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BREAKING NEWS FROM THE AP: “FRANKEN TO PAY $70,000 IN BACK TAXES IN 17 STATES”
By Michael B. Brodkorb | April 29, 2008
“Senate candidate Al Franken says he will pay about $70,000 in back income taxes in 17 states where he earned income going back to 2003.
The Minnesota Democrat has been under attack by Republicans for failing to file tax returns in California for several years that he earned money there.
Franken tells The Associated Press he never intended to avoid paying taxes. He says during the years in question, he paid his entire income tax bill to the city and state where he lived.” Source: Associated Press, April 29, 2008
Click here for the complete story.
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This post also appears on Blogs for Norm!, an online community and blog covering the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign in Minnesota. The primary goal of Blogs for Norm! is to organize bloggers who support U.S. Senator Norm Coleman.
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10 Responses to “BREAKING NEWS FROM THE AP: “FRANKEN TO PAY $70,000 IN BACK TAXES IN 17 STATES””
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April 29th, 2008 at 4:38 PM
He didn’t mean to. His accountant gave him bad advice. It’s not like $70,000 is a lot of money to owe nearly half the states in the country. It’s not Franken’s fault.
LMAO!!!!!
He’s toast.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:42 PM
Let’s hear puddles excuse now.
Oh wait, he is busy trying to get “back” at Coleman. 
April 29th, 2008 at 4:42 PM
What a non-story this turned out to be. Let’s make this simple so that everybody can understand what happened here.
Franken has $1,000,000 in income derived from appearances in 18 states. He files his federal return and declares $1,000,000 in income and pats taxes accordingly. He then files (for the sake of argument) a NY state return in which he declares he had $1,000,000 in income and pays $70,000 in state tax to NY. Everything would have been ok if he had earned all of his income in the state of NY. But, he didn’t. While he claimed residency in NY, he earned income doing appearances in 17 other states. A portion of his $1,000,000 income was earned in each state and he needs to allocate his income by state. Thus, he will now amend his return and file a California state return and pay a certain amount of tax based on whatever portion of his $1,000,000 was earned in CA. Assume he then pays $5,000 to California. He is then allowed to go back and amend his New York state return and get a dollar for dollar credit in New York for any and all taxes he pays in other states. Since he already paid $70,000 to New York, he would then get a refund of $5,000 from New York for the money he pays to California.
Thus, he will pay $70,000 to 17 states and then get $70,000 back from the state of New York (excluding whatever interest and penalties there may be).
In the end, his mistake was in filing only 1 state income tax return rather than filing 18 state income tax returns. There was never any attempt to not pay tax as he paid state tax on all income earned. He just paid it all to New York when it should have been allocated among 18 states.
Everyone get that?
April 29th, 2008 at 4:48 PM
I’m gonna guess Chestnutty and Small Kahuna will still believe that paying taxes to the wrong state is a sign of scandal, and not a confusing federal tax code.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:48 PM
Got it.
And now that that’s cleared up, it’s time to concentrate on Laurie Coleman’s alleged underreporting of income, on Norm’s FEC Forms!
But first, we have to note it takes mucho grande cajones to get up there in front of a camera, like republiCon Ron does, and complain about Franken’s shoddy paperwork, when republiCon Ron allegedly has some shoddy paperwork issues of his own!
What say you Michael? Were all these legal fees the MN GOP racked up the fault of republiCon Ron’s shoddy paperwork?
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00001313/301783/sd/10
April 29th, 2008 at 4:49 PM
Yeah, the top DFL Senate candidate turns out to be dodging income taxes to nearly half the states in the country — what a non-story.
Funny to watch the mental gymnastics of midgets like Trompo!
LMAO!!!!
April 29th, 2008 at 4:59 PM
Franken’s ball is officially in the hazard.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:00 PM
You guys think this is the end of it?
That’s funny.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:04 PM
I see the Hennepin County Attorney also now has his tit in the wringer for his ignorant, politically motivated comments over the weekend.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/18379164.html
September 27th, 2008 at 1:58 AM
[...] usual, Michael’s all over this story. Should we expect anything [...]