U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the outspoken, populist Democrat who thunders against Wall Street fat cats,and used to to joke about Mitt Romney's low tax bill, incorporated a couple hedge funds in the Cayman Islands so investors could avoid taxes.
Grayson Fund Ltd. and Grayson Master Fund were incorporated in 2011 in the Cayman Islands, a well known tax Haven that Romney used as well, records show.. That was the same year he wrote in the Huffington Post that the IRS should audit every Fortune 500 company because so many appear to be "evading taxes through transfer pricing and offshore tax havens."
In a phone interview Wednesday, Grayson said the funds were incorporated in Grand Cayman at the advice of an attorney he declined to name. It was a vehicle for foreign investors to invest in his funds while limiting their tax liabilities, he said, but no money had been invested in them yet.
"There are no investors in those funds or that fund as the case may be," said Grayson, who said he thought only one fund was incorporated in the Caymans.
"When I set up my investment funds I set it up like everyone else," Grayson said, complaining about the Tampa Bay Times looking for "some stupid, bull---- story. ... You want to write sh-- about it, and you can't because not a single dollar of taxes has been avoided," he snapped.
Grayson's financial disclosure statements indicate he has between $5-million and $25-million invested in the Grayson fund, and he lists no income from it.
Sure Alan. Not a single dollar.
Never be surprised when a rich person acts like a rich person. The disgusting part is that the Truly Wealthy in this country have made themselves so insanely wealthy that the ordinary wealthy (like Grayson) no longer feel rich. Middle class, even, just trying to get by on that paycheck.
ReplyDeleteI get to remembering the British political scandals of the 70s: with the Tories it was weird sex - they had money and to spare - with Labour it was bags of cash in the back room. Liquidity will flow like water down the street, as le Carre put it.
One of the things I respect Hillary Clinton for, more than just about any other politician, is how completely she has disclosed her income tax returns and investments and financial situation. She has made a lot of money (as has her husband) - they pay taxes on at least some of it in the same tax brackets other people with large income taxes do. Grayson makes me mad for a bunch of reasons on this, not least that any income he did make from the hedge fund would presumably be "carried interest" taxed at 15%.
ReplyDeleteI hope at some point Secretary Clinton explicitly promises to get rid of that particular tax loophole - why these assholes who are making billions shuffling money through hedge funds shouldn't be taxed in the same brackets other taxpayers are has never made sense to me.