U.S. Senator Jim Talent is coming under criticism for raising nearly $39,000 from thirty Virgin Island residents during a recent trip to that U.S. territory. Why would the fine people in the Virgin Islands be interested in Talent's re-election campaign? According to the AP:
Lobbyists for the islands are trying to reduce the number of days a person must remain on the islands to be considered a resident, an issue that could have tax benefits.
Currently, under a 2004 act of Congress, individuals must spend at least half the year in the Virgin Islands to be considered a resident for tax purposes. Lobbyists would like to see that reduced to an average of 122 days per year over a three-year period.
The New York Sun explains why the rich fatcats are so interested in Mr. Talent:
The program's tax breaks were taken up by some of America's top money managers - including Richard Driehaus and Jeffrey Epstein, who keep high profiles in Chicago and New York but declare the USVI as their place of residence for tax purposes. The EDC loophole allowed some wealthy Americans to dodge almost 90% of their federal income tax bills.
So not only are Republicans allowing corporations to run and hide from the tax man, they are now setting up rich corporate donors to avoid their own personal income taxes. What a scam!
Jim Talent should be called to task for this. He should be asked what he was doing in the Virgin Islands? Did the $39,000 he received there change his position on whether rich people should be able to go stay in their vacation villas, claim residency in the Virgin Islands and then avoid paying taxes? Or was that his position all along?
In my opinion, this is just another example of Jim Talent and his buddies in the Republican-controlled Congress jetting off to far locales, collecting donations from well-heeled sponsors and then providing the quid pro quo somewhere down the line. Yeah, and they were going to reform the system after Jack Abramoff. Guess not.
