THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Pickin on Rob again…

Semi-sports post, but not about sports per se…

I’m not really picking on him. I’m picking on a generic journalist making a reactionary statement with absolutely no substance to back it up, like ALL of the talking heads like Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Olberman, et. al. do all the time.

I love Rob (not literally) and admire the work he has done for many, many years, but…

He said this on his blog this morning:

Why doesn’t stuff like this make people mad enough to do something about it?

He was referring to this article in the LA Times about the McCourts (owners of the Dodgers) not paying any taxes on some 100+ mm in income, or some such thing.  The article is not flattering to the McCourts either and goes into some detail (but not nearly enough for ANYONE to make any kind of responsible judgment about the McCourts and their finances).

Now, neither Rob nor anyone else reading the article (nor probably the reporter who wrote the article) has any idea exactly what the McCourts did or did not do as far as their taxes, finances, income, busineses, etc. are concerned. So what are we supposed to be “mad” about?  That the McCourts did not pay any taxes on a large amount of income?  Are they accused of breaking any kinds of laws, tax or otherwise? Not that I am aware of or that is mentioned in the article. 

I guess Rob pays more income taxes than the IRS requires.  If he has a legitimate, lawful tax deduction that just doesn’t sound kosher on the surface, apparently he won’t take it.  He just pays the IRS whatever he thinks is fair, but not less than what he lawfully owes, and often more.

Isn’t he simply criticizing the McCourts (or the tax system - it is not clear who or what we are supposed to be “mad” at and what we are supposed to do about it) for doing their lawful duty, whatever that is, as far as their taxes are concerned?  If there is something specific about some policy or rule that the IRS has regarding taxes that he thinks is bad, there is nothing in his comment or the article that articulates that in any way shape or form.  I’m pretty sure there are hundreds if not thousands of IRS rules and regulations both pro and anti-business, and pro and anti-individual, that someone doesn’t like or agree with.  After all, much of the IRS tax code is simply a result of business lobbies.  I guess we are all supposed to figure out which ones are fair or ethical and make sure that we eschew all the other ones.  In fact, my son just bought a house for the first time and I told him not to take the first time home buyer’s $8,000 tax credit because I didn’t think that was a “fair” deduction.

I earned $83,000 thousand last year and didn’t pay a dime of taxes.  I hope the newspaper doesn’t get a hold of that story!

Of course that income was capital gains, and in 1987, almost 25 years ago, I lost $334,000 in the stock market and went personally bankrupt and finally I was able to recoup some of that loss in a “tax rebate” last year (you see, I already paid taxes on that $334,000 that I invested in the market and lost) but I guess Rob would want me to pay my taxes on that $83,000 anyway (essentially double taxation).  I’m not sure why, but apparently it wouldn’t sound kosher if someone were to say, “Lichtman made $83,000 last year and didn’t pay a dime in taxes while I paid nearly 25% of my meager $35,000 salary!”

Oh, and I also owned a laundromat for 3 years which I sold last year, which I bought for $250,000.  I was able to “depreciate it” by $50,000 and save the taxes on that amount.  Rob would say that I was “gaming the system” I guess, with that phony depreciation.  What does he care that half of my machines barely worked anymore and the air conditioning unit and the giant, expensive water heater had to be replaced, and I was only able to sell the business for $75,000…