The following is a NY1 Exclusive Report:
Over 80 days last year, Eric Schneiderman joined fellow lawmakers in Albany for sessions of the State Senate. But according to his tax returns, it’s as if that session almost never ended. He deducted tens of thousands of dollars in work expenses for days he wasn’t in the senate chamber, or quite possibly even in Albany — weekend days, too. In all, more than 200 additional days were written off, his campaign acknowledges.
The Democrat was taking advantage of a loophole in the tax law. It’s perfectly legal and certainly not unheard of among legislators. But some question whether it fits with Schneiderman’s clean up Albany platform.
“Particularly when this country is going broke, the last thing in the world we should be doing is fattening the benefit package for state legislators,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
Schneiderman’s accountant says the lawmaker saved only about $900 in taxes. Other accountants say it could be in the low thousands.
What is clear is that the loophole allowed him to deduct a whopping 36 percent of his pre-tax salary just for work expenses — nearly 750 percent higher than those making the same amount.
Longtime certified public accountant Alan Dlugash calls it taking advantage of a unintended consequence of the 34-year-old law.
“It does not seem appropriate that they should be able to claim those days when in fact they are not there incurring the expenses,” Dlugash said.
Meanwhile, the appearance of wrongdoing has some forgoing the write-off altogether, even if it means they pay more to Uncle Sam. Among them, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who served as a State Assemblyman for 20 years prior.
“I made the choice not to utilize this deduction,” said State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. “I was getting a per diem reimbursement. From my point of view, that was sufficient.”
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(Source: NY1)
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One Response
Well, taxes isn’t as important as Toeiva. He first has to legalize Toeiva and then he’ll look at his taxes. There’s no loophole now permitting Toeiva, so he had to use some for his taxes instead.