You Don't Say: Charles Rangel Is Tax Cheat And Tax Deadbeat

The swamp of corruption in Washington and the Democrats efforts to turn it into a swimming pool are succeeding. None has benefited so much from the aversion to crack down on criminality in Congress than Rep. Charles Rangel, whose tax evasion and failures to report income are now the stuff of legend.

Word now comes that he's massively underreported his income to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars annually. Worse, he owns two properties in New Jersey on which he's failed to pay property taxes owed, and has done so repeatedly.

Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has failed to pay taxes on two plots of land he has in New Jersey, records show.

Rangel's ownership of the small, undeveloped properties came to light on Tuesday only after he drastically amended at least six years of financial-disclosure forms he had filed annually with the House clerk as required by law.

The corrected filings as much as doubled the amount of personal wealth Rangel has claimed going back years and revealed at least $780,000 in previously unreported assets.

The Harlem Democrat concealed somewhere between $38,902 and $116,800 in 2007 income, according to the revised filings.

Among the assets he failed to list was a checking account containing somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000.

Also undisclosed for years were two lots he owns in Glassboro, NJ, about 100 miles from the city.

Rangel is delinquent on his taxes on that property, according to the Gloucester County Clerk's office.

He currently owes $159.39 in unpaid property taxes for the second and third quarters of this year, according to the clerk's office.

Rangel's second-quarter taxes were due May 1 and his third-quarter taxes were due at the beginning of this month.

Skating on property taxes is nothing new for Rangel.

A review of property records for the borough of Glassboro revealed at least six tax liens levied against Rangel's property during the past 16 years.

If you live in Glassboro, New Jersey, you are paying higher taxes than you otherwise should be because Rangel has failed to pay his. Tax avoidance and evasion means that those who are responsibly paying their taxes are paying to cover the lack of revenues from the deadbeats and delinquents.

Moreover, Rangel chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, which means he's in the position to decide tax policy for the nation. It's clear that he has two policies in mind - that everyone else should pay their taxes, and he doesn't have to pay his - at any level of government.