ATTENTION Voters: Taxes are only for the "little people". BOSTON â Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is docking his family's new $7 million yacht in neighboring Rhode Island, allowing him to avoid paying roughly $500,000 in taxes to the cash-strapped Bay State. If the "Isabel" were kept at the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee's summer vacation home on Nantucket, or in Boston Harbor near his city residence, he would be liable for $437,500 in one-time sales tax. He would also have to pay $70,000 in annual excise taxes. Massachusetts, like most other states, has been grappling with plunging tax revenues. Last year's budget decifict was $600 million, and officials are bracing for a $1 billion deficit this year. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100723/ap_on_el_se/us_kerry_yacht
No one pays more taxes than he has to. That's like being the only OPEC member adhering to production quotas. The idea is to change the game rather than hate the player.
You don't find it odd that a multi-millionaire from Massachusetts, who is allowed to make laws about tax code, finds a way to avoid paying a six-figure tax bill to a state that he represents? Is Kerry not aware of the debt in his state? Couldn't he easily afford this tax, considering the fact that he is one of the 3-4 wealthiest pols to date? Yet, he spouts his leftist drivel of haves vs have-nots....not to mention his party promotes "patriotism" as an act of paying more taxes?
Haliburton, Transocean, Tyco etc etc are all heavy republican donors and are all domiciled in jurisdictions other than the U.S. Whaddya know.
OK, so we agree: Phony POS Kerry is another shining example of a democratic liberal who wants to share and redistribute the wealth, as long as its NOT his own money. Lets be happy for him, if he can not get re-elected in Mass next time, then maybe he will move to RI.....
As much as I hate Liberals (and I REALLY do).. I'm with Kerry on this one. The Constitution originally supported States Rights... and if you didn't like how you were being treated because of a state's policies, you could pack up and move to somewhere more favorable... a way to keep individual state governments in check. Now that we have an OPPRESSIVE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT... any benefit of living in one state or another seems minor.
...I agree, Kerry should just move to RI, and run for office there... This just in: 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." ...Maybe Mass does not allow: "maintenance, upkeep and charter purposes" of boats...