This Isn’t Good…

For a given value of good.

McClatchy reports that the Feds have taken Charlie Crist up on his suggestion: FBI, IRS launch probe of Florida GOP’s credit card expenses

The U.S. attorney’s office in Tallahassee, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are all involved in the probe, which grew out of the state investigation into former House Speaker Ray Sansom. He was indicted on criminal charges that he stashed $6 million in the state budget for an airplane hangar for a friend and campaign donor.

In the federal case, Sansom and others could be charged with making false statements on their tax returns and tax evasion.

If someone gave you a lot of grief during an arrest or booking, and they had a lot of cash on them [pimps, dealers, etc.], you always had the option of dropping a dime to the IRS. You had to really not like the prep to do this, because the IRS would assume that the wad of green was the individual’s weekly income, check to see what they had paid in taxes [normally nothing], and then put a tax lien on the individual’s life. It was a brutal thing to do to anyone.

The IRS is going to look at the records and if they determine that the charges were for personal, rather than professional expenses, that will be classified as unreported income. A rock hard rule of taxes: never, ever, under-report your income. You can get fined for over estimating your expenses, but you can go to prison for under reporting income.

IRS proceedings are “administrative”, not “judicial”, as in “Rights? You don’t get no stinking rights!” These proceedings are to determine how guilty you are.