Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

A $70 Billion Scandal

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This is nearly five times as outrageous as the Big Dig.  The super rich, cheats on their taxes–apparently the Bush tax cuts weren’t enough.  (And you have to laugh that these folks are claiming to be victims of their accountants.)

Hardly surprising.  But will we hear any outrage about this from the usual folks that condemn government ineptitude?

Any of BMG’s resident conservatives?  Boston Shepard, Gary, Peter?  Will we hear Howie Carr complain?

I doubt it, conservatives are to busy complaining about $500 a month welfare cheats, or the government subsidy of UMass that creates a “great deal” at $9,000 a year (not including room and board) or any other malfeasance they want to blame on “big government”

In fact, most conservatives will applaud this tax cheating effort–ignoring the deficit we are running up. 

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Comments

  1. if you think it endorses criminal activity. 

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    I’m on record with my clients for opposing the KPMG tax shelters that were being marketed in the 1980s (and now the source of criminal and civil investigation by IRS) and also on record in opposition to the use of tax havens to avoid US tax (Subpart F of the IRC is quite encompassing and to assert that a tax haven is a means of avoiding US tax is typically fraudulent and folly).

    • you take every chance you can to take a whack of Democrats in government, but need to be pushed into aknowledging Republican wrongs.

      • IRS is a pretty non-partisan bunch IMHO.

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        If you’re looking for politican ammo, it’s not in the the article you’ve linked.

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        You should get out more.  Try your Democrat or liberal bias on a more hostile blog.  It’ll broaden your thinking.

        • and got banned from redstate.  They don’t like people who disagree with them.  Count your blessings that liberals tolerate dissent.

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          And my point is not about the IRS.  It’s about a $70 billion scandal and the lack of outrage people have about it. 

  2. Frank – I can’t comment unless I can read the article.  Is there a link that doesn’t require me to give my identity to the New York Times?

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    As a former IRS employee, I can tell you that there is no Red or Blue there – only green.

    • Why would you have to give your identity to the NY Times when there’s BugMeNot?

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      As far as the IRS is concerned, this story doesn’t surprise me.  They’re hunting down EITC recipients for peanuts, but letting the big fish get away.  Don’t tell me that that’s not a policy decision made at the highest levels.

      • Senator Carl Levin discussed tax abuses at a briefing Monday in Washington. Cheating accounts for as much as $70 billion a year.

        Among the billionaires cited in the report are the owner of the New York Jets football team, Robert Wood Johnson IV; the producer of the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” children’s show, Haim Saban; and two Texas businessmen, Charles and Sam Wyly, who the Center for Public Integrity found in 2000 were the ninth-largest contributors to President Bush.
        Mr. Johnson and Mr. Saban, who are portrayed as victims in the report, are scheduled to testify today before the Senate Permanent Investigations subcommittee. They are expected to say that professional advisers assured them their deals to avoid taxes were more likely lawful than not. The Wyly brothers told the committee that they would invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and thus were not called to testify. The report characterizes them as active participants in tax schemes.
        Cheating now equals about 7 cents out of each dollar paid by honest taxpayers, as much as $70 billion a year, the report estimated.

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