Ravenwood - 01/12/06 06:00 AM
Apparently I'm in the wrong business. This family claims to be making $300 a day and staying in hotels simply by begging for money on the streets of Oregon.
Pancoast refers to himself and his family as "affluent beggars."Of course it must all be undeclared income, because they also receive $500 a month in food stamps. I wonder if the IRS reads the Mail Tribune."If you�re an affluent beggar you stay in a hotel and eat a continental breakfast," he says. "It makes it a lot easier to be philosophical about it."
Carrying her smiling baby in a navy blue front pack and pushing Adrianne in a green jogging stroller, Johnson stops people on the street and asks them for money to find shelter for her children.
"I ask the question and I move on," says Johnson, who adds that she is careful to be non-aggressive when she begs.
Perhaps one of the more 'local' readers should MAKE DAMNED SURE that the IRS reads this.
Posted by: robert in england at January 12, 2006 12:08 PMOur local talk show host Lars Larsen is all over this story. He had a lawyer on a couple days ago and the lawyer thought they could well be prosecutable for welfare fraud.
Posted by: Morenuancedthanyou at January 12, 2006 12:31 PMProsecutable for welfare fraud? I certainly hope so!
By the IRS? Probably. I seem to remember a court decision to the effect that illegal income wasn't taxable because requiring people to report it to the government violated the 5th Amendment. (Duh!!!) However, it looks to this layman like their begging income isn't illegal - it's collecting welfare on top of it that's illegal, so it's the legal part of their income that's unreported...
Don't you get a reward for reporting tax cheats to the IRS.
Posted by: markm at January 13, 2006 8:32 AM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
