Wednesday, September 30, 2009

If it walks like a duck...

From: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/09/city_and_anthony_jones_former.html
The city's beleaguered former technology chief reached an agreement with the Nagin administration Wednesday that allows him to collect several months of back pay and have his termination expunged from his record in exchange for his resignation.
Anthony Jones, the one-time head of the Mayor's Office of Technology, agreed to drop his appeal of his termination in exchange for the concessions, which he said will make it easier for him to find work.
Hopefully it won't be too easy for him to find work where honesty is important, because I'm not sure how you clear lying from your record:
"I wanted my record cleared," Jones said afterward. "I'm a technologist with 25 years experience."

He also claimed falsely on at least one occasion to have a degree.
This agreement doesn't cover all the reportage of his failures in the media, but I guess if you don't do a background check...
Jones' suspension letter will now reflect that he was not suspended.
Yep, the old non-suspension suspension letter...
"He leaves today with his good name," said his attorney, Lionel "Lon" Burns.
So if anyone wants an overpaid technologist who has a penchant for lying, has further helped to make a mess of City Hall IT and was under investigation for taking a gratuity but still has his good name...

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Meffert Supplements Income with Company Credit Card

A classic way people with business control cheat the government (and you)!

For easy computation, let's say I get paid $1 and I'm in a 25% income tax bracket.

I take home $.75 and the government gets $.25. The company pays nothing to the government - $1 is labor expense. Now I can afford a $.75 sno-ball.

Instead of having to work for $1 to buy a $.75 sno-ball, let's say I charge the same sno-ball to my corporate card. Now, the company pays the $.75 bill as an expense, so they pay taxes on the new $.25 profit at their rate (usually lower than my rate - or they can spend that extra $.25 on something else for the company and pay the government NOTHING NEW overall), but I only pay 25% of the $.75 as taxes on my "compensation".

So the government is already losing out here, then let's add on the other employer and employee taxes paid on income and the income which is now simply a business expense doesn't generate and taxes.

Taxes which have to be made up by people's payroll taxes.