Taxation Law Books

I recommend J.K. Lasser's Tax Deductions for Your Small Business because it is easy to navigate - one quick look at the table of contents and you automatically feel comfortable with the simple chapter headings i.e. "Home Office Deductions" "Medical Coverage," and "Car Expenses." Also, the book explains each issue with regard to your type of business format, whether you are a sole proprietor, a partnership or LLC, an S or C corporation. I really appreciated the handy checklist of deductions in the back of the book too.

The book lists some very good tax saving strategies, however a little bit more details on each one of them would have made the book better.

The major categories of mass communication are presented with key cases under each. Prior to getting into the various cases, background on the legal system is explained. The readers are told about public communication and the law in general. There is an overview of the first amendment to the U.S. constitution. Logically flowing out of that is discussion of issues directly related such as libel and privacy. Graphically the design is such that the content is easy to digest. The book goes on to provide sections on intellectual property, corporate speech, advertising, and journalism. Matters of accessibility are included as well. This book is an excellent overview to mass media law.

The book is a mixure of textbook and cases book so it should be a good introductory textbook. Probably practitioners may find it convenient. However, it will be better if the authors would consider to give further academic and practical discussion about the difficult areas such as Internet jurisdiction. The only disappointment is the authors did not give sufficient dicussion about the Choice of Law on Internet, especially after the influential argument put forward by Johnson and Post relating to the nature of Internet as a borderless environment. Good coverage anyway.

Prof. Block speaks clearly and understandably. Her speaking pace is not too fast, or too slow. She explains the federal income tax fundamentals well. When I emailed her, Prof. Block told me that the recording was completely revised in 2005. Unfortunately, she did not use as many hypos as some of the other audio speakers in the Law School Legends series and Sum & Substance series.

On a technical note, the first disk repeats for less than a minute, but all the material appears to be present. I did not bother trying to get another copy. Also, like most Law School Legend recordings, this disk set does not have short sections tied to topics. I like Finz's Torts for short audio chunks much better.

This is a useful and comprehensive book on the taxation regime in Hong Kong. Good for the student as well as practitioners.

This book offers insight into the the conditions of agreement between owner, architect, and contractor, by offering a number of court decisions as presidence, and stating objectively why consideration to the language of the contract is so important. After discussion and commentary on each of the four cornerstone AIA documents, an alternative language chapter is provided. These chapters aid the reader in tayloring the agreement to specific conditions while giving suggestions to the provision. The glossary and table of cases are welcome references for drafting agreements.

At the outset let me say that the author should not have titled his book with the word "living" included. Living wills are not testamentary wills at all, and to refer to testamentary wills as living wills is inaccurate and misleading to say the least.

The other problem I had with the title was that it really did not help me understand what the book was really about and who the intended audience is. After reading the book I think it is fair to say that the book is about options a living person has when planning his estate (no will, wills, trusts, and other will substitutes), and the processes (probate and transfer taxes) that must be dealt with after his death. I suppose the intended audience is someone who is about to undertake some estate planning. Maybe an executor might get something out of this book since part of the book discusses the probate and transfer taxes processes.

The book has 12 chapters:

1. Intestate Succession
2. Testators and Trustees
3. Features of a Will
4. Features of a Trust
5. Wills and Trusts Compared
6. Executor, Trustee Roles
7. Other Living Options
8. Knowing Your Property
9. Identifying Distributees
10. The Probate Process
11. The Taxation Process
12. Writing Your Own Will

I would have liked the book a lot better if it had been organized differently. I think chapters 3, 12, 8, 9, 10 had a lot in common and I was looking for a chapter just on executors (but did not find one). I think chapters 4 and 7 had a lot in common and I was looking for a chapter just on trustees (but did not find one). Then I would follow those chapters with chapters 5, 2, and 11. Where should Chapters 1 and 6 go? Probably out the door! And a new Chapter 1 should be added that would summarize the book and act as a good introduction to the material to follow.

Without the new Chapter 1 that I just described I have trouble giving this book a "4 star" rating. However, there is quite a bit of good content in this book. It would be a shame to trample all over it by giving it only 3 stars.

It's not like anyone who's not in Law school would ever buy this book. I think that the cases are well edited to cut out the stuff that's just not relevant to the legal principal gained from each. However, if you're not in law school briefing cases to please a professor, just go to a law library and read the cases. Or, hire me in three years and I'll do it for you.
Happy Reading,
Adam

Books of this nature help to capture the regulatory flavor of an era. These four authors are to be commended for describing the climate of the FCC as television and radio were dominant forces of mass communication in the days before the internet. The marketplace was much more limited at the time and the era of deregulation was not in full blown force. In fact, the Commission took its watchdog role seriously in seeking to do what was in the best interest of the American people, not the players with the largest amount of dollars in the marketplace. In spite of all this, the agency misregulated the medium. The stage was set for the process to evolve as it has in subsequent decades. The authors contend "governmental policies virtually precluded entry by additional networks." While the Commission's policy statement would mention one item such as diversity, there was no actual way it could be measured. A considerable discussion focuses on the network/affiliate relationship. This book helps to show the evolution of what became the "marketplace model" of regulation of the FCC of the early 21st century.