Daily PUMA Column - Commentary by Alessandro Machi

Friday, November 28, 2008

Did MSNBC & POLITICO.com CIRCUMVENT IRS TAX LAWS by BARTERING?



Sure looks to me in the image above that MSNBC and Politico.com are bartering their services back and forth, but are they reporting this barter to the IRS? MSNBC gets an "authority" on a subject to appear for free on their television station, and in turn the guest pimps the name of their website in the background the ENTIRE TIME the guest is shown as seen above. This appears to me to be bartering, an exchange of services, which can be construed as income and therefore taxable.

I believe in live and let live, but the method above was one of the prime ways that MSNBC defeated Hillary Clinton this year. Pundits from Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Time, and Newsweek would appear on MSNBC and act like they were an impartial observer when they usually had a preordained position of supporting Barack Obama or slamming Hillary Clinton and her supporters. Many times, it appears that in lieu of being paid, the "Pundit" had a book they had written that would be publicized during their appearance, and on top of that the company they worked for (such as Time or Newsweek) was publicized by MSNBC as well.

This is a form of bartering, and since this privilege was abused by MSNBC to help Barack Obama defeat Hillary Clinton, I think payback, IRS payback, is in order. What do you think? If you know somebody who works for the IRS, ask them what they think.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are only a few of us "tax" folks around (I started, staffed, and ran for 5 years the Sun Life of Canada U.S. Tax Dept.).

I believe you are correct as to the barter rules but other than state sales tax on services and cliff based income tax deduction rules I don't see the income tax effect as each charges the other the same for their service so for both have expense equals income.

But the SEC claims to want clean financials, and ignoring the value of barter is not a clean way of doing things.

Alessandro Machi said...

If MSNBC charges Politco.com for a four minute background ad on their channel, the cost would probably be 50 grand or more.

If Politico.com charged MSNBC for allowing their guest to appear on their show, the fee could be several thousand dollars.

If the two sides exchange payments, than those payments are taxable. If the programming that was created was truly news, it might not be taxable as the both sides could argue they were just contributing news information.

However, I think it has become pretty apparent that MSNBC pretty much only allows guests who either create provocative counter material, or more likely, agrees with MSNBC's position.

This becomes infommercial material, not news material. I hope the IRS notices.

Anonymous said...

MORE INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE!!!

PELOSI & DEMOCRATIC CHAIR CAROL FOWLER UNEQUIVOCALLY LIE SAYING THEY VETTED OBAMA BEFORE HE WAS NOMINATED, BEFORE HE RAN FOR PEZ...

Here’s 2 responses back from South Carolina and Connecticut for request for records:

1) South Carolina: RESPONSE FROM SECRETARY OF STATE SOUTH CAROLINA: PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO PAGE 2 IN WHICH THE CHAIR OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF SOUTH CAROLINA [CAROL FOWLER] UNEQUIVOCALLY STATES THE CANDIDATES ALL QUALIFY FOR THE OFFICE IN WHICH THEY ARE RUNNING.

2) Connecticut: RESPONSE FROM SECRETARY OF STATE OF Connecticut, IN WHICH SHE USES THE HAWAIIAN OFFICIALS PRESS CONFERENCE AS HER VETTING PROCESS OF OBAMA????!!! BIG PROBLEMS WITH THIS FOR HER. He was supposed to be vetted BEFORE he ran for office AND her statement about Hawaiian officials saying Obama was born in Hawaii and that they hold his original birth certificate is based on a PRESS CONFERENCE where Hawaii officials never said they verified he was born in Hawaii and they refused to answer if the original birth certificate they held was a Kenyan one or a Hawaiian one. AND THE PRESS CONFERENCE WAS IN NOVEMBER PER HER OWN ADMISSION – 3 MONTHS AFTER HE WAS DECLARED THE NOMINEE !!!

CLICK BELOW TO SEE THE 2 DOCS:
1. SEC OF STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA RESPONSE, 3 PAGES
2. SEC OF STATE OF Connecticut RESPONSE, 1 PAGE
http://moniquemonicat.wordpress.com/secretary-of-state-responses-in-regards-to-request-for-obama-records/

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