{"id":3856,"date":"2008-10-15T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-15T20:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/10\/dems-draw-attention-to-tinsleys-past-tax-issues\/"},"modified":"2008-10-15T14:35:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-15T20:35:00","slug":"dems-draw-attention-to-tinsleys-past-tax-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/10\/dems-draw-attention-to-tinsleys-past-tax-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems draw attention to Tinsley’s past tax issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Democrats are trying to draw attention to some tax issues in Republican 2nd Congressional District Ed Tinsley\u2019s<\/a> past and other issues with his record as a businessman. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Tinsley\u2019s campaign says it\u2019s nothing more than a tempest in a teapot designed to divert attention away from Democratic opponent Harry Teague\u2019s<\/a> record of increasing taxes as a Lea<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> commissioner and his weak performance in last week\u2019s candidate forum.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Democratic Party of New Mexico is citing several issues in its latest assault on Tinsley. Among them:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2022 Tinsley had to pay the IRS $65,000 in penalties and interest several years ago because of the late filing and payment of payroll taxes owed by a K-BOB\u2019s Steakhouse<\/a>. Tinsley owns the chain of restaurants. The IRS initially levied a $122,000 penalty, but the amount was reduced after Tinsley won a court case in which he argued that the original penalty was unreasonable.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Tinsley testified before Congress in 2004<\/a> about a program he created for restaurant employees to encourage savings. The program, K-Care, matched tips employees reported with a 5 percent contribution to an investment fund. He failed to mention during his testimony that, at that time, the program was in forfeiture in Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Tinsley had to pay back taxes of $113.27 in 2002 to the Lincoln County Assessor\u2019s Office because he failed to register all the livestock that were grazing on his Capitan ranch. He blamed the federal government in a 2002 Alamogordo Daily News article<\/a>, saying it had not defined how to report livestock that are regularly moved between federal land and private property.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEd Tinsley has a long record of tax and other problems with companies he started,\u201d a lengthy document from the Democratic Party<\/a> about Tinsley\u2019s tax issues states.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Teague campaign piled on in a statement from communications director Alex Cole pointing out times that Tinsley has been delinquent on paying taxes.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cHow can the taxpayers of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> trust Ed Tinsley to manage their tax dollars when he cannot even be trusted to pay his own taxes?\u201d Cole asked. \u201cAnd how can the people of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> trust Ed Tinsley when just yesterday his lawyer said that he had a \u2018stellar record of making timely and complete\u2019 tax payments?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cole was referring to an Albuquerque Journal article<\/a> in which Tinsley\u2019s attorney was quoted as saying that, with the exception of the situation in 1999, Tinsley\u2019s businesses had a \u201cstellar record for making timely and complete payroll tax deposits.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Tinsley explains<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Tinsley spokesman Jim Pettit called the payroll-tax issue \u201ca tax filing mistake\u201d made in 1999 \u201cfor which Mr. Tinsley took full responsibility.\u201d He said Tinsley self-reported the problem to the IRS and paid the taxes that were due. When the IRS \u201ctried to assess unfair penalties,\u201d Pettit said Tinsley \u201crefused to get run over.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cEd Tinsley does not make any apologies for clarifying with the IRS a proper penalty level,\u201d Pettit said. \u201cThe IRS is a difficult bureaucracy to work with and, quite frankly, we need someone in Congress who understands the proper balance between government and business. That fact that the court validated what he was trying to do speaks for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pettit also released a document providing answers to several questions<\/a> related to the payroll-tax issue.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cole characterized Tinsley\u2019s contesting of the penalty the IRS originally levied as an attempt to \u201cevade the consequences\u201d and said Tinsley should \u201cimmediately come clean with the voters and release his tax records related to this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pettit said the K-Care program was in forfeiture because Tinsley neglected to pay a $35 fee to the Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> comptroller. He said Tinsley\u2019s testimony was about \u201cgovernment policy that could actually encourage savings in the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>,\u201d but the program is no longer in place because \u201cthe tax policies in place right now just didn\u2019t really make it a viable concept, by and large, in entry level jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Of the livestock issue, Pettit said, \u201cWe\u2019re talking about (roughly) $11 per year over a 10-year period. \u2026 As a comparison, Ed Tinsley has paid close to $30,000 a year in total property taxes, including real property and personal property, which would include livestock.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Tinsley says Dems trying to distract from real issues<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pettit said in an interview that Tinsley\u2019s \u201cpolitical operative opponents are pitching stories to media outlets in an effort to distract from Harry Teague\u2019s poor record of raising taxes on the Lea County Commission and equally poor performance in the Oct. 9 forum<\/a> in which economic issues were discussed. Ed Tinsley\u2019s companies have employed thousands of people over 30-plus years with payrolls estimated to be in excess of $30 million. The track record of all of Mr. Tinsley\u2019s companies is impeccable.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

To try to shift the focus to Teague\u2019s tax record and forum performance, Tinsley released a new television ad today. Here it is:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The ad quotes Teague calling unemployment \u201crampant\u201d at last week\u2019s forum. Pettit pointed out that the state\u2019s unemployment rate is 4.6 percent, well below the national average of 6.1 percent, and said it\u2019s certainly not rampant.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThat calls into question whether Harry Teague has a fundamental understanding of the issues facing New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> on the economy,\u201d Pettit said. \u201c\u2026 If he is unable to articulate the problems on the economic front now, it would only be worse in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats are trying to draw attention to some tax issues in Republican 2nd Congressional District Ed Tinsley\u2019s past and other issues with his record as a businessman. Tinsley\u2019s campaign says it\u2019s nothing more than a tempest in a teapot designed to divert attention away from Democratic opponent Harry Teague\u2019s record of increasing taxes as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}