Last year, United States Representative Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), who heads up the powerful Ways and Means Committee, found himself in hot water when it came to light that he “forgot” to report some rental income on his personal taxes. Apparently, Rangel’s memory hasn’t gotten any better.
In an effort to comply with an ethics investigation, Rangel has amended tax and other disclosure forms. As it turns out, Rangel’s total net worth is somewhere between $1,028,024 and $2,495,000, about twice as much as he reported last year. Included in the list of previously omitted assets include property in Glassboro, NJ; as it turns out, Rangel is delinquent on his property taxes according to the Gloucester County Clerk’s office. While the outstanding amounts are small, records indicate that there were at least six tax liens levied against Rangel’s property during the past 16 years. All of those liens were eventually settled by Rangel.
While Rangel’s aides are blaming the bookkeepers, the GOP is calling for Rangel’s head. A spokesman for Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) has suggested that Rangel step down, saying, “This, again, raises serious questions about whether he should continue as chairman, given the multiple ethics investigations.”
At this point, Rangel has a number of matters, mostly financial, which are being investigated by various ethics committees. In each case, he has an excuse. In this case, it’s just forgetfulness, he claims.
C’mon, who can blame him? Pesky tax bills? He doesn’t have time to worry about paying his taxes… he’s busy chairing a committee that oversees other people’s taxes. Pish!
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Charles Rangel, Ways and Means Committee
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) has announced that he will not step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, despite an ethics investigation into his personal finances.
Instead, according to his lawyer, Rangel will hire a “nationally renowned forensic accounting firm” to review and report his finances. After the review, the report will be released publicly, along with 20 years of tax returns.
Rangel has admitted he did not report $75,000 in rental income for a property in the Dominican Republic but claims that he didn’t understand the tax consequences because of language and cultural barriers. “Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they’d start speaking Spanish,” Mr. Rangel said.
Really, Congressman Rangel? That’s the best you can offer? Cause $75,000 would buy you one heck of a translator… You could even tap the population of your own district – where more than half of the residents speak Spanish. Someone, somewhere could help you say:
Tengo que pagar mis impuestos.
The tax issue is particularly embarrassing for Rangel since his job as Chair of the Ways and Means Committee is to help create tax law.
Unpaid taxes may just be the tip of the iceberg: investigators are also looking into allegations that Rangel used government letterhead to promote an educational center named after him (what other kind is there?) and other questionable financial deals.
The GOP has called for Rangel’s resignation from the Committee, claiming that Rangel’s insistence on keeping his seat shows that Democrats have “officially abandoned their promise to run the most ethical Congress in history and instead embraced the politics of corruption with open arms.”
For more commentary on Rangel, check out this Oxford University Press blog.
What? You think that’s crazy talk? You would if you have been following the debacle that is allowing private debt collectors to pursue the collection of taxes even though it is more expensive and is expected to collect fewer tax dollars. Government at its finest, no?
Concerns about privatizing tax collections have included privacy issues, the integrity of the collections agencies selected and the consequences of an incentive-based collections system. With this in mind, the Ways and Means Committee had a hearing to investigate whether the relatively short-lived system should be abolished.
They decided it should. On July 18, the Ways and Means Committee passed H.R. 3056, the Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007, which would repeal the use of private debt collection companies for purposes of collecting federal income taxes. The Committee approved the measure by a vote of 23 to 18. “The private debt collection program is an insult to the American taxpayer and our Federal tax system,” said Oversight Subcommittee Chairman John Lewis (D-GA).
The Act also includes provisions for, among other things, delaying the application of a 3% withholding requirement on businesses, increase the estimated payment requirements for large corporations and immediately taxing US citizens who renounce their citizenship (that’ll teach ‘em!).
