Y'know, the thing is, if you just look at the behavior in isolation, it's entirely defensible. If I had a chance to save that kind of money on my taxes by moving an asset to another state, I'd do it without a second thought. But I'd also be advocating that my state should be lowering taxes -- not just for me, but for everybody. I'm willing to bet that a look at how the marine business in Massachusetts is doing, vs. the marine business in Rhode Island, would be very instructive.

Yes, it is not the tax evasion in this case that is surprising it is the hypocrisy. Taxes are for the "little people" or those too dumb to know the rules. The more tax revenue that flees these states, the greater the burden on the remaining taxpayers to fund their huge entitlement programs.
This is one of the primary reasons that Massachusetts, Michigan, California, New York and a few others are circling the toilet bowl.
They are hemorrhaging both retirees, the rich and productive businesses who find somewhere else to go once they find out that there are other states in the union that don't take 25% of whatever you have left after the feds are done with you. A lot of the actors in Hollywood actually live in Wyoming because 180 days a year here actually makes them a resident of a state with no personal income tax as opposed to California where they stand to lose a good deal of their income to the government. Wyoming has no personal income tax and also has relatively low real estate taxes. Jackson Hole is filled with billionaires and millionaires.

Is the "Isabel" a swift boat?

How nice for Kerry that he married a millionaire and is able to avoid the taxes he advocates for the rest of us.

Ho hum. This is hardly news. Just as the trillions spent on "compassion" to the "less fortunate" is always other people's money (or borrowed or printed), the taxes raised to defray some of this "compassion" are removed, by force of law, from other people's wallets. This is socialism and redistribution in practice: the privileged classes, along with their various apparatchicks, are exempt from all its most onerous burdens.

This is why the various tax codes are as complicated as they are: so that the average person cannot understand them, and the well-to-do can employ their armies of accountants and lawyers to find all the loopholes, thus shifting the tax burden to the "less fortunate".

I have no love for Kerry; I moved out of Massachusetts to get away from politicians like him, and my vote for President last time around went the same way as Amy's. But I don't hold this against him at all. His job as Senator isn't to give his own money to his state, it's to funnel other people's (tax) money there.

Moreover, what he's avoiding are state taxes, not federal. He has no control over those, either in Massachusetts or Rhode Island. It's possible that if he could, he'd have Massachusetts repeal those boat taxes for everyone, like Rhode Island has. (Not likely, I grant you, given his politics.)

If Kerry had used his position to get tax rules changed for his own benefit, that would be an abuse of power. This isn't.

For the first time, I'm in sympathy with John Kerry. I bought a little boat myself. I bought her in Virgina and when I went to register her and was appalled to be presented with a bill for the over $1000.00 in sales tax the great state of Tennessee would have gotten had I bought her in state.

Ow - ow - ow - ow.

Non-story.

Well, I'm with cpa on this one.
I'm also with Rex. Its stupid to pay more than you must.

But he should be advocating to reduce the taxes of his state as well.

Also have to agree with Dave.

Low taxes equals high revenue, tax everything, you create an underground economy that is not taxed at all.
------------

Historical anecdote. The Boston Tea party did not occur on the basis of a tax RAISE. In fact the act in question that set people off was a tax CUT.

What happened was that prior to these events, taxes were notably higher, it was cheaper for most merchants to just bribe the collecting party to be away for awhile, or conduct business under the table, and avoid paying anything at all. When the British government realized how much revenue they were losing over this, they changed the rate, and made it much cheaper to just do business honestly, bribing people was no longer worth the trouble.

The resulting tax reduction increased the British crown's revenue stream significantly, but because there was no longer the bribe and under the table revenue flowing around the colony, and of course because of the perception of an assault upon their autonomous existence by the exertion of Royal authority, the people were enraged. Along comes the Boston tea party, the British blockade of trade until the damages were paid...and the rest as they say, is history.

We don't need a lawyer in office, we need a historian.

It's very common in MA to say, shop in NH to avoid taxes. Kerry is doing the same sort of thing on a large huge scale, and there you go. What a dumbass.

Let us not forget the "Luxury Tax", on boats - which put about 10 thousand out of work in Florida alone - or the New Jersey tax on big trucks (Hey, Philly is right over there...).

Forget the people taking advantage. Think of the COMPLETE MORONS putting stuff into law.

Got your gross of blank Form 1099s yet?

Amy, You voted for John Kerry? You're forgiven. We all make mistakes.

I would like to know how the guy has been able to marry two women who are multi-millionaires.

Maybe he should be the next instructor on the VH1 reality show the pick-up artist?

I avoided Kerry because sailors declaimed him, and I was a sailor.

I have some wonderful stories of idiot officers, and others about real geniuses. Guess which Kerry was?