Analysis

Politico Reports Beck Has Had ‘His Own Minor Tax Problems’


Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)– In a January 8 Politico article, Kenneth Vogel writes:

No one has been less forgiving than Glenn Beck when it comes to Democrats with tax problems. Not just the well-known ones like Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, but less serious ones such as Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, whose husband only recently paid off $6,400 in tax liens on his auto repair business, and Nancy Killefer, who withdrew her nomination to be White House chief performance officer, citing a $946.69 tax lien on her Washington home.

Their tax issues are just one indicator of "a culture of corruption among some of the left," Beck declared just last month in a segment on his hugely popular Fox News television show, in which he branded Geithner, Killefer, Solis and a handful of other Obama nominees "tax cheats," whom he wouldn’t trust "with my children, let alone my children’s future."

Mocking the excuses offered by the nominees, Beck sarcastically intoned "Oh, the tax thing, it was an accident. It was my husband’s fault. I didn’t do it, he did it. I didn’t mean to do it. I was just working hard for the people."

So what to make, then, of the fact that Beck has had his own minor tax problems over the past few years?

Vogel goes on to write that Beck’s production company, Mercury Radio Arts, "has at times struggled to keep up with the heightened tax and filing demands accompanying his success."

Vogel writes:

In October 2007, New York City issued a tax warrant against Mercury Radio Arts, indicating that the company had been penalized $10,927.49 for overdue 2006 general corporation taxes, and still owed $7,111.03, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

The source with knowledge of the situation explained the issue "arose during the process of the company’s transition from Philadelphia to New York" in 2006 – after Beck began hosting a daily news and commentary television show on CNN’s Headline News – and was "immediately addressed." Two weeks after the warrant was issued, New York City released it, indicating in a filing obtained by POLITICO that the debt was satisfied.

The source said Mercury’s relocation also resulted in confusion over the company’s unemployment insurance, culminating in the New York State Workers Compensation Board in July 2007 issuing a judgment obtained by POLITICO assessing an $8,250 fine against Mercury for failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance from March 31, 2006 through February 25, 2007.

But, less than three months later, the board issued a notice indicating that the "judgment has been fully satisfied." And board spokesman Brian Keegan explained that the board rescinded the penalty after determining that Mercury had carried the appropriate insurance since it began doing business in New York in 2005 and that Mercury’s insurance carrier had merely failed to submit proof of coverage to the board.


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