Posted on 04/10/2014 7:40:02 PM PDT by smoothsailing
April 9, 2014
In light of the most recent revelations about Elijah Cummings and the IRS, I thought it would be interesting to discuss Cummings and his past history with the IRS.
In 1999, David Folkenflik of The Baltimore Sun wrote an article on Cummings and his financial problems.
From that 1999 article (emphasis added):
Among his most serious troubles:
In the mid-1990s, the Internal Revenue Service filed court papers declaring that Cummings was legally obliged to pay more than $30,000 in unpaid federal taxes. He finished paying those taxes earlier this year.
Cummings appears to have violated campaign finance law by having a donor co-sign a loan that supplied $15,000 for his first House campaign, attorneys knowledgeable about that law say.
In five instances, creditors went to court to force Cummings to pay a total of $24,000 in overdue debts.
Cummings said he has been short of money, in part, because he helps to support three children: his college-age daughter with his now-estranged wife and two children he fathered by other women out of wedlock — a 16-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. Cummings said he paid about $30,000 last year in child support and tuition payments.
More details on the IRS issues:
In 1991, according to tax records, Cummings failed to pay $20,949 in federal taxes, mostly business-related. In 1992, he failed to pay $3,847. In 1993, the figure was $6,054. The total: $30,850. The congressman said he simply did not have enough money to pay all his taxes while balancing other priorities.
“When you have limited resources, what you try to do is stretch those resources,” he said. “We always made sure our employees were paid.”
On federal disclosure forms, Cummings reported making $67,440 in 1995 — $38,600 as a lawyer and $28,840 as a state legislator. During his time as a state legislator, from 1983 to 1996, he had not been required to detail his finances.
The IRS filed court documents against Cummings seeking the unpaid taxes — including an order to pay $9,901 in June 1996, two months after he went to Congress.
Cummings did pay nearly $3,900 of his outstanding taxes, penalties and interest in April 1996, three days after winning election to Congress. He satisfied an additional $17,030 that May. But the congressman did not finish paying the final $9,901 tax bill until January of this year [1999].
Cummings wasn’t a fan of the IRS in 1997, according to the ’99 article in The Sun:
In a column in the Baltimore Afro-American in November 1997, published just after the House voted to overhaul the IRS, Cummings wrote that he shared many constituents’ distress over the agency.
“All of us pay taxes,” he wrote. “Many of us share a paralyzing fear that we have made a mistake when we file our tax return by the April deadline. We have all heard the horror stories of the dreaded audit or the mistake made by the IRS and the years it took to fix it.”
In an interview, Cummings said he never asked the IRS to reduce his tax penalties or interest.
“We paid every single dime,” Cummings said. A spokesman for the IRS declined to comment, saying it is the agency’s policy to protect taxpayers’ privacy.
It seems Cummings has changed his tune on the IRS since the 90s.
Wasn't much of a lawyer was he?
They’ll find more than that in his refrigerator.
Nothing good for sure, but he has pigment protection.
Depends on whether we’re Democrats in Congress, or not...
All I can say is...”typical”
perfect link!
Laws are for the little people.
This is why powerful liberals support high marginal tax rates; they just don’t pay their taxes.
He doesn’t have to pay — he’s a Dhimmicrap.
5.56mm
“What do you suppose would happen to either of us if we owed the IRS 30 grand?”
I wil let you know.
When Rush was talking about the Cummings tax issues today he said “i dont think that even tax defense partners could get him out of this mess”
Three days after winning the election to congress he pays up $3,900. Where did he get the money? Did he take his first bribe before he was even sworn in?
If we owed the IRS 30K it would probably be no sweat as long as
we were Democrook Congressional Rep types trying to rescue
them from their own illegal activities. They would find some
wealthy Republican types to shake down to make up the loss.
House bill would fire tax-delinquent federal workers
BY JOSH HICKS
April 15, 2013 at 6:00 am
One measure, sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), would require federal agencies to fire employees and reject potential hires with “seriously delinquent” tax debt, meaning those who have been hit with a tax lien. Democrats opposed that bill when it was considered by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month.
Critics say the legislation to fire tax-delinquent feds would unfairly target civil servants, some of whom may already face economic hardship because of the furloughs that certain agencies have proposed to absorb the government-wide spending cuts that took effect on March 1.
“This is a perfect example of how out of touch this Congress is,” said Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents approximately 150,000 federal workers.
About 3.6 percent of the nation’s nearly 3 million federal civilian employees owed a combined $1 billion in back taxes in 2011, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service.
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