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FEATURE ARTICLE

Democratic Private Equity Firm Halts Ron Paul Revolution!

Democratic Private Equity Firm Halts Ron Paul Revolution!

Ernest Hancock
Website: www.ernesthancock.com
Date: 02-29-2008
Subject: Politics: Republican Campaigns

As you can see from the press release below, major Democratic donors have tried to halt the Ron Paul Revolution by attempting to shut down Dr. Murray Sabrin’s Money Bomb. Unfortunately for them, Dr. Sabrin’s campaign had a backup and their website is operational again. If you need more information please visit www.MurraySabrin.com. If there is someone you think needs to see this press release, please forward it to them ASAP.
Thank you

News Release
For Immediate Release
- February 29, 2008
http://www.murraysabrin.com
Contacts: Sabrin for Senate - George Ajjan @ (201) 332-3422 or george@ajjan.com


Democratic Private Equity Firm Halts Ron Paul Revolution! Owner of Network Solutions Shuts Down Murray Sabrin's Money BombJersey City – A $17 billion private equity firm, managed by major Democratic donors, General Atlantic, shut down Dr. Murray Sabrin's website last night immediately after Dr. Ron Paul sent out a nationwide email asking his supporters to participate in his online fundraising drive (commonly referred as a "money bomb"). General Atlantic owns Internet service provider Network Solutions which was hosting Dr. Sabrin's website. Network Solutions refused to turn the site back on and shut down all of Dr. Sabrin's email accounts as well. This online fundraising event coincided with Dr. Sabrin's "Legalize Freedom" Rally this afternoon in downtown NYC against the Federal Reserve.

Communications Director for Sabrin for Senate, George Ajjan, stated, "There is no excuse for the sabotage and blatant violation of our contract between Sabrin for Senate and Network Solutions. We had informed Network Solutions in advance about the expected spike because of the support from Dr. Ron Paul and they assured us they would handle the anticipated increase in traffic. All we know right now is a company owned and managed by major Democratic donors shut down Dr. Murray Sabrin's U.S. Senate campaign website for no reason and refused to turn it back on!"

General Atlantic acquired Network Solutions in 2007. General Atlantic (GA) is managed by some of the largest and most active Democratic donors and officials. The Chairman of GA is Steven A. Denning who is friends with and sits on the Board of the Brookings Institute with such well known liberal activists as Haim Saban (donated $10 million to the Democratic National Committee), Lawrence Summers (former Treasury Secretary under President Clinton), Teresa Heinz (wife of Senator John Kerry), Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. (close advisor to President Clinton and the one who hired Monica Lewisnsky), and former Presidents of the World Bank Robert McNamara and James Wolfensohn. Mr. Denning also serves on the Council on Foreign Relations with former Clinton officials Carla Hills (former Trade Representative), Robert Rubin (former Treasury Secretary), Madeline Albright (former Secretary of State) and Richard Holbrooke (former US Ambassador to the United Nations) along with NBC News former anchor Tom Brokaw. Mr. Denning has donated thousands of dollars to liberal Democrats including Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Barack Obama.

The CEO of GA is William E. Ford is friends with and sits on the Board of the New York Stock Exchange with the former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Board, Alice Rivlin, and sits on the Board of Amherst College with the Deputy Managing Director of the New York Times, Jonathan Landman. Mr. Ford donated thousands of dollars to liberal Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton for President, Senator Chris Dodd, Senator Chuck Schumer and liberal organizations such as Forward Together PAC and Defend America PAC.

The Managing Director of General Atlantic is Matthew Nimetz. Mr. Nimetz began his career as a Staff Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson in 1967, served as Undersecretary for State in President Jimmy Carter's Administration, a Special Envoy to Eastern Europe in President Bill Clinton's Administration and was appointed to positions of government by New York City Mayors Edward Koch and David Dinkins. Mr. Nimetz serves on the Council on Foreign Relations with the Chairman of GA Steven Denning. Mr. Nimetz' donations to Democrats is legendary having donated tens of thousands of dollars to the following liberal candidates: Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, General Wesley Clark, Senator Carl Levin, Senator Joseph Biden, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Rob Menendez, Senator Tom Daschle, Senator John Kerry, Senator Paul Sarbanes, Congressman Charles Rangel, Congressman Mark Udall, Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman John Hall, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney as well as to liberal organizations like the Democratic National Committee, the New York State Democratic Committee, the Democratic Party of Arizona, and the Democratic Senatorial Committee.

The title of Dr. Sabrin's demonstration is "Exposing the Federal Reserve System: The first step in taking our country back and restoring the greatness of the Dollar!" Dr. Murray Sabrin is the New Jersey conservative Republican leader and the Garden State's strongest advocate of limited government and individual freedom. Dr. Sabrin is a retired successful entrepreneur in commercial real estate, portfolio management, and economic research. He is an author, TV and radio commentator, and Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Business and Public Policy at Ramapo College. He and his wife of 39 years, Florence, reside in Bergen County. For more information please visit www.MurraySabrin.com

Media Contacts for General Atlantic – Patricia L. Hedley, SVP, (203) 629-8658 or phedley@generalatlantic.com

Media Contacts for Network Solutions – Susan Wade, (703) 668-5057 or swade@networksolutions.com

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Are you paying your boss's taxes?
Payroll taxes that companies ought to pay may be getting dumped on independent contractors, but a case involving FedEx gives workers new ammunition.

By Jeff Schnepper
Just before Christmas, package-delivery company FedEx was slammed with a $319 million tax bill. The Internal Revenue Service ruled the company had misclassified about 13,000 drivers as independent contractors when, the IRS said, they really were employees.

For FedEx, this could get a lot more expensive. The penalties and back taxes are just for 2002. The IRS is still auditing FedEx for 2004 through 2006 (the status of 2003 is unclear). The Teamsters union, which has been pushing this fight, thinks it could ultimately cost FedEx $1 billion.

Perhaps. But FedEx plans to fight this ruling for as long as it takes.

What got the IRS and FedEx into a tussle was the package company's assertion that drivers were contractors who operate their delivery routes as independent businesses, even though the drivers use FedEx equipment, wear FedEx uniforms and work under explicit FedEx rules.

This fight bears watching by employers and workers alike. Big money is at stake.

The government will argue that misclassification of workers deprives it of billions of dollars of tax revenue annually. The Government Accountability Office has estimated the amount at $4.7 billion a year.

The bosses will argue that the ruling upsets precedents in place since the 1990s.

Workers will argue that employers have gone too far in pushing taxes and payroll costs onto them, effectively forcing workers to subsidize their bosses. If the IRS wins, you can bet many more workers classified as independent contractors will try to change their classifications.

Companies save big on taxes
Why do companies like independents? Simple. It saves them a bundle of money.

If you're an independent contractor, the company doesn't pay state workers compensation or federal unemployment and disability taxes. It is released from matching your 7.65% Social Security and Medicare taxes; an independent contractor pays the full 15.3% load.

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In addition, the employer is saved the burden and cost of income-tax withholding. The worker has to remit the appropriate payments.

Independent contractors don't qualify under minimum-wage laws and have no government rights to a safe work environment. And they can't qualify for employee benefits.

Microsoft (the publisher of MSN Money) suffered a stinging judicial slap several years ago when it misclassified employees as independent contractors and denied them benefits granted to other employees. It proved to be a $97 million lesson.

Before I could start writing tax columns for MSN Money, I had to sign a mountain of documents proving I was an independent contractor. I even had to get a Washington state business license as a contractor, even though I have never physically worked there.

Video on MSN Money
New kiddie tax rules for 2008

It's become harder to shift investment income to your children.

Say you have one worker making $102,000. Just in Social Security and Medicare taxes, the company saves $7,803 (7.65% of $102,000). Multiply that by the number of real "employees," add other payroll-tax savings plus a little interest, toss in a few penalties, and it becomes a $319 million kick in the wallet.

Why misclassifications are an IRS priority
Money is the reason that John Tuzynski, the IRS' chief of employment-tax operations, made worker classification "a major focus" for fiscal 2008, which ends Sept. 30.

Migrant workers and many illegal immigrants are misclassified as independent contractors, never have any withholdings taken out and don't file or pay income taxes. That magnifies the tax gap -- the difference between what the government is due and what it collects in taxes.

Continued: Criminal charges possible





Are you paying your boss's taxes?
Continued from page 1

IndexThe IRS, to coordinate enforcement, has entered partnerships with the Department of Labor, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, the Federation of Tax Advisers and the agencies that administer state employment and unemployment taxes.

For employers who are caught misclassifying, monetary pain is just the beginning. They can be criminally charged with evasion of payments, filing of false tax returns and conspiracy. Another tax code section, Section 7202, makes it a felony to willfully fail to collect or pay tax to the government.

And it should be. In such cases, the employers are stealing from the employees. If workers are treated as independent contractors, they are responsible for 100% of their payroll taxes. They're paying twice what they truly owe for Social Security and Medicare. The difference goes into the employers' pockets.

What's an employee?
There is a big problem, however. That is determining if a worker really is an employee. The National Labor Relations Act, Civil Rights Act, Fair Labor Standards Act and Employee Retirement Income Security Act each use a different definition for the word "employee." Even more confusing, each has different criteria for distinguishing independent contractors.

In May 2007 testimony before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, Sigurd Nilsen of the Government Accountability Office complained that "no definitive test exists to distinguish whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor."

The Internal Revenue Code has never been a model for clarity. Worker classification is both complex and subjective.

In the Revenue Act of 1978, Congress created a safe harbor for employers (referred to as Section 530) by prohibiting the IRS from collecting employment taxes when workers were "reasonably" misclassified as independent contractors. That provision includes only a $50 penalty for employers who file the wrong forms. Compare that to the thousands of dollars of potential payroll-tax savings, and you have a legislative incentive to push the envelope.

That's lawyer talk for "cheat the government."

IRS guidelines
The IRS has a 20-factor test for determining whether you're really an employee. These tests, contained in Form SS–8, Determination of Worker Status (.pdf download), boil down to three main categories:

Behavioral control.

Financial control.

Relationship of the parties.

Does the employer control not only the nature of the work performed but the circumstances under which it is performed? If the employer contracting for services has the right to control not only the result of the services but also the means by which that result is accomplished, you're an employee. If your boss tells you not only what to do but how to do it, the game is over. You're an employee.

Video on MSN Money
New kiddie tax rules for 2008

It's become harder to shift investment income to your children.

Do you have a stake in the action? Do you have a personal risk of loss? If not, you're probably an employee.

Most importantly, if you don't make your services available to more than one person or company, you're likely an employee.

What can you do about it?
If you think you're being misclassified, file Form SS-8 and have the IRS make a determination of your status. Remember, it's a 20-factor test, so the final resolution will be subjective.

If you have been misclassified, Form 8919, Uncollected Social Security and Medicare Tax on Wages (.pdf download) should be filed to ensure that the proper Social Security and Medicare taxes are credited to your account. Don't use the older form, No. 4137.

In September, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and three other senators filed legislation aimed at closing what was termed the safe-harbor Section 530 "loophole." The Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act is pending.

Published Feb. 20, 2008

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