Friday, July 31, 2009

Tax Breaks for the Needy: Trial Lawyers

Friends in high places produce rewards.

The tax break in question would allow plaintiffs' lawyers to deduct right away on their taxes the money they invest in filing speculative lawsuits.

When plaintiffs' lawyers take cases on contingency -- that is, when they sue in exchange for a percentage of the settlement or judgment -- the IRS treats the expenses involved in the suit as a loan to the client. Lipsen and AAJ would like to change that tax treatment so that lawyers can simply write off their costs in the same year they are incurred. Legal Newsline reports that the tax break is worth about $1.6 billion to trial lawyers.

"Corporate welfare" morphs. Now ordinary taxpayers are expected to feed the sharks, too.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This is a disgrace! It's payback time for the lawyers who have given fortunes to the democrats! We need tort reform to keep our healthcare costs down and instead we're going to wind up giving them more!!!