Posted on 07/15/2010 6:48:42 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Payday: Trial lawyers could get major tax cut despite major federal deficit
By Chris Moody - The Daily Caller 12:49 AM 07/15/2010
After years of filling Democratic coffers with massive campaign donations, trial lawyers are cashing in their chips with a sweetheart deal from the government that will save the industry billions of dollars over the next few years.
According to a Legal Newsline report from the annual meeting of the American Association for Justice, the nation’s lobbying arm for trial lawyers, the industry may get a tax break from the U.S. Treasury Department that would give trial lawyers the ability to write off expenses involved in contingency fee cases much in the same way businesses write off expenses. But unlike businesses, lawyers will benefit from the tax write-off in addition to the fee they charge clients.
“They’re trying to get the best of both worlds,” said Christopher Appel, an attorney in the public policy group at the Washington-based law firm Shook, Hardy, and Bacon. “It’s not really a business expense. It’s a loan made to the other person the attorney fully expects to get back.”
Congress shot down a similar provision in 2009 that would have given trial lawyers a tax break on contingency fee lawsuits. An analysis of the bill at the time concluded that such a measure would ensure the government pays up to 40 percent of the costs involved in filing lawsuits. Now, it appears the group will get the tax break without having to go through the legislative process.
“In other words, the federal government will pick up a big chunk of the tab for trial lawyers,” said Brad Dayspring, press secretary for Republican Whip Eric Cantor.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
“the industry may get a tax break from the U.S. Treasury Department”
Industry? Doesn’t that imply work of some kind? Creation? Manufacturing? The only thing these aholes manufacture is lies...
The Chicago Political Payola Machine goes national. Thrill.
Thanks a bunch democRATS.
Getting tired of this blatant “Overton Window” push. The premise that tax cuts are some how bad is becoming more and more prevalent. If the government wasn’t such a dead, bloated, money-sucking bureaucracy, there wouldn’t be the need to pick productive folks’ pockets.
Sliding tax scale is obscene. The folks who pay no taxes are likely the recipient of what everyone else pays.
First the Unions, then the trial lawyers.
At least NBC, CBS and ABC will be all over this tonight on the nightly news...
But Petro...this is a subsidy not a “tax cut”...the fees that the lawyer pays on behalf of the client get paid back at settlement...meaning there is no “expense”...it is a way to help fund lawsuits by “tax break”...
Agreed! But, hoi-polloi doesn’t get that. All they see is uncle sugar not getting his due in order to turn it around to them. Kinda like robin hood getting soft on nobles and not having enough gold to give to the poor.
The objective of any large bureaucracy is to sustain itself. In the case of a large government, this sustainment is based on the largess provided to the populace...bread and circus.
Cheers
.02
The tanning salon owners are not on the list, I see. That must be why they are being taxed to pay for health care.
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