According to Imus, the bulk of this is depreciation on the buildings.
What is it with these people? A guy buys some property, flies in terminally ill children at no cost, and these creepy reporters hound him like hell.
I'm not an Imus listener, but what has Robert Frank ever done for a sick kid?
Imus just said he had invited Frank to the Ranch. He declined the offer.
Guess the government people are threatened by it. Hes moving in on their turf, they would usually be taking care of the terminally ill.
That's $26,000 per severelly ill child or about the cost of a ten day stay in a specialized hospital or care facility. That does not seem unreasonable to me. From what I understand, that cost also includes the cost of transporting the children to and from the ranch and depreciation of the buildings (which is still legal under the tax code). I also suspect that the real estate taxes on the facility (or payments in lieu of taxes for a not-for-profit organization) are fairly hefty. And this so-called reporter is shocked that Imus and his family use the ranch? Well duh, it is called the "IMUS Ranch." If Imus and his family didn't spend time at the Ranch, Robert Frank would accuse Imus of lending his name to a charilty that he really doesn't care about.
About $800,000 is depreciation.
Imus is a con artist. His ranch was featured in Architectural Digest. He has built a luxurious vacation/retirement home, which is partially funded by public donations and protected as a tax-exempt organization. You can bet that he and his family will be spending more and more time at the ranch as Wyatt gets older. Mr. Frank is the messenger.
It's a tax shelter to hide income. ABC did a story on it last night. See http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Politics/story?id=610830&page=1