Surprise: John Kerry Still Hasn’t Paid The Luxury Tax On His Yacht
Senator John Kerry once described American businesses that use off-shore tax shelters to avoid paying taxes as traitors, calling them “Benedict Arnolds.” But Kerry himself got caught evading a $437,000 sales tax bill, not to mention an annual excise tax of $70,000, by docking his private luxury yacht at Newport in Rhode Island instead of Nantucket in Massachusetts where he spends his summers.
Obviously Kerry, much like the “Benedict Arnold” corporations who off-shore their revenues, wanted to avoid exorbitant taxes. Which, given the policies he supports in the Senate, makes him a total hypocrite. And to date, he’s yet to pay the taxes on his yacht as he promised.
It’s been more than three months since we first told you about Capt. John Kerry’s high-seas tax dodge on his new $7 million yacht, Isabel, and the town of Nantucket still doesn’t have a check from the senior senator!
You may recall that Kerry lowered the flag and surrendered in July, agreeing to pony up more than $400,000 to cover state taxes on the toney tub. Mr. Teresa Heinz broke out the checkbook four days after the Track set off a furious tempest with our report that he had purchased the 76-foot floating palace and ported her in Rhode Island, thus depriving the commonwealth of its pound of flesh.
A spokesman for the state Department of Revenue confirmed that “a sales tax return was filed” by Kerry last summer to cover state taxes that would have been owed, had he kept the Isabel in his home state’s waters. But according to the Nantucket tax collector, he never paid any excise taxes to the town on the Isabel.
Maybe someone should tell him that paying taxes is patriotic.
Tags: john kerry, Jonathan Alter, Taxes
