Jerome Kurtz

Background

Kurtz, Jerome was born on May 19, 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Morris and Renee (Cooper) Kurtz.

Education

Bachelor of Science with honors, Temple University, 1952; Bachelor of Laws magna cum laude, Harvard University, 1955.

Career

He left the Internal Revenue Service in 1980 to return to private practice. He received a bachelor"s degree in accounting from Temple University in 1952 and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1955. He then enlisted in the United States. Army, where he served for two years.

During the Johnson administration, Kurtz was employed as a tax legislative counsel for the United States Department of Treasury from 1966 to 1968.

He was a vocal opponent of policies which favored higher income taxpayers during his tenure at the Treasury Department. Kurtz also did preliminary work on the Tax Reform Acting of 1969, which created an alternative minimum tax aimed at wealthier taxpayers who took extensive tax deductions.

Kurtz returned to private practice after leaving the Treasury Department. He was a partner at Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, a firm in Philadelphia, prior to his appointment as head of the Internal Revenue Service in 1977.

Jerome Kurtz was appointed Commissioner of Internal Revenue by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Kurtz sought to reverse tax policies that were seen as excessively beneficial to wealthier tax payers. Foreign example, he targeted so-called "silver butterfly" commodities transactions, in which investors in silver staggered their losses and profits to lower their taxes on the sales. Under Kurtz, the Internal Revenue Service launched a crackdown on the abuse on tax shelters by both corporations and individuals.

Kurtz also moved to tax "fringe benefits," such as the use of company cars by employees, but those plans were quashed by the United States House Committee on Ways and Means.

Kurtz stepped down as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in 1980. He returned to private practice at the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison firm in Washington District of Columbia He also lectured on tax law and taxation at both the University of Pennsylvania and Villanova University and served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.

Jerome Kurtz died from complications of surgery in New York City on February 27, 2015, at the age of 83.

Achievements

• Jerome Kurtz has been listed as a reputable Lawyer, educator by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

President Center Inter-American Tax Administration, 1980. Board directors Common Cause, 1984-1990, chairman finance committee, 1985-1988. Board directors National Capitol Area American Civil Liberties Union, 1990-1991.

Member of advisory board New York University Tax Institute, 1988-1997, Little, Brown Tax Practice Series, 1994-1996. Member American Bar Association (chairman tax shelter committee 1982-1984), New York Bar Association (executive com.tax section 1981-1982), Pennsylvania Bar Association, Philadelphia Bar Association (chairman tax sect.1975-1976), Association of the Bar of the City of New York (chairman tax county 1993-1995), American Law Institute (consultant federal incorporated tax project taxation of pass through entities), American College Tax Counsel, Beta Gamma Sigma.

Connections

Married Elaine Kahn, July 28, 1956. Children: Madeleine, Nettie Kurtz Greenstein.

Father:

Morris Kurtz

Mother:

Renee (Cooper) Kurtz

Spouse:

Elaine Kahn

child:

Nettie Kurtz Greenstein Kurtz

child:

Madeleine Kurtz