Posted Fri, July 31st, 2020 6:16 pm by Amy Howe The Supreme Court on Friday turned down a plea from opponents of President Donald Trump’s border wall to order a temporary stop to construction. By a vote of 5-4, the justices declined to lift a stay, entered just over a year ago, that allowed the […]
“[A] man of high ambitions … must face the loneliness of original work.”— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Brown University Commencement Address (1897) The following is a series of questions posed by Ronald Collins to Catharine Pierce Wells in connection with her new book, “Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Willing Servant to an Unknown God” (Cambridge University Press, 2020). […]
Posted Thu, July 30th, 2020 7:49 pm by Amy Howe The Supreme Court on Thursday put on hold rulings by a federal court in Idaho that had relaxed the state’s rules for ballot initiatives for the November 2020 election. The Supreme Court’s order, which drew a sharp dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, was the latest […]
On Thursday, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Mitt Romney (R-UT) released the Coronavirus Assistance for American Families Act (CAAF). This bill would change the way the economic impact payments—commonly known as recovery rebates or stimulus payments—could work in the next round of pandemic-driven relief for households. The bill’s […]
On July 21 the Brazilian government sent to its Congress the first stage of its proposed tax reform. The proposal includes unifying two levies on consumption, the so-called PIS and COFIN taxes, into a 12% value-added tax (VAT). Brazil has one of the world’s most complex tax systems. According to the World Bank while a […]
Today marked the release of both second-quarter GDP and national accounts data and provides a new glimpse into early changes in state and local revenues and spending. All told, second-quarter (Q2) state and local tax receipts came in about 3.8 percent lower than they did in the same quarter a year ago. Income and sales […]
Today, Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Martha McSally (R-AZ) introduced the CREATE JOBS Act (Cost Recovery and Expensing Acceleration to Transform the Economy and Jumpstart Opportunities for Businesses and Startups) that would make two significant changes to incentivize investment in the United States. The proposal would prevent scheduled changes that would worsen the tax treatment […]
Posted Thu, July 30th, 2020 1:00 pm by Andrew Hamm This week we highlight cert petitions pending before the Supreme Court that ask the court to assess the constitutionality of a Mississippi abortion law, a Texas liquor law and a federal law governing the appointment of patent judges. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, […]
Inheritance tax dates back to the Roman Empire, which collected 5 percent of inherited property in order to pay soldiers’ pensions. Today, the practice is widespread. The majority of European countries covered in today’s map currently levy estate, inheritance, or gift taxes. These countries are Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, […]
Amy Howe Independent Contractor and Reporter Posted Wed, July 29th, 2020 8:31 pm Posted Wed, July 29th, 2020 8:31 pm by Amy Howe Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a “minimally invasive non-surgical procedure” on Wednesday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York to “revise a bile duct stent that was originally placed at […]