It’s always amusing to see “Progressives” talk about taxes. They LOVE them and want there to be more. A radio host once said “Democrats treat taxes like teenage boys treat sex!” in other words will cross the realm of ridiculous in order to get them.
Yet when it comes to their own books….
A New York Times investigation into the finances of MSNBC host and Washington heavyweight Al Sharpton has found “$4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his for-profit businesses,” according to the story by Russ Buettner. Titled “Questions About Sharpton’s Finances Accompany His Rise in Influence,” the story documents a long trail of unmet obligations and a messy web of financial interests spanning nonprofits, personal finances and beyond.
“Mr. Sharpton has regularly sidestepped the sorts of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent and other bills,” claims the piece. Even with his tax liabilities, notes the story, Sharpton “traveled first class and collected a sizable salary.”
Also what springs to mind is John Kerry’s Boat:
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is docking his family’s new $7 million yacht in neighboring Rhode Island, allowing him to avoid paying roughly $500,000 in taxes to the cash-strapped Bay State.
If the “Isabel” were kept at the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee’s summer vacation home on Nantucket, or in Boston Harbor near his city residence, he would be liable for $437,500 in one-time sales tax. He would also have to pay $70,000 in annual excise taxes.
Rhode Island repealed those taxes in 1993. That has made the state something of a nautical tax haven.
Even this article isn’t 100% correct, the yacht soon was moored off Martha’s Vineyard, and it turned out that the Rhode Island registration on the hull was really the boat’s only tie to that state. Essentially the equivalent to me putting Maine plates on my car. He was found out, and allegedly paid the taxes…but he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids!
OK. I don’t like Sharpton either. But I also don’t like the IRS, and they are notorious for deciding, several years after the fact, that a return they accepted is suddenly VERBOTEN, and you owe them the frickin’ earth.
Sharpton CLAIMS that he has paid actual taxes owed, and what is outstanding are disputed penalties and interest. Who do we believe; a story leaked by the IRS (maybe in the hopes to distract from other issues? Nah!) or Al “I think black folds are so stupid that I’d be in the Klan if I were the right color” Sharpton.
Kinda hard to call, that one. Suspect it would go to the judges.
Kerry, OTOH, is a guilty as a cat in a goldfish bowl. He really does want to be a Kennedy, and lives down to that level at every opportunity.
It’s like this:
-Taxes are meant for the Eeeee-vil rich*
-Kerry and Sharpton aren’t part of the Eeeee-vil rich
-So, it is okay for them not to pay taxes
Kind of like how it is okay for Algore to preach against his own lifestyle.
*Anybody who 1) doesn’t donate large amounts of money to Democrats, or 2) is not a member of group that donates large amounts of money to Democrats