There's the version of tax resolution the late-night commercials sell you. Then there's how it actually works. I'm Darrin Mish, a Tampa tax attorney. I've spent 32 years on the inside of these cases. Here's the real version.<\/p>\n
Tax attorney Darrin Mish was quoted in MSNBC and The Orange County Register in connection with the way California Lawmakers use their Lawmakers\u2019 Allowances.\u00a0 Before we get into what Attorney Darrin actually said, we need to give you some background information.\u00a0 We all know that all state assemblymen in every state are given lawmakers\u2019 allowances to cover their expenses while they are in the state capital carrying out their duties like what they are elected for.\u00a0 What most people do not know is that the allowances given them are tax free and quite substantial, especially in California.\u00a0 This allowance is known as \u2018per diem\u2019 meaning \u2018per day\u2019 in Latin. \u00a0Click here to read or watch more IRS Help resources.<\/a><\/p>\n California lawmakers receive an allowance of $141.86 a day, the fifth highest allowance rates in the country after Alaska ($189 a day), Tennessee ($185 a day), Georgia ($173 a day) and Pennsylvania ($154 a day).\u00a0 However, in terms of amount of allowances, the Californian lawmakers are the highest because of their long legislative sessions.\u00a0 In 2009, the number of days Californian lawmakers spent in legislative sessions was more than 200 while Alaska\u2019s days were 90, Tennessee\u2019s 45, Georgia\u2019s 40 and Pennsylvania\u2019s about 100.\u00a0 And because the 2009 rate was as high as $173 a day, some Californian lawmakers took home about $37,000 in tax-free allowances per person and the state government forked out $4 million in total allowances, apart from lawmakers\u2019 salaries which were reduced from $116,208 to $95,291 in December.<\/p>\n So we have established that California lawmakers are paid the most allowances in the country.\u00a0 That is not the issue.\u00a0 The issue is what they do with the money.\u00a0 It has been discovered that many of these lawmakers use their tax-free allowances (that ultimately come from tax payers) to buy second homes in the state capital, Sacramento.\u00a0 And when their term is up, these houses are often sold at a higher price, thus making these legislators a tidy profit of often hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n