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Tag: Massachusetts

Accountant Claims He Was Fired After Notifying Employer About His Wife’s Cancer

After Carl Sorabella’s wife Kathy was diagnosed with stage 4 incurable lung cancer, he notified his boss at Haynes Management that he would need to work a modified schedule to care for her. One week later, his boss informed him that his services were no longer needed.

Sorabella said he and his wife of 23 years, Kathy, learned she had stage 4 incurable cancer in late April. He said he asked his employer, Haynes Management, a real estate company in Wellesley Hills, Mass., that week for a more flexible work schedule to deal with his wife’s care.

“When I told my boss, she said ‘We were thinking about laying you off.’ I thought, ‘You can’t do that,'” Sorabella told WCVB.

Oh, but they did do that, Sorabella claims, even after he offered to work nights and weekends.

“Ultimately she said don’t worry about it and come in on Monday, and when I came in on Monday I got a letter that I would be laid off,” he said. Sorabella said the letter stated he was being laid off due to “workforce modifications.” But one week after he was fired, he says he saw a listing for his job on the company website.

Because Haynes is a small company (less than 50 employees), it is protected in such situations under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The rationale being that small businesses cannot afford to let an employee take extended leave to care for a sick relative or loved one like a large company can. Legal or not, it’s probably safe to assume that Haynes isn’t much for Employer of Choice initiatives.

Man Says He Was Fired After Telling Employer His Wife Has Cancer [ABC]

John Kerry May Be Having Buyer’s Remorse re: $7 Million Yacht

Because people keep asking about it.


If pesky Boston reporters weren’t enough, the Wall St. Journal’s report is taking this to new hyperbolic levels with the headline: “John Kerry – A One-Man ‘Benedict Arnold’ Corporation”:

[T]here’s a smell of hypocrisy. In addition to sailing around the tax issue, Mr. Kerry chose to build his boat in New Zealand at a time when Bay State boat builders are having trouble keeping their work force employed. “I’m confident that anything constructed in New Zealand could be constructed here in the state,” Gregory Egan, who owns the Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, told the Boston Herald. Others noted that the Isabel was specially designed to be piloted without a crew — letting Mr. Kerry scrimp on employment costs and payroll taxes.

Jesus. A rich senator, married to a ketchup heiress, buys an expensive boat, does some not-so-fancy tax avoidance and all of a sudden he’s equated to, arguably, the most notorious traitor in the history of the United States? Yeah, that’s pretty much the same thing.

John Kerry – A One-Man ‘Benedict Arnold’ Corporation [WSJ]
Sen. Kerry Sails Around the Tax Issue [TaxProf Blog]

Earlier: John Kerry Saves $500k in Taxes By Dropping Anchor in Rhode Island

UPDATE: JK’s spokeswoman has said he will pay the tax if Mass. determines that he owes it.

John Kerry Saves $500k in Taxes By Dropping Anchor in Rhode Island

Don’t any of you get the idea that John Kerry is docking his new $7 million yacht in Rhode Island to navigate around Massachusetts’ sales tax and the annual excise tax. That would be, in a word, ludicrous.


“Kerry spokesman David Wade said Friday the boat is being kept at Newport Shipyard not to evade taxes, but ‘for long-term maintenance, upkeep and charter purposes.’ “

And Rhode Island is the Ocean State, so it makes perfect sense. “Isabel” is a 76′ beaut that has “two cabins, a pilot house fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage.” A pretty swell ride.

It’s difficult to say why the Mass. Senator wouldn’t park the vessel near home base but we’d be willing to hear some theories.

Mass. Sen. Kerry docks yacht in RI, saving $500K [AP]
Sen. John Kerry skips town on sails tax [Boston Herald via TaxProf]

For Everyone in North Jersey, Mass and Rhode Island That Squandered the Last Four Weeks Away, Your Tax Deadline Is Tomorrow

If you were (un)lucky enough to live in one of the flood ravaged counties in North Jersey, Mass, or the entire Ocean State, hopefully you remembered that your extended period of procrastination ends tomorrow.


Yes, unfortunately the last four weeks have flown by and we’re sure that some of you have managed to piss away this time not preparing your tax return. Do yourself a favor and file the extension. You’re hopeless.

Relax, here’s the form.

It Literally Took an Act of God* for the IRS to Do Something Nice

There’s a slew of “reasons” that people have for hating on the Internal Revenue Service. They’re responsible for discourse on television, they don’t observe Shabbos, perverts (alleged!), etc.But every now and again the IRS gives you a reason to say, “well, that’s nice of them,” even if it takes rainfall that makes you consider cobbling an ark together and rounding up the animals in the neighborhood.


The Service is not unreasonable. Apologetic? Never. But not unreasonable. Accordingly, if you live in eastern Massachusetts or Rhode Island the IRS took notice of the rising waters and is extending the April 15th deadline to May 11th (?).

It’s unlikely that this will garner much favor with the IRS haters outside of the Northeast but at least the Service won’t have to ignore the flood of calls from Bay State and Ocean State residents about whether they’ll still be expected file on time. Grab a bucket.

IRS will delay April 15 deadline for many in Mass. [Boston Globe]
Flood weary Rhode Islanders get tax extension [AP via Globe]

*For the militant atheists – Calm down, wouldja? It’s a religious week. Just sub “Nature” and move on.