The Washington Free Beacon has reported that failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton transferred $150,000 in campaign money to a limited liability company (LLC) in Delaware that manages her personal income from speaking engagements and book sales.
Delaware is known as a tax haven.
From the Free Beacon:
Clinton registered ZFS Holdings LLC, a Delaware-based LLC, on Feb. 8, 2013, just days after leaving the State Department, records filed with the Delaware Division of Corporations show. Later, in April 2014, paperwork was filed with New York State’s Department of State.ZFS’s listed agent on its Delaware forms is the Corporation Trust Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer, a Netherlands-based global company that provides services to legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and healthcare clients.The agent’s address, which is used by more than 285,000 companies, including Trump business entities, is known as an epicenter of U.S. corporate secrecy.
Hillary’s former campaign committee Hillary for America began to send payments to ZFS six months after she lost the election and marked all payments as rent.
The first occurred in May 2017 at $32,929.28. Seven payments after that initial payment came in between $9,617.87 to $36,369.39. The latest payment happened on March 15 for $20,822.92.
So why is this a problem? Well, the Center for Responsive Politics explained what politicians can do with unused campaign cash. For instance, the “politicians are not required to shut down their committees and can keep them running indefinitely.” The center wrote that they can “do this to pay off campaign debt, or, to keep their war chest full if they were to ever seek office again.”
After politicians pay down any debt they owe, “money is often spent to ‘wind down’ the committee and pay off any office expenses.” There are guidelines for unused cash (emphasis mine):
“For those who still have cash on hand, the FEC sets guidelines regarding how candidates’ committees may spend campaign funds,” they continue. “Other than the prohibition on personal use, there are few limitations. Punishments for violating the prohibition on personal use range from substantial fines to possible prison time.“Former politicians and candidates may use unused funds for the likes of donating money to a recognized charity, contributing to the campaign committees of other politicians, giving to a federal, state, or local party activity, or disbursements for winding down costs.
Cleta Mitchell, a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP, spoke to the Free Beacon. Once again, emphasis is mine:
“The only disbursements allowed for the Clinton or any other losing campaign are for winding down the campaign,” Cleta Mitchell, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Foley & Lardner LLP, told the Washington Free Beacon. “So the question is whether this is really for rent or whether the payments are to this entity for other types of work for Hillary, which would be personal use if it isn’t specifically tied to the winding down of the campaign.“”Personal use is illegal under federal campaign finance law,” Mitchell said. “There are a number of questions that need to be answered to ensure that the campaign is using leftover campaign funds for a legally, permissible purpose.”
So it seems she’s skirting finance laws. But Hillary is also a liberal, which means she wants higher taxes and for the rich to pay their “fair share”, or at least that’s what she claims. However, using this company allows Hillary to take advantage of loopholes. The Guardian reported in April 2016:
Clinton, who has repeatedly promised that as president she will crack down on “outrageous tax havens and loopholes that super-rich people across the world are exploiting in Panama and elsewhere”, collected more than $16m in public speaking fees and book royalties in 2014 through the doors of 1209, according to the Clintons’ tax return.Just eight days after stepping down as secretary of state in February 2013, Clinton registered ZFS Holdings LLC at CTC’s offices. Bill Clinton set up WJC LLC, a vehicle to collect his consultation fees, at the same address in 2008.A spokesman for Clinton said: “ZFS was set up when Secretary Clinton left the State Department as an entity to manage her book and speaking income. No federal, state, or local taxes were saved by the Clintons as a result of this structure.”
I call BS. After all, companies like Apple, Coca-Cola, and Wal-Mart have used ZFS so they can register in Delaware, which allows them to “take advantage of strict corporate secrecy rules, business-friendly courts and the ‘Delaware loophole’, which can allow companies to legally shift earnings from other states to Delaware, where they are not taxed on non-physical incomes generated outside of the state.”
The Guardian stated that Delaware’s tax laws “have cost other states more than $9bn in lost taxes over the past decades.” This has led to people calling the state “one of the world’s biggest havens for tax avoidance and evasion.”
Look, if you can avoid taxes, I say go for it. I’m a libertarian and I hate taxes. I just cannot stand the hypocrisy showcased by Hillary.
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