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.
It makes me wonder how many other members of congress “forget” their taxes until someone looks hard enough?
Cue MJ, Never Can Say Goodbye.
How many terms has he served?
Why is he still in Washington?
If these a-holes just knew when to quit, term limits would not be necessary—but they are.
No problem. He has a “D” behind his name.
Hubris, Entitled, Senile, overworked, forgetful, crooked, corrupt, not overseeing delegated duties?
VOTE ALL INCUMBENTS OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!
Well at least he’s qualified to be in Obama’s cabinet.
Kick them all (Repubs and Dems) out – and their inbred staff too.
This blog post needs a BS meter.
People amend tax returns all the time — especially people with complex assets.
You think it is just a coincidence that The Fox Street Journal is “exposing” Rangel just as he battles the big insurance companies?
Why do people continue to elect these old corrupt farts? 😛
This is an old story. I wonder why it’s coming up now? What is it with these guys? Why don’t they get CPAs to do their books and then blame them? Dopes.
I think it’s be said before: if only members of Congress would pay their own fair share of income tax, maybe we’d be a bit closer to a balanced budget.
Here’s an idea:
Require our representatives to actually follow the laws they write (but don’t read). And while we’re at it, require them to use the same health-care system, school system and pension plan.
>> Jägermeister said,
>> Why do people continue to elect these old corrupt farts? 😛
Not long ago, these same conservatives had Bill Richardson blindfolded for the firing squad over charges that ended-up being a big-fat nothin’
Big-money goes after elected leaders who side with the folk. (And The GOP rank-and-file inexplicably let big-money lead them around by their noses.)
When the attack-dog is the Rupert Murdoch media, it almost surely is crap.
#11 – Greg Allen
Imagine a normal person withholding $500k from the tax office… o’boy… that probe would go places you never imagined…
#7 – I could not find a mention of Rangel’s party. Do you think if he was a republican, it would also have been suppressed?
Go on believing that Fox is biased and in the republican’s. But, they will tell you when a republican F’s up. Can’t say the same for the democrat’s media.
In fact, I hear more crackpot leftest theories on Fox than on CNN or the big three.
bet he can tell you how many watermelons he has
Layer upon layer of corruption in their leadership, and the Democrats just accept it.
What is wrong with you people? Wake up, take back your party and throw out these criminals.
I don’t know the details, and I doubt anyone else here does.
Rangel doesn’t do his own taxes. None of these guys do. They all have accountants do them. From the sounds of it, you are looking at several hours of form filing with all those investments.
Are mistakes made? Yes, all the time. Is Rangel still responsible for his taxes? Yes. Do Republicans make the same errors on their taxes? Yes, and all the time.
The standard method of notifying the person is to have the IRS notify them of a discrepancy. The matter is usually taken care of without issue. Since these issues are confidential, It is a little questionable how the Fox Street Journal got the records.
As to the rest of the insinuations, let’s wait until all the facts are in before jumping to a conclusion.
I wonder if I made that kind of “mistake” if the IRS would accept “oops, sorry my booboo” Or “hey, other people do it too”, or “someone else did my taxes, not me” as excuses?
Hey, it’s worth a shot. I’d promise to have my coworkers form an “ethics committee” that would thoroughly investigate. And I can’t believe they’d be so crude as to suggest any wrong doing until after that committee cleared me.
Unless, and I can’t believe this is true, Congressmen are not treated the same way as us normal citizens. Nah, that can’t be.
No Way! A corrupt Democrat? Must be some kind of GOP plot.
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.