Posted on 09/15/2008 5:48:52 AM PDT by IrishMike
House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel of New York admitted last week that in recent years he has underpaid his taxes by about $10,000. Republicans are demanding that he step down as chairman pending an Ethics Committee investigation, but we're more sympathetic. Charlie is a victim of the tax code he helped to write.
His lawyer says Mr. Rangel flubbed his tax return by failing to record some $75,000 of rental income he received from a beach house he owns at a posh Dominican Republic resort. Mr. Rangel professes to have made an honest mistake, and says "I personally feel that I have done nothing morally wrong." He explained that he didn't know how much income he received from the property because his Dominican business partners would "start speaking Spanish."
Plenty of Americans know how he feels since the IRS tax form might as well be in Spanish. The tax code now runs to some 67,000 pages, and Mr. Rangel has probably written a few thousand himself in his 38 years on Capitol Hill. If even the nation's top tax writer can't figure out what to declare as income, and what not to declare, how can the rest of us be expected to get it right?
Not that the IRS will show Joe Taxpayer any mercy. In most disputes over even honest mistakes, the tax collectors presume guilt. Mr. Rangel is also one of those who like to denounce corporations that shield income overseas. He'd better hope both the IRS and his House colleagues treat him with more forbearance than he and they treat private citizens or businesses. Who knows, maybe Mr. Rangel will even take this embarrassment as new motivation to work with the next President on tax reform. How do you say "flat tax" in Spanish?
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
If this isn’t a reason to abolish the IRS and dump the effing tax code I don’t know what is!!
The IRS should make an example of Rep. Rangel and literally throw the book at him. If Rep. Rangel insists that we are subject to the full force of the IRS when we screw up our taxes, then he too should be subject to that same force.
Rangel is a crook pure and simple. But that’s OK. Were he not to be in the critter house, Bush and McCain might make him and Woopie slaves again. There’s something about that culture......
Crappola,
Rangel knows the tax laws.
Rangel tried to pull a fast one on his taxes as he did with his 4 rent controlled apartments
Rangel, just another dirty politician who got caught thinking he could get away with anything.
Pelosi should demand his stepping down from his tax writing chair.
But hey, the guy is black and you know the I.R.S. and pelosi won’t touch his sorry rear.
It’s downright scary that those in charge of writing our laws have absolutely no idea what those laws entail. If you or I would “underpay our taxes by $10,000” per year for a decade or so, a simple “apology” wouldn’t suffice when the IRS comes “knockin’ - knock, knock, knockin’ at our door.” Perhaps the next hurricane will strike Washington and clear out some of the mess residing there. I think its name might be Hurricane Sarah (and Tropican Storm John).
This is a classis
.........’He explained that he didn’t know how much income he received from the property because his Dominican business partners would “start speaking Spanish.”
He should have had Teddy the swimmer translate for him.
El taxo flato.
“If this isn’t a reason to abolish the IRS and dump the effing tax code I don’t know what is!!”
Amen and amen! We either need to have a very low flat tax, of maybe 3%, or, a national sales tax. But this tax code we live under now needs to go.
Anyone who has owned rental property for 10-20 years can attest to that. Or anyone who has filed false tax returns for the same period of time.
So much for the republicans and their tax everyone to death, the man paid taxes on the money he bought the property with. Money earned in another country is no business of the united states unless you feel that a person is the property of the united states.
Hey - ease up. It's not like he tried to make some polite comments at some old white guy's birthday party!
Which is exactly why the IRS should throw the book at such people. Maybe it will provide an incentive to make the tax code clear. People in elected office should be expected to follow the letter of the law, no matter how convoluted it can be.
He explained that he didn't know how much income he received from the property because his Dominican business partners would "start speaking Spanish."
What a cop-out. I'll bet the checks he cashed were written in English. Just sum them up, and voila! you know how much you've received in total.
RINO Lott.
Personally, I agree with you.
However, this Congressional azzhat WROTE the damned law that says FOREIGN earned income is US taxable.
He wrote it. It is the law. He has to live by it just like us peons. Throw his azz in jail for tax evasion and then change the law to the Fair Tax.
It wouldnt matter if Rangel understood the code, he’s still a crook.
Said guy was busted for unemployment fraud and said "It was all a mistake." If you can believe it, he said "I tried to tell them that I'll just pay them back and have the charges dropped but they won't let me."
Yup that’ll endear Rangel and the democrats to the hispanics blaming them for Rangels problems.
If he says he does not understand the law, he should resign immediatley. Someone needs to ask the question, “So are you a moron when you wrote the law or are you just a moron now?”
I had a situation when I started my company. I was trying to get my state tax id #. They lost my form twice. I finally had to drive it over to their office.
I was hit with penalties because my paymente were late even though they are the ones who lost my paperwork.
Why isn’t he hit with huge penalties and taxes for being a crook and trying to cheat the system?
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