice. The atmosphere will be casual, so feel free to stay for all or part of the event. This event is open to all Tax LL.M. students.
- Tax Faculty Advisor Lunch (Tuesday, August 30th, 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, Lipton Hall and the Faculty Club, D’Agostino Hall, 110 West 3rd Street). All full-time Tax LL.M. students have been assigned a faculty advisor. At this lunch, you will have a chance to meet the tax faculty. This event is open to full-time Tax LL.M. students only.
- Tax Specialization Meeting (Tuesday, August 30th, 3:40 PM to 5:00 PM, Greenberg Lounge, 1st Floor of Vanderbilt Hall). This session will address degree requirements, course selection and the tax job market, among other topics. This session is mandatory for all full-time Tax LL.M. students.
- Tax Welcome Reception (Tuesday, August 30th, 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, Greenberg Lounge, 1st Floor of Vanderbilt Hall). Shortly after the tax specialization meeting, we will welcome you with a wine and cheese reception. This will also be a great opportunity for you to meet your classmates. This event is open to all Tax LL.M. students.
- Tax Research Workshop (Thursday, September 1, 12:30PM – 1:30 PM, Furman Hall Room 216). At this workshop, Professor Joshua Blank will provide an overview of helpful tax research tools that you can use as students at NYU and during your careers as practicing tax lawyers. He will also provide general advice regarding class and exam preparation. This event is open to all Tax LL.M. students. Full-time Tax LL.M. students are strongly encouraged to attend.
August 15, 2011
Congratulations to Ezra Prager, LL.M. ’11, who has been awarded the 2011 David H. Moses Prize by the Law School. The Moses Prize is awarded annually to the member of the LL.M. class (tax and non-tax) with the highest academic average. In addition, Prager has won the 2011 Harry J. Rudick Memorial Award for distinction in the Graduate Tax Program.
August 08, 2011
Douglas Wick
Congratulations to Douglas Wick LL.M. ’11, the winner of the 2011 David F. Bradford Memorial Prize for Best Paper in Taxation. The Bradford Prize is dedicated to the memory of David F. Bradford, who taught at Princeton University and NYU School of Law. Doug’s paper is titled “The Tax Policy Implications of Endowment-Type Taxes”. He wrote it during the 2010-11 academic year as a directed research project under the guidance of Dan Shaviro, Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation, NYU School of Law.
June 15, 2011
NYU Law’s International Tax Program (ITP) has announced the formation of the Practice Council, a new organization that will serve in an advisory and supporting capacity for the ITP. Its members, distinguished tax practitioners from 15 countries, will promote the ITP throughout the world, provide assistance in recruiting students and global faculty, participate in seminars and other programs at the Law School, help with fundraising and scholarship efforts, and advise on curriculum development. It will meet once a year, usually in New York. “We expect great things from the new Practice Council,” says ITP director David Rosenbloom. “It will bolster our educational efforts in many ways.”
The ITP provides full-time, foreign-trained students a firm grounding in the U.S. international tax system and offers multiple courses that reflect the globalization of tax law principles and practices. It draws students from around the world – participants to date have come from 40 countries.
April 28, 2011
James S. Eustice
The Graduate Tax Program and NYU Law mourn the loss of James Eustice (LL.M. ’58), Gerald L. Wallace Professor of Taxation Emeritus, who passed away on April 26. “Jim was a legendary figure in the field of tax law and a beloved member of the Law School community since he joined our faculty in 1960,” Dean Richard Revesz said in a memo to the NYU Law community. “A distinguished scholar, Jim’s treatise on corporate tax law has long been viewed as the authoritative work on the subject, widely cited by the Supreme Court and regularly used by academics and practitioners. He was deeply committed to the Law School during his more than five decades here, teaching thousands of students in almost every tax course available. After retirement, he remained dedicated to his work as of counsel at the firm of Cooley LLP, where he founded the tax department in 1970, and continued to teach at the Law School. He was co-teaching Taxation of Affiliated Corporations this spring, and remained active and engaged to the very end.” He was 78.
Some of his colleagues at the Law School have offered these thoughts:
“I feel a sense of great loss, both professionally and personally. Jim was a true giant in the field of federal taxation and will be sorely missed. In addition, he was not only my teacher and colleague, but also my very good friend.” – Noël Cunningham, Professor of Law
“There can be no question about Jim’s enduring contribution to the academy and the tax world. Say B&E to any tax lawyer and they will know instantly to whom you are referring. He was the author of a book that is on every tax lawyer’s desk, in every law library, and read by generations of corporate tax students. His treatise on corporate taxation (Bittker & Eustice) is the first place everyone looks for an answer to any corporate tax question and, I say to my students, if the answer isn’t there, there is no answer.” – Deborah Schenk, Marilynn and Ronald Grossman Professor of Law
“To me, Jim broke the mold in tax academe, along the lines Larry Bird did in basketball–different, even peculiar, stubborn, relentlessly independent, dignified but occasionally fond of zany adventure, quietly friendly, kind-hearted, devilishly funny to those he knew well, extremely bright and hard-working, committed to professional excellence, loyal, and ultimately, with self-knowledge but not arrogance, in a class very few could join. Underneath the seemingly shy, stolid exterior was an always churning, even introspective mind. He surprised me on the occasion of our last visit by sharing, in very un-Jim style, some thoughts on his life. I will miss him.” – John Steines, Professor of Law
“Jim was a brilliant, hardworking and kind colleague. Each evening, on his way to many hours of updating his famous treatise, he would stop at my office door – wearing his tracksuit and “NYU Tax” hat and carrying his trademark pipe – to say hello and, often, share some tax-related humor. The fourth floor of Vanderbilt Hall will never be the same without him.” – Joshua D. Blank, Associate Professor of the Practice of Tax Law
April 22, 2011
Leandra Lederman
On Thursday, April 21, Leandra Lederman (Indiana-Bloomington) presented Hold the Mayo: What Respect Should Courts Accord Tax Regulations and Rulings Issued During Litigation? at the NYU Tax Policy Colloquium convened by Daniel Shaviro, NYU School of Law, and Mihir Desai, Harvard Business School. Here is the abstract:
The question of how much deference courts should accord agency interpretations of statutes is a high-profile and important issue that affects both rulemaking and case outcomes. What level of deference should courts accord an agency regulation or other rule that an agency has issued opportunistically, during the course of related litigation? This important question has arisen in numerous cases, including the 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research v. United States, a case involving a Treasury regulation.
To answer the question, the Article analyzes the law on judicial deference to tax authorities generally, as well as specific to the context of pending litigation. It concludes that deference under the famous case of Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. applies to all Treasury regulations issued in accordance with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. It further argues that Revenue Rulings — formal guidance issued by the IRS — should receive deference under Skidmore v. Swift & Co. Following an analysis of the literature and applicable case law, the Article proposes that rulings issued during the controversy receive the applicable level of deference (Chevron or Skidmore), but that the deference inquiry take into account the retroactivity and surprise issues raised by the timing of the agency’s guidance.
April 16, 2011
Joshua Blank
On Thursday, April 14, Joshua Blank, NYU School of Law, presented In Defense of Tax Privacy, 61 Emory L.J. ___ (2011), at the NYU Tax Policy Colloquium. The co-convenors of the Colloquium are Daniel Shaviro, Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation, NYU School of Law, and Mihir Desai, Harvard Business School. A brief abstract is below:
The debate over whether tax privacy—a set of statutory rules that prohibits the federal government from publicly releasing any taxpayer’s tax return—promotes individual tax compliance is as old as the income tax itself. It dates back to the Civil War and resurfaces often, especially when the government seeks innovative ways to collect tax revenue more effectively. For over 150 years, the tax privacy debate has followed predictable patterns. Throughout the long history of this debate, both sides have fixated on the question of how a taxpayer would comply with the tax system if he knew other taxpayers could see his personal tax return. Neither side, however, has addressed the converse question: how would seeing other taxpayers’ returns affect whether a taxpayer complies? This Article probes that unexplored question and, in doing so, offers a new defense of tax privacy: that tax privacy enables the government to manipulate taxpayers’ perceptions of its tax enforcement capabilities by publicizing specific examples of its tax enforcement strengths without exposing specific examples of its tax enforcement weaknesses. Because salient examples may implicate well-known cognitive biases, this “manipulation function” of tax privacy can cause taxpayers to develop an inflated perception of the government’s ability to detect tax offenses, punish their perpetrators and compel all but a few outliers to comply. Without the curtain of tax privacy, by contrast, taxpayers could see specific examples of the government’s tax enforcement weaknesses that would contradict this perception. After considering this new defense of tax privacy in the context of deterrence and reciprocity models of taxpayer behavior, I argue that the manipulation function of tax privacy likely encourages individuals to report their taxes properly and that it should be exploited to enhance voluntary compliance.
A complete list of the Tax Policy Colloquium presentations for the rest of the Spring 2011 semester is available here.
April 10, 2011
On April 7, Jennifer Blouin (University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School) presented Is U.S. Multinational Intra-Firm Dividend Policy Influenced By Reporting Incentives? (with Linda K. Krull (University of Oregon, Lundquist College of Business) & Leslie A. Robinson (Dartmouth College, Tuck School of Business)) at the NYU Tax Policy Colloquium convened by Daniel Shaviro (NYU) and Mihir Desai (Harvard Business School). Here is the abstract:
This study finds evidence that public-company reporting by U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) creates disincentives to repatriate foreign earnings. MNCs operate under U.S. international tax laws and financial reporting rules and face two potential consequences when they repatriate foreign earnings: a cash payment for repatriation tax and a reduction in reported accounting earnings. Using a confidential dataset of financial and operating characteristics of foreign affiliates of MNCs combined with public company data over a six year period, we find evidence that reporting incentives have a negative effect on the amount of foreign earnings repatriated by MNCs. This is the first empirical study of repatriation amounts to show that financial reporting is an important factor in the repatriation decision of U.S. MNCs.
April 06, 2011
On Tuesday, April 12 from 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM in Vanderbilt Hall Room 216, the Graduate Tax Program will host an event titled “Anti-Abuse Tax Rules: A Global Perspective.” This event will consider recent developments in the enactment of general anti-abuse rules, such as the economic substance doctrine, in jurisdictions around the globe, including the UK, Europe and the US.
Moderator, Professor Joshua Blank, NYU School of Law
Light refreshments (coffee and cookies) will be served.
April 01, 2011
On Thursday, April 7, 2011 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM in Vanderbilt Hall Room 204, the Graduate Tax Program will host its 2nd Annual Tax Movie Night! This year’s tax movie night is titled From Ralph Kramden to Homer Simpson: Tax Compliance Attitudes in Sitcoms. Professor Lawrence Zelenak from Duke Law School will join us as a special guest speaker. During this event, we will watch excerpts from four different television sitcom episodes involving tax compliance, spanning four decades (the excerpts are from: The Honeymooners, All in the Family, Roseanne and The Simpsons). Following the viewing (about 75 minutes), Professor Zelenak will deliver a presentation on public attitudes toward tax compliance and we will have a Q&A discussion. Refreshments, including popcorn, will be served.
This event is open to all current NYU Law students, faculty and alumni. To RSVP, please click here.
March 30, 2011
Stephen Mazza
The University of Kansas has named Stephen W. Mazza (LL.M. ’93) as dean of its School of Law
Mazza has been interim dean since July 1, 2010. Mazza joined the KU law faculty in 1998. An honors graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law, he received his master of laws degree from New York University School of Law, where he was managing editor of the Tax Law Review. After practicing in the tax section of a large Atlanta law firm, he returned to NYU as an acting assistant professor.
The announcement from the University of Kansas is available here.
