Franken pays $70,000 in back taxes and penalties in 17 states
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, front-runner in the race to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, said on Tuesday that he has paid $70,000 in back taxes and penalties owed in 17 states going back to 2003.
Franken, who delivers speeches across the country and still receives residuals from television shows, movies and books, blamed his accountant of 18 years for what he said was a mistake.
The accountant, Allen Chanzis of New York, "just made a basic kind of error that had a lot of ramifications," Franken said.
Franken said he paid federal and state taxes on all of his income, but failed to distribute the payments to each of the states where he had income.
Franken said that despite being incorporated in three states -- New York, California and Minnesota -- his company, Alan Franken Inc., was structured in such a way that it had no corporate income tax liability.
Instead, he said, he paid taxes through the individual income tax.
Franken said he would not release his personal income tax returns but noted that he paid $917,344 in state and city taxes between 2003 and 2006 when he should have paid $921,495. Franken said he has filed for an extension on his 2007 taxes.
Excuses, excuses. The only reason Franken paid up was that Republicans uncovered his tax shenanigans. The unfunny comedian should be a man and not blame his accountant for the tax fraud it seems he attempted to perpetrate. Kudos to the state party for unmasking Franken and showing Minnesota what a liberal millionaire hypocrite he truly is. This is a situation that will most likely endear Franken to his supporters, though. I doubt they will abandon him, which says something about their own character or lack thereof.
Wake up, libs. There is a pattern here. Remember he failed to pay workers' compensation and disability premiums for his New York employees. Franken defrauded the "little people" pseudo-progressives say they champion.
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