David Kravitz at BlueMassGroup has a front page post going on this topic right now: The Boston Globe is reporting today (behind a paywall) that Gabriel Gomez and his wife appear to have taken a $281,500 tax break they weren't entitled to on their home in Cohasset, MA. The house is located in a historic district, where they are prohibited by the local Historical Commission from making any changes to the facade. That didn't stop them from claiming an exemption on their 2005 taxes for pledging not to make any changes to the facade - in effect, they donated an easement they didn't own to the National Architectural Trust and claimed a huge tax break for doing so! From the Globe:
One specialist in conservation easement law, Scott Knott, a tax partner in The Ferraro Law Firm in Washington, D.C., said that if easements mandated by local laws are already in place, homeowners have nothing to claim as a tax deduction.
“The key is the valuation of the easement and if there is already a restriction on the property, the value is not diminished by the easement,” said Knott. “The value of any easement that has the same restriction already in place is zero.”
Gomez's two primary opponents may well be kicking themselves for not finding out about this story during the primary - and my guess is that most of the state's GOP establishment are lamenting the same! The IRS classified this type of deduction as one of its "Dirty Dozen tax scams" - it seems like Gomez has some explaining to do!
We're working hard to get Ed Markey elected here in Massachusetts - go to EdMarkey.com to donate and/or volunteer! There's less than 50 days to election day, and we need all the help we can get - let's win this thing!
UPDATE: Thanks for the rec list - I'm guessing this diary made it there briefly while I was out on a sales call. Here's a sweet video of Will Ritter, Gomez's press secretary, making excuses for why Gomez is not releasing his 2005 tax return...