Free Republic

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,...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog The following rich liberals have all used legal tax shelters to legally lower their taxes The following rich liberals have all used legal tax shelters to legally lower their taxes:Debbie Wasserman SchultzThe Weekly Standard reports:Disclosure forms reveal that Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, previously held funds with investments in Swiss banks, foreign drug companies, and the state bank of India. This revelation comes mere days after the Democratic chair attacked presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for holding money in Swiss bank accounts in the past.Nancy PelosiThe Daily...

Five years ago, car-wash owner Orman Wilson set up a pension plan for himself and six employees. For that, he may owe the IRS a $1.2 million tax penalty. Mr. Wilson, the owner of 19 coin-operated car washes in Houston, says he relied on four advisers, including a certified public accountant, to set up a plan that received approval from the Internal Revenue Service. Then, in late 2007, the IRS found fault with the plan and assessed it $250,000 -- plus special penalties of $1.2 million. ... The source of the distress: tax-law changes made by Congress in 2004. At...

In another apparent effort to prepare Marylanders for looming tax increases, Gov. Martin O'Malley released a recorded statement to radio stations suggesting corporations and higher-income earners will be among those asked to pay more. "When given a choice between decline and progress, the people of Maryland always choose to make progress," O'Malley (D) says in the message, which runs more than two minutes and was sent to more than 50 radio stations, an aide said. "Together we can overcome the deficit in our path, and we can get our fiscal house in order in a way that improves our state...

The Rolling Stones have paid just 1.6 per cent tax on their earnings of £242million over the past 20 years, it has emerged. Documents published in Holland show that Sir Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards used offshore trusts and companies to ensure tax breaks. Of the fortune they have accumulated since 1986 for royalties, they have paid just £3.9 million in taxes. The revelation emerged after the three set up a will to ensure that their beneficiaries do not end up squabbling over their money when they die. The band appear to have been spurred into action after...

Abusive tax shelters cost state billions But going after wealthy cheats would be blow to business growth, report saysSACRAMENTO — Cash-starved California collected hundreds of millions of dollars in a special, one-time attack on ever-growing illegal tax shelters used by the rich and corporations but could be raking in billions more, according to a state report released Wednesday. The downside is that a long-term war on the complex, secretive tax strategies — marketed in the thousands by firms and baffling to tax auditors — could hurt business growth in California, which runs counter to the wishes of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's...

KPMG avoided the fate of Arthur Andersen yesterday... over the marketing and sale of "abusive" tax shelters. But the price of survival was high. The accounting firm will pay $456 million in fines and restitution and has agreed to let a federal monitor look over its shoulder. At the same time, no fewer than eight former KPMG executives and an outside lawyer were indicted on conspiracy charges for designing and selling the shelters.... KPMG will survive this "deferred prosecution" by admitting wrongdoing. But it's easy to forget amid the righteous indignation over tax shelters with names like FLIP, BLIP, OPIS...

NOVEMBER 30--A New York woman who briefly worked as a nanny for Don Imus has sued the radio host for wrongful termination, claiming she was canned for bringing a harmless cap gun and pocketknife with her during a trip last Thanksgiving to the family's sprawling New Mexico ranch. Nichole Mallette, 24, also claimed in her New York State Supreme Court lawsuit, a copy of which you'll find below, that she was defamed when Imus later announced on his program that he had been forced to "disarm" his nanny, whom he labeled as dangerous and a "terrorist." In her complaint, filed...

For Immediate Release Friday, March 5, 2004 Senators Expand Leasing Tax Shelters Probe to FAA, EPAWASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Sen. Max Baucus, ranking member, have expanded their inquiry into federal agencies that may have played a role in approving abusive tax shelter leases using infrastructure assets. This week, the senators wrote to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency asking for details of any such deals those agencies have approved. The letters follow an earlier letter to the federal Transportation Department; the senators released the results of that inquiry earlier...

Democrats were pushing for tax reform in 1984, and Lieutenant Governor John F. Kerry, candidate for US Senate, had some ideas. "You need a major overhaul of the tax structure," Kerry told a panel of reporters on a May 6 broadcast of WBZ-TV (Channel 4). "You need to close crazy loopholes that are non-productive." Though he did not share it at the time, Kerry had recently learned a costly lesson about loopholes in the tax code. Weeks before that interview, Kerry, by his own account now, had jettisoned an investment of between $25,000 and $30,000 in an exotic tax shelter...

<p>Most Americans know behavior that deserves to be called "poor judgment" when they see it. But at the Justice Department, the definition evidently doesn't include smearing innocent taxpayers or throwing a stink bomb in the middle of a contentious gubernatorial race.</p>

As part of efforts to clamp down on abusive corporate tax shelters, the Internal Revenue Service is expected to file enforcement actions against two accounting firms as early as today or tomorrow, several people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The agency has stepped up its focus on firms that provide advice to companies on how to minimize their tax bill. The pressure on so-called tax-shelter promoters is considered an effective means to identify how widespread the practice is. The enforcement action -- the first of its kind against a promoter -- would be to compel...