While the popularity of the Obama administration may be slipping, Tax Update readers love the Obama Treasury Secretary, if our Taxpayer of the Year Polling is any indication. It takes quite a man to outpoll both porn magnate Joe Francis and randy 78-year old tax lawyer William Halby, but so far Mr. Geithner is up to the challenge.
The Turbotax Treasury Secretary has jumped out to an early lead in Taxpayer of the Year - 2009 voting, but other candidates are beginning to pick up support. Cast your vote today!
Be an educated voter and check out the candidates here.
Turbotax Timmy? Dancing Helio? Let's pick the 2009 Taxpayer of the Year!
January 04, 2010
Now that 2009 has been over for several whole days, we can look back with the perspective of history to determine a worthy Taxpayer of the Year for 2009. Prior winners are ineligible, while those who win awards from other major tax sites are automatically nominated. Without further ado, the candidates:
He allegedly embezzled some of the pricey bottles of wine he was supposedly safekeeping. Eventually, he was charged in early 2005 by the Marin County District Attorney of committing fraud and embezzlement; that case is still pending. He allegedly sold bottles of wine he was safekeeping to raise $800,000.
While that case was pending he was evicted from the warehouse on Mare Island. How could he get back at the warehouse? And how could he stave off an investigation into tax evasion? Hiring an attorney and working with the IRS is too mundane; instead, let’s burn down the warehouse (arson), and cover the tracks.
Yes, that’s exactly what he did. The fire, on October 12, 2005, destroyed an estimated $200 million worth of wine, put some wineries permanently out of business, and destroyed several collections of wine.
Yeah, that solved his problems.
UPDATE: Alert readers will note that Mr. Anderson has been left off the ballot above. Write him in at the comments section if you support him.
Birkenfeld must be considered among the biggest whistle-blowers of all time. He is the Benedict Arnold of the private banking industry and single-handedly made 2009 the year in which the world finally got serious about cracking down on tax evasion. His story is both personally compelling and significant in terms of the sudden changes it has brought to our tax system.
Although Birkenfeld is responsible for the snaring of countless tax cheats, he's no ordinary hero. His hands were hardly clean in the UBS affair. Like a Shakespearean protagonist, he seems as flawed as he is noble. What's undeniable, though, is that the consequences of his actions have affected millions of taxpayers, the global financial sector, and tax administrations around the world.
Last year Cage settled one IRS debt. Now he's been slapped with a $6.26 million tax lien.
According to WebCPA (via the Detroit News), the IRS filed the lien in New Orleans against Cage's $3.55 million Big Easy mansion.
This is just the latest tax trouble for the star of the National Treasure movies. Last fall, Cage agreed to pay $666,000 plus interest after the IRS said that between 2002 and 2004, he and his company had improperly deducted $3.3 million in personal costs as business expenses.
Willam Halby was inexusably left off this poll at first, but he, of all people, would say "better late than never." The 78 year-old Mr. Halby, a New York tax attorney, claimed a deduction that made him the envy of many a Sun City man:
For 2004, the taxpayer claimed medical expense deductions of $76,314 on his Schedule A. Included in this amount was $65,934 for prostitutes; and $2,368 for medical books, magazines, videos, and pornographic material.
For 2005, the taxpayer claimed medical expense deductions on his Schedule A of $49,023. Included in this amount was $42,152 for prostitutes; and $5,005 for books, magazines, videos, and pornographic materials.
Sadly, the Tax Court denied these deductions even though he maintained meticulous contemporaneous records. Perhaps a shot at "Taxpayer of the Year" will be some consolation.
The evidence produced at trial established that Hendrickson had in fact received taxable wages and that his claims to the contrary were knowingly false. In reaching the verdicts, the jury rejected Hendrickson's defense that he had a good faith belief that his statements regarding his lack of wages were true.
Employees of Evangelism Enterprises, peers, and legal counsel testified that Kent disputed the authority of the Internal Revenue Service based on the separation of the church and state, debated the interpretation and application of the withholding requirements, and intentionally characterized Evangelism Enterprises as a "church" and his employees as "missionaries" to avoid tax obligations. Kent had opined to attorney David Gibbs that he was "smarter" than other church officials who had forfeited real property after they refused to collect or pay withholding taxes.
He makes the list by virtue of giving me an excuse to invoke the Flintstones:
Rev. Anthony Jinwright rounds out the list. This man of the cloth delivers the Good News in style, according to his indictment on federal tax charges:
The indictment lists ownership in a BMW 530i, a Mercedes-Benz S550V, five (yes, five) Lexus vehicles, a Bentley GT and a Maybach 57 (worth $250,000). Leases during that same time included a Cadillac, an Acura, a Volkswagen, a Maxima, a Durango, a Neon and a Toyota.
His lawyer comments:
"The last time I checked it wasn't a crime to drive nice cars," Hinson said in a hallway of the federal courthouse uptown. "He's always made his car payments."
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel has held on for a convincing victory in our 2008 Taxpayer of the Year voting:
When the nation's chief taxwriter requires the services of a forensic accountant to figure out his taxes for the past umpteen years, it has to be a great comfort to all taxpayers who have paid negligence penalties for failure to keep adequate books and records. Congratulations, Chairman Charlie!
The polls close today in our Taxpayer of the Year Voting. While the man convicted of trying to settle his IRS exam by having the IRS agent killed and burning down the local office is creeping up in the voting, it's still Charlie Rangel's election to lose. Make your voice heard!
House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel retains his commanding lead in the race for the Tax Update 2008 Taxpayer of the Year. Mr. Rangel, who distinguished himself by needing to hire a forensic accountant to figure his own taxes, has 63% of the vote so far in a six-man field.
The nearest competitor is Randy Nowak, who chose to deal with an IRS exam by hiring a "biker" named "The Reaper" to murder the IRS agent. I mean, who better to deal with a tax problem? Things went awry when "The Reaper" turned out to be the FBI agent, and Mr. Nowak now faces something much uglier than tax problems.
Charlie Rangel has opened a wide lead in early voting for our 2008 Taxpayer of the Year recognition. So far he has 71% of the vote in a six-man field. Surprisingly, Robert Beale, the Taxable Talk Offender of the Year, has been shut out so far.
Yet there is still time to make your voice heard. For background on our worthy candidates, go here.
After you vote, you can check in with Peter Pappas, who has a poll for the worst tax cheat ever. You should also stop by TaxVox for their selection of the ten worst tax ideas of 2008. It must have been incredibly difficult to select only ten.
We have neglected to run our traditional Taxpayer of the Year voting for 2008. In the interest of personal laziness, I will let you, the reader, help make the selection from my arbitrary slate of candidates. Vote early, vote often. We'll hold the polls open all week.
Charlie Rangel, who is perhaps the nations chief taxwriter as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, failed to report years of activity from a rental property he owns, and has had to hire a forensic accountant to try to figure out his taxes.
Randy Nowak tried an innovative approach to handling his IRS exam: hiring a biker to kill the agent and burn down the local IRS office. Unfortunately for him, the "biker" known as "Reaper" was really an FBI agent.
There's lots of good music this time of year on the Des Moines Skywalk system. The Scott Davis Quartet entertained at Capitol Square today. Yes, they are a quartet; the bass player is the invisible guy in the middle.
Celebrate the holidays by participating in our "Taxpayer of the Year" voting. Vote daily through December 31.
It's time, ladies and gentlemen, for our annual recognition of a taxpayer who has found a way to stand out in world of taxes. The nomination criteria is flexible; celebrity helps, but is not requires. So without further ado, let the voting begin!
The nominees and their tax-related fame are outlined below.
Professional psychic David Guardino (Age 64, 366 lbs.) makes the cut for a creative way to to get a judge to show mercy at sentencing: by showing a littlelot of leg.
Anthony Vincent Miller, formerly of Pittsburgh, stood out from the crowd by washing his hands of federal tax fraud charges using an "obsessive-compulsive disorder" defense.
Joseph Francis is one of our celebrity nominees. The founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" empire awaits trial on tax charges, including an allegation that he had a $3.7 million home built for himself in Mexico and deducted it as a business expense.
Actor Wesley Snipes, our runner-up last year, kept his name in the tax news by firing his legal crew and hiring the lawyer who won acquittals for tax-protest figures Joe Bannister and Vernice Kuglin. He also argues that he is being selectively prosecuted, apparently for evading taxes while black.
Black-Hawk Sanders is nominated for perhaps the most far-fetched excuse for not paing his taxes - namely a belief that his is descended from "Native American Moors" who came to America from Africa over an ancient land bridge, which somehow is supposed to make him tax-exempt.
Creed J. Pearson gets the old college try nomination for offering to settle his tax liabilities by the taxes he could assess by auditing the Scientologists.
Finally, we have to include Ron Isley. The R&B star, sentenced last year to 37 months in prison for tax evasion, was the subject of a campaign for a Presidential pardon. The heat is on....
The feds charged Anthony Vincent Miller with evading $2.4 million over three years. The jury acquitted him for one year and deadlocked on the other two, on the basis of this (from the Pittsburgh Star-Tribune):
Lawyers for Miller, who now lives in Melbourne, Fla., argued that a chronic obsessive-compulsive disorder made it nearly impossible for him to perform certain tasks in a timely manner, such as paying his bills.
Because of his condition, the lawyers argued, Miller relied on an accountant, who led him to believe he had a three-year extension to pay the taxes.
In response to their obsessions, most people with OCD resort to repetitive behaviors called compulsions. The most common of these are washing and checking. Other compulsive behaviors include counting (often while performing another compulsive action such as hand washing), repeating, hoarding, and endlessly rearranging objects in an effort to keep them in precise alignment with each other.
Amazingly, Mr. Miller's obsessions apparently did not involve paying his $2.4 million tax liability.
Not only does this creative defense get Mr. Miller off the hook, it qualifies him as a nominee for our coveted 2007 Taxpayer-of-the-Year award. But take heart, taxpayers - nominations remain open!
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The items included in the Tax Update Blog are informational only and are not meant as tax advice. Consult with your tax advisor to determine how any item applies to your situation.
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