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The U.S. Senate’s leading proponent of tax increases on the American people — Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was delinquent on his property taxes on until a reporter called him to ask him about it. Brown who supports higher income, energy and investment taxes did not pay his property tax on a luxury condo in Washington, DC. He was late on his payment since last September. Curiously, Brown paid his “fair share” after a reporter called his office to inquire about why he was late.

As previously reported, Willie Nelson is rallying behind the Occupy Wall Street protests. While many country artists have kept mum about their thoughts on the movement, Nelson posted a video in October of him and his wife reciting a poem they wrote in favor of Occupy. Now, he’s joining forces with other famous musicians who share his stance on the topic by contributing to the album ‘Occupy This Album: A Compilation of Music By, For and Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the 99%.’ The album is expected to release in the spring.

The ownership of the fabled Kennedy home at the family’s Hyannis Port compound is being transferred to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a move that brings to an end the family’s 84-year ownership of the 21-room house. The Institute announced this afternoon it had taken over the waterfront homestead and will use it as a study center. It said the transfer ‘’fulfills a promise made by Senator Kennedy to his mother Rose that the home be preserved for charitable use.’’ The $5.5 million property is the centerpiece of the compound, where some of the nation’s...

ROME—Italian officials combating a national plague of tax evasion hit the jackpot in a swoop on a posh ski resort, catching 42 drivers of Ferraris and other luxury cars who had declared incomes of less than €30,000 ($38,700) a year. The technocrat government of Mario Monti is stepping up a war on tax evasion that robs the Italian exchequer of an estimated €120 billion a year, nearly four times the value of the prime minister's new austerity budget. Amid howls of protest from local officials, conservative politicians and shop owners, 80 tax inspectors fanned out through Cortina d'Ampezzo, one of...

When my friend Brian told me the American tax police were after him, I thought he must be nuts. Brian is a worrier. He gets a little paranoid sometimes. “We haven’t filed a U.S. tax return in 20 years,” he said. “Now our accountant says we have to – or else.” Brian and his wife are from the States. He took out Canadian citizenship years ago. They’ve lived and worked in Canada for decades. They have no U.S. income or assets. They are 100-per-cent tax compliant – in Canada. “Forget about it,” I advised. “What could they possibly do to...

The appearance of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett at the Lied Center last week was a reminder of the fluidity in American society that allows talent and drive — not birthright and connection — to earn power and wealth. Although both men came from comfortable backgrounds, neither was born to that old wealth stratum of American society that sometimes seems to be tantamount to an aristocracy. Dressed casually, they sat on a couple of stools, cracking jokes, speaking plainly, fielding unscripted questions. “They seemed like ordinary people, very normal, very knowledgeable and funny,” observed Yong Zhao, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln...

NEPTUNE, N.J. (AP) — Spotty enforcement and an outdated state law allow thousands of landowners to pay pennies on the dollar in property taxes. The Farmland Assessment Act of 1964, intended to preserve agriculture in New Jersey, is being used by millionaires, developers and anyone with at least five acres to slash their farmland tax bills by 98 percent. An Asbury Park Press investigation into farmland assessment records found that landowners deemed "fake farmers" by those calling for reform are producing little more than the bare minimum — $500 — in goods to qualify for the tax breaks. One landowner...

A father was dragged from his home and handcuffed in front of his children by a SWAT team looking for his estranged wife - to collect her unpaid student loans. A stunned Kenneth Wright had his front door kicked in by the raiding party at 6 am yesterday before being dragged onto his front porch, handcuffed and led to a police car with his three children. He says he was then detained for six hours while officers looked for his wife - who no longer lives at the house. Mr Wright was later told by Stockton police that the order...

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday denied a bid for appeal from Wesley Snipes, a film star convicted on federal tax evasion charges, CNN reported. Snipes, 48, is best known for his work in the movies “White Men Can’t Jump,” “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” and “Jungle Fever,” as well as the “Blade” trilogy. He was convicted last year of failing to file tax returns in 1999, 2000 and 2001 and began serving a three-year prison sentence in December. The actor has blamed his advisers for the lapse in payments. CNN said Snipes did not immediately comment on...

OCALA – A federal judge today rejected movie star Wesley Snipes' demand for a new trial and ordered the actor to surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving a 36-month prison sentence for tax-related crimes. In a 17-page order, U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges said, "The Defendant Snipes had a fair trial; he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his conviction and sentence by the Court of Appeals; and he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his present claims, during all of which he has remained at liberty. The...

OCALA, Fla.—Federal attorneys have asked a central Florida judge to revoke Wesley Snipes' bond if the actor is not granted a new trial for tax evasion.Snipes did not attend the hearing Monday in a federal court in Ocala. His attorneys say he deserves a new trial because of jury bias in his 2008 conviction. They say two jurors are now accusing other jurors of deciding the case without hearing evidence. They also say prosecutors hid damaging information about a key witness.Federal prosecutors on Monday said questioning those jurors about their deliberations would violate juror rules and intimidate future juries.The star...

As far as liberal financiers go, you don’t get much more powerful than S. Donald Sussman. Since 1989, the hedge-fund billionaire has pumped millions into the coffers of Democratic politicians and their political pet projects. Sussman sits on the board of the Center for American Progress, the Democracy Alliance and the dovish Israel Policy Forum, and he’s been one of the top contributors to left-leaning 527 organizations during the 2010 election cycle. But while Sussman has long kept a behind-the-scenes profile, a recent ethics controversy in Maine has flung him into the center of a complicated dispute over state residency,...

The wife of US Representative John F. Tierney is poised to plead guilty tomorrow to federal tax charges for managing a bank account that her brother allegedly used to deposit millions of dollars in illegal gambling profits he raked in from an offshore sports betting operation in Antigua. Patrice Tierney, 59, who is married to the Salem Democrat, is charged with four counts of aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns by her brother, Robert Eremian, of St. John’s, Antigua. The US Attorney’s office said she is scheduled to plead guilty tomorrow afternoon. Tierney insists his wife is...

While there has been much emotion and argument over the proposed mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, it has largely swirled over issues that miss the nature and significance of the issues involved. Thus we hear endless variations on the theme “How can a moderate imam whose stated goal is to promote healing in the wake of 9/11 be so insensitive to the feelings of those who lost those they loved at the hands of Islamic fanatics?” But, as the public is slowly learning, Imam Rauf is no moderate and bridge-building is not his agenda. The project with which Rauf...

It's official. TPMmuckraker's favorite ex-convict ex-Congressman Jim Traficant will appear on the ballot for his old House seat in Ohio. A county board of elections ruled today, in a meeting that lasted less than a minute, that Traficant has enough signatures to make it on the ballot. Traficant, who was a Democrat while serving in the House, is running in the 17th District as an independent against Rep. Tim Ryan (D). Ryan replaced Traficant in 2002 when he was kicked out of Congress over 10 felony convictions for bribery, racketeering, tax evasion and other charges. Traficant was released from prison...

Liveshot ‘swift-boated’ again! By Howie Carr | Sunday, July 25, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists Forget “Isabel” - Liveshot Kerry should rename his $7 million sloop “The Botched Joke.” You remember that was how he tried to explain away his nasty little dig at the military, back in 2006, saying that if kids don’t study hard, they’ll end up in Iraq. He said it was a botched joke. So I wonder how Liveshot is trying to explain this latest botched joke to his ancient gold-digging bride in her $9.2 million mansion on Brant Point in Nantucket. Lovey, they’re swift-boating me...

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Herald column

<p>BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is docking his family's new $7 million yacht in neighboring Rhode Island, allowing him to avoid paying roughly $500,000 in taxes to his cash-strapped home state.</p> <p>If the Isabel were kept at the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee's summer vacation home on Nantucket or in Boston Harbor near his city residence, he would be liable for $437,500 in one-time sales tax. He would also have to pay $70,000 in annual excise taxes.</p>

It's the equivalent of shutting down the best Hamptons hangouts of the rich and famous and then following them to their beachfront homes to seize the places for unpaid real estate taxes. That's what Greece's tax agents are doing this weekend in a desperate crackdown on its most notorious tax cheats living in posh holiday enclaves dotting Greece's Mediterranean coast. Greece earlier provoked widespread revolt and weeks of riots, fire bombings and wildcat strikes to protest belt-tightening and pay cuts of civil servants made to tame Greece's bloated budget and forestall default. Now, authorities are going after the rich. Taxmen...

federal appeals panel is considering whether the arrest of actor Wesley Snipes' former financial adviser could pave the way for a new trial on tax evasion charges. Snipes was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison in 2008, but his attorneys asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to allow a new request to dismiss the movie star's conviction or grant him a new trial. The motion centers on the arrest of Kenneth Starr, the one-time financial adviser to Snipes and other celebrities.

Take heart, America. Even celebrities pay taxes on April 15. Well, sometimes. Nicolas Cage’s bookkeeping got a bit muddled, and now he has to shell out $13.3 million to the federal government. Joe Francis, founder of “Girls Gone Wild,” forgot, too. His tab? $29.4 million -- or roughly 5 million margaritas. Sinbad the Comedian? A very unfunny $8.15 million, which doesn't even include interest and legal fees.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you knew coworkers, former bosses or exes who cheated on their taxes, would you turn them in? The Internal Revenue Service can make it worth your while. As tax season nears, we all want to get as much money back from the IRS as possible. And while taking advantage of this year's new tax breaks will put some extra money in your pocket, snitching on a tax cheat could make you rich. In a recent poll from the IRS Oversight Board, 13% of those surveyed think cheating is acceptable, up from 9% in 2008. As...

Greece has one apparently simple option for reining in a budget deficit that has roiled financial markets: Clamp down on widespread tax evasion, which costs the country an estimated €15 billion ($20.5 billion) a year, an amount that would pay off a big chunk of the budget deficit. The trouble is, tax evasion in this Mediterranean country is extremely difficult to eradicate. Trying to cope with its budget problems, Greece announced new austerity measures Tuesday. Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said public-sector salaries would be frozen and supplemental incomes for civil servants cut by an average of 10%. Salaries and bonuses...

The IRS Is Looking For 60 12-Gauge Pump Actions Guns To Arm Its Investigators Courtney Comstock Feb. 3, 2010, 12:56 PM Working for the IRS doesn't sound so wimpy anymore. The IRS apparently has plans to buy 60 Remington Model 870 police 12 gauge pump action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Unit. According to the federal business government website, these guns are serious. The Remington parkerized shotguns come fully loaded with: * A fourteen inch barrel * Modified choke * Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight * XS4 Contour Bead front sight * Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock * Speedfeed...

What is America's most prominent Muslim advocacy group hiding? The Council on American-Islamic Relations is delinquent in filing its tax returns by nearly two years, the IRS has confirmed, raising new suspicions the embattled nonprofit group is concealing from the American public details about its already shadowy financial activities. Washington-based CAIR, which receives revenue from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, is required by federal law to file its tax returns annually with the IRS to maintain its tax-exempt status. However, it still has not filed its 2007 returns, according to the IRS. Its 2008 tax filing is also late....

"Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher had a news story yesterday about President Barack H. Obama’s latest nominee with tax problems, Lael Brainard. We think he left out two pretty important details. First, Ohlemacher’s report says Brainard “is the fifth presidential nominee to reveal tax issues during the congressional vetting process.” The key to the partial truth in that sentence is “during the congressional” vetting process. While Ohlemacher likely is factually correct, the sentence certainly is misleading. One reads it and thinks, “Oh, that’s the 5th appointment he made with tax issues.” That is not true. In fact, it doesn’t count...

For years, Philadelphia candidates for judicial seats and other offices have written checks to a New Jersey-based firm called Dan Silo Consultants. Insiders knew that there was no Dan Silo. It was the name used by Pete Truman, a former Philadelphia ward leader and elected official who brokered the support of an alliance of African-American ward leaders in return for some handsome consulting fees. Yesterday Truman, 74, was charged with filing a false tax return, failing to report consulting income estimated by federal authorities at $700,000 between 2001 and 2007. Also charged with filing a false return was Chester...

After King County Superior Court Judge Gregory Canova awarded Microsoft an $8.7 million judgment in a 2008 lawsuit involving unpaid software licenses, he might have been surprised to learn that Microsoft isn’t actually in the software licensing business in Washington – or at least that’s what it reports to the state Department of Revenue. For tax purposes, Microsoft reports that it’s earned its estimated $143 billion in software licensing revenue in Nevada, where there is no licensing tax. However, for legal purposes, Microsoft executes its licensing contracts so they are governed by and rely on the protections of Washington law...

As part of a voluntary program that ended on October 15, some 7,500 Americans with hidden offshore bank accounts ended the game of hide and seek with the IRS. They finally decided to tell the government where to find their assets. Some of these hidden accounts were pretty hard to lose track of --- one had more than $100 million in it.

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands — What happens to a tax haven when it has to raise taxes? The Cayman Islands may soon find out. Caught in a vise of shrinking revenue and stubbornly high public spending, the Caymans averted a fiscal crisis this week by securing a $60 million overseas loan. But the Foreign and Commonwealth office in Britain, which oversees the Caymans and can veto foreign lending requests, has delivered an ultimatum: The rest of the $284 million the Cayman government says it needs will not be forthcoming until this offshore financial center imposes spending cuts and considers some...

Sorry no link, just watched it on Tv. He really went after them...*somebody must be monitoring their braodcast and will be able to put a vid of it up, sometime today...but what a contrast from a few stories before, where Rattiman and guest "expert" were talking about how the "brave", "manly", thing to do, was to pull our troops out of Afghanistan, and not be "wimpy" and "weak" and "caowardly" and just let others force Obama to send more troops.

In another blow to the false narrative advanced by Tea Party operatives and Fox News that the movement is a “grassroots� uprising of ordinary Americans. A co-founder of the national anti-tax Tea Party Patriots movement, failed to disclose during her numerous media interviews and TV appearances that she and her husband filed for bankruptcy and owed the IRS half a million dollars.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Wednesday blocked a Republican effort to force Representative Charles B. Rangel from the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee and instead referred the demand to the ethics panel already investigating him. As expected, the House voted 246 to 153 to essentially table the call for the ouster of Mr. Rangel, Democrat of New York. Representative John Carter, Republican of Texas, had sought Mr. Rangel’s removal in a resolution that said national attention to financial lapses by the chairman of the tax-writing committee has “held the House up to public ridicule.” Under rules governing consideration...

Most people think they pay too much to Uncle Sam, but for some people it simply is not true. In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Some in that group will even get additional money from the government because they qualify for refundable tax breaks. The ranks of those whose major federal tax burdens net out at zero -- or less -- is on the rise. The center's original 2009 estimate was 38%. That was before enactment in February of the $787...

Maybe when City College of NY is done building Charlie Rangel's favorite Pork project, the $1.95 million, federal earmark funded Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service one of the first courses they could teach is "Playing Fast and Loose with Ethics 101." This past year, Americans have gotten to see the true nature of Congressman Rangel. He may have been a public servant for almost 40 years, but throughout that time he has found ways to enrich his favorite constituent, Charlie Range. In September of 2008 he admitted a failure to report $75 thousand in taxes. What has followed...

TIDE FOUNDATION: Overview Tides Foundation & Tides Center When is a foundation not a foundation? When it gives away other foundations’ money. Most of America’s big-money philanthropies trace their largesse back to one or two wealthy contributors. The Pew Charitable Trusts was funded by Joseph Pew’s Sun Oil Company earnings, the David & Lucille Packard Foundation got its endowment from the Hewlett-Packard fortune, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation grew out of General Motors profits, and so on. In most cases, the donors’ descendants manage and invest these huge piles of money, distributing a portion each year to nonprofit groups of...

See video @ WDSU: IRS Leins on ACORN

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis told Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday that her group "absolutely pays its taxes." Not true: The IRS and Louisiana's taxmen have imposed nearly $2 million in liens against ACORN for failing to fork over taxes at its New Orleans national headquarters. The IRS recently filed a $548,000 lien against the group, and Louisiana state tax officials have slapped $334,000 in liens on ACORN since last October. Evidence that ACORN ignored its tax obligations may be less exciting than its branch offices' eagerness to help a self-professed pimp break multiple laws, or the voter-registration fraud for...

Oversight: As the Senate votes to de-fund Acorn, add pimping, tax evasion and human trafficking to voter fraud paid for with taxpayer dollars and you have an organized criminal enterprise. It's time to investigate.After Acorn workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent-mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip the group of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The amendment, offered by Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, passed by an 83-to-7 margin and marked the third time this year that Republicans have tried to block...

[Page: H9471] GPO's PDF ---    The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.    Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, as some people might know and some of my colleagues know, I have been appearing before this House for the leadership hour now for approximately 12 weeks, and I have been talking about this House of hypocrisy that we seem to be thriving in here as we have all of these issues that involve multiple people concerning ethical issues, and...

• Collapse of offshore centres could cost UK many millions • Liberal Vince Cable says it is wrong to reward mismanagement Britain could be forced to bail out one or more of its offshore tax havens at huge cost, according to early drafts of a Treasury report, because the economic crisis has wrecked their finances. Offshore expert Michael Foot will next month set out a number of options to government ministers in the report as anxiety grows within Whitehall over the health of Britain's overseas territories and crown dependencies. Senior insiders say early drafts of Foot's report suggest that the...

In a story on FoxNews Radio, truth broker Glen Beck is revealing how ACORN assists people in tax evasion in the process of helping them to buy houses. Beyond that; assisting in prostitution and condoning child labor in the illegal sex trade along with illegal immigration. Beck plans on playing an undercover video made by two people who were fed up with the corruption displayed by ACORN in their institutionalized voter registration fraud, their intimidation of voters. The corrupt manner in which members of congress are protecting ACORN ought to bring clearly to light just about every member of the...

<p>ACORN officials offered to assist two individuals posing as a pimp and prostitute, encouraging them to lie to the Internal Revenue Service and providing guidance on how to claim underage girls from South America as dependents, according to an audiotape acquired by FOXNews.com.</p>

I confess to having a soft spot in my heart for old-style, Tammany Hall pols like New York Democrat Charles Rangel, current chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee -- which is the same committee another loveable old rogue, disgraced Illinois Democrat Dan Rostenkowski, used to oversee back in the day. Both are from an era that's long past, and for good reason, too. Old Dan ended up doing time in the slam for a myriad of corrupt practices, including mail fraud, and Rangel could find himself going in the same direction, if current news reports are correct....

I finally figured out why Ted Kennedy wants to have Governor Devoid Patrickakis appoint someone to replace him - Ted is staying in Florida. Ted has been in Florida since he collapsed at an Obama inauguration dinner many months ago. Like his dear mother Rose, Teddy wants to establish Florida as his primary residence in order to avoid those massive estate taxes and dreaded Massachusetts income taxes. This is important because Teddy has a new book coming out and he wants the income from that book to be declared tax free in Florida - not Taxachusetts. The same way we...

"When normal people happen to "find" their own money, it might mean a twenty left in a winter coat, or discovering change beneath the sofa cushions. But if you're Charlie Rangel, it means doubling your net worth. "Earlier this month the Chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee "amended" his 2007 financial disclosure form—to the tune of more than a half-million dollars in previously unreported assets and income. That number may be as high as $780,000, because Congress's ethics rules only require the Members to report their finances within broad ranges. This voyage of personal financial discovery brings Mr....

Charles Rangel (D-NY) failed to disclose millions on his taxes, including a $1 million dollar house. The list of forgotten disclosures goes on and on...for years...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Charles Rangel failed to report as much as $1.3 million in outside income -- including up to $1 million for a Harlem building sale -- on financial-disclosure forms he filed between 2002 and 2006, according to newly amended records. The documents also show the embattled chairman of the Ways and Means Committee -- who is being probed by the House Ethics Committee -- failed to reveal a staggering $3 million in various business transactions over the same period. This week, Rangel filed drastically revised financial-disclosure forms reflecting new, higher amounts of outside income and numerous additional business...

Rangel discloses $660K more in assets By: John Bresnahan August 25, 2009 08:05 PM EST New financial disclosure reports filed by Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) show that the veteran lawmaker failed to report more than $660,000 in assets during 2007, a potential violation of House ethics rules. Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, also had previously stated that he sold a Florida condominium in 2007, but an amended report covering that year – filed in mid-August – now makes no mention of that transaction. It appears that Rangel no longer owns the condo as it is...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Senate Finance Committee on Monday revealed that President Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, had failed to pay $10,000 in taxes over the span of three years beginning in 2005. The panel report comes after several other nominees faced controversy over tax issues. Kirk, a former Dallas mayor, failed to report as income $37,750 in honoraria collected for 16 speaking engagements at Austin College, his alma mater, for 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. He also deducted NBA Mavericks tickets worth $17,382 as entertainment expenses in 2006, 2006 and 2007, but has substantiated...