DC Trawler

Al Sharpton Wants Higher Taxes For Everybody But Himself

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In fact, he doesn’t want to pay taxes at all. Can you give him one good reason he should, you racist?

It only takes the NYT’s Russ Buettner seven paragraphs to get to the point in a story titled, as blandly as possible, “Questions About Sharpton’s Finances Accompany His Rise in Influence”:

Mr. Sharpton has regularly sidestepped the sorts of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent and other bills. Records reviewed by The New York Times show more than $4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his for-profit businesses. And though he said in recent interviews that he was paying both down, his balance with the state, at least, has actually grown in recent years. His National Action Network appears to have been sustained for years by not paying federal payroll taxes on its employees.

With the tax liability outstanding, Mr. Sharpton traveled first class and collected a sizable salary, the kind of practice by nonprofit groups that the United States Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration recently characterized as “abusive,” or “potentially criminal” if the failure to turn over or collect taxes is willful.

Hey, what’s a few million between friends?

This isn’t news to anybody with even a passing familiarity with Sharpton, of course. It’s just strange to see him called out in the Grey Lady.

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Jim Treacher