President Obama Challenges IRS Scandal Narrative
There is one thing that I noticed that is subtle, but I think a big deal. Stewart did not ask the President about the IRS (His main focus was the Veterans Administration). The President picked the IRS to use as an example. In less than two minutes he denied the primary scandal narrative, called for more resources for the IRS and called for corporate tax reform.
Supporters of the scandal narrative can, of course, point out many particulars that are not addressed in the President’s statement – hard drives, the TIGTA report that indicated inappropriate criteria were used. On the other hand they have yet to come up with that really great smoking gun piece of evidence that links the President to all the tsoris that Lois Lerner and the Cincinnati gang that couldn’t sort straight dished out to Tea Party applicants for exempt status. Too bad that the President watched the Watergate hearings when he was a kid and knows better than to have damning tapes like the one I imagined back in January.
Corporate Advances Kill Individual Charitable Deduction
At the end of certain months in 2004 and 2005, however, Zavadil’s personal bank account had insufficient funds to reimburse American Solutions for the amount recorded on the ledger. For those months, Zavadil and American Solutions employed a system of advances that allowed the ledger to reflect a zero balance at the end of the month. At the end of each month, Zavadil wrote a personal check to the company, and the company brought the ledger balance to zero. At the beginning of the next month, however, American Solutions advanced funds to Zavadil’s personal bank account to cover some or all of the amount of the check, recorded the advance as an expense on the ledger, and then cashed the personal check received at the end of the previous month
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.