Politico Reports Minor Glenn Beck Tax ‘Accident’ As Hypocritical

by Joe Coscarelli | 3:35 pm, January 10th, 2010

» 19 comments

It’s no secret that Glenn Beck keeps the left in his cross-hairs, eager to jump on any tiny misstep that can be magnified to the point of political disruption. Beck has consistently taken Democrats to task for “anti-American” behavior, such as not paying taxes, nailing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, among others. Now, Politico is reporting that Beck may have some tax issues of his own. But the accusations are extremely tentative and overly vague.

The Politico piece begins by setting up Beck as a hypocrite, quoting the host on “a culture of corruption among some of the left,” especially “tax cheats,” whom he wouldn’t trust “with my children, let alone my children’s future.”

Mocking the excuses offered by the nominees, Beck sarcastically intoned: “Oh, the tax thing, it was an accident. It was my husband’s fault. I didn’t do it, he did it. I didn’t mean to do it. I was just working hard for the people.”

But Politico never really brings the hammer down on Beck, burying the accusations and pulling punches when they finally come. According to the report, Beck has “at times struggled to keep up with the heightened tax and filing demands accompanying his success.” Sounds normal, no? The real Beck tax problem does seem to exist, according to “a source with knowledge of the situation,” but if you’re Politico, why back into it? The piece continues:

Mercury, a private corporation that lists Beck as chief executive officer and his wife, Tania Beck, alternately as vice president or secretary, since 2007 has fallen behind on its New York City business income taxes and has been cited for filing errors related to its obligations under Texas franchise tax and New York state workers’ compensation insurance rules.

“Mercury immediately resolved these very common accounting issues,” the source is quoted as saying. Then why is this a story at all? A ha! There’s a moral: “What I think would be helpful for everyone is to have is a much bigger dose of sympathy for how complicated it is to comply with the tax laws,” urges an expert.

Politico: making us all more sympathetic. Taxes: hard for everyone.

What if it’s Beck with a tax ‘accident’? [Politico]

timzank

The Mercury examples are not tax problems or evasions. They are simply doing business with a changing rulebook (usually quarterly).

I’ve been in similar situations, you and your acct file every freaking thing under the freaking sun to comply with thousands of rules and laws as a small business every freaking year hoping you are 60% right. You can ask 5 IRS representatives a question regarding self-employment liabilities and I guarantee you will get 5 different interpretations. You supply them with EVERYTHING, they tell you what is correct or not, and then you have to correct it. It’s a reactive system by design as a lot of small business people won’t argue the point, they just pay it.

Rangle, Geithner, Daschle etc. don’t (or didn’t) run a business with employees withholding etc. when they had tax problems, they were simply employee’s with salaries (possible exception daschle was 1099′d on a few things) and as such didn’t have “complex” tax returns, much less complicated quarterly filings in multi-state jurisdictions for hundreds of employees.

If you don’t like Beck, that’s fine, but this is just another media mountain out of a mole hill.
Fidoohki

Agreed. this smells of a ‘hit’ against Beck by Politico.
sarainitaly

I had the same impression of the Politico story as Joe. I read it and was like, huh?

Beck (a tv talking head and private citizen who has no influence over America) made some kind of error which was corrected immediately vs. The (potential) Treasure Secretary (who heads the IRS) who didn’t pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for several years while he worked for the International Monetary Fund, and employed an immigrant housekeeper who briefly lacked proper work papers…. Don’t even get me started on Rangle. And it wasn’t just one person, but a whole string of Obama appointed Dems.
Ted

Yeah right, a hit piece on Glenn Beck by Politico. And Beck just a private citizen with no influence on America? Ever hear of the whackaloon tea-baggers? Jesus, I don’t know what you’re smoking sara in Italy but apparently it clouds your judgement. Beck is a hypocrite, got caught, and you are too much of a suck-up to notice.

BTW, how do you know it was corrected immediately? Don’t tell, a spokesperson for his company said so. Yeah, that settles it…if you’re a teabagger.
Moderate

“They are simply doing business with a changing rulebook (usually quarterly).”

Anyone with very many employees has had a problem with the constantly changing rules.
same2u

Sister Sarah teabagger!
Fidoohki

Ted says:
January 10, 2010 at 5:01 pm

Which one was put in control of the countries treasury and billions if not trillions
of taxpayer money? Also any money in Becks company is most likely from people who
CHOOSE to invest or buy his product. Mr Turbotax Giethner is playing with money
from people that DIDN’T have a choice but to pay… unless they are members of congress. :/

So check your big can of stupid, I think it sprung a leak… again.
rmbltmbl

Ted says:
January 10, 2010 at 5:01 pm

You automatically attribute any dismissal of the story to ‘suck-up’ ‘whackaloon tea-baggers.’ The same argument could be made against you and your automatic acceptance of this story. All you’re doing is attacking someone with no actual facts to dispute or contribution to the discussion. Stop being an ass.
timzank

Ted, I’ll take a wild guess here that you aren’t self employed. If you were you’d understand the myriad of ridiculous changing regs they (IRS) throw at us every year.
Ted

Fidoohki – Sorry Sparky, not a fan of Giethner either; he should go; but you have your face buried in a big bowl of Glenn Beck so I’m sure that never occurred to you.

rmbltmbl – News flash – the same arguments are constantly made. Tell you what, I’ll stop being an ass when you clowns stop worshiping at the Church of Glenn Beck.

timzank – I own my own business and the IRS regs are frustrating and confusing. The issue here is Becks hypocrisy – something he does very well.
sarainitaly

c*cksuckers (call me a teabagger, I will call you a c*ck sucker) ted and same2you (there are a couple of others I include in this): last time i will read your comments, or address them – your behavior is despicable. it is embarrassing that such ugly, small minded, individuals as you two exist in the world. no wonder our country is in the trouble it is. you are completely incapable of debate, and resort time and time again to stupid, juvenile, ugly, ridiculous, and unfounded attacks. feel free to continue in this manner, but you just reveal your shortcomings, and give others the opportunity to laugh and shake their heads in disgust.

I was planning on leaving this site because of your idiotic antics but decided that I would not be driven out by someone who does not possess the ability to think or interact with the human race. it is quite sad really. it must be a very depressing life filled with so much hate and animosity…although, I am not sure if you are intelligent enough to even understand how pathetic you seem.

I pity those people, if there are any, in your lives.
Fidoohki

Ted says:
January 11, 2010 at 7:40 am

I’m sorry Ted but I don’t think this qualifies at ‘hypocrisy’ unless you dumb it down to
the point of changing facts. To compare Geithner’s inability to use an tax program designed
for ease of use and Beck’s companie’s problems with a tax system you said yourself
was frustrating and confusing and say they are the exact same is just plain wrong.
The Real Royal King

Maybe Beck was having one of his infinite medical procedures at the time and couldn’t fill out the check with his tear-blurred vision. Or, he’s just a tax cheat. Either way, I don’t think any less of him. I’m not sure it is possible to think less of him.
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

I am not at all a fan of Beck’s, but this is a ludicrous hyper inflation of a non-story. I have to file a lot of those same tax forms for my business and I am surprised there aren’t more mistakes.

The only reason this is a story is that it will become yet another flaming spitball of hate flung by one side or the other.

@Sara – right you are. It is sad that every single thread comes down to insults hurled across the partisan canyon for the sheer sake of insults.

@ Fidoohki – tax errors happen to everyone. Ever done Form SE?
Ted

sarainitaly…let’s see here; you call me and others despicable but then post a despicable screed of your own. Congrats, but i must say that I pity those, if any, that are in your life.

PS – you didn’t answer my questions.
http://www.uselessbeauty.com Vidiot

hee-hee! sarainitaly says Ted is “completely incapable of debate, and resort time and time again to stupid, juvenile, ugly, ridiculous, and unfounded attacks” and decries “idiotic antics” while calling him a “c*cksucker.”

You can’t make this stuff up. You’re a troll or a fake commenter like Karl Spensen, right?
Fidoohki

Keeva says:
January 11, 2010 at 11:06 am

Okay but I still think calligng it hypocrisy is a big stretch
sarainitaly

calling someone a teabagger is calling them a ball sucker – i have said on here numerous times that if someone calls someone a teabagger, they deserve to be called a c*cksucker. it is virtually the same thing.
Ted

Vidot – Nope, you really can’t make this stuff up. What we have here is either Karl or someone with a day pass from the psych unit.