Ugh

by Ugh Let's do this.   Bombing Syria:  good? bad? unknown?  If the last, then good?  Bad?   Who/what would we be acting on behalf of?  The United States/American people?  The United Nations?  Some subset of the latter?  The Assad opposition?  Noble ideals?  A "red line"?  Some of the above?   Perhaps the question I'm … Read more

by Ugh In another edition of "russell asks," he queries why we can't/don't tax wealth rather than income.   There are a number of reasons for this, some better than others.  Let's assume the federal government set a wealth tax at 2%.  First question is: 2% of what.  Presumably of the fair market value of … Read more

by Ugh Reuters reports: A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement … Read more

by Ugh Prosecutors are sort of a strange duck in the lawyer world, as they are not charged by the ABA model rules with putting client interests – i.e., the government – first.  The ABA rule on "special responsibilities" of prosecutors is here, and the comment to the rule is here.   The model rule … Read more

by Ugh It seems that there is a bit of a to do about the information the NSA collects on Americans.  Whether or not this is "legal" – from a statutory or Constitutional perspective – it's a bit troubling. First, it has been done in complete secrecy outside of government officials (until these reports).  Second, … Read more

by Ugh As I noted in a comment, another post on the IRS exempt organizations scandal.  As usual, all the links to everything you would ever want to know about it are available at the taxprof blog, who for some reason is determined to number the days (as if there is going to be some … Read more

by Ugh In this post the role of Theo will be played by the GOP. As most of you have no doubt heard, the IRS has admitted targeting right-leaning organizations applying for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code for extra-scrutiny.  There will be an official Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report … Read more

A month ago a commentor asked about the practice known in the tax community (and more broadly) as "transfer pricing" and reigning in some of its effects.   As background, "transfer pricing" generally (very generally) refers to how to account for transactions between related entities for tax purposes.  That is, if wholly owned subsidiary A … Read more

by Ugh From the front page of today's Wall Street Journal (copying from the paper version – emphasis supplied): The Pentagon has redesigned its biggest "bunker buster" bomb with more advanced features intended to enable it to destroy Iran's most heavily fortified and defended nuclear site. U.S. officials see development of the weapon as critical … Read more

by Ugh O rly? From President Obama's statement last Friday night after the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Massachusetts: One thing we do know is that whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not — cannot — prevail. Whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they've already failed. They failed because the … Read more