John Kerry Was For Taxes Before He Was Against Them: Thurston & Lovey Avoid $500k in Mass. Luxury Taxes
**Written by Doug Powers
John Kerry, who fights on behalf of the little people on whose backs the rich get richer by avoiding taxes most Americans can’t afford to dodge, is seeing to it that the little people aren’t burdened by an extra $500k in his home state’s tax coffers.
From the Boston Herald:
Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.
Isabel – Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage – was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.
Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven – like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau – for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?
Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.
John Kerry said this in February of 2009:
If you put a tax cut into the hands of a business or family, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to invest that or invest it in America.
The $7 million dollar yacht on which the Kerrys avoided a heavy “sails tax” hit in their home state was constructed in New Zealand, so Kerry really went out of his way to prove himself correct.
Update: Just because it fits so well, here’s Rep. Alan Grayson mocking the GOP for their “yachts and art collections.” Um, yeah, darn those Republicans and their yachts.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Categories: John Kerry
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No the topic in question is this, “Is what is in your heart consistent with what comes out of your mouth?”
That’s the topic.
If John Kerry wants to berth his boat in RI to save a cool half million he has that right and no one should criticize him for that act alone.
However, if he is going to do that then he had best hold his tongue on saying the rich should pay more or tax cuts for the rich are unfair, because they can afford it.
This is the same John Kerry who co-authored Cap and Trade, champions wind power, while fighting installation of a wind farm off the Hyannis Port, MA, coast, because it will ruin his view.
The same John Kerry, who as a commissioned USNR officer, lied under oath about the conduct of troops in Vietnam and falsified a combat report in order to get an undeserved Purple Heart resulting in an early ticket home from a combat zone after wounding himself superficially with his own M79 grenade launcher.
Hypocrite is a title he has richly earned.
Rogue, how rude. A truly fulfilled lady would never mention such things.
Sorry, it is not “parsing” to say someone does not owe a tax that they did nothing to trigger.
And it is lazy debating to simply throw that term out and think you have in any way dismissed my argument.
May he rest in peace. Poor thing was probably no smarter than Ted, but probably nice like his mom.
Oh no you didn’t Aloha…don’t get me started on miz bouvier kennedy onassis…
I didn’t say he owed the tax, I said he avoided the tax. Or am I now the parsing mofo?
I know, I’m such a failure!
Huh? Is he preventing anyone else from taking advantage of the same differentiation in tax rates? No, he is not. THAT would actually be hypocritical.
Rogue, what year where you born? Monkey?
Actually, you said:
“I merely stated he avoided his contribution to MA”
What exactly do you mean by “his contribution”? How could such a thing even exist until one takes the action necessary to trigger it?
Horse.
Hahaha!
You?
Exactly.
Well said (as was the rest of your post).
Thank you, Flyoverman.
By avoiding the trigger does he not also avoid the contribution by proxy?
Please – none of us get to vote on taxes, he does. He has voted to raise taxes on others, and has chosen to avoid this tax. Legal, yes. Hypocrite, also yes. He is for higher taxes on others but not for himself. Just another hum-drum Dem steaming pile. Eff you but I’m ok is their motto.
Thanks for the kind remarks Granite.
I remember being on Active Duty watching that out of uniform piece of dirt lying under oath to a Congress, who did nothing to discipline that officer who was still in the Active USNR.
How many million people live in MA and that is the best they can do for a Senator? I can differ with Jim Webb, but I respect him for his integrity. Kerry; not at all.
Again, you avoid the root of his hypocrisy by focusing on the fact that what he did is lawful rather than personally ethical.
I do not argue for a presumptive tax, that the tax is due to MA should Kerry register and dock the boat there is a fact. That Kerry chose to dock the boat elsewhere to avoid paying that tax is also a fact.
That Kerry is on the record advocating higher taxes is a fact. That Kerry, like most liberals, whine that those who do not want to pay more taxes are greedy is a fact. Just google John Kerry and greedy and you will see that he rails against greedy big business, greedy Wall Street and greedy Big Oil. Why are they greedy? Why because they don’t want to pay higher taxes!
Therefore, it is a fact that by choosing to avoid taxes imposed by the state of which he is a resident, Kerry has proven himself a hypocrite.
I’m so ashamed. It could be worse, we could have someone like Barney Frank…nevermind.
Ouch….. I withdraw my prior post!
And it is not hypocritical. That he supports higher taxes than you do is in no way, shape or form contradictory to the notion that on an individual basis one can, and should, pay only the amount he is required to under the law as it is written.
This is not some shady tax avoidance scheme that relies on obscure loopholes and spurious interpretations of the tax code, for crying out loud.
Chap said: “I find that playing the game as the rules are written.”
I would play the same game too if I had a yacht. Tax avoidance within the law is my American patriotic duty.
Unlike Kerry though, I am not consitently out there extolling the virutes of shared sacrifice and the wonders of a progressive tax system.
And I am not representing a commonwealth in the US Senate and then taking advantage of the benefits of a neighboring state. Anchor your boat in a Mass. harbor senator. After all Mass. does for you, you should support your state. If the tax policies on boat anchoring are not favroable, speak out against overtaxation.
John Kerry is a hypocrite because he votes for increased taxes and basically because he is a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do kind of guy.
Chap: Jvette nails it
Higher taxes for thee, none for me!
It is exactly that. The loophole for Kerry is that by docking his boat in RI and not Ma, he gets to avoid paying the tax.
Lawful? Yes. Shady? Absolutely!
A tax avoidance scheme nonetheless.
For someone who is a lawyer, your inability to read with comprehension has something to be desired.
From my post that you referenced:
“If John Kerry wants to berth his boat in RI to save a cool half million he has that right and no one should criticize him for that act alone.”
The issue is Kerry’s total abscence of character and intellectual dishonesty, not tax loopholes.
From 2004; John Kerry’s hypocrisy on this subject.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/oct/26/20041026-090701-1395r/
I think you both have very absurd definitions of “loophole” and “scheme.” I have seen REAL tax avoidance schemes in my work and believe me, if the average person here can easily grasp what is going on and it doesn’t require a 30 page legal opinion, it is NOT a tax avoidance scheme.
My comment was not directed solely at you. It was just a takeoff point to adress some of the issues here, one being hypocrisy and the other that this is somehow a “scheme” to avoid taxes.
Again, you are equating two totally separate notions:
1) that the rich in general should be required under the law to pay more taxes; and
2) that a rich person should pay more in taxes than he is required to under the law.
They are two entirely separate ideas and to confuse the two is wrong.
I agree; that would describe Charlie Rangel not Kerry.
However, Kerry has the choice of voluntarily paying the higher MA income tax rate option but has never paid at that rate. This fact illustrates his hypocrisy in that he obviously believes that we should be paying higher taxes (as witnessed by most of his legislative voting history), but is passing up a perfect opportunity to lead by example and pay them himself voluntarily.
Spacey? Youv’e been awful quiet, did I say something wrong?
Perfect example of what I was talking about in #132.
A method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect; A slit in a castle wall. …
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loophole
loop·hole (lphl)
n.
1. A way of escaping a difficulty, especially an omission or ambiguity in the wording of a contract or law that provides a means of evading compliance.
Main Entry: 1loop·hole
Pronunciation: \ˈlüp-ˌhōl\
Function: noun
Etymology: 1loop
Date: 1591
1 a : a small opening through which small arms may be fired b : a similar opening to admit light and air or to permit observation
2 : a means of escape; especially : an ambiguity or omission in the text through which the intent of a statute, contract, or obligation may be evaded
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/loophole
Yep, Kerry used a big ole giant loophole to save himself hundreds and thousands of dollars in taxes and fees.
You say scheme like it’s a bad thing. What is a scheme if not a thought process one takes to figure out a way to save money?
Again it’s not the scheme it’s the hypocracy being my main f@#$ing point! (gee I miss Deadwood)
Why can’t you see this? Is it that lawyers are so ensconsed in hypocracy and obfuscation on a daily basis that they don’t recognize it anymore?
hypocracy = hypocrisy (slap!)
Means of evading compliance? Compliance with what? Compliance with a law he is not subject to?
And what “omission or ambiguity” was he exploiting? The law is pretty crystal clear, no? If you dock a boat in MA, you are subject to said tax. If you don’t you are not. Where is the omission or ambiguity in that?
Yep, I’d say that Kerry was pretty crafty(pardon the pun, lol)to register his yacht in RI to avoid paying those pesky taxes in MA.
As I said, it is absurd to call this hypocrisy. And again, if you believe in any measure of taxes (which I believe you do) and you yourself engage in any form of tax minimization (which I would hope you do) you would be guilty of the same hypocrisy.
Compliance with the tax code in HIS HOME STATE. He chose to avoid complying with that tax by docking the boat elsewhere.
I’m sorry. Where in the Mass tax code, or federal tax code, or anywhere, does it say you have to dock a boat in your home state?
Look at it this way, Mass is not foregoing the tax on people who coose to dock their boat in MA and aren’t residents, are they? Also, Mass. could, and has not, chosen to tax boats owned by residents but docked in other states, right? SO then why do you continue to glom onto this notion that Massachuseets in any way intended to tie residency to this particular tax.
Wrong, I don’t pretend to stand on the principle of higher taxes, practising a belief I do not possess.
“Hypocrisy is the art of affecting qualities for the purpose of pretending to an undeserved virtue. Because individuals and institutions and societies most often live down to the suspicions about them, hypocrisy and its accompanying equivocations underpin the conduct of life. Imagine how frightful truth unvarnished would be.” [Benjamin F. Martin, “France in 1938,”
Geez, sorry about the awful spelling. I need to slow down a bit and press preview.
Many of the boats moored in RI were registered in Wilmington DE.
LOL–I just took a quick break; I had a case of the vapors
“Higher” is a matter of degree, not form. I will be willing to conced that, accepting your definition, Kerry’s degree of hypocisy is higher than yours. But it is the same in form.
Was it the Horse that threw you?
This post is utterly and totally false. If you are going to make the assertion that I (first person, singular) implied that you need to go back to my posts and copy/paste chapter and verse.
You put what I wrote in the quote box, so Cowboy Up.
My position on Kerry is encapsulated in the article I previously posted.
1) Is Kerry playing within the tax rules? Yes
2) Does Kerry have a right to use the rules to minimize his tax burden like the rest of us? Yes
1) But is he intellectually dishonest on a host of things; taxes, energy? Yes
2) Has he been exposed repeatedly as a liar and a person of dubious character? Without any doubt.
Now I know that John Deaux and Rogue are both Year of the Horse–so I’m going to guess 1966? I also understand that chap is a Dragon (1976).
I’m a Rat. The first and best. Odd; the Horse is my ‘opposite’.
Wrong again, I paid my boat tax, so where’s my hypocrisy?
For you to believe what Kerry did was hypocritical you must be equating these statements.
Add another 12 years for me.
Opposites attract.
so you’re that young, hey? o noes.
Hey everyone! Rogue has a boat!
The article focuses on the intent of John Kerry, not the MA tax law. Kerry’s intent is to avoid paying a rather onerous tax on yachts docked MA.
He is a resident of MA. The state would benefit from his paying that tax. But, he GREEDILY decided that he would rather not pay the tax and keep the money for his own use.
Why?
Kerry publicly espouses the idea that the rich should pay more taxes and if they avoid doing so and desire to keep more of their own money, it is because they are greedy.
Anyway you look at it, Kerry is a hypocrite in regards to paying higher taxes when the payee of said taxes is him.
Sorry meant subtract.
“I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m good once as I ever was.”
Fits two plus tackle.
I wondered how you could know so much about the good ol’ days of helter skelter and the summer of love.
oh. So not a yacht?
Summer of 69 baby! The pimple years!
Again, Jvette, saying that rich people as a class should have to pay more is different from saying an individual rich person should voluntarily pay more than he has to.
To be a hypocrite, one has to say one thing and act in the exact opposite way. Kerry is saying one thing and doing something which is different, not opposite.
My fellow posters: your school– did it have a polo team? Did your family have a sailboat? Or was your background more ‘Brideshead Revisited’?
So does Kerry’s. Oh sorry, that’s Gore’s yacht only fits Big Al and one other much smaller person.
OT, BTW, I too am a Dragon…
A little bigger’n a dinghy, but hey, you were the one saying size ain’t the main thing, or are we all John Fn Kerry today?
More like “The Wonder Years”.
Does the double-wide floating away every Spring count as a sailboat? We had a “hubcap” team at my school…
Bwaaaahahahahahahahahahaha! Oops! I think I wet meself!
Well, I do have a point here, but I fear it will bore everyone. And it is in poor taste and ill mannered to be tedious.
Oh do tell!
We had a water polo team but one of the ponies drowned and the other wouldn’t go in the water by hisself.
I stopped buying Heinz ketchup in 2004 –I’m spreading the ketchup wealth around. But Kerry’s state sure could use some of money his wife is sitting on:
I read that Kerry had about $100,000 to his name when he married, so it must be his wife’s yacht — he just steers it on sunny days.
Publicly supporting higher taxes in word, actively voting for them in deed and then as an individual doing everything one can to avoid paying them, is hypocritical. Especially in light of the fact that he could voluntarily choose to pay the higher tax.
In this debate, which has been very civil, you have used semantics, strawman and distraction to defend the indefensible actions of John Kerry.
That you find no hypocrisy in him in this instance is an enlightenment for me as to how these charlatans get reelected year after year.
Riddle me this:
Why did Kerry not dock the boat in MA?
We all come from different backgrounds. Some of us have come a long way. My point is, at least in my case, I’m not against the bourgeoisie. I think Kerry stinks for a multitude of reasons–not just because he avoids paying taxes on a luxury item.
-RogueCheddar
I fail to see how his completely legal adherence to the tax code violates any sort of imaginary fairness ideal. He’s legally subject to any and all taxes he has voted for which apply to him, and I see no indication that he hasn’t paid them. If he voted for the luxury tax in Mass then avoided it in this manner, THEN he’d be a hypocrite. Is that the case? If it existed without his vote, then he’s not being a hypocrite by simply taking the same sort of advantage when it’s found, that many Americans do. If he didn’t pay his share of the higher taxes he has voted to raise, THEN he’s a hypocrite. But I see no indication of that anywhere. . .merely an attempt to paint him as a ‘tax skirter’. . .a title that could be applied to millions of Americans who have found perfectly legal ways to deduct or write off expenses. . .behavior that could be considered ‘tax skirting’ just as easily.
In all ‘fairness’, he doesn’t owe the tax. Period. That’s what law says. If the tax laws were such that he was obliged to pay this tax, I’m pretty sure he would have paid it. . . and if he didn’t I’d be right with you guys calling him a hypocrite.
chap,
My last comment on this.
If John Kerry honestly believed the rhetoric he spouts, he would never choose to avoid this tax. He would gladly pay it and Thank the good Lord he is in the position to do so.
What this tells me is that Kerry says one thing to get elected under the guise of being a champion of the “everyday working man” but in reality, in his actions not his words, he is a greedy hypocrite.
John Kerry voted for the luxury tax imposed under Clinton.
I never said he didn’t adhere to the tax code or did anything illegal. I called him a hypocrite not a criminal. I stand by that. His actions belie his rhetoric.
He may not have voted for it directly but the laws he did vote for and which created federal mandates that states have to cough up probably have led to MA et al to have to raise their taxes, ergo, he is a cause for higher taxes in MA that he is avoiding!
I never said he did, I said he avoided the tax. Again the issue is his tax rhetoric hypocrisy. I don’t understand why you can’t understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. Are you perhaps a lawyer also?
Actually, he’s worse than a hypocrite. He’s stupid too.
What is is carbon footprint to get to his Yacht in RI? Does he fly there? Does he drive there?
Wouldn’t it be better to dock it near his home so he could enjoy it more often without incurring the travel exoense, associated environmental damage, and dependence on foreign oil.
Obama used his intenet control password to change my “p” in the word expense above to an “o”.
I find that Chap has an accurate point. If you avoid triggering the tax, you do not owe it.
That said, as some other posters have pointed out, Kerry had an option that allowed him to legally avoid triggering the tax.
In debate I have heard for years now, the argument coming from the left in general is that the rich should not have an option to legally avoid paying taxes. Most of the very wealthy make extensive use of corporate and tax law to reduce their tax bill as much as they legally can. This is the way it is.
Kerry, IMHO, is a hypocrite because, to my knowledge, it is his opinion that the wealthy should not have any options to legally reduce their tax bill. No, I do not have a reference at present, so you may discount my statement as you see fit, but I am the world’s foremost authority of my opinion.
Now, Kerry had the option of berthing his new toy where he could avoid the tax, and since I believe he wants to end the practice of legal tax avoidance, he is a hypocrite.
BTW: Would it really matter if he were on record saying he did not want to end the practice of legal tax avoidance? He’d just flip on it.
Of course Kerry doesn’t owe any tax. He was merely exercising his rights as a member of the ruling class.
Do you write such opinions?
I have written plenty of tax opinions, but not on anything that could be considered a tax shelter.
Well, RI is closer to DC than Mass. is. Here’s guessing he spends more time down here than up there.
Bottom line: the day John Kerry comes out and says that rich people should voluntarily pay more taxes than they legally owe, and should not legally arrange their affairs so as to minimize taxes, THEN and only then will I say he is being a hypocrite on this issue. Now, if everyone will excuse me, It is Friday night and I need to have a drink or five.
All right: one more thing–If you look in the sidebar and see the first story linked: About the Cape Cod wind farms that he and Kennedy opposed…
THAT is REAL hypocricy. And he is right to be called on it.
chap, good job keeping Doug and the rest of this board honest about this issue.
No need to call Kerry a hypocrite.
It’s enough to state the facts about his boat, the port, and the tax that wasn’t owed. Let the people make up their mind about the rest.
Thats why I asked. I can’t see that he chose RI because of the tax. I see a yacht designer in RI, closer to DC which may be where he wants it. I am not sure where he lives in MA so where he might dock it, etc.
Why not dock it in DC? My intuition tells me that he knows he avoided the MA tax, perhaps on the advice of his tax accountant and/or tax lawyer. The Kerry-Heinzes have a lot of wealth. I mean a lot. They deal with the taxation issue constantly and have people for that. The average Joe does not.
If he docked in RI to avoid MA tax, while exhorting the rich to pay their fair share, demagogueing those who don’t, and using the rich v poor class warfare argument to get elected, then he is a hypocrite. But many know he is a jerk to begin with as well as many other choice names. He just has friends in high places.
Nobody should be that rich anyway right? He doesn’t need all that money while there are people in the US with no health care, job, or food on the table. We should take half of his wealth and redistribute it to those who need it.
And just think, based on stimulus job creation math, MA could have created one (1) job with that tax money he avoided. That one guy should be peeved.
I think I’m starting to understand that whole “Let them eat cake” thing.
See here.
Now, it may not be identical, but a corporation forming an operation somewhere else to avoid taxes is a lot like berthing a boat somewhere else to avoid taxes, or have I started my drinking too early?
And cheers, Chap. Drink one for me.
Did Kerry miss Biden saying that it was patriotic to pay taxes?
A point that was may have been made in passing, if at all, is that Kerry is one member of a political party chock full of millionaires who claim to believe that tax policy doesn’t affect peoples’ economic decisions, and base revenue projections and predictions of resultant economic activity of their tax policies accordingly – but demonstrate in their own day-to-day activities that they don’t subscribe to that view with relation to their own finances. Hypocrisy, or alternatively stupidity, on the grand scale.
I suppose, though, in Kerry’s particular case, and in light of this bit of idiocy, you’d have to go with stupidity.
The Dems want to tax everything, ’cause it’s easy. The hard work, is actually doing work. With these entitlists (entitle + elites) in office, the hardest work they do is trying to figure out how to rid us of OUR wealth, using a law which they create.
It occurred to me earlier that there is one tax the feds have not plied on us… yet…A Federal Property Tax. I just can’t wait until they figure that one out….just one more way to take from the have’s, to give to (themselves under the guise of) the have-not’s.
Hmm. Kerry wants to punish others that try to find tax shelters or avoid taxes.