http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/c_street_house_no_longer_tax_exempt.php?ref=mp
QuoteResidents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house's owners to avoid paying property taxes.
Previously, the house -- despite being home to numerous lawmakers -- had been tax exempt, because it was classified as a church. That arrangement had allowed the building's owner, the secretive international Christian organization The Family, to charge significantly below market rents to its residents. In recent year, Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) have all reportedly called C Street home.
Natalie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Office of Tax and Revenue for Washington D.C., told TPMmuckraker that her office inspected the house this summer. "It was determined that portions of it were being rented out for private residential purposes," she said. As a result, the tax exempt status was partially revoked. Sixty-six percent of the value of the property is now subject to taxation.
According to online records, the total taxable assessment is $1,834,500. The building's owner last month paid taxes of $1714.70 on the property.
[...]
The C Street house has lately been the subject of unwanted attention thanks to its role in three GOP sex scandals. Ensign, who reportedly recently moved out of the house, was confronted there last year by his fellow C Streeters, including Coburn, about his affair with a top aide's wife. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford revealed this summer that he had received counseling from the house's denizens over his own randy hijinx with his Argentinean mistress. And the wife of former GOP congressman Chip Pickering has alleged in divorce proceedings that the house was the site of "wrongful conduct" between her husband and his girlfriend.
Apparently, now it is considered a non-profit rather than a church, it will have to disclose a lot more financial details than it previously did....via 990 forms, if I've read correctly, which are publically available.
Hmm. I had missed that The Family was involved in the "Applalachian Trail" rollercoaster.
Quote from: LMNO on November 19, 2009, 01:19:23 PM
Hmm. I had missed that The Family was involved in the "Applalachian Trail" rollercoaster.
Me too. That's very interesting.
Former NSA consultant and Navy member turned "investigative free-lance reporter and conspiracy theorist" Wayne Madsen has a piece on the family I saw linked...somewhere recently
http://www.insider-magazine.com/ChristianMafia.htm
I think he overstates the case, in comparison to Shartlet's more measured take on things, but it might interest some of you anyway.
This is about fucking time. I'm surprised and shocked, a bit, but this is great to read about.
This would be fun for GLP, but they aren't interested in actual conspiracies, anymore.
Quote from: LMNO on November 19, 2009, 01:19:23 PM
Hmm. I had missed that The Family was involved in the "Applalachian Trail" rollercoaster.
Did you mean this: (http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/02/77/0c/alpine-slide.jpg)
Nope, it's also known as "Go to Argentina; fuck someone who's not your wife; don't tell anyone where you are."