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Charlie Rangel Told Sean Hannity He Needs a Good Accountant

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

Last night, New York Rep Charlie Rangel made his way to Colin's favorite fair and balanced news channel to sit down with Sean Hannity and Hannity's hair to talk taxes.

Newsbusters has the transcript:

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Out of every dollar one of those rich people in New York make, how much should they be able to keep?

CONGRESSMAN CHARLES RANGEL (D-NEW YORK): Well, it depends on what the tax rates are, and that's what we're trying to do.

HANNITY: No, after they pay state, federal, FICA…

RANGEL: I don’t really, look, if you make yourself six, seven million dollars a year, I'm not going to tell you how much of that you should, because you do a lot of charity work.

HANNITY: Do you think if somebody pays 60 cents of every dollar that that’s too much?

RANGEL: Of course it's ridiculous.

HANNITY: Well if you live in New York, that's what you pay.

RANGEL: Well, I don't think that we're here to define what the tax code is going to be.

HANNITY: But that's the reality. That’s what it is now.

RANGEL: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

HANNITY: Yeah, yeah.

RANGEL: No, if you take a, if you really take a look at the rich people that we have in this country, most of them don't pay any taxes at all.

HANNITY: Okay, I pay 60 cents of every dollar.

RANGEL: Well, it means that you need yourself a good accountant, that’s all that means. [Laughs]

HANNITY: Listen, Charlie, if I used your accountant I'd be on the verge of getting in trouble in Congress. Now let’s be honest.

The clip:

Har har, very funny Hannity! I wanted to find a link to include about Rangel's tax problems but I couldn't find one that wasn't on Michelle Malkin or The Blaze, sorry. However, if you recall Rangel addressing the American people on CNN after his censure, he basically blamed his accountant for his tax problems. Or rather, his own failure to double-check his accountant's work.

Awkward.

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Apparently Lance Armstrong (aka ‘an annoying little man in tights’) Retired from Cycling to Lobby for Higher Taxes

I will not apologize for loving the snark coming from Americans for Tax Reform today:

California is one of the most heavily taxed jurisdictions in the world. If that weren’t bad enough, for the next few months Golden State residents will have to deal with an annoying little man in tights pedaling around the state to stump for even higher taxes. Lance Armstrong, who recently retired from professional cycling to lobby full time for higher taxes, was in Los Angeles earlier this week for a press event with California state Senator Don Perata to announce the launch of a campaign to raise the state tobacco tax.

I have to give credit to ATR, they are nothing if not consistent. After all, they are lumping in a cancer survivor with a cancer-fighting nonprofit for being lovers of higher taxes on cigarettes.

KPMG, Ernst & Young Sneak on to U.S. News Tax Firm Ranking

You may or may not be aware that U.S. News & World Report is the shot caller when it comes to ranking law schools (much to the chagrin of some) and now (to even more chagrin) the magazine is delving into extensive law firm rankings and the Big 4 will enjoy a little bit of perceived prestige that comes along with these rankings.

Christ. We’re barely into rankings/list season and they’ve already chalked up working moms and consulting rankings and U.S. News is now throwing around its weight with this new list.

Granted, virtually no accounting firms will even get a whiff of this list but something tells us that because U.S. News has decided to dive head first into ranking law firms by practice are the Big 4 will be jockeying to make the tax list, even though it is a sliver of a much larger and broader ranking that they won’t be included on at all.

Excuse us while we choke down the vomit that we caught making it’s way out.


Why the hell not?!? U.S. News figured that the world couldn’t do without it’s rankings-for-hire in one more area for the legal field but this time the Big 4 will enjoy a bit of a ride on this wave.

Right. The list. The two of Big Four of course, make their way on the ranking for tax firms: Ernst & Young falls into the coveted Tier 1 (includes 36 firms) and KPMG drops on Tier 2 (47 firms). There were a total out of 119 firms across three tiers.

Admittedly, this is an opportunity for both KPMG and E&Y to boast their tax practice prowess over Deloitte and PwC who don’t appear on the list at all. That being said, Deloitte and PwC enjoy higher spots on the consulting rankings so they’re probably not overly concerned although no one turns down a notch on the bedpost if they can get it.

What this new ranking ultimately will be is one more marketing tool for the firms to use on the impressionable recruits and experienced hires who want to work in top notch – TOP NOTCH! – tax practice. Be it lawyers or CPAs, the firms will tout this ranking to their tax professionals (if not firm-wide) to throw around ONE. MORE. LIST. to impress the trousers off the masses but now people will be saying, “Oh, this is a U.S. News ranking.”

So for the Big 4 to be included in this “prestigious” ranking is a little bit, as Elie Mystal states, like “Christmas morning – if only Santa were a jolly red prestige whore.”

U.S. News Tax Firm Rankings [TaxProf Blog]
Best Law Firms [U.S. News & World Report]
U.S. News Launches First Official Law Firm Rankings [ATL]

Tea Partiers Taking Serious Measures, Arrange Virtual March with Avatars

The Tea Partiers (not to be confused with tax protestors who are way more delusional) have made their names known all across this great land for hating on taxes. They’ve marched pretty much everywhere but do you know where they haven’t marched? On the Internet! That’s right, nothing like a virtual march with politicians up for reelection joining the cause (can’t be seen with those nutjobs in person).

The “march” will occur on, you guessed it, April 15th and it will occur “in” Washington DC.


Some of the other cartoon leaders that will be in “attendance” are

• Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey

• Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee

• Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist

• Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

• Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan

• The Tea Party Express – A red bus.

We have to admit that we’re impressed with this risky move by this group that we would otherwise shun a technological feat of this magnitude. Does anyone think that Dick Armey or John McCain even knows what an avatar is? What lucky member of their respective staffs got the responsibility of creating those?

This is especially fun for the tea p’s because since this particular march is virtual, it is likely that certain actions and/or methods that the tax haters could only dream of before, will now be allowed. These may include but not limited to:

• Leaving flaming bags of shit on White House’s front steps.

• Protestors showing “video” of President Obama walking around wearing a Sandwich Board saying “I love taxes.”

• Resurrecting the Founding Fathers (zombie TJ!) to get their testimonials about how the Obama Administration is ruining America.

• Portray Nancy Pelosi giving a speech on the Capitol steps in one of those olive-colored Castro outfits.

• Bring Ronald Reagan back to life, just because.

• Other portrayals of “taxation without representation” taken wildly out of context.

All we ask is that you keep it non-violent. Tea p’s that aren’t too good with them computers need not worry though, actual marches will be held around the country on April 15th where you’ll be allowed to shout, march and carry signs with plenty of misspelled words.

Tax Protesters Launch Online March on Washington [Web CPA]
Online Tax Revolt [Website]