"...the IRS' 'generosity' toward companies that produce, and burn, black liquor as part of their pulp-making operations has caught the eye of Congress, writes Jeremiah Coder of Tax Analysts."

"'Ultimately, durable tax reform happens when it must, not when it should. It happens when old taxes just can't keep up anymore -- not with fiscal demands, not with changes in the economy,' writes Joseph J. Thorndike, of the Tax History Project at Tax Analysts, a nonprofit publisher of tax information."

"...if we don't adjust for what we've done over the last 10 years, it's going to damage our society...all the Bush tax cuts were financed with borrowed money, 100 percent borrowed money -- $2.4 trillion of borrowed money since 2001. And the interest alone on that equaled all the income taxes that you and I and everyone else in America paid in January and February of this year."

"...A second possibility, which avoids the messy problem of constitutional tinkering, is to outsource tax policy. Martin Sullivan, an economist and contributing editor at Tax Analysts, a publisher in Falls Church, Virginia, has been promoting, or dreaming about, such an idea for a while. 'What would it be like if the government conducted tax policy as it does monetary policy?' Sullivan says."

"According to Sam Young of Tax Analysts, several tax professionals have expressed concern over the Tax Court's recent decision in Canal Corporation v. Commissioner."

"According to Tax Analysts' Tax History Project, lawmakers back then preferred an emergency property tax like the one they instituted during the War of 1812. But the Constitution required the federal government to apportion the burden among states on the basis of population rather than property values."

"'Sales tax holidays are the world's greatest political gimmick,' said David Brunori, contributing editor of State Tax Notes, a publication of nonprofit organization Tax Analysts. 'People don't save near as much as people think they'll save.'"

"Christopher Bergin reports that President Obama is nudging Rep. Rangel out the door."

"'We're looking at September, because I think September, October, the fiscal crisis and pressures on the states will be such an order of magnitude that we're going to have to do something,' Delahunt told Tax Analysts. 'We have to let the states help themselves.'"

"Tax.com was designed to help the average American taxpayer make sense of the tax system through well-researched articles and opinion posts."

"The repatriation holiday produced a windfall gain for companies with large amounts of accumulated earnings in low-tax countries," wrote economist Martin A. Sullivan, and Lee A. Sheppard in an article analyzing the tax break's impact for Tax Analysts, a provider of tax information."

"Christopher Bergin, the president and publisher of Tax Analysts, makes an interesting observation about the rhetoric the Obama administration has been evoking in its efforts to end some of the Bush tax cuts [see Tax.com post "Tax Class Warfare -- It's Not About Luck," July 27, 2010].

"In addition to anecdotal evidence from practitioners, and the revelations from court cases, economic data from a variety of sources indicate inappropriate profit shifting occurring on a large scale. By 'inappropriate' I mean the perfectly legal but economically indefensible assignment of profits to subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions."

"Pelosi stood by Rangel for months as misconduct allegations were investigated, in part because choosing a successor would be so difficult, said Christopher Bergin, chief executive of Tax Analysts, a Falls Church, Virginia, publisher of tax information."

"Transocean, the company that owns the oil drilling platform where the gulf leak occurred, moved its headquarters from Houston to Switzerland to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It still has 1,300 people in Houston, and about 12 in Switzerland. It saved $1.8 billion in taxes, according to a study by Martin A. Sullivan, an economist for the trade publication Tax Analysts."

Taxes are indeed the price of civilization. Tax Analysts' Martin A. Sullivan emphasizes that rampant tax evasion has exacerbated Greece's national deficit.

"Of course, there is a 'death incentive' whenever Congress raises the estate tax. But it hasn't happened in decades; the top rate has held steady or fallen since 1942, according to tax historian JosephThorndike of Tax Analysts, a nonprofit group. In fact, the jump from zero to 55% would be 'the largest increase in a major tax that we've ever seen,' Mr. Thorndike says."

"A recent study by Martin A. Sullivan, an economist for the trade publication Tax Analysts, found that the five oil drilling companies that had undergone these corporate inversions had saved themselves a total of $4 billion in taxes since 1999."

"Chris Bergin, President and Publisher of Tax Analysts, provides his perspective on July 4th:...'In the United States of America, taxes are what citizens pay for a civilized society. This means that each and every one of us has a say in how much tax we pay and where the revenue from what we pay should go. In these tough times, knowledge is the greatest currency, especially when it comes to our money.'"

"Tax Notes Today reports that some U.S. owners of HSBC accounts are receiving letters from DOJ Tax Criminal Section advising that they are targets of criminal investigations with respect to their offshore accounts. Jeremiah Coder, 'HSBC Clients Under Criminal Investigation,' 2010 TNT 128-1 (7/6/10)."

"A recent study by Martin A. Sullivan, an economist for the trade publication Tax Analysts, found that the five oil drilling companies that had undergone these 'corporate inversions' had saved themselves a total of $4 billion in taxes since 1999."

"'I believe that it is unseemly in this country to encourage people to turn in their neighbors and employers to the IRS as contemplated by this particular program,' Korb, now a lawyer in private practice, said in a January interview with the publication Tax Notes. 'The IRS didn't ask for these rules; they were forced on it by the Congress,' he said."

"The scam was brought to light this week in Tax Notes, a news magazine for tax experts, in a piece by Pulitzer-Prize winning former New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston. It is also available free at tax.com."

"David Cay Johnston [Tax Analysts columnist] on a regulatory rule that forces you to pay other people's taxes."

"...Martin Sullivan, contributing editor of Tax Analysts, has calculated just how much money Transocean saved by avoiding U.S. taxes. The grand total since 2002: $1.88 billion."

"Europeans did not immediately welcome the VAT, according to Robert Goulder, an editor who tracks VAT issues for Tax Analysts, based in Falls Church, Va. 'European consumers initially complained about higher prices, but those grievances went away pretty quickly. The implementation caused big headaches, however, for European merchants. All commercial enterprises, including small-scale operators, were forced to track inventory and account for every purchase of inputs and retail sale. That was long before the age of computers, optical barcodes, and inventory software."

"...as tax.com's David Brunori notes, these fiscal troubles cannot be fixed by donations from rich people alone. They probably can't even be fixed by new, mandatory taxes on rich people alone -- which is why a broader-based tax like a value-added tax may be in the country's future."

"Tax Analysts, www.taxanalysts.com, is a worldwide leader in tax news and analysis. Their spokesperson Chris Bergin points out that the huge deficit the United States is running is changing the dynamics. 'The IRS is under political pressure to close what's called the 'tax gap' (the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid) and go after people who are not paying their taxes."

"According to an analysis of Transocean's public filing by Tax Notes, moving these executives' offices has helped to cut its tax rate from 31.6 percent to almost 17 percent, a reduction of 15 percent."

"Tax Notes magazine, a weekly journal published by Tax Analysts, said Transocean's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show it cut its overall global tax rate to 16.9 percent in 2009 from 31.6 percent a decade earlier after moving from Houston."

"Martin A. Sullivan of Tax Analysts has another of his astonishing reports out entitled 'Oil Drillers Gain Billions From 'Immoral' Tax Break.'"

"Chris Bergin, publisher of Tax Analysts, says the IRS is under the gun to capture more of that lost revenue. 'We're running huge deficits, We've got an enormous debt,' said Bergin. 'The IRS is under political pressure to close what's called the "tax gap" and go after people who are not paying their taxes.'"

"Those who want their insights bite-sized should check out As Certain as Death: Quotations About Taxes. This is the second edition of a work compiled by Jeffery Yablon and published by the respected nonprofit group Tax Analysts (free, while supplies last, at www.taxanalysts.com)."

"VATs 'often generate half of a country's public revenues,' says Robert Goulder of Tax Analysts, a nonprofit publisher of tax-policy magazines. In France, for instance, the VAT accounts for 52% of the money the government collects. 'Most of the 150 countries that have a VAT would be fiscally crippled without it,' Goulder says."

"House and Senate Democrats differ about just how broadly the carried interest change should be applied. Senate Democrats, for instance, are pushing to exempt venture capital firms, according to Tax Analysts."

Martin Sullivan, tax economist and Tax Analysts contributing editor, was interviewed on World News with Diane Sawyer

"According to John Buhl of Tax Analysts, the compromise is that vendors would recieve 0.9% of receipts in states that have just one sales tax in the state, and 1.0% in states with local sales taxes in addition to the state sales tax."

Minnesota Senator Thomas M. Bakk quoted from Tax Analysts State Tax Notes during a recent floor session.

"Former New York Times tax reporter David Cay Johnston, writing in September for the publication Tax Notes, recounted his struggles to obtain from the Treasury Department documents the IRS had prepared for the Obama transition team."

Recent article "A Ransom Note to America," published May 6, 2010 on Tax Analysts Tax.com site, is included on The New York Times' Economix reading list.

"David Cay Johnston's latest Tax Notes commentary...addresses one of my favorite topics. In his commentary, Johnston calls attention to the adverse impact on the tax policy debate of the huge amounts of misinformation being delivered by news organizations, politicians, and the tea party movement."

"David Cay Johnston, a former reporter for The New York Times who is now a columnist for Tax Notes, a nonprofit publisher of tax information, finds that the Internal Revenue Service is relatively well-liked, at least compared with some other prominent political figures and organizations."

"...the International Monetary Fund is expected to propose two financial sector taxes later this week at a G20 meeting to pay for future bailouts and deter risk taking, according to Tax Analysts."

"The Obamas' tax return indicates that they gave about 6 percent of their income to charity, which is well above the national average. [Marty Sullivan, Contributing Editor, Tax Analysts]"

"Most economists agree the VAT is efficient: it raises lots of revenue. There are 140 countries with 'successful VATS,' says Robert Goulder, a tax attorney at Tax Analysts, a publisher in Falls Church, Virginia. Success is defined as 'an ATM machine for the public sector,' he says. 'You have to cut spending as well.'"

Chris Bergin, President and Publisher, Tax Analysts, discussed the Tea Party movement and taxes.

"Their $5.5 million, coming largely from royalties from President Obama's book, was more than four times what George H.W. Bush earned in 1991 ($1.3 million) and more than five times what Bill Clinton made in 1996 (1.1 million), according to documents amassed by [Tax Analysts] Tax History Project."

"The Tax History Project was established by Tax Analysts in 1995 to provide scholars, policymakers, students, the media, and citizens with information about the history of American taxation. The project pursues its mission through a program of web-based documentary publication and original historical research."

"[Joseph] Thorndike, who is also director of the Tax History Project at the nonprofit group Tax Analysts, says many people seem to think the Boston Tea Party was a protest about high taxes. But it wasn't; he says it was about that famous phrase in fourth-grade history books: 'No taxation without representation.'"

"According to a recent essay on the VAT in Tax Notes by Robert Carroll and Alan Viard, a VAT is used by all OECD nations other than the U.S. and by at least 145 nations around the world."

"'The Boston Tea Party was certainly a tax protest, but it was not a protest against high taxes. In fact, it was sparked by a tax cut, not a tax hike.'...Find more interesting factoids about this cultural touchstone, by Joseph J. Thorndike at Tax Analysts [http://taxhistory.tax.org/]."

"Some quotes about taxes, some famous and others not so famous. You can find the whole book As Certain as Death, Quotations About Taxes by Jeffery L. Yablon] of quotes here [http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/freefiles.nsf/Files/Yablon2010.pdf/$file/Yablon2010.pdf]"

"Only 10% of about 300 of such [pro se] cases were decided in the defendant’s favor in 2009, according to Tax Analysts, a nonprofit tax news and analysis firm in Falls Church, Virginia."

"Indeed, the magnitude of the changes required is 'nothing short of earthshaking,' Martin Sullivan, contributing editor at Tax Analysts, wrote in Tax Notes.

"While mired in tax filing hell this week, I recommend giving the 1040 and pencil a break and taking some time to flip through As Certain as Death, Quotations About Taxes, a new Tax Analysts book released today which contains a collaboration of amusing, famous and pithy quotes (and lyrics) on taxes."

Martin Sullivan, Contributing Editor, Tax Analysts, discussed corporate taxes.

"'An Inconvenient Tax,' [featuring Tax Analysts Contributing Editor Lee Sheppard and Contributing Editor and Director of the Tax History Project Joseph Thorndike] a new horror film about the American tax system, opens next week."

" In honor of Tax Day, I'd like to recommend a new book to you: As Certain As Death: Quotations About Taxes. It's a labor of love (or possibly hate) compiled over more than 30 years by Jeff Yablon, a tax partner in the Washington office of the Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman law firm...I rarely use this space to plug any sort of product, but I'm shilling for this book because it's noncommercial, as well as amusing and occasionally educational. The book, published by Tax Analysts, a nonprofit group, goes out next week to subscribers of Tax Notes and the group's other publications. The rest of us can get it online next week at tax.com and taxanalysts.com.

"....preparing a tax return is, and will problably always be, a miserable process. Even for experts. 'Look at me,' says Christopher Bergin, the president of Tax Analysts, a leading tax publisher. 'I have loved taxes ever since my first day of law school. I even love paying them. but I dread -- really dread -the process.'"

"The contrast between recent and historical wartime tax policy is the subject of War and Taxes, the provocative and fascinating new book by tax scholars Steven A. Bank, Kirk J. Stark, and Joseph J. Thorndike."

"'I am not a fan of all of Obama's proposals but I think overall they're a winner because they attack the worst abuses of our systems of arm's-length transfer pricing with a backstop, a sort of minimum tax, on high-value intangibles parked in tax havens,' says former U.S Treasury department economist Martin Sullivan, who has written hundreds of tax-related articles for Tax Notes and Tax Notes International."

"In 2007, North Dakota and its local subdivisions collected nearly $700 million in property taxes. That's a big hole to leave in the budget, as David Brunori of Tax Analysts wrote earlier this week."

"'The bill [Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act] is a huge step in the right direction because you cannot imagine how negligent we were with this stuff for years and years,' said Lee Sheppard, contributing editor of Tax Notes, a tax journal in Washington. 'We're getting serious about tax enforcement on cross-border investment flows in a way that we never have before.'"

"'The British treat everyone as an individual filer, and the French often do, while the Japanese tax system is mostly return-free,' says Robert Goulder, an international expert with Tax Analysts."

"'Mind boggling' is the term Martin Sullivan of Tax Analysts uses to describe the tax spending changes that would have to occur just to get the deficit down to 3 percent of GDP."

"Tax Analysts also sponsors the informative site Tax.com, which it says seeks 'to improve federal, state, and international tax systems, and to make tax administration more transparent.'"

"...you can see presidential tax returns and other historical tax documents at Tax Analysts' Tax History Project. There you can scrutinize the latest income tax returns of President Obama and Vice President Biden, as well as Sarah Palin's returns for 2006 and 2007. You can even look up Franklin Delano Roosevelt's return from nearly 100 years ago."

"“I think he [Representative Richard Neal, D-MA] would be best leader from a tax standpoint,’’ said Christopher Bergin, president and publisher of Tax Analysts, a tax policy nonprofit. Neal is chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures.

"Several factors make it difficult for Pelosi, who became speaker in 2007, to strip Rangel of his chairmanship in keeping with her hard line on ethics, said Christopher Bergin, chief executive of Tax Analysts, a Falls Church, Virginia, publisher of tax information."

"In a recent paper published in Tax Notes, James Madison University professors William VanDenburgh and Nancy Nichols called Gates' and Buffett's stances 'hypocritical.' They wrote: 'Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are vocal advocates for higher estate taxes, but they are mostly avoiding estate taxes while leaving their family members with highly tax-advantaged billion-dollar foundations.'"

"This could create a 'tremendous windfall' for companies with high turnover, such as retailers, restaurants and hotels, says Martin Sullivan, an economist and contributing editor to Tax Analysts. A company that loses 30 percent of its workforce could reap big tax benefits just by replacing them without increasing its head count. In this respect the bill creates an illusion of job growth, he said."

"The 400 highest-earning U.S. households reported an average of $345 million in income in 2007, up 31 percent from a year earlier, IRS statistics show. The average tax rate for the households fell to the lowest in almost 20 years...The data were previously reported by Tax.com, a blog run by Virginia publisher Tax Analysts."

"The earnings of the 400 highest-income Americans hit new highs in 2007 while the tax rates they paid hit new lows, according to a recent IRS report. Former New York Times tax reporter David Cay Johnston reported the findings of the newly uncovered report for Tax Analysts."

"..in 2007 the Texas State Legislature passed a law requiring a $5 -per-person tax on strip club patrons....Other states have levied, or have tried to levy, similar 'pole taxes'; David Brunori [Executive Vice President of Editorial Operations, Tax Analysts] has compiled a list ['Earning Money From Naked Ladies Dancing,' published on Tax.com, 2/16/2010]"

"Do states have another viable option to get vendors to collect sales tax on their remote sales? Some officials with the New York Taxation and Finance Department apparently believe so. In a recent article published by Tax Analysts/Falls Church, VA., department deputy commissioners Robert Plattner and Daniel Smirlock and tax counsel Mary Ellen Ladoeceur wrote that an alternative to the SSTP must be found, and the nexus standard enacted by the Quill decision is outdated now thanks to technology."

"A look at the common arguments against paying taxes, and the Internal Revenue Service's response [discussed in "Tax Creeps," written by Tax Analysts President and Publisher, Chris Bergin, and published on Tax.com, 2/9/2010]]

"Featured speakers at a Feb. 5 Tax Analysts panel said that federal legislation would be preferable to states pursuing their own 'Amazon' laws to ensure the collection of remote sales on internet transactions, but disagreed whether such legislation is viable in Congress."

"Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX):...There's great question about the particular [jobs tax credit] proposal for $33 billion that the administration has advanced. Marty Sullivan, a former Treasury Department economist, I think put it most succinctly in saying, 'The general consensus among tax experts is that the credit is a stinker because it simply encourages people to do what they would have done anyway.'"

"Under the Obama proposal, people in the top two tax brackets would pay 20 percent on capital gains and qualified dividends compared to 15 percent in recent years. People in lower tax brackets would continue to pay 0 or 15 percent depending on their income. This proposed change would apply to people whether they are paying regular tax or AMT, according to Jeremiah Coder, a contributing editor with Tax Analysts."

"The arrival of 2010 prompts a question: who were the most influential people in the state and local tax world over the last 10 years? State Tax Notes provides the answer in this week's column by contributing editor David Brunori."

"Tax Analysts has published an article by Meg Shreve reporting on the lobbying efforts of prominent law and accounting firms to shape tax legilsation. Shreve reports that McGuire Woods LLP and Patton Boggs LLP have been retained by a group that is self-described as 'dedicated to the elimination of the estate and gift taxes.'"

"Calling the announcement 'a shock and awe' move, Jeremiah Coder, a contributing editor for Tax Analysts, a non-profit that studies tax issues, said some large firms would mount a 'pushback' to the IRS' justification for the disclosure."

"Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) have published an op-ed in the New York Times, A Payroll Tax Break for Jobs...Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts) disagrees in Sorry, Payroll Tax Break Proposal is a Loser."

"In 2009, individuals won only about 10 percent of about 300 such cases, according to data from Tax Analysts, a group that fights for tax-system transparency and since 1972 has won a series of freedom-of-information cases against the IRS."

"Chris Bergin, the president of Tax Analysts, predicts Obama will have to break his promise. He says in the future, several White-House-backed proposals will hit middle-class pocketbooks."

"Both the IRS's actions and her reactions are typical, says Christopher Bergin, president of Tax Analysts, a group that fights for tax-system transparency and since 1972 has won a series of freedom-of-information cases against the IRS. 'Without doing anything illegal, they muscled her. That's what they do. The pressure can be terrifying.' he says."

"Will Congress end the estate-tax mess next year? 'Based on the Senate's child-like behavior over health care, I wouldn't accept 50-50 odds [that it will act],' says Christopher Bergin, president and publisher of Tax Analysts, a leading provider of tax news. He thinks the lawmakers have disgraced themselves: 'They've allowed a law on the books since 1916 to expire and allowed the estate-tax area to fall into absolute chaos.'"

"Tax Analysts has named its Tax Person of the Year: Bradley Birkenfeld, the whistleblower in the UBS offshore tax shelter case."

"As Martin A. Sullivan explains in his cover piece in this week's Tax Notes, the weekly journal on federal taxation, those with adjusted gross incomes (AGIs) of over $10 million a year actually pay a lower effective rate than those with AGIs between $1 million and $2 million."