Thread: Palin cabins not noted in tax assessments

Palin cabins not noted in tax assessments

By RACHEL D'ORO, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 4:26 p.m.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Records show that Sarah Palin has not paid any property taxes on cabins that have been built on two backcountry plots partially owned by the former Alaska governor.

It's unclear how long ago the structures were built, but records show that there are no tax assessments for the buildings. Property taxes were only paid on the land - and not the structures themselves.

The issue has attracted the attention of local tax officials who conducted a scheduled aerial survey of the property on Thursday.

Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, says it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land. But local assessor Dave Dunivan says owners are required by state law to report any omissions or errors in their tax assessments.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... sessments/

Think how great it will be when we pass the FairTax, and states, communities and cities follow-suit. Imagine how swell life will be in America when you can own some land, build a cabin, house, building, store, pool, shed, garage, work shop, gazebo, dog house or whatever you want to do with your money, and there won't be assessors, reporters, tax collectors or anyone else from the Goobermint snooping around your private property in armed Humvees or flying over it in government planes and black helicopters peering through binoculars trying to figure out how much more blood they can suck out of your turnip.

Americans who work in the tax business, either for government or in the private sector, are letting our country down. They should know better than anyone the wasteful cost of their job or business that is tied solely to the mandates of an unconstitutional tax collection system at all levels of government that relies on a fascist police state to function.

Every American who participates in this fascist charade of imposing and collecting income-based and property-based taxes is part of the problem, not the solution to what ails our country. I urge every American who works in this fascist industry to support the FairTax. Yes, you may lose a job or a business, but guess what? You weren't crying for any of the Americans who lost their jobs to illegal aliens and free trade treason were you? You weren't crying for any of the Americans who couldn't afford to pay your property or income taxes and lost their homes, credit and businesses were you? OH NOES! None of you skipped a beat. You were the ones causing that harm to Americans. You invaded their lives, intruded upon their privacy, stole their money, charged them for it, manipulated every decision they made in business as well as in their personal lives and strangled the very lifeblood out of our national economy.

It could have been overlooked until the FairTax was on the table. But not one day after. The FairTax has been on the table of the US Congress for 11 years, while you have either stood idly and silently by or actually worked against its passage with your high-paid lobbyists pushing your special tax industry interests through Congress to line your pockets at the expense and harm of your fellow Americans. Stealing money, filing liens, conducting foreclosures, filing judgments, garnishments, even sending Americans to prison because they wouldn't or couldn't give you money they didn't want you to have is despicable and as low as it gets.

End the Madness. Support the FairTax and give up this life of robbing Americans. Your skills and talents need to be applied to the real economy of the US, working for real businesses producing real products, providing real services that build real wealth for the American People and will build yours right along with it but will do so honestly, respectfully and honorably, by producing products and providing services Americans actually want to buy and pay you some money for.

www.fairtax.org

Apparently, lawsuits during her governorship were not her only problem. Now it seems she has memory loss about anything that might raise her tax bill. Unbelievable, but perhaps typical of a politician.

Palin cabins not noted in tax assessments

Posted 3m ago

ANCHORAGE (AP) — Records show that Sarah Palin hasn't paid any property taxes on cabins that have been built on two backcountry plots partially owned by the former Alaska governor.

It's unclear how long ago the structures were built, but records show that there are no tax assessments for the workshop, sauna and house-sized cabins spotted Thursday in an aerial survey.

Property taxes totaling $156.13 were paid on the land in 2009 — but that bill did not include anything for the structures because the local assessor didn't know about the new construction nearly 100 miles north of Anchorage.

The issue has attracted the attention of local tax officials who conducted a scheduled aerial survey of the properties on Thursday. The area is accessible only by floatplane, snowmobile or four-wheeler.

Dave Dunivan, the assessor for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, said such a survey had not been done in five years, before construction started on the cabins.

Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land.

"It is the borough's job," he said in an e-mail. "The property taxes on this parcel are fully paid and have never been delinquent."

Dunivan, however, said owners are required by state law to report any omissions or errors in their tax assessments. Often, the borough learns of new structures in remote areas when neighbors report them. Dunivan said no one has called the borough on the Palin lots, among many in the region to add structures, the flyover survey found.

"Typically, if there are errors, we hear from owners," he said. "If there are omissions, we don't. Every once in a while we do have someone call us about omissions, but not often."

The properties are located along Safari Lake — an undeveloped area located near Denali State Park — and owned by Palin, her husband Todd and a family friend, Scott Richter. According to borough records, the tax assessments are sent to Richter's post office box in Big Lake.

There is no phone listing in Alaska for Richter and he could not be reached Thursday.

The matter first appeared Wednesday on an Alaska political blog site, Mudflats, which has been critical of Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.

Palin resigned as governor last summer and has since written a best-selling memoir. She signed on as a Fox News commentator last month.

Dunivan said a photo of a large cabin posted on the site — and later reported on the Huffington Post website — is one of the structures spotted in the flyover.

"This is another blatant attempt to manufacture a story about the Palins following more defamatory swipes," Palin's spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Van Flein said work is still being done on the cabins, but both are usable. He said construction began on one of the cabins in 2006, but he didn't know when construction started on the second one.

The two parcels of land, separated by one lot, total 25 acres (10 hectares) and had a combined value of $30,000 in 2007 through 2009, according to assessment records. Dunivan said the data collected in Thursday's survey will be calculated into 2010 assessment notices being mailed out at the end of the month.

It's too soon to estimate how much the structures will increase the taxes due, Dunivan said.

The cabins are the size of large homes rather than the average backcountry cabin, but square footage estimates were not immediately available.

Local real estate broker, Claus Steigler, said most cabins in the area are closer to the 500-square-foot (46.45-square-meter) range. Because they are in a hard to reach area, they generally sell for only $40,000 to $60,000, including the land.

One large log cabin reachable by road is listed at $229,000, but it's still on the market after two years, Steigler said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/201 ... axes_N.htm

Vortex said:
"Apparently, lawsuits during her governorship were not her only problem. Now it seems she has memory loss about anything that might raise her tax bill. Unbelievable, but perhaps typical of a politician."

It is not the property owner's responsibility to provide the assessment. It is whoever is equivalent to what we call the county tax assessor where I live. If the county tax assessor has not included the cabins, that is a fault in the assessor's office for not completing an accurate assessment. It could be that they do not reassess property that often. Unfortunately, my county figured that out, and now we get one at least every four years. Before that, it could be as much as 10 or 12 years between assessments.
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i'm no fan of Sarah Palin, but property taxes are evil socialist-fascist crap. Get rid of them and move to a local FairTax. Wake up Folks.