Monday, May 4, 2009

Obama pursues off-shore "tax cheats" but should, perhaps, first address cheats closer to himself.

Let's start with the Kennedys:
http://tinyurl.com/c9nlb3
The Fiscal Hypocrisy of Edward M. Kennedy
...Senator Kennedy's concern...typified by his "tax the rich" voting record, is contradicted by the Kennedy clan's extraordinary efforts to protect their fortune from the exorbitant federal taxes the Senator supports....Kennedy family's wealth, investment decisions, and lifelong efforts to shelter their inheritances from the Internal Revenue Service are not as well known as their public pronouncements on behalf of the "downtrodden"...
...Kennedy clan has never paid the confiscatory federal tax rates often advocated by Senator Kennedy and his liberal allies. ...faux pose intended for maximum public effect while he and his family's private investment decisions are about maximizing personal wealth and protecting that wealth.
Peter Schweizer, author of Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, devoted an entire chapter to the shenanigans of the Kennedy clan...it is difficult to choose the most galling case of Kennedy-esque arrogance. ... egregious is the Kennedy clan's successful evasion of inheritance taxes, an evasion that contradicts the Senator's ...posturing...family clan blessed with a net worth of nearly $500 million....1935, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., purchased Merchandise Mart"...in 1947, he divided its ownership among family members and put it in the form of a trust.... [it] was not set up in their home state of Massachusetts, New York, Florida, or even California. This trust wasn't even domiciled in the United States. Instead the Kennedy trust was set up in ... Fiji."Now why establish a trust on an island best known for headhunters? The Fiji-based trust allowed the Kennedy's to avoid "...the possibility of scrutiny by the IRS and federal authorities," according to Schweizer. Worse, ...clan...demands...fair share has "an intricate web of trusts and private foundations" that helps the family avoid the IRS. For example, the family paid only $134,330.90 in estate taxes despite a family fortune thought to be between $300 and $500 million at the time of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.'s death in 1969. That was a tax bill of .04 percent"
***If you're not a Kennedy***...the current (2005) inheritance tax rate is 49 percent on any money passed to your children after the first $2 million...a farmer or small businessman worth $2.26 million who didn't have the benefit of Kennedy tax shelters and foreign-based trusts would pay the same amount in estate taxes as the Kennedys did on their entire half-billion-dollar fortune."...Kennedy clan maintains most of their fortune "in trusts today which are structured to keep the family from paying higher taxes... [Senator] Kennedy receives nice checks every year from trusts set up in 1926, 1936, 1978, 1987, and 1997,"...in 1980, Senator Kennedy benefited from a political connection to Cook County, Chicago's Democratic tax assessor, Thomas Tully. ...assessed the Kennedy-owned Merchandise Mart's property value at $22.8 million when in fact its true value was $35 million....Kennedys saved an estimated $8 million over a two year period. It also meant that Cook County's public schools were short-changed...****Note that it is the hypocrisy that is bad, not the efforts to avoid the "death tax;" **** one of the most important incentives to wealth creation is the ability to accumulate and pass on wealth to one's offspring...Ironically, it is that very same conservative ethos of protecting accumulated familial wealth that the liberal Kennedy clan adopted decades ago....Kennedy and his family espouse economic justice; promote tax and spend policies and entitlement liberalism, but practice the time-honored and perfectly legitimate game of defending both self-interest and lineal-inheritance. The only part of this fact that we must vigorously criticize is Senator Kennedy's hypocritical posture as champion of the "little guy" juxtaposed next to the reality of his and his family's tax-evading trusts and other tax shelter schemes. His conduct here truly is a case of "do as I say, not as I do" liberal hypocrisy.
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*****It is ironic that Tim Geithner was first up to speak against "tax cheats" since he was willfully one until exposed during his vetting for Treasury
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When Obama got up to thank Rep. Rangel for his help in ferreting out tax cheats, it was hard to keep from laughing.
Rangel himself is combatting discoveries ( at least embarrassing and possibly criminal ) that he didn't declare income from offshore sources, benefited from FOUR rent-controlled apartments in New York and various other things.
"Rep. Charles Rangel, Chairman of the Powerful House Ways & Means Committee, is in a bit of hot water for not declaring more than $75,000 in income between 1988 and 2007 on a rental property/second home in the Dominican Republic."
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Let's not forget Chris Dodd ( although, mercifully, Obama didn't thank HIM today).
"...While the statute of limitations on tax evasion has long passed, it does appear that Dodd received an appreciable amount of imputed income from a grifter whom he later got pardoned by the President. And I greatly doubt he declared this on his 1040's..."
http://tinyurl.com/bdyrzc
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***Need we even mention the incredible number of others? Tim Daschle, et al.***

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