Blow out the candles; party’s over for mansion’s tax break

[n2doc]

John Kass
2:04 a.m. CDT, March 31, 2010

Remember that Lake Bluff mansion property tax scam of biblical proportions that angered just about every taxpayer in Illinois?

Well, that party's over, and there's no ice cream and cake.

Instead, there's a big, fat six-figure property tax bill on the way, courtesy of the Lake County assessor's office.

And so opens yet another chapter in the miraculous saga of George Michael and his brother Robert, who run Citizens Bank and Trust of Chicago.

George didn't much like paying $80,000 per year in property taxes on his sumptuous $3 million Lake Bluff mansion. But then he found the Church of Spiritual Humanism on the Internet.

He clicked on where it said "ORDAIN ME" and lo, he became a clergyman. Then the "Rev." Michael claimed his mansion was exempt from real estate taxes because it was a church.

Last summer, a judge ruled the whole thing was a sham. The judge was particularly upset that a marking pen was used to draw a cross on a photo of the mansion — submitted to state regulators in the application for tax exempt status — to make it look like a real church.

more:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0331-20100330,0,2317810.column

[Warpy]

1. I'll believe the IRS is serious about religious scams

when they take on the Westboro Baptist Church, membership largely limited to the Phelps family of nutcases and an obvious tax dodge.

[Matariki]

2. 80k a year for property taxes? ouch!

who could blame the guy for not liking that.

[shraby]

3. If he can afford to buy, maintain and live in a 3 million

dollar mansion, he can pay taxes on it the same as the rest of us who live in much humbler abodes.

[NNN0LHI]

4. 80k is pocket change for anyone wealthy to own a $3 Million dollar house

I couldn't afford the gardener and maids much less the taxes.

Don