Adultery and Tax Planning

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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October 03, 2009

Adultery and Tax Planning

Paul Caron follows up on Sen. John Ensign's extramarital affair with Cynthia Hampton, a campaign staffer married to Douglas Hampton, Sen. Ensign's former chief of staff.

He notes "that the $96,000 in 'gifts' by Sen. Ensign's parents to the Hamptons was structured in the form of eight checks of $12,000 each -- four checks each from Sen. Ensign's father and mother to Cynthia Hampton, Douglas Hampton, and their two children in order to take full advantage of the $12,000 gift tax annual exclusion available in 2008. This week's New York Times' detailed investigation should prompt the IRS to question the treatment of the $96,000 payment as a gift in light of the possible legal claims by the Hamptons against Sen. Ensign."

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Ensign's future "grew more unsettled Friday as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to offer his support or express confidence in the embattled Nevada Republican."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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October 03, 2009