What is it with liberals avoiding taxes? Oh, the outrage!!

[Le Jacquelope]

Whoops. Wait a second, no, this time it's corporations.

Nothing to be upset about here folks, move along, move along. American Idol is on in 10 minutes!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_co/bailout_delinquent_taxes/print

13 firms receiving federal bailout owe back taxes
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 5 mins ago

WASHINGTON – At least 13 firms receiving billions of dollars in bailout money owe a total of more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes, a key lawmaker said Thursday. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., chairman of a House subcommittee overseeing the federal bailout, said two firms owe more than $100 million apiece. "This is shameful. It is a disgrace," said Lewis. "We are going to get to the bottom of what is going on here."

The House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight discovered the unpaid taxes in a review of tax records from 23 of the firms receiving the most money, Lewis said as he opened a hearing on the issue.

The committee said it could not legally release the names of the companies owing taxes. It said one recipient had almost $113 million in unpaid federal income taxes from 2005 and 2006. A second recipient owed almost $102 million dating to before 2004. Another was behind $1.1 million in federal income taxes and $223,000 in federal employment taxes.

"If we looked at all 470 recipients, how much would they owe?" Lewis asked.

Lewis said the panel plans to review tax records from other firms receiving federal money, but he was unsure if it would look at every firm.

"We're not done," he said.

Banks and other firms receiving federal money were required to sign contracts stating they had no unpaid taxes, Lewis said. But he said the Treasury Department did not ask them to turn over their tax records.

Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, told the hearing that if an executive signed a contract knowing that information about unpaid taxes was false, "that would potentially be a crime." He said his office will look to see if crimes were committed.

No one from the Treasury Department appeared at Thursday's hearing. Lewis said he asked Treasury officials for a private briefing on their efforts to uncover unpaid taxes, as well as someone to testify at Thursday's hearing.

"They said no one was available," Lewis said in an interview.

The Internal Revenue Service "has every expectation that these amounts will be paid and is committed to collect every dollar of taxes that are owed," IRS spokesman Frank Keith said in a statement. "The IRS recognizes that those entities that receive taxpayer support have a special obligation to pay their taxes, and these taxpayer accounts will remain closely monitored by the IRS to ensure that the full amount of taxes due are paid."

Keith noted there could many reasons why a taxpayer has an unpaid balance. For example, taxpayers could be challenging their bills.

"In and of itself, this does not signal any intent not to pay," Keith said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is already under fire on Capitol Hill for not preventing $165 million in bonuses from being paid to employees at troubled insurance giant AIG.

People will ask, said Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., why there are "large companies getting taxpayer dollars, making false representations, and we can't even name them, much less make them pay the money back, much less prosecute them."

Davis continued: "Will they get their day on a billboard, hopefully?"

"Absolutely," said Barofsky. If someone lied, he said, "They need to be prosecuted."

The revelation is sure to spark outrage on Capitol Hill, where the House is expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would impose steep taxes on employee bonuses at AIG and other firms that have received bailout money.

To date, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, has paid out more than $300 billion to private companies, with billions more on the way.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Most people try to avoid taxes as much as they can, and it is not a matter of Lib. or Con. It's just that it is so embarassing when a nominee for a cabinet post is shown to be evading taxes, especially when he is nominated to be Sec. of the Treasury. Nixon was caught trying to underpay taxes while he was pres. but this was a matter of deductions being disallowed rather than underreporting.

As for the corps owing taxes: As Frank Keith said, it is entirely possible that the corps in question were audited and found to owe taxes and are protesting the assessment. Saying they owe taxes is akin to saying an accused person is guilty before it has been proven. I work sometimes as a consultant, defending against audit assesments and sometimes my clients are informed by the government that they owe taxes even though it hasn't actually been finally established.

At the same time, it is entirely possible that some of them are actually cheating on their taxes. We can't actually know without seeing the documentation.

 

[DeeZire]

Most people try to avoid taxes as much as they can, and it is not a matter of Lib. or Con. It's just that it is so embarassing when a nominee for a cabinet post is shown to be evading taxes, especially when he is nominated to be Sec. of the Treasury. ...

As for the corps owing taxes: As Frank Keith said, it is entirely possible that the corps in question were audited and found to owe taxes and are protesting the assessment. Saying they owe taxes is akin to saying an accused person is guilty before it has been proven.

So when a corporation owes taxes, they're off the hook because they might be protesting the assessment, but when a liberal owes taxes, he's automatically guilty of tax evasion? Thank you for clearing that up.

 

[Boxlicker101]

So when a corporation owes taxes, they're off the hook because they might be protesting the assessment, but when a liberal owes taxes, he's automatically guilty of tax evasion? Thank you for clearing that up.

Of course not. When a person, including a corp. or an individual of any political stripe, is audited, the gov. minions go after every penny they can, without caring if it is right or not. The persons and their minions try to show that nothing is owed or, at least, less than the gov. says.

The audit is like an accusation: The gov. says "You owe us this money" and they show it as a receivable on their books. The person can agree, which is akin to an accused person pleading guilty, or they can plead not guilty and try to fight the assessment by pointing out errors and misinterpretrations that the gov. made. By the way, they make a lot of them. Judging by what I have seen in my job as a tax consultant, many of the auditors don't know shit from Shinola about their jobs.

As I am aying and as Frank Keith pointed out, some of the taxes that are said to be owing may be from an audit that has not been finally decided. The supposed liability of the corp may be caused by a gov. mistake. Or it might actually be back taxes that are owed. I don't know what companies are involved, and neither do you or Le Jacquelope. I am just agreeing with what the gov. spokesman said.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

So when a corporation owes taxes, they're off the hook because they might be protesting the assessment, but when a liberal owes taxes, he's automatically guilty of tax evasion? Thank you for clearing that up.

I am certainly not surprised at this.