Hey #lawfedi folks, in case you missed it over the weekend we started up a #Lemmy (read: fediverse #Reddit) instance for esq.social. It is under the broader esq.social umbrella, but you needn't be a member of our #Mastodon instance to join, post, comment, peruse, browse, lurk, etc.
If you like(d) the idea of Reddit /r/lawyers but are trying to move towards decentralized and #fediverse stuff, we think you'll dig it.
If you've read of concerns about #Lemmy instances and trolls/problematic content/etc. elsewhere, fear not. For now we aren't federating our instance, so we're limited to just what we post and who we let join.
That means we need more word of mouth to get up and running, but I think will lead to a better batch of folks and content than throwing the doors open to every other instance.
That might change, but for now we're a little walled garden.
“If a database existed containing the income and tax details of every tax filer in the country, whom would you investigate first? Your boss, colleagues, or those you consider economically similar to yourself?
Would knowing that others could see that you had accessed their tax records affect your choice?”
@andrew@law in Italy for a long time anyone could ask for anyone's tax records, they were considered public records like corporate balance sheets or land parcels. But you needed to go in person to request paper. When digitization happened, they also added a portal so anyone could request with the tax ID (which is composed from name, gender, date and place of birth). Lasted less than a week before they shut it down.
Question for fellow #lawyers who practice in the areas of marketing and advertising in the U.S.:
Have there been any enforcement actions arising out of the FTC's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising that do not involve fraud, e.g., for simply failing to state that a social media post by an influencer was sponsored?
I know they send out warning letters but I have not found anything that resulted in any sort of penalty. TIA
Weds 8/23 - Perkins Coie Sued Over #DEI, JPMorgan Bigwigs Sentenced, WV Denied Cert in CFPB Case, Meta Problems in Norway and WGA Strike Updates
We have #PerkinsCoie sued over diversity initiatives, former head of #JPMorgan’s precious metals trading desk sentenced, #WV denied cert in #CFPB case, #Meta in trouble in #Norway and #WGA strike updates
In this week's column, I make the case for subsidizing clean electric energy to grow the hydrogen economy.
“The future of the planet rests on our ability to shift away from fossil fuels and toward clean and renewable energy sources. But it’s nearly as clear that tax policy’s role isn’t to choose winners and losers from among the renewable energy technology options.”
In light of the political realities, I also am slowly adopting a sort of "spend before we raise it" mentality with must-haves like clean energy.
We live in a society where if something "needs" (politically) to be paid for, it is. The money is found or printed.
So if raising the revenue is politically untenable on the supply side, i.e. taxes on fossil fuels, let's make it necessary on the demand side, i.e. outlays to clean energy initiatives.
@andrew@law That's not unreasonable, given that Americans, and our politicians, would much prefer to enact cool policies w/o actually paying for them. Better to run up deficits and let our kids worry about the bill.
I wonder if taxes could be made revenue neutral - impose a gas tax which, say, brings in $5bn in revenue. Then distribute that revenue per capita back to the public, so someone who actually does cut back makes money, and someone who doesn't at least breaks even.
In the unlikely event anyone following me or seeing this via boost (o hai #lawfedi) is in the undergraduate program at Drexel Kline School of Law (or maybe an undergrad period? maybe you can take it?) you should sign up for my class:
LAW T380 - Intro to Tax Theory and Policy
I've been putting a lot of thought in to it, and I think it'll be an interesting semester.
Alternatively, if you are in the JD program at Drexel Kline, I invite you to take Business Organizations. I know the professor, and it will most assuredly be a great semester.
Hey #lawfedi friends, every day a new person in #law or #legal adjacent fields joints the #fediverse and isn't aware of Lawstodon - the legal community directory for #Mastodon (and eventually the fediverse more broadly).
Feel free to add yourself, claim your profile, etc. I have been using it when I send recommendations for folks looking for practitioners in specific practice areas and it works a treat!
Just in time to read to your children on the eve of whatever December holiday you may or may not celebrate. It literally works equally well for all of them.
"Allowing refundable credits to be treated as income rather than a reduction in taxes paid effectively allows a backdoor for state-sponsored tax avoidance strategies that the OECD’s BEPS project intended to eliminate.”
Mornin' #lawfedi folks! This is your semi-regular (but not really) reminder that all of the various federated implementations of ActivityPub and related projects for #law and #legal adjacent professionals can be found in one place.
And, it just happens to look straight out of 2002. Isn't that neat?
Regardless of the outcome in #Moore, the path forward for equitable taxation is through the #estate tax -- at least as long as the #SCOTUS makeup remains as it is.
“A wealth tax would function by creating deemed realization events ... An estate tax system that doesn’t provide a stepped-up basis to inheritors would do the same thing but would collapse the events to just one—at death.”
This week I wrote about a more niche subject, but one that comes up frequently in my practice -- electronic sales suppression.
HMRC has begun a crackdown on ESS devices in the UK and has adopted an incredibly broad, unworkable definition of same:
"An ESS tool is a piece of software, computer code script or hardware. It allows a business to hide or reduce the value of individual transactions on its electronic sales records.”
In this Week in Insights, I vainly attempt to wave the yellow flag (I'm made to understand this means caution) on the coming April 2024 #electricvehicle tax credit cliff.
"The landscape is shifting once more for electric vehicle incentives. We’ve been sounding the alarm on this for more than a year, and now the deadline is upon us—on April 18, 2024, only a handful of EVs will still qualify for the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit.”