| Earlier this week, John Cook of Gawker asked the campaign of Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency whether Ford, despite living in Manhattan since 2007, had ever filed a state tax return.
It took a few days, but Ford's LIEberman flack Tammy Sun got back to Cook with the shocking answer -- "No."
Ford evidently claimed to work entirely out of Merrill Lynch's office in Nashville (where there is no income tax), and arranged to have his untold multi-million dollars in salary and bonuses paid there.
Details, below. |
| Cook explains the relevant NY law, which requires that non-residents (like Ford) pay state (and city, in his case) income taxes on whatever part of their income earned in the state/city.
The accountants of professional athletes are well aware of this; Ford evidently is not.
Cook's argument that Ford "dodged" NY income taxes is laid out here:
If Ford did enough business in New York to keep an office there, it's reasonable to presume that he earned a good deal of money in New York. Now, we're sure that there are all sorts of accountants' arguments and narrow dodges at Ford's disposal to claim that he didn't owe New York income tax until he moved here last year: He could have been paid out of Merrill Lynch's Nashville office, for instance, and he could have received the majority of his income in a bonus that he could claim he earned in Tennessee, not New York. But while those sorts of arguments may be useful to someone trying to get as close as possible to living in New York without suffering the tax consequences of doing so, they're not as effective when you're loudly thinking about running for Senate in New York by claiming you've lived there for three years and pay taxes there.
Add this to the myriad of reasons why Ford should not replace the excellent Kirsten Gillibrand in the Senate.
And kudos to Cook and Gawker, who have not hopped on the happy-news Ford bandwagon being driven by Mayor Bloomberg, Pinch Sulzberger, Mortimer Zuckerman, and Rupert Murdoch. |
