Unbelievable: Obama appointee withdraws because of … tax problem

what about Obama himself, does he have any Tax problems?

jp on February 3, 2009 at 11:22 AM

Yes, as far as I’m concerned, he does. Two problems: one certain, one speculative.

Certain: WaPo reported (and the Boss echoed in a blog entry last summer) how Obama in 2005 or 2006 purchased a lot next to his Chicago residence for $104,500 from Rezko’s wife when the lot had been appraised at $40,500. In other words, Obama paid $64,000 more than the property was worth. That’s a taxable gift to the wife of a longtime friend, and it should be reported on a federal gift tax return. Obama cannot claim he made a bad bargain because he had an appraisal in hand. He’s even cited the appraisal in an interview. Also, it’s entirely irrelevant what Rezko’s wife paid for the lot. Apparently, Obama bought 1/6 of a parcel that she paid $625,000 for. Even if you want to argue that Obama was paying her a proportionate share of her purchase price, that’s irrelevant. He paid $64,000 more than the appraised value of the property. It’s a taxable gift that needs to be reported on a gift tax return.

So what? Well, it raises the next logical question: Why is Obama making a gift to the wife of a former henchman, now felon? You tell me. The MSM didn’t want to ask.

Speculative: I’d really like an investigative reporter to look at the seller in Obama’s home purchase. How does a guy go from asking $1.65 million in seller’s market to accepting $1.35 million? I’d like to know what the seller paid for the house. I’m betting the seller had a ton of capital gain–$300,000 more than whatever available exclusion ($500,000 or $250,000) applied to the seller for the year of sale. My theory is that the seller was entirely willing to take $300K under the table and outside of the Form 1099 reporting just to avoid $45,000 of capital gains taxes ($300K x 15%). Then you ask where the $300K came from, and you look at a Rezko or any number of other Chicagoland money people who are big Obama backers. Call it my Pelican Brief theory, but nobody has looked at that very hard. Sure, not Obama’s taxes, but it implicates him in something very sleazy.

One other thing, how is Obama and his wife handling the mother-in-law in the White House? Room and board in the White House for watching the kids? I’m smelling some kind of problem. I suspect that Obama, MO, and kids get the benefit of some kind of exclusion for the rent-free use of the White House. But what about Grandma? Will the federal government be sending her a W-2 or 1099 for room and board? Interesting question.

BuckeyeSam on February 3, 2009 at 11:51 AM