Posted on 11/23/2008 6:37:41 AM PST by Libloather
RANGEL DOUBLE-DEAL$
REAPED DC HOME PERK WHILE BENDING APPLE RENTAL RULES
By ISABEL VINCENT and JILL CULORA
Last updated: 1:16 am November 23, 2008
Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel took a "homestead" tax break on a Washington, DC, house for years while simultaneously occupying multiple rent-stabilized apartments in New York City, possibly violating laws and regulations in both cases.
The situation raises a number of potential problems for the congressman, including:
* New York City law requires that tenants use rent-stabilized apartments as their primary residence.
* DC's real Property Homestead Deduction Act also requires that a property receiving the benefit be a primary residence.
* Tax lawyers told The Post that a property owner cannot have two primary residences - or take advantages provided to primary residences at two different addresses simultaneously.
* DC's law also requires that the owner of a property benefiting from the tax break be a personal-income taxpayer in DC. District law exempts members of Congress from paying personal DC income tax, but they must pay property tax.
The DC rules state that "by maintaining a residence in his home state and actively voting there, [a member of Congress] is demonstrating that he continues to be a part of the body politic of his home state . . . The Member is a domiciliary of his home state. Because he is not domiciled in the District, the Member cannot claim the District's homestead deduction."
Said Natasha Altamirano, a spokeswoman for the National Taxpayers Union, "If a member of Congress maintains his or her principal residence in the state they represent, they would not qualify for the homestead exemption."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I surely agree with that statement.
To me CHANGE means the D's getting the same scrutiny treatment as the R's.
Not the same old Clinton group getting away with the same old crap only more so now.
The problem with all of you “crazies” is that you actually think that laws should apply to everyone.
(SARC)
+ er = 
Congressman William Jefferson, despite federal indictments and the FBI finding $60,000 in cash in his freezer is still in Congress so why should it be any different with Rangel? Nothing will come of this.
bump
REID: "Those guys better remember who kept them out of prison, Nancy"
PELOSI " Harry, I hope your earmark is big enough so that poor
Charlie won't have to use his own money to pay his taxes."
REID "Don't worry Nancy, it's big enough. And with the rest, we can all buy
a villa in the Dominican Republic, next door to Charlie......thanks to US taxpayers."
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