It’s all well and good to catch Steve Bannon in apparent voter fraud, and the domestic abuse case adds to the evidence that he’s not a nice guy. But, except for an inference in the Guardian's scoop, an important point is being missed.
He’s a tax dodger:
Acquiring Florida residency is often attractive to outsiders to the state due to Florida’s lack of state income tax. This allows people with a residency to legally avoid paying state income tax on so-called “unearned” income, such as dividends, interests and retirement benefits. Attorneys often advise people seeking Florida residency that it helps to assign their voter registration to a property in the state.
Here’s a piece of the relevant statute:
...Any person who shall have established a domicile in the State of Florida, but who shall maintain another place or places of abode in some other state or states, may manifest and evidence his or her domicile in this state by filing in the office of the clerk of the circuit court for the county in which he or she resides, a sworn statement that his or her place of abode in Florida constitutes his or her predominant and principal home, and that he or she intends to continue it permanently as such.
There is not a bright line in the statute (that I see, anyway — IANAL), but a sworn statement of permanent residency seems to implicate Mr. Bannon in fraud with intent to evade taxation. After all,
(T)he $5,500 per month rent was paid via Bannon’s accountants in Beverly Hills, but “he was never there,” according to someone with direct involvement in the rental arrangement, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions from Bannon. “In my opinion, he was not living there,” said the source. “He maybe came around twice a year for a couple of days at best, but he did not live there.”
Bannon owns a house in Laguna Beach, California, where he was previously registered to vote. According to the Guardian, he spends most of his time
at the so-called “Breitbart embassy”, a luxurious $2.4m townhouse beside the supreme court in Washington DC, where his website’s staff work from basement offices. A Bloomberg profile of Bannon published last October, with which he cooperated, stated that Bannon “occupies” the townhouse and described it as being “his”.
The top marginal tax rate in California is 13.3%. The District of Columbia’s is 8.95%. How much money do you suppose Bannon owes to one or the other?
Comments are closed on this story.