2017 Tax Reform: We Hate Employees

By Professor Theodore Seto

This post originally appeared on Understanding Tax

Current tax law is moderately unfriendly to employees, more friendly to folks who can structure their businesses as sole proprietorship or partnerships. Sole proprietor expenses are deductible above-the-line, reduce adjusted gross income, and are deductible for AMT purposes. Employee expenses are only deductible below-the-line, are subject to the 2-percent floor and the overall limitation on itemized deductions, and are not deductible at all for AMT purposes.

Under the House Republican bill, things are about to get much worse.

Journal of Legal Education Published Prof. Seto's Where Do Partners Come From

The American Association of Law School's Journal of Legal Education recenlty published "Where Do Partners Come From?" by Professor Ted Seto. The article was earlier highlighted on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and on Above the Law. The following is an abstract:

Which law schools produce the largest numbers of partners at national law firms? This article reports the results of a nationwide study of junior and mid-level partners at the 100 largest U.S. law firms. It identifies both the top 50 feeder schools to the National Law Journal 100 nationwide and the top 10 feeder schools to those same firms in each of the country's ten largest legal markets. U.S. News rank turns out to be an unreliable predictor of feeder school status. Hiring and partnering by the NLJ 100 are remarkably local; law school rank is much less important than location. Perhaps surprisingly, Georgetown emerges as Harvard's closest competitor for truly national status. (Any school that believes the author's count is inaccurate is requested to supply corrected information.)

Download the complete law review article on SSRN»

Three Loyola professors on SSRN top 25 list

Loyola Law School Professors Ted Seto, Katie Pratt and Jen Kowal are among the top 25 U.S. tax professors as ranked by downloads on the Social Science Research Network.

Prof. Ted Seto's paper, "Where Do Partners Come From?" summarized in Wall Street Journal Law Blog

Professor of Law and William Rains Fellow, Theodore P. Seto's paper, "Where Do partners Come From?" was featured on the Wall Street Journal law blog on August 5th, 2011.

Seto's paper, to be published in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Legal Education, analyzes which law schools have produced the most partners in the past quarter century.

Prof. Ted Seto to publish 'Where Do Partners Come From?' in Journal of Legal Education

Professor Ted Seto recently agreed to publish his article "Where Do Partners Come From?" in the Journal of Legal Education. The article was highlighted on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and on Above the Law. The following is an abstract:

Which law schools produce the largest numbers of partners at national law firms? This article reports the results of a nationwide study of junior and mid-level partners at the 100 largest U.S. law firms. It identifies both the top 50 feeder schools to the National Law Journal 100 nationwide and the top 10 feeder schools to those same firms in each of the country's ten largest legal markets. U.S. News rank turns out to be an unreliable predictor of feeder school status. Hiring and partnering by the NLJ 100 are remarkably local; law school rank is much less important than location. Perhaps surprisingly, Georgetown emerges as Harvard's closest competitor for truly national status. (Any school that believes the author's count is inaccurate is requested to supply corrected information.)

Download the complete law review article on SSRN

Tax reform event live streaming on web today

Loyola Law School, Los Angeles is hosting "Starving the Hidden Beast: New Approaches to Tax Expenditure Reform" today in partnership with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Video from the daylong event is:

David Gamage, University of California, Berkeley School of Law: "Tax Salience and Tax Expenditures"

COMMENTATOR: Damon Jones, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

10-11:30 a.m.: Reforming the Tax Expenditure Budget Presentation

MODERATOR: Sarah Lawsky, University of California, Irvine School of Law

PANELISTS:

Linda Sugin, Fordham Law School: "Tax Expenditures, Reform, and Distributive Justice"

Eric Toder and Donald Marron, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center: "Tax Expenditures and the Size of Government"

COMMENTATOR: Daniel Shaviro, New York University School of Law

11:30 a.m.: Lunch

12:45-2:15 p.m.: Evaluating Tax Expenditures

MODERATOR: Rosanne Altshuler, Rutgers University

PANELISTS:

Theodore Seto, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles: "Reframing the Tax Expenditure Budget"

Thomas Hungerford, Congressional Research Service: "Tax Expenditures"

COMMENTATOR: Edward Kleinbard, USC Gould School of Law

2:30-4 p.m.: Approaches to Tax Expenditure Reform

MODERATOR: Katherine Pratt, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles

PANELISTS:

Marvin Phaup, Federal Budget Reform Initiative, Pew Economic Policy Group: "Integrating Tax Expenditures with the Budget Process"

Diane Lim Rogers, Chief Economist, Concord Coalition: "Tax Formed in the Proposal of the Deficit-Reduction Commissions"

COMMENTATOR: Elizabeth Garrett, USC Gould School of Law

4:00 p.m.: Reception