I need your help. No, I’m not asking for money.
The aim of this blog is to cover United States Tax Court in a different way from the trade press (e.g., Tax Notes, Accounting Today, Forbes) and the blogosphere. I’m aiming for a short (around 500 words) daily summary of orders, opinions and decisions, written for the busy practitioner (Circular 230, Section 7525 type).
I was an EA for 10 (count ’em, 10) years and an attorney at law for 58 years. Now in retirement, I’m a part-time journalist because I can’t stop.
I’m writing to try to stay sane and to give back to the profession and calling I love. And maybe help some of you help a client, or a pro bono at a calendar call or LITC.
But I need feedback. Is this blog helping? What’s wrong? What needs changing? Too much editorializing? Not enough detail? Needs more (or less) quotation from the order or opinion? Daily format too much for your overflowing inbox?
Please comment below. I promise to read and consider all responses.
Thanks.
Edited to add, 4/20/26: Thanks to all who commented; I’m very much obliged.
Taishoff Law 
Billy Joel expressed it well
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Perhaps it’s my own lack of knowledge or ability, or a faulty memory, but I recall being able to link to the actual decision or case from your post, which I found extremely helpful. Not every topic dovetails to my universe, but the brevity, the wit, the lack of chaff, always makes opening your daily offering an easy call. My juice is worth your squeeze. Please keep squeezing.
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DON’T you dare quit. People don’t tell you how much you mean but your are unique and loved and we need your point of view and commentary out here.
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Hello Mr. Taishoff,
You provide a very valuable and terrific service to the community. I have nothing but admiration for your dedication and your passion. I have come to look forward to, and to rely upon, your daily missives.
I wouldn’t want you to change a thing. Your perceptiveness and your keen insights are the wisdom that we readers need to put the cases into their proper perspective.
I am not a lawyer, so I especially appreciate your commentary… I am, however, a USTCP, so with your kind help, I actually am able to get a deeper appreciation for each Opinion or Order.
May you live long and in great health with continued passion and verve for reporting on the Tax Court!
With abounding appreciation,
Steven Jager. Sjager@fwllp.com
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Your blog is obviously unique and very valuable to me. I am an active tax lawyer (most of my clients are potters as you would say). I was counsel in Hallmark Research Collective, so I don’t agree with your views on equitable tolling, but I understand your persepctive. Please keep it up! James Mann (HLS ’82), jbm@jamesbmann.com
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Congrats on your retirement, Mr. T. I retired from the IRS over a decade ago, and your blog is the only professional writing I bother to read these days because the references amuse me– it’s i formative but it doesn’t feel like work (for me). Glad you decided to continue writing it, many thanks, ShelleyC
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I have been reading your blog every day for at least ten years. I find the pitch just right. You identify the issues that matter and you cut right to the chase. A very good balance between substantive tax law and jurisprudence. And I especially appreciate your searching and analyzing unpublished orders every day.
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More opera reviews. Every Tax Court case is the same, but every Met production is different.
Seriously, who are we to tell you how to conduct this, your blog? “This above all: to thine own self be true” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3). Or as they say today, “just do you.”
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Mr. Taishoff, Like many of the other comments, I do not want you to change anything. I particularly appreciate your senses of humor and outrage, sometimes in the same paragraph.
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I love your blog just the way it is. Don’t change a thing. I read each one with relish and look forward to the next. However, I do not often go to the website and click on “like”. If that would help, let me know.
Thanks, Deborah Milam
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Your blog is wonderful and is highly recommended reading both for myself and my team of financial planners and tax professionals. The one improvement I would suggest is considering adding some sort of footnote to help readers who are newer to the tax language. I don’t mean to muddy up the reading for the elevated audience you clearly have. Rather it is to scaffold the writing so that people who want to be informed by, but don’t necessarily “live” in the tax world every day (yes it is me), have an easier time benefitting from your storied wisdom and witful humor.
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Mr. Briggs, thank you for your comment. I had posted three (count ’em, three) iterations of a glossary of my idiosyncratic abbreviations and slang vocabulary, but the last (“Maybe Not So Obvious – Redivivus,” 9/30/20), now more than five (count ’em, five) years old, elicited no comments, so I supposed (erroneously) that nothing else along that line was needed or wanted. As for basic tax terms, e.g., FICA/FUTA, COD, 501(c)(3), I fear you and my other sophisticated readers would consider I had insulted you by supposing you needed anything of the kind.
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I have so few pages bookmarked on my computer–but your blog is bookmarked. I’ve been reading your posts for many years, and it’s shaped the way I practice. I don’t know . . . maybe it’s because my background is archaeology, but the way you weave historical and cultural references into so many of your entries is refreshing, fun, and inspiring. Please carry on!
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Dear Sir: While your blog was intended for Tax Court practitioners, I can’t emphasize enough how useful (as well as entertaining) it is for those of us who have found ourselves unwittingly drawn into the rather opaque world of the Tax Court. Nothing in the “tax press” illuminates the culture and customs of this institution. And Dawson is no substitute. Thank you for your blog — I hope you keep it up and going.
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Mr. Shay, thank you for your kind words. The audience I am aiming for is not only attorneys and USTCPs, but tax practitioners generally (love that word!). The latter will not necessarily be admitted, or seek admission, to Tax Court, but need to know its benefits and limitations, to advise their clientele when contemplating resort to judicial remedies.
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