Vol. 22 No. 4 - Summer 2003

From the Editor

Taxation

From the Editor

Alice G. Abreu

This is the last issue in this volume of the NewsQuarterly. With it we mark the end of one Chair’s term and the start of another’s, so we open with columns from both. Outgoing Chair Herb Beller reviews recent Section activities, extends some much deserved thank-yous, and urges that we deepen our commitment to attracting younger members to the Section. ...

From the Chair

Taxation

From the Chair

Herbert N. Beller

I’d like to use this, my last column as Chair, to bring you up to date on some recent Section activities, and to recognize some of our colleagues who have played especially significant roles in making this another great year for the Section. ...

From the Chair-Elect

Taxation

From the Chair-Elect

Richard A. Shaw

The Tax Section has completed another challenging and successful year under the strong leadership of Herb Beller, the officers, Council directors, and many committee chairs and vice-chairs. Particular credit goes to the professional manner in which the Section provided national leadership in dealing with hot tax issues...

Special Report

Taxation

Benefits Tax Shelters: In Eye of the Beholder or Eye of the Storm?

Alvin D. Lurie

Do you remember when pension practitioners proudly bore their identification as architects of the “quintessential tax shelter”? Not any more. Their reply today is more likely to be, “Who, me?” Association with a tax shelter—any tax shelter—is to be avoided like spam. This is quite new in the benefits community, whose practitioners mostly believed themselves to be, shall I say, sheltered from the growing concerns...

Points to Remember

Taxation

Cost Recovery Rules for Software: Enterprise Resource Planning Software and Evolving Business Models

David S. Davenport and E. Kelsey Lemaster

Since the development of the first business computers, computer systems and software have quickly become a ubiquitous medium through which business operations may be organized, mechanized, and accelerated. In recent years, however, many businesses have reached a point at which their business systems and software have grown overly complex and less efficient. ...

Taxation

Intermediate Sanctions—Recent New Guidance

Shannon Nash

Before Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and Adelphia there was William Aramony of the United Way of America and his lavish trips on the nonprofit’s Lear jet—reportedly made to impress his mistress. Executive scandals and exhorbitant spending sprees were becoming common in the world of nonprofit organizations. ...

Point & Counterpoint: Should Experience in Tax Practice Be a Prerequisite for a Positive Tax Section Recommendation for Appointment to the U.S. Tax Court?

Taxation

Point: Tax Experience Is Not Necessary

Michael Mulroney

Prior tax experience is not a prerequisite to being a good and effective Tax Court judge, and so it should not be a defining qualification for a positive Tax Section recommendation for a Tax Court judgeship. That is not to say that prior tax experience is not a major factor to be weighed...

Taxation

Counterpoint: Tax Experience Is Necessary

Bryan Camp

Substantial tax experience should be necessary (but not sufficient) for appointment to the Tax Court for reasons of both appearance and substance. The reasons of appearance rest on the view that the Tax Court engages in a meta-level conversation with the other constitutional participants in our system of laws. ...

Spotlight on Committees

Taxation

Real Estate

Michael J. Grace

“A mile wide and an inch deep” aptly describes the Real Estate Committee, at least when compared to many other Committees within the Tax Section. Provisions from virtually every subchapter of the Code affect real estate. ...

Pro Bono Award

Taxation

Pro Bono Award Recipient: Peter Lowy

ABA Section of Taxation

On Saturday, May 10, at the Section’s 2003 May Meeting in Washington, DC, Peter Lowy became the second recipient of the Section’s annual Pro Bono Award. The Section’s Pro Bono Award is presented each year to an individual lawyer or law firm who has demonstrated outstanding and sustained commitment to pro bono legal services...

Council Actions

Taxation

Council Actions

N. Susan Stone and Shannon Nash

The Council of the ABA Section of Taxation met on May 8, 2003, for the May Meeting of the Section at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, DC. The Council heard reports and took action on the following items. ...

American Bar Association TM American Bar Association

Vol. 22 No. 4 - Summer 2003

NewsQuarterly, Vol. 22 No. 4

From the Editor

From the Editor

From the Chair

From the Chair

From the Chair-Elect

From the Chair-Elect

Special Report

Benefits Tax Shelters: In Eye of the Beholder or Eye of the Storm?

Points to Remember

Cost Recovery Rules for Software: Enterprise Resource Planning Software and Evolving Business Models

Intermediate Sanctions—Recent New Guidance

Point & Counterpoint: Should Experience in Tax Practice Be a Prerequisite for a Positive Tax Section Recommendation for Appointment to the U.S. Tax Court?

Point: Tax Experience Is Not Necessary

Counterpoint: Tax Experience Is Necessary

Spotlight on Committees

Real Estate

Pro Bono Award

Pro Bono Award Recipient: Peter Lowy

Council Actions

Council Actions