Taxes Questioned, Accountant Quits on Heiress’s Estate [AP]
An accountant facing questions about his handling of the fortune of a reclusive copper mining heiress has resigned from administering her estate as a New York City official said the accountant and a lawyer underpaid her taxes by tens of millions of dollars. The accountant, Irving Kamsler, resigned on Tuesday as an executor of the heiress Huguette Clark’s $400 million estate, lawyers for the estate said in a letter. It also noted that the official was about to ask a court to strip Mr. Kamsler and the lawyer, Wallace Bock, from managing the estate.
The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco [WSJ]
The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play. Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter, although he's spent most of his Presidency promoting tax increases and he would hit the economy with one of the largest tax increases ever in 2013. This should be impossible.
“Incumbent presidents have enormous advantages. And I think what Republicans ought to do is what’s right for America. They ought to do it calmly and pleasantly and happily,” Mr. Gingrich said when asked about the clash between President Barack Obama and House Republicans over extension of the payroll tax cut.
Saving drug abuse for your professional careers is a far more responsible approach.