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Jeb Bush And The Spirit Of 1986

If you have been considering a major charitable gift, don’t put it off, since charitable deductions will be more valuable in 2015 and 2016 due to lower marginal rates.  If you are approaching full retirement age do whatever you can to defer compensation in anticipation of that payroll tax break.

If you are a highly leveraged entrepreneur in a high tax state you might like the Bernie Sanders plan better than the Jeb Bush plan.

The thing about the Tax Code being 80,000 pages and tax accountants writing the Code might seem petty, but, since I have taken on the project of rewatching West Wing on Netflix, I have decided to adopt a “Would Jed Bartlett make a mistake like that?” standard.  I’ve also decided that any candidate that promises to make Allison Janney press secretary has my vote.

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From Russia With Built-In Losses

From Russia With Built-In Losses

The whole thing was put together by Deutsche Bank which was one of the major players in the raid on the treasury orchestrated by the Big Four accounting firms that is documented in Tania Rostain and Milton Regan’s Confidence Games. A couple of key numbers make it clear that the whole thing had become about tax losses rather than distressed Russian debt. Assets worth about $14 million were contributed to RRF. Those assets were sold not too long afterwards from over $20 million, which is some indication of Ms. Zimmerman’s genius. Deutsche Bank ended up getting nearly $10 million in fees which indicates that the good economics were the sizzle and the tax losses were the steak

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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.