Yhe Photographer said gotta love them..This is at the Craps
Table at the Mirage.
I have read for weeks now about McCain's gambling issues.I
let it go,figuring hey he has the money, why not! Now this gambling
ADDICTION I am reading about now makes TOAL SENSE AND CARRIES INTO
HIS PROFESSIONAL LIFE
Senator John McCain is a gambler. If I'd known that right
away I
would have immediately seen what was wrong with his tax
returns.
I am a tax attorney, so a tax return means more to me than it
would
to most. I reviewed McCain's tax returns as a basic check on
the
candidates. You can look at McCain's
2006 and 2007
tax returns for yourself. The tax returns are below a lot of
verbiage about his charitable activities.
According to a
New
York Times article
of September 27, 2008 "For McCain and Team, a Host of Ties to
Gambling," reported by Jo Becker and Don VanNatta Jr., McCain
gambled
at the MGM Grand in May 2007.
Apparently McCain is a habitual gambler; he usually plays
craps. He even says, "I am a gambling man."
Gambling has tax implications. According to IRS Publication
17,
"Your Federal Income Tax", 2007 edition, page 89 "Gambling
Winnings.
You must include your gambling winnings in income on Form
1040, line
21. If you itemize your deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040),
you can
deduct gambling losses you had during the year, but only up
to the
amount of your winnings." In other words, you can't subtract
your
losses from your winnings and just not report. You have to
report the
winnings, and then claim the losses.
But McCain's tax returns say nothing about gambling winnings
or losses.
As a casino gambler, McCain is likely to have lost more than
he won.
But by not reporting his winnings, the different percentage
calculations built into the tax calculation are thrown off,
and if he
gambled much at all, he has underpaid his tax. The amount of
understatement of tax may be minimal, but that's not the
point.
The real purpose of preparing his tax return and omitting the
gambling winnings is so that people would not know how much
he gambled.
If he won $200,000 playing craps in Las Vegas, it would make
a
difference in the way voters viewed his suitability as a
presidential
candidate.
There are circumstances under which the tax returns could be
correct, such as McCain gambled once in 2007, not at all in
2006, and
lost everything the one time he gambled. Such an explanation
is
unlikely in light of McCain's alleged long history of
gambling.
I think we are looking at tax returns calculated to hide an
aspect
of the candidate. My 35 years of experience in taxes tells me
these tax
returns are wrong, and we do not know the true scope of
McCain's
gambling or of his potential obligations to gambling
enterprises.
In response to assignment:
Campaign 2008