Rangel admits mistakes, $5,000 bill to Uncle Sam

[Yurt]

Rangel admits mistakes, $5,000 bill to Uncle Sam

WASHINGTON - The head of the House tax-writing committee admitted Wednesday that he owes about $5,000 to the Internal Revenue Service for failing to report income on his returns.

...

As House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Rangel has a powerful say over tax law changes. By his own admission, he has no excuse for not reporting years worth of rental income on a beach vacation property he owns in the Dominican Republic.

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Republicans are trying to use Rangel's mistakes to show that Democrats cannot claim higher moral ground on issues of ethics and corruption. The spokesman for the House Republican campaign committee, Ken Spain, said Rangel should "go on a permanent vacation and trade his powerful committee chair in for his favorite lounge chair on the beach."

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The ethics committee is also set to examine how Rangel came to rent three rent-controlled units in his Harlem district, as well as his use of official congressional stationery to try to attract potential donors to a college center named after him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080911/ap_on_go_co/rangel_vacation_villa;_ylt=AqLjWmse57DJ13kGW_Ph72E EtbAF

[retiredman]

I assume you'll be posting a thread about the tasty scandal at the Department of the Interior soon?:laugh2:

[manu1959]

The 78-year-old Rangel maintained that over the course of two decades, he simply did not know the details of his mortgage on the beach property, how much rent he received from it or that the rent should have been reported. He blamed the confusion in part on language and cultural barriers with the operators of the resort.

i like that.......he has owned it for 20 years .... doesn't know how much the mortgage is.....how much the rent is .......didn't know that rent was income.....

blamed the whole thing on language and culture.......

they head of ways and means......has not a financial clue.....

[Yurt]

I assume you'll be posting a thread about the tasty scandal at the Department of the Interior soon?:laugh2:

so that makes rangle's idiocy and actions ok? why don't you post it, you seem to know about it. i don't.

[Immanuel]

The 78-year-old Rangel maintained that over the course of two decades, he simply did not know the details of his mortgage on the beach property, how much rent he received from it or that the rent should have been reported. He blamed the confusion in part on language and cultural barriers with the operators of the resort.

i like that.......he has owned it for 20 years .... doesn't know how much the mortgage is.....how much the rent is .......didn't know that rent was income.....

blamed the whole thing on language and culture.......

they head of ways and means......has not a financial clue.....

:clap:

If you or I had done that, we'd be in hot water to say the least.

Twenty years of not reporting income and only $5,000 owed to the IRS. I find that hard to believe. I imagine that the penalties and interest alone would be extremely hefty. Surely, an IRS agent would not accept the "I didn't know" excuse from a citizen. It is our job to know what taxes we owe.

Charles Rangel is not a stupid man. It's going to be hard to claim he didn't know about the income or that he didn't know (or at least consult a tax adviser) that he had to report that income.

Immie

[manu1959]

:clap:

If you or I had done that, we'd be in hot water to say the least.

Twenty years of not reporting income and only $5,000 owed to the IRS. I find that hard to believe. I imagine that the penalties and interest alone would be extremely hefty. Surely, an IRS agent would not accept the "I didn't know" excuse from a citizen. It is our job to know what taxes we owe.

Charles Rangel is not a stupid man. It's going to be hard to claim he didn't know about the income or that he didn't know (or at least consult a tax adviser) that he had to report that income.

Immie

not to mention he is the head of the committee that is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives......

and he didn't know rent was income......

amazing

[Immanuel]

not to mention he is the head of the committee that is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives......

and he didn't know rent was income......

amazing

Oh come on... do you have any idea how many pages there are in the tax code? You can't possibly expect him to have it memorized... can you? ;)

Income is a complicated topic, after all, and if the management company in the Dominican Republic didn't issue him a 1099, well you can't expect him to claim income that the government shouldn't know about. You don't expect him to do that do you?

Immie