After arriving in London en route to America, an acquaintance's grandfather decided to kill time at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. It was 1906, and he, similar to my own grandparents, had fled a pogrom in Russia. Despite having his heart set on New York, he changed his mind when he heard an itinerant speaker…
GILTI pleasures
Just when you thought it was safe to put the Ibuprofen back in the medicine cabinet, the IRS has issued proposed GILTI (Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income) regulations in addition to the long anticipated final ones. (For an explanation of what was supposed to be going on, see Tax Break February 10, 2019). Back in my…
Fair fight?
Underdog Andy Ruiz's technical knock-out of world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in their fight on June 2 was one of sporting history's great surprises. Similarly, civil court cases against the tax authorities are rarely won by the underdog, generally ending with a knock-out - technical or otherwise - of the assessee. There was an exception…
Who stole the punch line?
I am rarely amused by the pronouncements of the Israeli tax authority - au contraire, they often rile me. But, last week a public ruling had the effect of diverting my mind to the comedy double acts that had their origins in America's Vaudeville and Britain's Music Halls. Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Morecambe…
Votes for taxpayers!
I was sorry to hear that former US president and Nobel Peace laureate Jimmy Carterhad broken his hip last month. I was not sorry to hear that the incident had ruined his planned turkey hunt in his home state of Georgia. I - like the lion's share of the western world - have a visceral…
Tax Break 