Clinton Foundation Admits Speech Fees Are Not Donations. Will Hillary Amend Her Own Taxes Too?

The Clinton Foundation has amended its tax filings for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. In a highly structured statement, Foundation President Donna Shalala explained that this was all voluntary. The updated returns can be found at Clinton Foundation amendments. It follows the revelations earlier this year that millions of donations were omitted and misclassified. There was no suggestion that these monies would be taxed to the Clinton Foundation, or to Mr. or Ms. Clinton. Even so, it was still embarrassing.

Revenue from speeches was one of the delicate errors. Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton all gave speeches in 2010, 2011, and 2012. The money was reported as charitable contributions in the original filings. Actually, of course, the speech fees were payments for services. The Foundation notes that correction in its press statements. It is curious, since it would seem to be something the Foundation was aware of when it made the original incorrect filings. After all, the Foundation did not send any donor acknowledgement letters to these speech hosts, and that suggests they were purely fees-for-services and not donations from the start.

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For the Clintons, there may be a legitimate way to structure their fees. There is no question that they would not want to receive the speaking fees personally and then hand them over to the Foundation. They would end up with a big tax bill, since charitable contributions are strictly limited. But end runs in taxes are closely scrutinized. Besides, speech fees are normally sourced to the place where they are given. The Clintons could end up taxed in numerous states and countries. What’s more, they could end up with no deduction at all for the charitable contributions that would probably be sourced to their residences.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2015/11/21/clinton-foundation-adm...

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Obviously they can get away with tax fraud. The rest of us, not so much. Even I've been audited by the IRS, and they were pretty nasty until it turned out they owed me money. (God, so long long long ago.) When I went in for my audit this woman says something like 'you owe $624 (around that much) in back taxes and we want to know when your're going to pay up" and she threw this form at me from across the table. Well for ONCE in my life I was prepared, had all my docs and receipts and tax returns, and I KNEW I didn't owe back taxes (but I was still scared) so I threw my paperwork back at her and said "I don't owe you a damn thing". Never saw her again, but I did get a check in the mail. And when I complained about having paperwork thrown at me, I was told that their 'agent' didn't do things like that.

But I was shaking in my boots until the matter was settled.