Minnesota’s DFL Senate candidate Al Franken is blaming his tax problems on his accountant. Franken has been claiming his accountant, Allen Chanzis, doesn’t know the law very well, and advised him not to pay those other states’ taxes where Franken earned income. However, Chanzis is a partner in the firm Wlodinguer, Erk & Chanzis, a firm that specializes in entertainment industry accounting. A woman who is an accountant from Scott County said athletes and entertainers must pay taxes in other states, even if they work there for only one day. Everyone involved in filming a movie on location, a TV show that goes on the road, and sports teams, must have multiple W-2 forms to a half-dozen different states on behalf of a single employee. It takes a willing suspension of disbelief for us to take Franken’s excuses at face value any longer, she said. DFLers better hurry up and decide what to do about Franken.
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Just to clarify….I am not an accountant, but in the post you referred to I quoted an accountant who, in a column on The American Thinker, detailed out the tax law and stated that Chanzis, as an 18 year veteran of entertainment tax accounting, does not seem to be the kind of accountant to make those kinds of rookie mistakes.
LL
I’m afraid it’s not quite a simplistic as either of you make you out to be. Al Franken’s disputed taxes do NOT come from any taxes on his personal income he may have earned in other states. Rather, it came from a confluence of often obscure state and local laws that define what an “employee” is in various jurisdictions, and when an “employer” is required to make FICA and other tax payments into the state and local tax authorities on behalf of those employees.
Whether Chanzis has 18 years or 180 years of experience representing the entertainment industry is irrelevant. It does nothing to sort out the convoluted tax laws across the country. Yes, it’s his “job” to sort out those laws on behalf of his clients. But if you can honestly state that you’ve never made a single mistake in YOUR job, then you have a right to be critical.
Besides, Al Franken has already made the required restitution to the taxing authorities, so lighten up.