Earlier this month the Chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee “amended” his 2007 financial disclosure form—to the tune of more than a half-million dollars in previously unreported assets and income.
When you’re a powerful Congressman and working diligently to increase tax rates to pay for President Obama’s health-care plan, we suppose it’s easy to lose track of one of your checking accounts. That would be the one at the federal credit union with a balance somewhere between $250,001 and maybe as high as $500,000. And when you’re crunched for time and pulling together bills to pass in a rush, we guess, too, that you might overlook several other investment accounts, even if some of them are sizable, such as the ones Mr. Rangel missed at JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Oppenheimer and BlackRock.
Oh, and those vacant properties in Glassboro, in southern Jersey? Everybody in Manhattan tries not to think much about New Jersey, so those lots and their as-much-as-$15,000 value must also have slipped down the memory hole. (The New York Post reported yesterday that Mr. Rangel failed to pay property taxes for two of the lots, according to the county clerk’s office.) The Chairman probably isn’t doing a lot of dining at KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell or Long John Silver’s, either, which may explain why he didn’t disclose the $1,001 to $15,000 in stock he owns in Yum Brands, the conglomerate that runs those chain restaurants. Compared to his undisclosed portfolio stake in PepsiCo—$15,001 to $50,000—that’s practically a rounding error.
Cut the guy a break, I’m always misplacing things, car keys, sunglasses,…….. it’s just stuff.
I got a notice from the IRS saying I had failed to report over $60,000 of income on my 2007 return. I sat down and after I stopped hyperventilating read the notice again. It was an accurate and clearly written document. It turns out I had failed to report some capital gains (Remember those?) I had made on some stocks. After subtracting the cost basis of the stock my unreported income dropped to way, way less than $60,000.
I recomputed my taxes for 2007 and sent a check to Treasury. In return I received another notice claiming I still owed for the $60,000 plus some more they had computed up out of thin air.
They had used the original 60,000 figure subtracted my reported gains from it and added the result to my income. In effect taxing me on the non-taxable portion twice. The notice directly contradicted itself in two instances. It was a mess.
I began writing a response and wondering how much a lawyer was going to cost. It would be cheaper to just pay them what they want.
I wondered why they wanted so little in taxes after all of the voodoo accounting had run my “income” so high. Apparently whoever prepared the notice got so mired in his voodoo he gave up. Picked up my return looked at my tax figure subtracted what I had credited to my “account” and said “He still owes us 1500 bucks.” and wrote that on the notice.
They wanted the refund they had sent back. Why didn’t they just say that?
Tax evasion and waitress sandwiches are resume enhancers for Democrats. I predict he goes far.
Son of a Bitch bastard. But then, he is Black, so we can’t say anything about him, or I’m racist. Right Bobbo boob?
I’m sure this man’s future is safe after all he is a Democrat.
May God deliver us from the modern Democratic party, the IRS, Islamic nut cases, and the Republican Party.
He is a Black Democrat. Do you think he could POSSIBLY be voted out? If he was, the NAACP would charge that the ballots were tampered with. Funny how when BO won the election, nobody once mentioned any problems whatsoever with any ballot anywhere in the entire country.
>>we guess, too, that you might overlook several other investment accounts, >>even if some of them are sizable, such as the ones Mr. Rangel missed at JP >>Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Oppenheimer and BlackRock
I bet they are not “sizable” anymore…
) no wonder he forgot them!!
who’d wanna remember!
#25 Psst… Faxon. Guess who brought up race? (scroll scroll scroll) That’s right… you did. I guess we know what’s on your mind.
if the demoncats would simply pay taxes we would have a balanced budget
#23, faxrong,
Son of a Bitch bastard. But then, he is Black, so we can’t say anything about him, or I’m racist.
HEY, ha ha ha, you got something right for once. You are racist.
It must be nice to have so much money that you can forget about earning 780k!
Shouldn’t Congress’ tax returns be made public, so people can spot these sooner.
I have to say, Obama’s people must be doing something right since so many people suddenly “remembering” to pay their taxes.
#29, HEY, ha ha ha, you got something right for once. You are racist.
Well, I guess you two have something in common then.
Perhaps you should concentrate on why you would save your wife over 10 strangers instead of digging yourself further into a hypocritical hole.
You know, you would think after all the problems the dems have had over the last year with tax returns they would relize that the code is just too damn complicated. Go to a flat tax with no deductions, or a fair tax system.
A tax return should never be over a page long, and require an MBA to fill one out. Put your total income down, take a percentage of that give it to the government. It should be that easy.
Instead we have sliding scales, and a million different deductions, with more being added every day. The day we were in trouble was the day the average person needed to hire an accountant just to do his taxes.
Seems to be a sudden pandemic of ‘I’m too (busy…important….liberal?) to pay taxes like the sheep’
#22 Not far, farther.
#27 Just like when deranged like Dallas bring politics to mundane posts. So, what’s the deal?
#33 Boy, I’ll be laughing about that one all day long.
#34, Bob,
A tax return should never be over a page long, and require an MBA to fill one out. Put your total income down, take a percentage of that give it to the government. It should be that easy.
Good point.
Originally that was the way Income Tax was calculated. Successive governments though have added little bits here and there to stimulate the economy and the realization that life isn’t fair.
Without the tax break, most retirement plans wouldn’t exist.
Without the tax breaks, most companies wouldn’t have health insurance.
Without the tax breaks, much charitable giving would dry up.
Without the tax breaks, Stock Market investments would lose their appeal.
Families with several children have much higher expenses than singles.
People that must supple their own equipment, clothes, tools, cars, offices, etc would end up severely disadvantaged.
And what is your favorite tax deduction?
#37 Nice defense of McCain houses you’re making. The best so far.
#31, MikeN said, “Shouldn’t Congress’ tax returns be made public, so people can spot these sooner.”
Great point. There is a wonderful saying I’ve heard “On the job, on the record” They want power over people, a little transparency is not too much to ask.
The only difference between congressional tax cheats is that democrats get embarassed and apologize when they get caught. Republicans blame their tax attorney and the liberal media.