Oops: Tax Cheat Rangel Failed to Report Rental Income

How much longer will this farce continue? First we learn he has four apartments in the same rent-controlled building. Then we discover he has a cushy Dominican hideaway that he's renting out but not reporting income on.

At what point will the Democrats demand an end to this one-man culture of corruption?

Representative Charles B. Rangel has earned more than $75,000 in rental income from a villa he has owned in the Dominican Republic since 1988, but never reported it on his federal or state tax returns, according to a lawyer for the congressman and documents from the resort.

Mr. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes the federal tax code, bought the beachfront villa at the Punta Cana Yacht Club and has received twice-yearly payments from the resort, which rents the property for $500 or more per night.

Records from the development, now called the Punta Cana Resort and Club, indicated that Mr. Rangel’s rental profits varied from year to year, from $2,700 in 2004 to $7,600 in 1994.

A lawyer for Mr. Rangel, Lanny Davis, said on Thursday that the congressman would most likely file amendments to his tax returns for the years in question.

Mr. Davis said Mr. Rangel’s accountant believed he would most likely owe back taxes to the state and New York City.

But Mr. Rangel will probably have no federal tax liability, Mr. Davis said, because he considered the villa an investment rather than a vacation home, and was therefore entitled to deduct depreciation on the property, as well as taxes the resort management paid to the Dominican Republic.

Mr. Davis declined to release copies of the congressman’s tax returns and said he was gathering documents showing how often Mr. Rangel stayed at the home during the past two decades, a critical question because the Internal Revenue Service does not allow a property owner to deduct as much depreciation on a second home that the owner uses more than 14 days per year.

Mr. Davis said the congressman did not realize he had to declare the money as income, and was unaware of the semiannual payments from the resort because his wife, Alma, handled the family finances and conferred with their accountant, John Viardi, on tax matters.

Aww, he was unaware. I'd act like a leftwing blogger and suggest the 78-year-old Rangel has creeping senility, but that would be beneath me.

It's a good thing Rangel is a member in high standing of the worst Congress ever, so he won't even get a wristslap.

The disclosure is a sworn statement, and intentionally filing a false report is a felony that carries a possible five-year prison sentence, but in most cases the House ethics committee does not punish members for errors or omissions.

Maybe when Vice President Palin is sworn in she can tackle Congressional corruption as one of her first priorities.