McCains Defaulted On Home Taxes For Last Four Years, Newsweek Reports

** UPDATE BELOW **

Newsweek is set to publish a highly embarrassing report on Sen. John McCain, revealing that the McCains have failed to pay taxes on their beach-front condo in La Jolla, California, for the last four years and are currently in default, The Huffington Post has learned.

Under California law, once a residential property is in default for five years, it can be sold at a tax sale to recover the unpaid taxes for the taxpayers.

The McCains own at least seven homes through a variety of trusts and corporations controlled by Cindy McCain.

UPDATE: Newsweek's story is now online. The report notes that the McCains paid the bulk of their back taxes yesterday, but continue to owe additional taxes:

When you're poor, it can be hard to pay the bills. When you're rich, it's hard to keep track of all the bills that need paying. It's a lesson Cindy McCain learned the hard way when NEWSWEEK raised questions about an overdue property-tax bill on a La Jolla, Calif., property owned by a trust that she oversees. Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona. [...]

Shortly after NEWSWEEK inquired about the matter, the McCain aide e-mailed a receipt dated Friday, June 27, confirming payment by the trust to San Diego County in the amount of $6,744.42. County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1. Told of the outstanding $1,742, the aide said: "The trust has paid all bills shown owing as of today and will pay all other bills due."

Comments

[ObamaLover]

06:02 PM on 07/02/2008

HE SHOULD HAVE ASKED OBAMA FOR A REFERAL FOR HIS BROKER:

Barack Obama secured a loan on his $1.65 million Chicago mansion at a discounted rate that could have saved him more than $300 per month, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The newspaper reported that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee locked down a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust at an interest rate of 5.625 percent in June 2005, shortly after he entered the U.S. Senate.

The Post said the rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was “below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago,” and that similar loans would have been available at rates as high as 6 percent.

[Cyn2]

05:04 PM on 07/02/2008

So who gets a beach front condo where the taxes are only $1600 per year? That's a lot less than I pay for my little house in Maine.

[FirstShirt]

12:26 PM on 07/02/2008

If this is the best you have then the democrats are in big, big trouble.

[donkat]

07:11 PM on 07/02/2008

No just another nail in a sea of nails to seal up Grandpa's coffin.

[philosopherkingtomas]

11:39 AM on 07/02/2008

McCain was still married and living with his wife in 1979 while, according to The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof, "aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich." McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife's family money. In 2000, McCain managed to deflect media questioning about his first marriage with a deft admission of responsibility for its failure. It's possible that the age of the offense and McCain's charmed relationship with the press will pull him through again, but Giuliani and Gingrich may face a more difficult challenge. Both conducted well-documented affairs in the last decade--while still in public office.
Carol, his wife at the time, had once been quite a babe herself apparently, until a near-fatal car accident (while her husband was in Vietnam) left her 4 inches shorter, overweight and on crutches

How many will guess that Carol McCain is quite possibly a hero of a different kind of war? How many will read between the lines of her exalted ex-husband's legend and decide that she is simply one of the most courageous examples of a wounded mother who has loved and protected her children at all costs?


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html

[RS]

06:25 AM on 07/02/2008

Just watch how INCREDIBLY FAST McCain's corporate mainstream media pals will SHUSH THIS STORY UP BIG TIME. Mark my words: If Barack Obama was found guilty of defaulting on his property taxes, IT WOULD RUN 24/7 in the mainstream media--especially on Faux Spews Channel--I GUARANTEE IT!

[bmsrosmuc]

08:51 AM on 07/02/2008

don't hold your breath. Since the mcsame's paid their taxes last friday, after their 4 year delay, the msm has not reported this story. I agree that if it was the obamas, it would lead every hour on faux!

[wdw101]

09:29 AM on 07/02/2008

Gee, was someone even charged? was someone convicted? Wow, I missed that one........Who?

[ShamusNYC]

11:01 PM on 07/01/2008

Give the guy a break.

Republicans don't understand that they eventually have to pay their bills - just borrow more from China & Japan. McBush is the quintessential "borrow & spend" Republican.

And, as he has previously admitted, he doesn't really understand economics...

.... or accounting... or the environment... or diplomacy... or rule of law.... etc....

[Redrover666]

11:29 PM on 07/01/2008

Did you read the article?
Did you even read the complete title of the article?

[TheKiddy]

06:45 PM on 07/01/2008

I feel I can speak without being totally jumped on - I own a 2 bedroom 1 bath house and pay $10,000 a year in property taxes. So will you guys just listen for a moment? Oh and I'm not a Republican either.

Two years ago, when I took over my mom's finances, I discovered she had a delinquent tax bill. Now, she had paid her bill, but to the wrong year. So the penalties just kept growing even though she had an overpayment on the next year. Who knows how it happened. But these things happen! I can tell you that the county was not sending notices about the over payment.

I stopped coming on Huff Post for about 3 months because things had become so unpleasant. I've been back on for a few days. Many of the above comments sound so mean and sour grapes and small. This is a not very big story and probably doesn't tell us much about anything - other than ourselves. Why attack Mrs. McCain's drug use? Why the botox remark? And you natter about the MSM not paying attention, and someone actually compared their treatment of JM to the $400 haircut non-story about John Edwards or their reporting on his millionaire status. You guys are the one who wouldn't let the haircut or the mansion alone. And now here you are. I think you are envious of the rich and that you are bitter.

See you in three months.

[MoeJava]

09:28 PM on 07/01/2008

TheKiddy - When you run your campaign on fiscal responsibility, just as McCain is doing, and people find out you only talk the talk but don't dont walk the walk - this is why this story is a big deal. Dont these really rich people have book keepers or accountants that monitor these very important family-business details? And then, dont YOU monitor what they are doing?
Looks like the McCain's live in ample luxury and apparent disregard for what normal Americans are facing each and every day.
The taxes due on these properties seem minimal when you compare them to their over-all enormous wealth - something most Americans dont have stashed away for life's little emergencies. After the past 7+ years of the Bush administration have completely drained most folk's nest eggs, in more ways than you care to admit.

[SugarMan]

10:50 PM on 07/01/2008

But you are not a millionaire, apparently. And you are not running for president.
I don't agree with all the evil bashing of the McCains either. But you are talking apples and oranges.
Your situation, as unfortunate as it is, is nothing like theirs. Why don't you just sell the house, if you can't keep up the taxes?

[Chicago1968]

06:01 PM on 07/01/2008

I wish this story had legs, but it just doesn't.

It's nothing. They are good for it and most likely having a team of accountants and attorneys clean up all the loose ends.
When you are the elite these things happen.

Let's nail him on being an insane war monger not a tax cheat.

[catzoned]

08:44 PM on 07/01/2008

I know this story has no legs and I wish that I knew how to contact the ladies on "The View". It's largely a female audience. I'd like to see Joy have fun with it and watch what pitiful excuse Elizabeth would have for her hero, McCain.

[SugarMan]

10:53 PM on 07/01/2008

You've got to be kidding. If they can't take care of their own finances, how the hell can he oversee the finances of a nation? Are you insane?

[jcar3927]

04:33 PM on 07/01/2008

Fiscal conservative??? Hmm. You had credit card bills in excess of $250K and don't pay your taxes but you are married to a heiress???
What is Cindy doing with all her money--maybe she is back on the pain pills???? Thats why she married a older, tortured, wounded man---SHE DID IT FOR THE MEDS!!!! HAHAHA!!!


If this even gets posted it is just a joke.....

[janvoght]

05:00 PM on 07/01/2008

humor is so important in these times. thanks for your lightheartedness!
obama '08 & 2012

[jcar3927]

04:29 PM on 07/01/2008

And we thought he was against Bush's tax cuts??? He is so against taxes that he just doesn't pay them!!!!

[ruscle]

04:29 PM on 07/01/2008

Giving McCain the benefit of the doubt -- that this is just a mistake -- do we need someone this disorganized in the White House? Can't even pay his taxes. Couple that with Cindy McCain's past drug addiction and stealing drugs from a non-profit... and these people look like the worst sort of people.

Imagine the non-stop Faux News coverage this would be getting if Obama had failed to pay taxes on his home.

[3in1]

04:18 PM on 07/01/2008

obama machine does it again. see how http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-chicagosalestax,0,7174663.story

[CindySue]

04:08 PM on 07/01/2008

Through a purely Human whoopsie, the taxes on this house went overlooked last year in the midst of the mess that is this Life.. Eight, nine months after whichever month was the due date, a past December, maybe (?), a snail mailed notice arrived from our county telling us this house was going up on the auction block this past April..

For $176.00'ish (give or take) that was less than a year's worth of past due..

His was *FOUR YEARS* past due..?

And for *HOW MUCH*, and they still have the house..?

Kinda sorta makes a fella want to audit local tax records to see if Fair is Fair is Fair in one's own county..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

[trinity]

03:59 PM on 07/01/2008

This story won't matter...the conservatives are busy with the mass email portraying Mrs. McCain as a "saint" who adopted a child from Mother Teresa...and that Mrs. Obama has no class compared to her.

I'm sure the American public will eat it up like the whole Obama being a Muslim thing...

[SouthpawSass]

03:35 PM on 07/01/2008

Okay, 8 homes and millions of dollars - How does that not make one an elitist? Or is McCain not an elitist because he was a POW?