Throwback Tuesday: IRS LOOKING INTO GIFTS TO REAGANS

[shockedcanadian]

Imagine how small fish this looks when you have career politicians today who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Someone posted on another forum that apparently they were investigating Reagan for not paying taxes on a carpet gift he received as president though I haven't been able to locate such information online.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/12/05/irs-looking-into-gifts-to-reagans/93484b2b-d5f0-430b-ad93-04dd967432f2/

The Internal Revenue Service has been examining whether former president Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, owe back taxes on gifts -- including dresses for Mrs. Reagan -- that they received while they were in the White House, according to sources familiar with the inquiry. The investigation, which began early this year, has been conducted by the IRS's Los Angeles field office because the Reagans were determined to be California taxpayers even while living in the White House, the sources said.

Part of the IRS's information comes from M. Chris Blazakis, a freelance journalist who previously worked for the designer Galanos, who lent dresses to Mrs. Reagan. Blazakis said yesterday that during the past year he has shared "detailed information with the IRS," which he said has launched a "comprehensive examination" of "far-reaching" issues involving the Reagans' possible tax liability.

 

[1srelluc]

I don't know why they need 87K new IRS agents when there are only 535 members of Congress.

 

[miketx]

Imagine how small fish this looks when you have career politicians today who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Someone posted on another forum that apparently they were investigating Reagan for not paying taxes on a carpet gift he received as president though I haven't been able to locate such information online.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/12/05/irs-looking-into-gifts-to-reagans/93484b2b-d5f0-430b-ad93-04dd967432f2/

The Internal Revenue Service has been examining whether former president Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, owe back taxes on gifts -- including dresses for Mrs. Reagan -- that they received while they were in the White House, according to sources familiar with the inquiry. The investigation, which began early this year, has been conducted by the IRS's Los Angeles field office because the Reagans were determined to be California taxpayers even while living in the White House, the sources said.

Part of the IRS's information comes from M. Chris Blazakis, a freelance journalist who previously worked for the designer Galanos, who lent dresses to Mrs. Reagan. Blazakis said yesterday that during the past year he has shared "detailed information with the IRS," which he said has launched a "comprehensive examination" of "far-reaching" issues involving the Reagans' possible tax liability.

THey dead.

 

[shockedcanadian]

THey dead.

Hence, my posting this in the History section.

 

[Indeependent]

Imagine how small fish this looks when you have career politicians today who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Someone posted on another forum that apparently they were investigating Reagan for not paying taxes on a carpet gift he received as president though I haven't been able to locate such information online.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/12/05/irs-looking-into-gifts-to-reagans/93484b2b-d5f0-430b-ad93-04dd967432f2/

The Internal Revenue Service has been examining whether former president Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, owe back taxes on gifts -- including dresses for Mrs. Reagan -- that they received while they were in the White House, according to sources familiar with the inquiry. The investigation, which began early this year, has been conducted by the IRS's Los Angeles field office because the Reagans were determined to be California taxpayers even while living in the White House, the sources said.

Part of the IRS's information comes from M. Chris Blazakis, a freelance journalist who previously worked for the designer Galanos, who lent dresses to Mrs. Reagan. Blazakis said yesterday that during the past year he has shared "detailed information with the IRS," which he said has launched a "comprehensive examination" of "far-reaching" issues involving the Reagans' possible tax liability.

It's about time!

 

[miketx]

Hence, my posting this in the History section.

Apparently the nazis at the irs don't care.

 

[Magnus]

Imagine how small fish this looks when you have career politicians today who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Someone posted on another forum that apparently they were investigating Reagan for not paying taxes on a carpet gift he received as president though I haven't been able to locate such information online.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/12/05/irs-looking-into-gifts-to-reagans/93484b2b-d5f0-430b-ad93-04dd967432f2/

The Internal Revenue Service has been examining whether former president Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, owe back taxes on gifts -- including dresses for Mrs. Reagan -- that they received while they were in the White House, according to sources familiar with the inquiry. The investigation, which began early this year, has been conducted by the IRS's Los Angeles field office because the Reagans were determined to be California taxpayers even while living in the White House, the sources said.

Part of the IRS's information comes from M. Chris Blazakis, a freelance journalist who previously worked for the designer Galanos, who lent dresses to Mrs. Reagan. Blazakis said yesterday that during the past year he has shared "detailed information with the IRS," which he said has launched a "comprehensive examination" of "far-reaching" issues involving the Reagans' possible tax liability.

Not sure what your point is about posting this old news but after reading your link, it's certainly not "small fish".

Unless you consider dozens of gowns valued at or above $20k and diamond necklaces and earrings worth $480,000. Yes, the Reagans were on the hook to the IRS. All gifts are taxable.

 

[whitehall]

No statute of limitations on alleged political corruption? U.S. Grant was said to be the most corrupt administration. We need to go after his ancestors for tax violations.

 

[Mushroom]

The Internal Revenue Service has been examining whether former president Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, owe back taxes on gifts

What is this garbage?

It is not a wonder you could find nothing on this, it is freaking over 30 years old. And if you found nothing else after, it is almost guaranteed that there was never anything found. In reality, this report is largely just about allegations and speculations. From more than three decades ago.

I do not even see why this is even in "History", as three decade old allegations that were apparently never proven are not even that.

 

[Mushroom]

Unless you consider dozens of gowns valued at or above $20k and diamond necklaces and earrings worth $480,000. Yes, the Reagans were on the hook to the IRS. All gifts are taxable.

Depending on what the final outcome is of them.

Case in point, I did look and never saw what the final disposition of many of these "gifts" were. It is not uncommon for such things to be donated to the President and Family, but then be released from them to somewhere else. Case in point, a lot of items and furnishings donated to the First Family remain at the White House after they leave. Huge amounts of things like carpeting during White House renovations were donated to the President and First Lady, and remained after they left.

I for one do not think that if President Biden is donated a new carpet valued at $100k for the Oval Office should then be taxed for that new carpet. It may have been donated "to him", but it is going to remain in place after he leaves, and it really belongs to the people, not himself.

Now, granted an exception should be made if when he leaves office he decides to have it removed and taken with him.

And as there is no evidence of any fraud even decades after this, that is more than likely exactly what happened here.

 

[Magnus]

Depending on what the final outcome is of them.

Case in point, I did look and never saw what the final disposition of many of these "gifts" were. It is not uncommon for such things to be donated to the President and Family, but then be released from them to somewhere else. Case in point, a lot of items and furnishings donated to the First Family remain at the White House after they leave. Huge amounts of things like carpeting during White House renovations were donated to the President and First Lady, and remained after they left.

I for one do not think that if President Biden is donated a new carpet valued at $100k for the Oval Office should then be taxed for that new carpet. It may have been donated "to him", but it is going to remain in place after he leaves, and it really belongs to the people, not himself.

Now, granted an exception should be made if when he leaves office he decides to have it removed and taken with him.

And as there is no evidence of any fraud even decades after this, that is more than likely exactly what happened here.

Not according to the IRS. It is taxable income.

Whether The First Lady kept the dresses or gave them all back -- as the White House says -- they were taxable income and not gifts, say tax law professors Daniel Posin of The Catholic University of America, Daniel Halperin of Georgetown University and Bernard Wolfman of Harvard University. Former IRS commissioner Sheldon Cohen, a Democrat, says the same thing on the record. One of his Republican counterparts says it off the record and so do other Washington tax lawyers.

"There appears to be no debate among the people I have talked to on the question of whether it's income," said Posin, the author of "Federal Income Taxation of Individuals" published by West Publishing, the nation's preeminent legal publisher.

"I would agree," said Halperin of Georgetown. "The only argument could be that it's a gift," he added, but "under the circumstances, I don't think it meets the general definition of a gift."

The tax lawyers all cite the same case in the U.S. Supreme Court more than 25 years ago as deciding the question of whether Mrs. Reagan's dresses were a gift or taxable income.

An Ohio businessman named Duberstein frequently mentioned business opportunities to a friend in New York and in return the friend gave him a Cadillac. Duberstein had to be talked into taking the car -- he already had another Caddy and an Oldsmobile -- and he never asked or expected payment from the friend and he wasn't about to pay income taxes on a gift.

The car was no gift, the Supreme Court ruled. A gift, the court said, has to be made on the basis of "disinterested and detached generosity" with no benefit to the giver.

The designers who have given their clothing to Mrs. Reagan have made it difficult for her to meet that test. "Nancy was a walking billboard for these designers and they knew it," said one Washington tax lawyer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/12/05/irs-looking-into-gifts-to-reagans/93484b2b-d5f0-430b-ad93-04dd967432f2/

 

[Mushroom]

Not according to the IRS. It is taxable income.

So if President Biden is "gifted" with a new rug for the Oval Office, he should be taxed for it?

 

[Magnus]

So if President Biden is "gifted" with a new rug for the Oval Office, he should be taxed for it?

As per the IRS and the SC ruling, it depends on where the gift is coming from. If the rug was from a rug company, that means that the company would profit by its gift to a president. And so, yes, Biden will be taxed.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

THey dead.

yeah and burning in hell thank god.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

the real ronnie exposed.

Reagan: Killer, Coward, Con-man

Greg Palast "In 1987, I found myself stuck in a crappy little town in Nicaragua named Chaguitillo. The people were kind enough, though hungry, except for one surly young man. His wife had just died of tuberculosis. People don't die of TB if they get some antibiotics. But Ronald Reagan...

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