Kerry Antoinette
John Kerry, Senior Senator for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: tax cheat. That is what the newspapers should have as the headline.
So Kerry the Brahmin orders a boat from New Zealand, designed by a guy in Newport RI. Ok ... fine so far. So the boat arrives and is commissioned in RI, uh, ok. It is currently at the docks of the firm that arranged the transaction -- having warranty work done. Hmmm. Its homeport? Newport.
This has the Massachusetts press inflamed and crazed: as a Massachusetts resident, if he were to homeport his new boat in Massachusetts, he would have pay about $430,000 in sales tax and another $70,000 or so in excise tax. Rhode Island ditched those taxes in the late '90's and as a consequence it has become a rich man's boating Mecca. By contrast, there was no way the lefties on Beacon Hill could keep their mitts off of direct taxation when the results are immediate, unlike Rhode Island which manages to understand that the money thrown off to the local economy by being a safe haven / port far exceeds the paltry sales and excise taxes. It costs about 10% of the new purchase price to maintain a mega-yacht. Or put another way, Kerry will sink $700,000 a year in his toy. And by Newport standards, Kerry's boat is a dinghy.
To taxes: if he could keep the boat out of Massachusetts waters for the first 6 months of ownership, he would not be liable for Mass taxes -- the presumption being the boat is held in foreign waters and not subject to excise or sales tax. But Kerry couldn't resist parading his new boat to the citizens of Nantucket over the 4th weekend: and as a Massachusetts resident, that means that the excise and sales taxes have become due. So no point in the Newport charade, bucko. You owe.
Which leads us to the greater question: why is a person worth $160 million (and whose wife is probably worth over a billion) try to cheat on his taxes? Or more importantly, why is a liberal political figure, who never saw a tax he didn't like, trying to evade them himself? It smells an awful lot like Leona Helmsley who thought that taxes were for the little people. How can Kerry represent the Commonwealth in Washington D.C. when he clearly doesn't want to play by the rules of his own state?
Simple: he can't and shouldn't represent Massachusetts. Hopefully, he will be voted out for this.
And for the yobos who claim that the boat should have been built in the Commonwealth ... where exactly? As best I can tell, the Commonwealth does not have a yard that could have built this vessel, or at least not to the standards of the Kiwis. You see the tax and regulate atmosphere of Massachusetts have driven away the boat builders. Small yards still exist ... but not for vessels such as Isabelle. The Democrat-controlled business climate and unions snuffed out that business long ago.
So Kerry the Brahmin orders a boat from New Zealand, designed by a guy in Newport RI. Ok ... fine so far. So the boat arrives and is commissioned in RI, uh, ok. It is currently at the docks of the firm that arranged the transaction -- having warranty work done. Hmmm. Its homeport? Newport.
This has the Massachusetts press inflamed and crazed: as a Massachusetts resident, if he were to homeport his new boat in Massachusetts, he would have pay about $430,000 in sales tax and another $70,000 or so in excise tax. Rhode Island ditched those taxes in the late '90's and as a consequence it has become a rich man's boating Mecca. By contrast, there was no way the lefties on Beacon Hill could keep their mitts off of direct taxation when the results are immediate, unlike Rhode Island which manages to understand that the money thrown off to the local economy by being a safe haven / port far exceeds the paltry sales and excise taxes. It costs about 10% of the new purchase price to maintain a mega-yacht. Or put another way, Kerry will sink $700,000 a year in his toy. And by Newport standards, Kerry's boat is a dinghy.
To taxes: if he could keep the boat out of Massachusetts waters for the first 6 months of ownership, he would not be liable for Mass taxes -- the presumption being the boat is held in foreign waters and not subject to excise or sales tax. But Kerry couldn't resist parading his new boat to the citizens of Nantucket over the 4th weekend: and as a Massachusetts resident, that means that the excise and sales taxes have become due. So no point in the Newport charade, bucko. You owe.
Which leads us to the greater question: why is a person worth $160 million (and whose wife is probably worth over a billion) try to cheat on his taxes? Or more importantly, why is a liberal political figure, who never saw a tax he didn't like, trying to evade them himself? It smells an awful lot like Leona Helmsley who thought that taxes were for the little people. How can Kerry represent the Commonwealth in Washington D.C. when he clearly doesn't want to play by the rules of his own state?
Simple: he can't and shouldn't represent Massachusetts. Hopefully, he will be voted out for this.
And for the yobos who claim that the boat should have been built in the Commonwealth ... where exactly? As best I can tell, the Commonwealth does not have a yard that could have built this vessel, or at least not to the standards of the Kiwis. You see the tax and regulate atmosphere of Massachusetts have driven away the boat builders. Small yards still exist ... but not for vessels such as Isabelle. The Democrat-controlled business climate and unions snuffed out that business long ago.
posted by Zaphod at Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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