Posted on 02/23/2009 1:57:28 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
For years, the press excoriated Nancy Reagan for borrowing clothes and jewelry from designers. Yet Michelle Obama has been doing the same thing — without any outcry from the media.
Accountants say that the first lady’s practice of borrowing both clothes and jewelry raises major tax and disclosure issues, not to mention ethical questions.
“The transactions are clearly taxable,” says Richard Rampell, a Palm Beach, Fla., accountant whose clients include several of the island’s billionaires. “The designers are indirectly paying Michelle Obama to go and display their wares. And they get a huge economic value for it, just as if they were paying a model to do this. If they are paying her in this indirect way by lending her their clothes, then she is actually performing a service for the designer, and she should have to recognize as income whatever the value is of the clothes that she got.”
Aside from the tax implications, Obama is obligated to report the value of the clothes she has received free of charge on government forms mandated by the Ethics in Government Act.
The items Obama has either borrowed or received free have included a $17,313 pair of Loree Rodkin diamond earrings and clothes and gowns worth $1,000 to $6,000. In some cases, Michelle Obama’s representatives have said she will donate the items to the Smithsonian.
That makes no difference, Rampell says.
“If somebody gives her a dress and it’s worth $6,000, and she’s not expected to return it, then she has $6,000 worth of income, or she’s received a $6,000 gift,” he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Thing is, the clothes Michelle wears are often hideous.
First Spouses should return donated clothing within a week of wear; the designers can then do what they will with it. Minimal paperwork and no IRS required.
How does the IRS value what loaning clothes to her is worth?
She won’t look any better either.....meow
Interesting point...I’m gonna have to call RACIST on this one. Definitely racist. Wow, that sure is liberating, and kinda fun too.
You don't suppose....? Actually, a lesbian I know says that Michelle IS one of them. And that her bff always dresses in men's suits, including shoes and ties.
I wonder what that might possibly infer about Barackalina's gender "preference(s)"?
She isnt getting that $300,000 dollar grift from the hospital any more, so she now takes clothes instead.
Kessler is obviously a racist. < /sharpton>
It isnt easy designing clothes with that “Wide Load” sign in back of them/
I have a bedspread and matching drapes she’s welcome to wear..
Oh dear Lord...she’s been dressing this badly for FREE?
Oh, lawd! A mermaid got caught in an oil slick!
Is she taking in wash?
Mrs. Obama seems to have a posture common to tall women who consciously or subconsciously are trying to look a little shorter by hunching a bit.
The dress is okay (most First Ladies don’t have perfect figures) but it required better posture and foundation support than was provided. All First Ladies get D.C. polish along the way. This dress is a vast improvement on the red and black disaster from Election Night.
Seriously, is this photoshopped? This is really on the cover? “The First Lady the World has been waiting for?” What world?
Sounds about bad as Oprah. Who has her handlers call luxury stores in advance to tell them to clear out any customers because she’ll be arriving, and then just grabs whatever catches her eye and its already expected she gets it all free of charge.
If Queen Oprah doesn’t get this level of service, the designer will get bashed on her show or products will be blacklisted from any of her giveaway shows. Remember her veiled claims of “racism against blacks” at Hermes stores a couple years ago. Some Hermes store in Paris that had closed for the night when she showed up unannounced for a snatch and grab session didn’t know who she was and wouldn’t unlock the doors to let her in. She then made a spectacle of the event claiming they wouldn’t let her in because she was black. Hermes had to grovel to her to get off the blacklist.
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