Charlie Rangel Accused of Being Tax Cheat
Thursday, 11 September 2008
by Jim Kouri

Democrat Congressman Charles Rangel, chairman of the powerful committee that writes the nation’s tax code, failed to pay an unspecified amount in federal taxes during the past five years on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, according to several news stories. Representative Charles B. Rangel is head of the House tax-writing committee.

Mr. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat who is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has owned the beachfront house at the Punta Cana resort and club since 1988, but never declared the $75,000 in rental income he has earned either on his tax returns or on his Congressional financial disclosure form.
When Mr. Rangel’s legal advisers first acknowledged the unreported income last week, during interviews with reporters, they said his accountants had determined that he would probably owe back taxes to the city and New York State, but not the federal government.

But on Tuesday, his lawyer, Lanny Davis, said that the accountants had since revised their calculations and determined that Mr. Rangel would owe “a modest amountâ€