(10-18-2017 02:21 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: (10-18-2017 01:36 PM)q5sys Wrote: (10-18-2017 12:20 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: (10-18-2017 12:13 PM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote: (10-18-2017 09:29 AM)Redwingtom Wrote: Again, did she actually misuse something? This is spelled out in plain English on an FEC form. If it's illegal, has she gotten in trouble for it?
The bigger point, for me, is that she deducts 127K of her 140K income per year and has the gall to lecture others for "not paying their fair share".
Wait..what? Am I missing something? When did campaign expenses become deductible from income?
You're not missing anything. Her campaign expenses do not go against her personal income. Her campaign is technically a separate legal entity from her person.
Campaign finances can be used for whatever promotes the campaign, they aren't supposed to be used for personal outings. But its a very grey line... she went to the play... that allowed her to schmooze with people and try to get money from them... that's how it became a fund-raiser expense.
It's similar when a business owner takes someone they know out to dinner, then talks about their business for a few minutes so they can write the whole dinner off as a business expense. It's not illegal per-say if its done on a limited basis. But if you do it to much, the IRS will nail you for fraud. Where is the line in the sand? Only the IRS knows.
It's a question of where is the line between using campaign finances for campaigning and using campaign finances as a non-taxable bucket for personal expenses.
Do we have proof that she actually went to the play with these tickets? I had not seen that sourced anywhere yet. Thanks.
well I can pretty much guarantee that your raffle idea is completely and utterly false here's why...
according to the IRS raffles are basically a form of lottery and gambling which means that there were a whole slew of laws to go along with it as well on the state level.
but let's ignore the state level for a moment and speak specifically about the federal laws around this IRS notice 1340 States:
"Noncash Prizes: For noncash prizes, the winner must pay the organization 25% of the fair market value of the prize minus the
amount of the wager."
this means that if this by some chance was a raffle that Maxine's campaign would have to be withholding and filing to the IRS taxes on the behalf of other citizens I can guarantee you they are not getting into that legal mud.
furthermore if you are buying something to then use as a raffle and the raffle itself is the way of fundraising you can not legally claim the initial investment to buy the item you are raffling.
Back in the state issue, there would be laws that would apply in the state that the raffle is being held in, and not the state where her organization is legally founded, so that would mean that the raffle would have to occur in DC or New York I guess we're Broadway is. I'm unsure about the laws in New York but I do know in DC gambling/raffling of that nature is going to be illegal. In DC the only lawful raffles are sports team related, and I believe there is a dollar cap. A sports team doing a raffle is going to have a value of no more than $100. I'm sure there are Churchs doing raffles illegally of a similar dollar amount but the government probably doesnt since the dollar amount is so low.
But if you're using tickets valued at $10,000 you're going to be pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars in an illegal raffle. That is most definitely going to be noticed especially with who she is.
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Maxine Waters paid $10k for Hamilton tickets, itemized as a "fundraiser expense"
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