John Oliver's Property Tax Scam - unfunny "comedian" exploiting tax loopholes

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According to the Observer, he ended up paying only 0.25% of the normal tax rate when all the loopholes were factored in. And he tried to hide it behind a shell corporation too.
 
I think the bigger shocker here is that Salon actually did some actual investigative journalism.
 
Ruin said:
I think the bigger shocker here is that Salon actually did some actual investigative journalism.
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The left is cannibalizing itself. It'll crucify John Oliver for being a rich, straight white male. Soon they'll attack anyone with white privilege, male privilege, hetero privilege, and rich privilege.
 
Shugo said:
The left is cannibalizing itself. It'll crucify John Oliver for being a rich, straight white male. Soon they'll attack anyone with white privilege, male privilege, hetero privilege, and rich privilege.
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Sadly after all this is done, there will be Idiots who will claim what all this was cause for Trump for silencing the opposition.
 
Ruin said:
I think the bigger shocker here is that Salon actually did some actual investigative journalism.
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Someone in the Everyday Feminism threads mentioned why Salon has managed to stay afloat for so long, but Salon actually posts useful stuff once in awhile.
Since people like John Oliver and this is a class issue involving a liberal I don't think much will come of it. Wait until someone finds a tape of him 20 years ago making a slightly homophobic joke or something, that's the stuff people care about.
I like Last Week Tonight sometimes but the format of the show got old really really fast
 
Can you guy's do us a favor? Can you please keep him in America.

You gave us back Piers Morgan so you kinda owe us one for that.
 
Lackadaisy said:
According to the Observer, he ended up paying only 0.25% of the normal tax rate when all the loopholes were factored in. And he tried to hide it behind a shell corporation too.
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No, it said that his tax rate ended up being 0.25%, not that it was 0.25% of the original rate. Additionally, I wouldn't say he was "try[ing] to hide it behind a shell corporation". Shell corporations are a common technique used to reduce taxes, not an attempt at deception. You can stroll right into the IRS (I guess you can?) and tell them this shit and it's completely legal.

Anyway, that aside, the Salon article sucks. The observer article is much better.
Oliver benefits from New York’s property tax system, which offers huge advantages to residents of rich enclaves like the one where he lives. For example, even though Oliver paid $9.5 million for his penthouse, the city assessed its market value for tax purposes at just $1.3 million. However, only $515,000 of that amount was billable for property taxes. At a rate of 12.8 percent, Oliver normally would have paid $66,390.

However, property tax records show that, thanks to Trump and Roy Cohn, Oliver gets the very generous 421-a tax break on the penthouse. Hence, his property’s billable value after the exemption plunged by over $300,000, and he owed just $27,343 for 2016. That comes out to a property tax rate of roughly 0.25 percent, which would make Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand dance in their graves from happiness.
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So, John Oliver bought it for $9.5 million. The city says it's worth $1.3 million. Ok..., anyway. Due to New York's goofy tax laws... only $515,000 of that value is eligible to be taxed.

Ok, so, here's where the loophole comes in. Normally he'd have to pay 12.8% on that $515,000, which various sources tell me is $66,390 (??? I guess a few hundred dollars don't matter).

However, with the 421-a exemption, he only paid $27,343, which means his tax rate went from 12.8% down to 5.27% ($27,343 / $66,390).

So what can we take away from this?

New York City has fucking goofy tax laws.

As to John Oliver being a hypocrite, I don't really blame him for paying what he owes, according to the current laws. It's OK to advocate for raising/lowering taxes, but still pay the current rate. It's not like you're going to change the system by making a martyr of yourself.

Where he fucked up was going out of his way to hire a law firm to wrangle him a special tax situation. Especially one that specializes in finding ways to save rich kids money when their oil baron grandpa dies of a heart attack and they have to pay estate taxes.

He could've avoided this whole mess by just disclosing his situation, perhaps even making it a talking point.

Warren Buffet does that, and everyone loves that motherfucker.

What's most interesting about all this, to me, is how easily Salon threw John Oliver under the bus. They didn't even need to be dishonest or anything to cover his ass. If they just reported the story more accurately, realistically, his sins wouldn't have looked as bad.

But they saw an opportunity to sacrifice him at the altar of progressivism and took it.

I love this quote in the Salon article:
Oliver’s actions may not be the “scam” that Silverstein portrays them to be ...
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Lol, ok Salon. At least Silverstein crossed his T's and dotted his I's.
DT.Miller said:
Can you guy's do us a favor? Can you please keep him in America.

You gave us back Piers Morgan so you kinda owe us one for that.
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We might just stick him on a NYC trash barge and set him afloat.
 
Yeah he should totally pay a fuckton of taxes he has no legal obligation to pay just like Trump does.
 
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