Christie fails to report income, avoids $152k in taxes

[RogueBeaver]

Somehow this isn't surprising.

[bobloblaw]

Looks like the GOPe candidates are imploding.

I predict a Walker/Rubio race. The rest will just be noise with Cruz and Paul maybe winning a couple of states.

[King]

Walker/Rubio race makes no sense. Too similar. It will be Walker or Rubio versus Cruz and Paul, with the 4th wheel fading into obscurity.

[bobloblaw]

Walker/Rubio race makes no sense. Too similar. It will be Walker or Rubio versus Cruz and Paul, with the 4th wheel fading into obscurity.

yeah, I can see that.

[Ebsy]

This actually seems pretty serious.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

At this point, I actually want Christie to run, for sheer amusement value.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Christie has been a joke candidate for a while now and continues to be one.

[RogueBeaver]

Christie has been a joke candidate for a while now and continues to be one.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Congrats Phil!

[Zioneer]

Christie is really bad at covering up his own corruption, isn't he?

[Simfan34]

Oh dear.

[Lief 🗽]

why isn't this thug in jail yet?

[Landslide Lyndon]

why isn't this thug in jail yet?

Won't it be sublime if the two star governors of the Class of 2009 both ended up in prison?

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

This is a complete non-issue. I'm sure he has time to think about an obscure tax rule. Common sense tells you that an expense account should not be taxed. This is a particular type that was clearly overlooked. He's fine. He will amend as far back as he can and incur penalties for underpayment but nothing criminal. And he will make it all back when he does consulting post-governorship. If they failed to put it on his W-2, the state really messed up. If they did, both Christie and the IRS are really really dumb.

And neither he nor McDonnell will wind up in prison. Just watch.

[bobloblaw]

Key word might be avoid, not evade. Avoid is legal. Evade is illegal.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

This is a complete non-issue. I'm sure he has time to think about an obscure tax rule. Common sense tells you that an expense account should not be taxed. This is a particular type that was clearly overlooked. He's fine. He will amend as far back as he can and incur penalties for underpayment but nothing criminal. And he will make it all back when he does consulting post-governorship. If they failed to put it on his W-2, the state really messed up. If they did, both Christie and the IRS are really really dumb.

And neither he nor McDonnell will wind up in prison. Just watch.

McDonnell is already in prison.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

This is a complete non-issue. I'm sure he has time to think about an obscure tax rule. Common sense tells you that an expense account should not be taxed. This is a particular type that was clearly overlooked. He's fine. He will amend as far back as he can and incur penalties for underpayment but nothing criminal. And he will make it all back when he does consulting post-governorship. If they failed to put it on his W-2, the state really messed up. If they did, both Christie and the IRS are really really dumb.

And neither he nor McDonnell will wind up in prison. Just watch.

McDonnell is already in prison.

No he is not. After an initial first ruling that he had to report even if he appealed, a later ruling allowed him to remain free for the time being, and I am confident the appeals process will clear him of these nonsense charges. He did absolutely nothing wrong.

[Torie]

Key word might be avoid, not evade. Avoid is legal. Evade is illegal.

That is correct, but the article should have used the verb "evade" rather than "avoid." Apparently if you don't have receipts to document your expenses, then whatever expense allowance you are paid by the state becomes wage income. Christie didn't have the receipts, either because he incurred no expenses (in which event what he did is flat out illegal), or if he did, does not have the receipts. If he can find or secure from vendors the receipts, than his tax problem to that extent is correctable.

I don't see how a CPA could have signed his tax return, assuming one did. If he told the CPA he had receipts, but lied to the CPA, then he is in real trouble, maybe criminal trouble.

Anyway, he's done. Even if, to be extremely generous and give him the benefit of the doubt, in a situation that looks really bad, he was just negligent, a guy who is negligent is not good POTUS material, obviously.

[Ebsy]

No he is not. After an initial first ruling that he had to report even if he appealed, a later ruling allowed him to remain free for the time being, and I am confident the appeals process will clear him of these nonsense charges. He did absolutely nothing wrong.

LMAO

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

No he is not. After an initial first ruling that he had to report even if he appealed, a later ruling allowed him to remain free for the time being, and I am confident the appeals process will clear him of these nonsense charges. He did absolutely nothing wrong.

LMAO

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/bob-mcdonnell-amicus-brief-attorneys-general-115901.html

All politicians should be terrified by this. I'm not being a partisan hack either. I constantly talk about Siegelman on this forum and I said Menendez should not be indicted despite my hatred toward him.

I also conceded that one of my favorites Rob McCord was in the wrong.

[SteveRogers]

No he is not. After an initial first ruling that he had to report even if he appealed, a later ruling allowed him to remain free for the time being, and I am confident the appeals process will clear him of these nonsense charges. He did absolutely nothing wrong.

LMAO

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/bob-mcdonnell-amicus-brief-attorneys-general-115901.html

All politicians should be terrified by this. I'm not being a partisan hack either. I constantly talk about Siegelman on this forum and I said Menendez should not be indicted despite my hatred toward him.

I also conceded that one of my favorites Rob McCord was in the wrong.

Yes, all politicians should be terrified of this so that they will all stop accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from their lobbyist friends.

[cinyc]

That is correct, but the article should have used the verb "evade" rather than "avoid." Apparently if you don't have receipts to document your expenses, then whatever expense allowance you are paid by the state becomes wage income. Christie didn't have the receipts, either because he incurred no expenses (in which event what he did is flat out illegal), or if he did, does not have the receipts. If he can find or secure from vendors the receipts, than his tax problem to that extent is correctable.

I don't see how a CPA could have signed his tax return, assuming one did. If he told the CPA he had receipts, but lied to the CPA, then he is in real trouble, maybe criminal trouble.

Anyway, he's done. Even if, to be extremely generous and give him the benefit of the doubt, in a situation that looks really bad, he was just negligent, a guy who is negligent is not good POTUS material, obviously.

Christie's office now denies the article's tax treatment, claiming that the expense account is not required to be included in Christie's income.  Christie's office claims that any yearly excess was returned to the state, despite the claims made in the article.  

Also, just because no receipts were required to be provided to the legislature doesn't mean that no receipts were kept or that the Governor's office didn't have an official policy requiring receipts from its employees.

You'd think that if the expense account were to be included in income, the state would have been required to include it on Christie's W-2, no?  If they didn't, it's hard to see how the IRS could come after Christie criminally, receipts or no receipts.