استكشف المجموعة الواسعة من العناوين المتاحة.

This book tells the story of the rise of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), New York State's largest union. Using first-hand accounts by rank- and-file teachers as well as leaders, Dennis Gaffney documents how teachers, once underpaid and hopelessly divided, finally organized, lifting themselves from the underclass to the middle class to become a formidable grassroots political force able to defeat and elect U.S. senators. He describes how New York's teachers sparked the modern-day teachers' movement, and what key lessons other labor unions can learn from NYSUT's unity and success. Teachers United also shows how NYSUT has been a leader of educational reform, winning more money for education, creating smaller classes, raising academic standards, and training better teachers.

The Murphy case involves the question of whether compensatory damage awards received for nonphysical personal injury are subject to the federal income tax. Such awards had been excluded from a taxpayer's gross income since 1918, but in 1996, Congress amended I.R.C. Sec. 104(a)(2) with the intention of taxing these awards. The taxpayer (Murphy) received an award for nonphysical personal injuries after the 1996 amendment and has argued in three judicial proceedings that, despite the amendment, her award is not taxable. This paper traces the path of the Murphy case through the IRS and the courts, discusses the income tax issues raised in the various forums, and makes recommendations to clarify and improve the federal income tax treatment of compensatory damages for nonphysical personal injury.

Rev. Proc. 2008-43, 2008-30 IRB 186, provides some bright lines regarding the use of a rolling-average inventory costing method (\"rolling-average method,\" or RAM). This Procedure allows taxpayers to use a RAM for tax purposes provided they employ the method for financial accounting (book) purposes and one of two safe harbor provisions is satisfied. Rev. Proc. 2008-43 is limited to taxpayers that employ a RAM to price part or all of their inventories for book purposes. Various methodologies can be employed to compute average inventory costs. The weighted-average inventory costing methodology is very straightforward. The moving-average inventory costing procedure computes a new unit cost for each inventory item immediately after each purchase, and therefore can be undertaken only when the taxpayer maintains perpetual inventories. In any event, taxpayers not currently employing a RAM for tax purposes should at least give some thought as to whether a change to a RAM would be beneficial.

The recently adopted final Regulations on capitalizing intangibles will require many taxpayers to change their existing methods of accounting for such assets. The Service's newest guidance provides automatic consent in specified circumstances, but taxpayers must be alert to the timing nuances involved in order to take advantage of the automatic consent and avoid the need for seeking permission in advance. In general, Reg. 1.263(a)-4 involves amounts paid or incurred to acquire or create intangibles as well as amounts paid or incurred to facilitate the acquisition or creation of intangibles. Reg. 1.263(a)-5 involves the creation of an intangible by amounts paid or incurred to facilitate the acquisition of a trade or business, a change in the capital structure of a business entity, and certain other transactions. Reg. 1.167(a)-3(b) provides safe harbor useful lives of 15 or 25 years for many intangibles not subject to Section 197.

Rev. Proc. 2006-12, 2006-3 IRB 310, is the most recent in a series of Procedures addressing the change-of-accounting-method issue that faces taxpayers seeking to conform their methods to the Section 263(a) final Regulations governing the proper treatment of certain intangible assets. Like most tax accounting methods, taxpayers may adopt any permissible method of accounting for the costs incurred to acquire or create intangible assets for the first tax year in which the taxpayer incurs such costs. Rev. Proc. 2006-12 is similar to Rev. Procs. 2001-23 and 2005-9 in that all three documents specify that a condition of obtaining the Internal Revenue Service's consent is that any applicable Section 481(a) adjustment takes into account only amounts paid or incurred in tax years ending after Jan 23, 2002. Although the rules are complicated, the efforts needed to comply with the Procedure would seem to be well worth it.

The Service's new approach to the tax treatment of advance payments, while not without some new complications and the occasional problem, offers significantly clarified rules and new opportunities for taxpayers to defer reporting such payments. In particular, the chance to allocate payments received for both goods and services should provide many taxpayers with a tax benefit, and may even encourage some cash method taxpayers to switch to an overall accrual method of accounting. Rev. Proc. 2004-34 clarifies and significantly expands Rev. Proc. 71-21. The new Procedure removes some ambiguities and greatly increases the scope of Rev. Proc. 71-21 by allowing a limited deferral of APs received for certain non-services and combinations of services and non-services. Rev. Proc. 2004-34 also increases the amount of deferral relative to Rev. Proc. 71-21 by allowing for some deferral of APs received in connection with agreements having terms that extend beyond the end of the year following the year in which the APs are received.

The more accelerated capital recovery allowances in 168(k) and 179 have short lives and, significantly, the beginning and ending effective dates of the 2 provisions differ. Taxpayers having fiscal years that have not yet closed in 2003 should be sensitive to the beginning effective date of the increased expensing election. Unless the ending effective date is extended, off-the-shelf software will cease to be Section 179 property in tax years beginning after 2005. It makes little sense to include a passenger automobile in a 179 election if other 179 properties could be used for a maximum 179 deduction. The JGTRRA increases in the Section 179 expensing election and the Section 168(k) bonus depreciation allowances are very taxpayer friendly. It would seem that most, if not all, business taxpayers will enjoy some benefit from these new provisions. Many taxpayers undoubtedly will increase their investment in depreciable personal property to take advantage of the new provisions.

In one form or another, prepayments are a way of life in American business. While the treatment of such advances is fairly clear for book purposes, the tax rules have been a jumble of dichotomies (between goods and services) and exceptions (for specific types of income or amounts). Now the Service has indicated its desire to start cleaning up this area and imposing more certainty by conforming tax treatment to book treatment. Notice 2002-79 is a big step in the right direction. If its major proposals are incorporated into a final Revenue Procedure, Rev. Proc. 71-21 will be significantly modified, clarified, and expanded. While the Notice reflects a definite improvement to the current treatment of advance payments, it nonetheless has some shortcomings that should be remedied in the final Procedure. In any event, the Service is to be commended for its continuing efforts to bring some order to the more difficult tax accounting issues.

Rev. Proc. 2002-28 differs in many respects from the proposal it finalizes which afforded many \"small\" businesses the unquestioned use of a modified cash method of accounting. The Procedure likely will become a major contour in the accounting method landscape, as it significantly expands and clarifies Notice 2001-76. The purpose of Rev. Proc. 2002-28, like that of Notice 2001-76, is \"to reduce the administrative and tax compliance burdens on certain small business taxpayers and to minimize disputes between the Internal Revenue Service and small business taxpayers.\" Rev. Proc. 2002-28 will add a degree of certainty to the accounting method area for many qualifying small business taxpayers (QSBTs). Under the Procedure, QSBTs can obtain automatic consent to adopt or change to a \"simplified\" cash or accrual method of accounting. Rev. Proc. 2002-28 is effective for tax years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2001.